Testing questions pepper candidates

TIME TO TALK: Brent Reid, Wairarapa Conservative candidate, speaks at the Meet The Candidates evening. PHOTO/APN

Dissatisfaction with the Government was expressed by audience members at a Meet the Candidates event in Central Hawke's Bay.

About 50 people gathered in St Mary's Church Hall, Waipukurau, to hear 10 candidates from the Tukituki and Wairarapa electorates speak.

The event, hosted by CHB Business and Professional Women, drew a crowd of middle-aged and elderly men and women.

Wairarapa National candidate Alastair Scott was heckled to the point where an organiser had to interject several times.

"You've got to be joking," an audience member said as Mr Scott used a car analogy to describe progress under the National Party.

Tukituki National MP and candidate Craig Foss was also heckled but the audience remained quiet during talks from the rest of the candidates, who included Tukituki Labour candidate Anna Lorck, Wairarapa Labour candidate Kieran McAnulty and Wairarapa NZ First candidate Ron Mark.

"Alastair Scott said the Government is in third gear. Well, this Government has forgotten to put the oil in the engine, because the oil is the regions," Ms Lorck said.

The audience again became excited when, during question time, a man in the audience described the Conservative Party's policies as "regressive" and asked Wairarapa Conservative candidate Brent Reid: "Why is social progress bad for families?"

Mr Reid responded: "Would you like your daughter to be raped and murdered by a guy who's got 50 convictions?"

In response to a question about Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics, organiser Jeanette Kenderdine said the event was intended to discuss policy rather than dirty politics.

- APN News & Media