An uphill battle

We always knew Ilam was going to be an uphill battle. But we didn’t think we’ve have to spend so much time battling the Press, as well as the sitting MP. At the weekend, the Press provided comprehensive coverage of the electorates in Christchurch. Of all the electorates covered, Ilam was given the shortest article, with the headline “Brownlee a certainty“:

Gerry Brownlee, one of the South Island’s most powerful politicians, has held the Ilam seat for nearly 20 years and appears to be in a one horse race yet again in one of the safest seats in New Zealand.

The thing is, Ilam isn’t one of the safest seats in New Zealand. It’s not even in the top ten safest seats in the country. Selwyn, for example, is the second safest seat in the country – but was given twice the coverage. Also, this line is quite untrue:

However, both men are targeting their campaign at the party vote, indicating Brownlee is a certainty to retain his seat.

We’re running a strong two tick Labour campaign. Yup, we’re after the party vote – but to imply that we’re not campaigning for the candidate vote is entirely untrue. As I’ve found throughout the campaign, Ilam is a greatly unequal electorate, with some very rich people living just a few streets away from some of the poorest areas in the city. What would the sitting MP – apparently such a dead cert – do to improve the lives of those people who are doing it so hard? What would he do to improve the outcome for people who are still struggling with EQC, for which he is the responsible Minister? Would would the Minister of Transport do to improve the congestion on the roads in the north-west? The public are none the wiser on the answer to any of these questions, as Brownlee won’t front to any public meetings, and the Press haven’t bothered to ask him. The cursory coverage which the Press has given this electorate does it, and the 50,000 people who live in it, a great disservice.

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Unintentionally ironic quote of the day

Gerry Brownlee said it was disappointing a “democratic process can potentially be subverted by this sort of activity”.

That’s Brownlee talking about the Greens fiddling with submissions to ECan. It is deeply ironic that the Minister, or anyone in the National party, can try and take the moral high ground on democratic issues relating to ECan, the regional council which they sacked in 2010, promising new elections in 2013. Then in 2012, using the excuse of the earthquakes, they extended the commissioners remit through till 2016. If they are re-elected, there is no guarantee that they will return the mandate to the people who pay their rates to ECan. The only party “subverting” democratic processes at ECan are National.

When he was campaigning in Christchurch last week, John Key said that “elections are over-rated”. That was an incredibly insulting thing for him to say – let alone for him to say it in Christchurch, a city where many in the population feel totally disempowered by the dictatorship at ECan, the sidelining of the City Council, and the frustrating struggle with EQC, a part of the government that was theoretically set up to help all New Zealanders. From my conversations in Ilam and elsewhere, there are many people who will be voting to remove Key and Brownlee – then they won’t have to be bothered with the nuisance of elections any more.

 

On that debate

So last night I was in the front row of the audience at the Press leader’s debate between David Cunliffe and John Key. It was an exciting occasion and great to have so many people interested in politics in the Ilam electorate. I went with my parents, my grandmother and my great aunt – the latter who both live in Merivale, but vote very differently! I think watching it in the room is quite different to what happens on the lifestream. Firstly, it was VERY loud. Both the debaters, and the crowd. Key got a warm welcome but DC’s was louder. The two men talked over each other quite a lot, which wasn’t the most satisfying auditory experience.

James at the debate – photo by Patrick Gower (http://i.instagram.com/p/sb7DqFCA5S/)

Key started really angrily, and talked over David a lot. Most questions seemed to be given to Key for 30 seconds, for him to then talk for 90 seconds, then passed on to David for 30 seconds, at which point Key started sniping at him and not allowing him to answer. While I’ve seen some people comment that they thought the (lack of) moderation was fine, it made for a number of occasions where both men just talked over each other, as if the first person to stop talking was less of a man or something. Key’s question about CGT on houses in a trust did seem to catch David, but he was right to check and see. It’s a complicated issue and it’s worth being right on it.

As with the first debate, most of the commentators seemed to make up their minds about “who won” based on the early exchanges. Key was definitely much weaker in the second half. This was because if focussed on Christchurch issues, and National’s record on this is poor. When he announced that Gerry Brownlee would be CERA minister after the election, this was received with boos. There was laughter when he claimed that the CBD was “booming and almost full“. There was confusion when he started telling Press editor Joanna Norris about an advertorial supplement that will appear in the paper next week. And when he said that the government wouldn’t want to “run roughshod” the Anglican church (when talking about the Cathedral) one was reminded of some of the other institutions that this government has run roughshod over – including ECan and the CCC.

Cunliffe spoke well on these matters, as he has done over the last 3 months of the campaign in the city. He knows that Labour’s policy is popular here, as he has been down here to announce it, and has talked with hundreds of residents who are in difficult situation. Instead of just making light of people’s real hardship like the Prime Minister, Cunliffe has showed an empathy that Key lacks. While the media in Auckland and Wellington might have called it one way, the people in Christchurch were only presented with one leader who understands the issues in this city, and it wasn’t the Prime Minister.

Guest post at the Standard: Walking through the wrong door is the least of Gerry’s Problems

I have a guest post over at the Standard right now – Walking through the wrong door is the least of Gerry’s problems. Jump over there and read it in full!

What we need in Christchurch is more houses, now. Affordable, well-designed, well-insulated houses. Lots of them. This is why Labour’s Kiwibuild scheme will roll out 10,000 houses in Christchurch in the first 4 years. People have waited too long for the invisible hand. Labour believes that the government has a strong role to play in alleviating the considerable stresses in the Christchurch housing market. Not only do National deny that there is a housing crisis in Christchurch, they have left the rebuild in the hands of a man who demonstrated at the airport last Thursday a level of arrogance that suggests he is completely out of touch with the people he is meant to be representing. While the PM may have chosen not to accept his resignation, the people of Ilam don’t have to: they have the chance to show Gerry the exit door on the 20th of September by voting Labour and voting for James Macbeth Dann.

 

Ilam campaign fundrasier – What We Do In The Shadows – tonight!

Hey team,

One last post about the movie fundraiser and I’ll get back to blogging about policy and playgrounds and other fun things.

Our fundraising screening of the movie What We Do In The Shadows is tonight, 6:30pm at Hoyts Riccarton. Cinema 1. Starts at 6:30pm. We still have around 20 seats left, so if you wanna come along, join the facebook event or flick me an email (james.dann at labour dot org dot nz). $20 for a ticket! And it’s for a good cause.