Street protesters' fast road to power

By BERNARD ORSMAN

An oldfashioned door-knocking campaign tapping into concerns about the eastern highway and community values saw Action Hobson candidates Christine Caughey and Richard Simpson capture two council seats in the National-Act heartland of Remuera, Parnell and Epsom at Saturday's local body elections.

In one of the most remarkable results in the council elections, Action Hobson ended Citizens & Ratepayers' grip on the Hobson ward, helping to cement new Mayor Dick Hubbard and City Vision-Labour into office.

Action Hobson, which took to the political stage just eight weeks ago, came within 289 votes of beating new C&R Now leader Scott Milne for the third Hobson seat, and won control of the Hobson community board.

The ticket had its beginnings this time last year when 15 people representing 15 streets in Parnell and Remuera set up the Hobson Bay Residents' Network to oppose Mayor John Banks' push for the highway. The group was flooded with offers of help and money. High-profile QC John Haigh joined the bandwagon.

By April it had an army of volunteers to deliver 5000 pamphlets with a graphic image showing the Parnell tunnel option. Another pamphlet drop in June showed the highway crossing Hobson Bay with up to 14 lanes of road, rail, bus and cycleways.

When, on a cold winter's night, the network and Stop the Eastern Motorway lobby group pulled 750 people to a public meeting at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, it was only a matter of time before the new Action Hobson political ticket would be born. The political road was seen as the most effective, and least costly, way of stopping the highway.

Mr Milne, who attended the cathedral meeting, said the message went straight back to Mr Banks that "these were my supporters" and to do something. The highway was subsequently scaled back to a two-lane road crossing Hobson Bay, something C&R Now candidates believed they could sell to voters.

By the time campaigning got under way, Action Hobson had tapped into another rich vein of community concern: the loss of a heritage home in Parnell. It helped having Richard Simpson, a heritage campaigner, on the ticket. It also had an invaluable database of several thousand names and addresses to chase up votes.

A staunch campaign was run opposing the scaled-back highway and promoting a positive message of rapid transit, compared to C&R Now which, as one insider put it, ran a "nasty and narrow campaign trying to portray Action Hobson candidates as mad socialists. We couldn't have wished for better opponents".

The ticket deliberately chose the colour blue to brand itself as conservatives, put out a subtle message that C&R Now had been captured by the Act Party and endorsed Dick Hubbard when Mr Banks' and Act campaign manager Brian Nicolle stumbled over distribution of the National Business Review "hatchet job".

Christine Caughey said the ticket sensed success when door-knocking in Epsom, well away from the highway, showed strong support for the anti-highway, rapid transit message. Heritage and community messages went down well.

With nine City Vision and Labour votes, plus centre-left independent Faye Storer and Mr Hubbard - "philosophically a little bit more aligned to the centre-left than the centre-right" - Christine Caughey and the conservatively dressed Mr Simpson find themselves in the centre with a potential say on the direction of council.

Christine Caughey sees Action Hobson as a conservative bloc in the centre, even though she has links with City Vision by standing as a Team Auckland-City Vision candidate in a Hobson community board byelection last year and contributing to a City Vision policy group.

The Herald understands Christine Caughey, a professional planner, will chair the planning committee - a policy area Mr Hubbard and deputy-mayor elect Dr Hucker want bolstered to stop the spread of "chicken-coop" apartments and draw up better urban design rules.

In the first cross-party sign of "teamwork" promoted by Mr Hubbard, Mr Milne told the first informal council meeting yesterday that C&R Now would support Dr Hucker for deputy mayor.

Dr Hucker will be sworn in next week with the unanimous backing of the council.