Party time: A couple of true-blues

BY JULIE MIDDLETON

About 7.30am each weekday, you'll spot them on Dominion, Sandringham and Balmoral Rds in central Auckland, standing under banners, smiling and waving at cars.

Some will scowl on recognising Raewyn Bhana, 36, as the Maori-Indian social worker who took their kids away. Others may note the prodigious size of George Ngatai, 31, her husband of nearly three years.

But the couple that campaign together stay together. He's contesting the new Maori seat of Tamaki Makaurau for National; she is up against the PM in Mt Albert. Their (blue) Mazda Familia bears his face on the driver's side, hers on the other.

Bhana, from a Labour-leaning family, supported her husband's unsuccessful campaign last time around; this time she was "seduced" by Bill English.

It wasn't a snap decision. She heads a Manurewa child protection team and any public profile risks more than her own safety.

"It opens up my family, my children, my husband," says Bhana, whose left wrist has proclaimed her "foxy" since the age of 15.

"You get a lot of that [abuse] when you take children."

A rueful sigh follows: to some, she'll always be an expletive, not a would-be MP. And certainly nothing as ordinary as a mum with two teenagers from her first marriage, living with extended family on the North Shore.

Ngatai works for crime prevention group Safer Auckland City. As well as what Bhana, of Ngapuhi, calls a "a strong whanau orientation" they share a relaxed and genial outlook, considered responses and thick skins. Both are tertiary educated and Maori speakers.

However, you would think there was enough pressure on the campaign trail without your marriage coming along for the ride. "How many times have we just about divorced?" Ngatai jovially asks.

But dissent is over approach rather than beliefs - he's all go, she prefers slow. Not much room for relaxing, according to yesterday morning's timetable: roadside regimen 7.35am, pep talk with the campaign team 8.45am, Mt Albert walkabout 9.15am, St Lukes walkabout 11am, a noon visit to a Mt Albert kura kaupapa Bhana's kids attended, Lynnmall leafleting 12.45pm.

At St Lukes mall, two worried-looking staffers of owner Westfield shadowed the pair, making sure shop fronts didn't appear in pictures and that shoppers' retail worship wasn't disturbed.

The rule at Lynnmall - 10 minutes only. Men were far more accepting of approaches than women, and older women tended to keep hands jammed in pockets. "I'm with Maurie [Williamson]," grumped one, who must have been a visitor from Pakuranga.

More welcoming were two women at the Tupperware stand - but they preferred to chat to the "lady of the house".

A buzz-cut bloke enjoyed the pair's attention but warned: "I usually vote National. This time, it might be a wasted vote." Bhana and Ngatai were unbothered. "Have a nice day!" they chorused.

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