“There’s a lot of people [who] feel very disappointed [in O’Connor] and to have a young, fresh candidate that shares the values of the electorate and doesn’t frequently shoot their mouth off with all sorts of inappropriate gaffes might be a very appealing option for the people of Tāmaki.”
O’Connor had to apologise last year for a social media post that celebrated the US Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion law.
Tāmaki will not be an easy seat to win – it has long been one of National’s safest seats. O’Connor held it with a margin of about 8000 votes in 2020 but the margin has previously been well over 10,000.
However, van Velden has a higher profile than previous Act candidates and the party polls fairly strongly in the seat. Van Velden said it got about 12 per cent support there last election, compared with its overall result of 7 per cent.
“I think we will have a battle on our hands but I think the people of Tāmaki are ready for a change, and they want change for the better.”
She said some of O’Connor’s views were not shared by those in the electorate.
O’Connor suggested he would not be worried by a challenge, saying Act had stood candidates before without success “and this election will be no different”. He said he was happy to stand by his work in the electorate.
“I don’t ever take elections for granted, though, and always enjoy going up against candidates from any other party.”
Act has also identified Tāmaki as an option because of the unpopularity of the housing intensification rules in the area. Those allow people to develop their land with buildings up to three storeys high and were brought in under an accord between National and Labour.
Act has opposed those changes and van Velden said the infrastructure was not in place to deal with such a degree of intensification. “I don’t believe the people of Tāmaki had their voice heard [on that rule change] and I’m willing to stand up for them and their infrastructure concerns about what this will mean for the area.
“So Labour and National overriding the unitary plan and wanting to force intensification into areas where it doesn’t currently have the infrastructure is going to cause chaos. And I’m willing to stand up and give the people of Tāmaki a voice with those concerns.”
She said she had chosen Tāmaki because people had asked her to stand there and it was a beautiful part of Auckland.
“A lot of people there are people who are aspirational, who own small businesses, who care about the economy and want to see it thriving. People want a strong, youthful, vibrant voice and someone who will work as hard as David Seymour does in Epsom for them. I’ll do that for them.”
