By Kira Carrington, Local Democracy Reporter
“Party vote ACT and constituency vote National” was ACT candidate Paul Henry’s pitch to his Blenheim audience, notably right in front of ACT’s candidate for the Kaikōura electorate.
Henry spoke to about 150 voters last week at Whitehaven Theatre, where people stood along the back walls and entrance after seats ran out in the Whitehaven Room.
When Local Democracy Reporting asked him to clarify that statement, again directly in front of ACT Kaikōura candidate Tom Spooner, Henry doubled down.
“There are a lot of different ways that an MP can work for you, and people obviously have to determine themselves which way it's going to work for them,” Henry said on Tuesday.
“I would love it for Tom to win. I would absolutely love it. I would love people to give two votes to ACT. The reality is, it is very unlikely.”
Henry noted that in the last election, twice as many Kaikōura voters gave ACT their party vote than they did their electorate vote.
Spooner, 43, a self-employed engineer from near Amberley, faced competition for the seat from four-term National incumbent Stuart Smith, NZ First list MP Jamie Arbuckle, and former Marlborough councillor Matt Flight for Labour, among others.
Spooner told LDR he did not mind that his chances of winning the seat were slim, he wanted to “wave the flame” anyway.
“I'm here because [ACT’s] values are important to me. The more people that can party vote ACT, the more ability ACT has to push those values forward in the next government,” Spooner said.
Henry regaled attendees with stories such as a “clusterf...” interaction with the late Queen Elizabeth II, and how he talked his way out of an Iraqi prison because of “just how bloody annoying I can be”.
He said his main pitch to voters was to “lock Labour out” and increase ACT’s influence within the coalition government.
“ACT is in government driving change, nowhere near as far or fast as ACT would like, but much further and faster than it would if ACT were not in the coalition,” Henry said.
Henry had spent the day with Marlborough businesses, and said he was hearing one thing, “the potential to increase their business is being hampered by what they know is needless red tape”.
“We’ve got to get out of people’s way and create a platform on which they can thrive. And it can’t just be words, we’ve actually got to do it.”
Members of the audience questioned Henry on issues from immigration and data centres to the economy and publicly-owned broadcasters.
When asked about local government, Henry said the only people who could teach the government about red tape was councils.
“So we need to pick that up, and we need to shake it until a lot of things fall out and die on the ground.”
Henry said he was “sceptical” about council amalgamations like the one Marlborough and Kaikōura was looking at, pointing to Auckland’s council as a case study.
“We took all of those councils and we amalgamated them, and it’s bloody worse,” he said.
Henry likened council amalgamations to New Zealand becoming a state of Australia, saying they could be economically advantageous but “we would lose an element of our magic”.
“I don't want councils to amalgamate if there is a possibility that they will lose their uniqueness and their sovereignty in the area.”
Henry encouraged audience members to come meet him at the end of the event, saying “if you don’t come up for a selfie, I’ll look like an absolute twat”.
But he needn’t have worried — people lined up for 30 minutes to talk and take photos with him.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
