New Lynn

Labour's Titirangi MP, David Cunliffe, looks set to take the newly aligned electorate of New Lynn.

Boundary changes for this year's election mean the New Lynn electorate is now made up of half the former Titirangi seat plus add-ons from Mt Albert and Mt Roskill, two traditional Labour strongholds.

Cunliffe, who won by a 5800 majority in 1999, taking the seat from National's Marie Hasler, described the electorate as a patchwork quilt of different incomes and ethnicities - about a third of the population were not born in New Zealand .

"We have literally got a bit of everything, from millionaire row [in Titirangi] to very poor housing areas to alternative-lifestyle areas. It looks a bit like New Zealand."

That meant issues as diverse as pensioner housing through to urban renewal and environmental concerns were among the electorate's priorities.

Cunliffe summarised his focus for this election with the catchphrase,"cops, docs, trees, jobs and kids", things he believed the basic working family cared about.

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