Coffey has big asset of name recognition

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

After the disastrous start to last week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Labour would have been pleased to start this one on a positive note by announcing that Tāmati Coffey will contest the East Coast seat.

Hipkins could have been excused for humming the lyrics of The Boomtown Rats “I don’t like Mondays” after news broke last Monday that sitting MP and Minister of Justice Kiri Allan had been taken into custody after a driving incident, followed by her resignation.

A 4.6 earthquake that shook Wellington late on Sunday was not a good omen for the week ahead, but Labour had election campaign matters to focus on such as releasing its party list and the good news that Coffey had reversed his earlier decision to retire from politics and instead would stand in the East Coast electorate.

With October’s election so close, it was essential that Labour found a credible candidate.

Coffey brings with him the priceless asset of name recognition. He was a popular TV presenter before coming into Parliament in the 2017 election and he does whakapapa to this rohe through his Ngati Porou-Ngati Awa father Gerald.

He has obviously answered a desperate call from a Government that has been bleeding ministers, and that will win him some respect.

None of this, however, means that Coffey is a shoo-in as he stands against National’s Dana Kirkpatrick.

The East Coast seat has become extremely volatile in recent elections.

National’s Anne Tolley won it with a 4800 majority in 2017 but Kiri Allan took it with an even larger one of more than 6000 three years ago at a time when National was in free fall.

This sets things up for what will likely be a close contest for the East Coast seat, and one that both major parties will be very keen to win.

National has been moving forward with things like its transport plan that would see four-lane motorways from Whangārei to Tauranga, but the big battleground in the election lead-up could be over tax policy.

Hipkins has promised no wealth tax under his leadership but National has apparently pre-announced a Labour plan to remove GST on fruit and vegetables, which is controversial.

Stuff reported last week that the saving on a typical shop of fruit and vegetables was a little over $3 and that Minister of Finance Grant Robertson was cool on such a policy because of the difficulty of implementing it.

However, removing GST on fruit and vegetables is also shown to be extremely popular with the public.

How this all plays out will keep political commentators on high alert and provide one of many battlegrounds for Coffey and Kirkpatrick in the coming weeks.