Eyebrows raised in National’s camp this week when Act’s Tāmaki candidate Brooke van Velden posted a photo having a cup of tea with former National deputy leader Paula Bennett.
Van Velden is trying to wrestle the Tāmaki seat off National MP Simon O’Connor to giveAct a matching set of seats in the well-heeled eastern suburbs of Auckland, next to the traditional Act stronghold of Epsom.
There’s a word for a National person having a public cup of tea with an Act candidate and it is spelled endorsement. When the polls show the contest is close - as they do in Tāmaki - some might use a different word.
National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis described it as “unhelpful”.
Followers of Epsom elections will recall a cup of tea between a National leader and an Act leader was the code to voters in the electorate to vote for the Act candidate.
Bennett (who seems to have had coffee instead of tea) wouldn’t comment afterwards – but nobody really thinks she was unaware of the symbolism behind it. She did at least wear a blue suit for the occasion.
Chris v Chris
Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon. Photo / NZME
Next Saturday, the voters will decide on the Ultimate Chris of the Week, choosing between Back on Track Chris or In it for you Chris.
This week’s final Beehive Diaries showdown again goes to Labour’s Chris Hipkins, despite still being well adrift in the polls and stuck in a hotel room with Covid-19 for most the week – a triggering experience for many. Quite a run for the underdog.
However, Luxon had to cop it after the CTU calculated that only 3000 families would benefit from the $250 a fortnight figure National has been highlighting as its tax offering – less than 1 per cent of all families. He has also been landed with three polls in a row showing his plea to voters to deliver a clear election result and a National-Act Government has not worked as planned, and is even more out of reach since he started saying it was his preference.
Moving Day
Usually the Grim Reaper comes with a cloak and scythe; in the Beehive, they come with boxes and moving tape.
On Monday, large piles of moving boxes and packing tape appeared in the central area of floors in the Beehive, where the ministers’ offices are, clearly in readiness for ministers to start packing up after the election.
Ministerial Services might have read the polls - but they had not read the room. The pre-emptive move did little for the frayed nerves of ministerial staff, many of whom will be cast asunder if Labour loses. By the end of the week, a rebellion was mounted: someone assembled a box and wrote “It’s not over yet!” on it in very large letters.
Election day is the political equivalent to Moving Day in the farming calendar: the handover if there is a change of government is a massive and fairly swift process, which requires ministers to move out of the Beehive and into the Opposition quarters in Parliament House, and vice versa. In Ministerial Services defence, there is usually a fair bit of moving about even when the incumbent holds onto power, as reshuffles and exits take place.
Scaring old ladies part 2
Hot on the heels of Labour’s Ginny Andersen accusing National MP Mark Mitchell of going round the country scaring old ladies with his pitch on law and order, Mitchell’s leader Christopher Luxon has one-upped him.
Luxon was speaking to an audience at the Lady Wigram Rest Home, where old ladies are a key demographic.
Asked about National’s plan to raise the pension age, Luxon noted it would not come into effect until 2044. He added that, with all due respect, he thought it would be unlikely they would be around to see it.
Our journalist on the scene, deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan, reported Luxon’s joke about their mortality went down as you might expect it to.
Coughlan then proceeded to deliver a lesson to Luxon and Mitchell in how things should be done: he was snapped helping one of the women after the meeting ended.
NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan helps out a woman at the Lady Wigram Rest Home in Christchurch. Photo / George Heard
It earned him a bit of teasing and a few requests for his phone number.
Nobody asked for Luxon’s number. Be like Thomas.
David Seymour and the grand entrance
Seymour is quite a fan of the stunt Grand Entrance, having turned up to things by boat, by yellow cars, and by van, bus or plane. This week, he turned up to a public meeting at Mount Maunganui’s Classic Flyers Aviation Museum wearing Ray-Bans, a hairnet and a weathered aviation helmet in a classic Boeing-Stearman biplane.
He’s also been flying in his own newly frocked out Flying Pinky and spent the time coming up with gags for a special in-flight safety video. It contained the following lines:
“Your flight attendants are now pointing to the emergency exits. Please count the number of rows to the nearest exit. If you went to school under Labour’s educational experiments, please just follow someone who does indeed know how to count.”
“If you’re drowning in costs, you’ll find a life jacket under your seat. Please only inflate it as you exit the aircraft. If it’s a bit flat and you would like more inflation simply re-elect a Labour government and their government waste and expenditure will ensure inflation for many more years to come.”
Alas, neither the gags or the grand entrances have done him much good in keeping NZ First from eating into his vote.
