Victory miracle for Yates

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

After the 1999 election Prime Minister Helen Clark told Hamilton East Labour candidate Dianne Yates that winning the notoriously conservative electorate would take a miracle.

It was always going to be close, and on the night the lead switched several times between Ms Yates and National incumbent Tony Steel.

But in the end Ms Yates managed to overturn Mr Steel's 1999 majority of 692 and win by 402 votes, ending his 12-year political career.

The rivalry between the pair had been a constant in Hamilton East since 1993, when Ms Yates first contested the seat.

Mr Steel vowed that it would be the last time he would stand for Government, and the ex-All Black is about to enter the job market for the first time since he lost the seat temporarily in 1993.

He is disappointed, but relieved also that he will no longer be caught up in the political hurly-burly in Wellington.

"It's the hours and the pressure and whenever you make a decision you upset somebody.

"And if you're there long enough you finish up upsetting everybody at some stage.

"I've been down there for 11 years and I very much prefer Hamilton. It's an artificial world down there in Parliament."

Ms Yates, however, is still going strong, and she will be working to co-ordinate Hamilton's three Labour MPs in Hamilton East, Hamilton West and Tainui.

She hopes that having three Labour MPs in the city will give them the power to push local development, particularly in the areas of science and agricultural research.

"I'm really looking forward to working with Martin [Gallagher] and with Nanaia Mahuta in a kind of city triumvirate.

"We'll have much more grunt, and I'm looking forward to using that too."

There is a strong conservative element in Hamilton East - New Zealand First and Act received about 3000 party votes each, prompting Ms Yates to compare it to Tauranga.

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