The mystique of being an MP

By ANDREW LAXON

New Zealanders will wake up on Sunday July 28 to find we have at least 20 new MPs. Chances are most of us will not have heard of most of them.

They are set to be the latest intake of list MPs, who for better or worse will change the face of Parliament. Based on the polls, these are the people we can expect to see, plus the MPs who may not be back.

LABOUR

Has put all its sitting MPs at the top of the list, leaving room for only about 12 new faces on current polling.

Top unionists and party officials dominate the top of the list but there are some surprises further down.

Dave Hereora: Labour's Maori vice-president and a Service and Food Workers' Union official. One of 10 children, raised by his grandparents in Tauranga, he went to work at the local Affco meatworks and started working for the union when he moved to Auckland to live in Manurewa.

Became more active in Labour after NZ First's takeover of the Maori seats in 1996. Standing in Clevedon against National's Judith Collins, who should win despite taking over from dumped MP Warren Kyd.

Lynne Pillay: Engineers' Union official and former nurse who almost made it to Parliament last time as a list MP, losing on a countback to the Greens' Keith Locke.

May not need her high list placing this year as she is expected to win the Waitakere seat, ahead of Alliance leader Laila Harre and National's Marie Hasler. Pillay is the partner of the union's northern secretary, Mike Sweeney.

Ashraf Choudhary: Massey University professor specialising in agricultural engineering and land cultivation. A founding member of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ, he could become our first Muslim MP.

Moana Mackey: Daughter of sitting East Coast MP Janet Mackey. Would be the first mother-daughter team in Parliament and the first parent-child combination together in the House since Norm and Roger Douglas from 1969 to 1975.

Mackey, aged 28, is a Wellington biochemist, who told the Gisborne Herald that she asked for a party membership on her 15th birthday. She went on to become Young Labour president.

Lesley Soper: Southland-based and Labour's women's vice-president and organiser for the primary teachers' union, NZEI. Says she takes it as a compliment when the "Tory media" call her a Labour stalwart.

Attributes her "staunch political and union background" to her father Wattie, a hospital board truck driver and longtime president of the Southland Drivers Union.

Has stood against National leader Bill English since 1993. Appointed by Health Minister Annette King to the Southland District Health Board in 2000, and elected to the board the following year.

Carol Beaumont: Council of Trade Unions education officer and Auckland Labour Party councillor. Aged 41, has a Bachelor of Social Science degree and a secondary teaching diploma.

Max Purnell: Dairy farmer from Waitakaruru on the Hauraki Plains. He took a thumping for his party in the 1998 Taranaki-King Country byelection.

This time he is supposed to be running a passive campaign against Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons in Coromandel, allowing Fitzsimons to take the seat with Purnell safely home on the list.

But the non-aggression pact has collapsed with deteriorating relations between Labour and the Greens. As a result Coromandel voters could end up with three local candidates - Purnell and Fitzsimons from their party lists and National's popular Sandra Goudie winning the seat on a left-wing split.

David Shearer: An aid worker and former adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff until January. Named the Herald's Person of the Year in 1992 and awarded an MBE the following year for his humanitarian work in Somalia. Later worked on UN relief and humanitarian aid efforts in Liberia, Rwanda, Belgrade and Kosovo - and this year Afghanistan.

Trying to beat National's Phil Heatley, who has a 1934 majority in Whangarei.

Gill Boddy-Greer: Family Planning Association chief executive. Best known for her calls for the Government to tackle New Zealand's teenage pregnancy rate, which at 29.8 per 1000 women aged between 15 and 19 is the third-worst in the developed world behind the US and Britain.

Six weeks ago she suggested New Zealand should follow Britain, which cut its teenage pregnancy rate by more than 6 per cent in two years through an inter-department programme monitored by Cabinet ministers.

David Parker: Dunedin-based biotechnology businessman and former lawyer at the forefront of genetic modification in New Zealand.

Two years ago Parker and entrepreneur Howard Paterson launched A2 Corporation, which aims to produce milk with a protein that supposedly offers protection against diabetes and heart disease.

Parker and Paterson were also heavily involved in the start-up of Botry-Zen, touted as the wine industry's answer to grape rot, and Pharma Zen, whose products claim to enhance animals' immune systems against infection.

Herald business columnist Brian Gaynor - who was strongly critical of the biotech companies' claims and launch methods - estimated last year that Parker, Paterson and two other colleagues made $66 million on their initial investment of $2000.



Brendon Burns: former political journalist and editor of the Marlborough Express. Also standing for Labour in Kaikoura with a chance of toppling National's Lynda Scott. Previously nicknamed Lord Burns by his press gallery colleagues for his apparent conservatism.

Louisa Wall: Former Silver Ferns netballer - her wayward pass in the dying seconds ended the team's hopes in the 1991 world championship final against Australia - and Black Ferns rugby player, who retired from rugby in March because of a knee injury.

The 30-year-old Maori lesbian says she believes there are "quite a few groups I can speak for". Works with Maori groups for the Health Research Council.

David Maka: Auckland community worker, Tamaki Community Board member and Tongan member of an advisory council to Pacific Island Affairs Minister Mark Gosche.

Darren Hughes: The 24-year-old former executive secretary to retiring MP Judy Keall. Likely to take the Otaki seat from his old boss, so may leapfrog above others on the list.

Ins and outs: Unlikely to make it on current polling are union organiser Hamish MacCracken, business ethics consultant and tetraplegic Eamon Daly and nurses' union organiser Lesley Harry.

NATIONAL

The party planned to bring in fresh blood, including Auckland principal Allan Peachey, former president Sue Wood and environmentalist Guy Salmon, but all could miss out on current polling. Herald columnist Colin James estimates only Peachey would get in if the election was held today.

Don Brash: The 61-year-old former Reserve Bank governor - billed as the star of president Michelle Boag's drive to "rejuvenate" the party - revealed his true political colours with a speech to last year's Knowledge Wave conference which advocated time-limited welfare benefits and scrapping the minimum wage.

Richard Prebble later suggested Brash had since joined the wrong party - he should be in Act.

Adds economic credibility to National's front bench but is best-known to most voters as the man who kept putting up their mortgage. Assured of a seat, thanks to his fifth ranking.

Hekia Parata: Former deputy chief executive of Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development), who has also served on the boards of NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho.

The 43-year-old Wellingtonian runs consultancy firm Gardiner Parata, with her partner, Wira Gardiner, a former head of Te Puni Kokiri and National candidate.

Parata will rattle some of National's caucus - unlike many in the party she strongly supports the retention of Maori seats in Parliament.

Fighting a losing battle with Marian Hobbs for Wellington Central - a poll last week put her at 15 per cent compared with Hobbs' 32 per cent - but safely placed at number 15.

Allan Peachey: The principal of Auckland's biggest school, Rangitoto College, which has become a magnet for students all over the North Shore.

An outspoken critic of Labour's zoning policy, which forces schools to take local students.

Should have been a dead cert at 18 on the list but may miss out.

Sue Wood: National's party president from 1982 to 1986, who received the combined hospital pass of Sir Robert Muldoon at his worst and the 1984 snap election. Aged 53, she now runs her own public relations agency.

Guy Salmon: The face of sensible, business-friendly environmentalism - or so National hopes. The 52-year-old environmental consultant has been chief executive of lobby group Ecologic Foundation (formerly Maruia Society) since 1988.

Founded Native Forests Action Council in 1975 and led it through campaigns to protect native forests. Now a member of the Bluegreens ginger group that advises National on environmental issues.

Ins and outs: National list candidates unlikely to make the cut include (in descending order) former Fish and Game manager Ian Buchanan, fishing company manager and Ngati Tama iwi development trust chief negotiator Greg White, Asian businessman Eric Liu and former NZ First deputy leader Tau Henare.

Sitting National MPs Annabel Young and Marie Hasler are expected to lose their seats. Also in danger are Arthur Anae, Eric Roy, Anne Tolley and Belinda Vernon.

GREENS

Set for another five MPs at this rate, all straight from the list.

Metiria Turei: When Helen Clark attacks the Greens' "anarcho-feminist" tendencies, this is who she means. Turei is a resource management lawyer who studied for her law degree as a solo parent on the DPB.

She is a former candidate for the McGillicuddy Serious Party in 1993 and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party in 1996. In her spare time she is involved with the Random Trollops, an anarcho-feminist performance troupe that has become a regular in the Hero parade.

Mike Ward: Former Values Party co-leader, who joined the party in 1975, and a four-term Nelson city councillor. A multi-sports athlete who cycles everywhere. Self-employed illustrator, sculptor, jewellery maker and designer.

Catherine Delahunty: Anti-Coromandel mining and peace campaigner who organised her first national political campaign at 15 by leading the first high school students' union. Since then she has campaigned on everything from recycling initiatives to toxic chemicals and the 1999 Apec conference in Auckland. The Greens' northern campaign manager in the last election.

Roland Sapsford: Greens policy adviser and political negotiator, who spent five years as an Environment Ministry policy adviser. A leading campaigner against a planned motorway through Wellington's inner-city suburb of Te Aro.

Meriel Watts: Director of the Soil and Health Association and veteran pesticides campaigner. Watts, who is standing in Waitakere, is a strong opponent of MAF's spraying campaign against the painted apple moth. She is a member of the community-based advisory group and its representative on MAF's technical advisory group.

Lists her other work and life experience as: "Lesbian. Pakeha. Sailor".

Ins and outs: If Green polling continues to rise, next in off the list would be two gay men, GE-free NZ spokesman Jon Carapiet, and Richard Davies, a former secondary teacher. Jeanette Fitzsimons, ranked number one, may lose her seat to National.

ACT

One new face so far but this may change if the party keeps climbing in the polls.

Deborah Coddington: North & South journalist and author of a book listing convicted child molesters and sex offenders.

Coddington, who won this year's top national journalism prize, told the Herald last month that her decision to stand was influenced by her deep concerns about the welfare of New Zealand children.

Ins and outs: New Zealand portrait gallery contractor and mother of five Heather Roy in Ohariu-Belmont is next in line if the party's polling keeps rising. She is followed by Auckland-based Chinese candidate Kenneth Wang, number 10, and 35-year-old computer and technology entrepreneur Paul King, number 11.

Deputy leader Ken Shirley should survive but rural MPs Owen Jennings and Penny Webster are probably gone at 12 and 13.

NZ FIRST

Looking forward to at least three new MPs.

Barbara Stewart: Former National Party branch secretary who works as a training manager for a Hamilton manufacturing company. Lives with her husband Gordon and 12-year-old son Alister near Cambridge.

Former teacher, tea-room and lunch bar owner. Standing for North Shore.

Pita Paraone: Regional director for Ministry of Maori Development's northern region but best-known to most New Zealanders as the chairman of the Waitangi Day organising committee. Lives in Howick, standing in Pakuranga.

Craig McNair: A 27-year-old marketing manager. List of achievements for party biography features membership of 1992 US team which visited Russia to help restructure Moscow's education system.

Ins and outs: Next in line are Winston's brother Jim Peters, former Northland Regional Council chairman and principal of Northland College in Kaikohe, former National MP Dail Jones, who was stabbed in his office in 1980 by a pensioner angry about a parking ticket.

OTHER PARTIES

Colin James says United Future leader Peter Dunne, who should hold Ohariu-Belmont, is close to getting enough party votes to be joined by his number two, Gordon Copeland.

No other newcomers are expected but there will be more casualties. Jim Anderton should hold Wigram, possibly bringing Corrections Minister Matt Robson back with him. Democrats Grant Gillon and John Wright are unlikely to make it.

At 0.2 per cent in a Herald-DigiPoll survey this month, the remnants of the Alliance are doomed unless Laila Harre can win Waitakere. This means no chance for Willie Jackson and party president Matt McCarten.

Christian Heritage leader Graham Capill and his new sidekick, former Women's Refuge boss Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, show few signs of breaking 1 per cent, let alone five.

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