SoCred candidate in protest

MC Rangi Makeu Hall (far left) with candidates David Curran, Clinton Dearlove, Hone Harawira, Kelly Ellis, Paul Doherty, Kelvin Davis, Shane Reti and Te Hira Paenga. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Whangarei political aspirant Chris Leitch was left out in the cold while eight other Northland candidates generated heat in a NorthTec Student Association's pre-election debate.

Stepping out for the Democrats for Social Credit, Mr Leitch staged a one man protest outside the Raumanga campus venue about being omitted from the debate line-up.

He said he had been in dialogue with debate organisers for several weeks about yesterday's snub.

Mr Leitch's previous candidacy includes in Whangarei for Social Credit in 1984 and 1987 and, for the Alliance, taking a determined tilt at the National stronghold of Tamaki in the 1992 by-election when former prime minister Sir Rob Muldoon stood down.

NorthTec Student Association co-chairman Ryan Marsich said the organisers had to limit numbers to eight candidates and decide how best to represent both Te Tai Tokerau and Whangarei electorates.

Mr Leitch was one of several candidates left out, he said.

But while Mr Leitch's voice went unheard yesterday, the other candidates - Hone Harawira (Mana, Te Tai Tokerau), Kelly Ellis (Labour, Whangarei), Kelvin Davis (Labour, Te Tai Tokerau), Shane Reti (National, Whangarei), Te Hira Paenga (Maori Party, Te Tai Tokerau), Clinton Dearlove (Independent, Te Tai Tokerau), Paul Doherty (Green, Whangarei) and David Curran (Internet, Whangarei) all spoke.

A packed house at the Interactive Learning Centre yesterday heard more of a question and answer exercise than a debate, with performances ranging from the colourful and passionate to bland and uninspiring.

When it came to his turn to introduce himself, Mr Harawira had the audience guffawing when he gestured toward the other Maori candidates and said, "Unfortunately for the others along here, whether they like it or not they're all related to me."

That's where the bro-hood ended. Like some of the other candidates, Mr Harawira pulled no punches in slamming the other parties' policies.

Some candidates showed their inexperience.

Mr Reti failed to get to the point fast enough several times before the buzzer went off, such as when asked how his party would address student hardship.

Mr Harawira rounded up his own answer with "our children deserve the free education we had" and raised another round of applause by shouting, "and how can we pay for free education? Tax the rich."

On Northland's economic development, Mr Davis gave his trademark answers about education being the way forward, along with forestry, aquaculture, agriculture and education. "Personal prosperity leads to community prosperity."

Mr Reti said extending the Auckland-Warkworth widening of SH1 would help tie together Northland's economic threads of land-based industry, manufacturing, infrastructure and tourism.

Mr Doherty disagreed, saying the motorway failed to meet a cost benefit ratio and, ending at Wellsford, hardly reached Northland at all.

the only woman candidate on the panel, Ms Ellis, raised rousing cheers from the audience several times.

Every log sent off-shore contributed to slave labour in another country, she said.

We need to make jobs here with Northland resources and give workers pay rises, Ms Ellis said. "That's how we're going to lift this place out of poverty and about bloody time too."

Regarding the issues of superannuation and taking GST off food and vegetables, the Internet Party doesn't have any policy - but wants every New Zealanders to be digital-savvy.