Having a chew over a chinwag

The perennial question echoed down the line. ’’Egg or no egg?’’ It’s an issue that has vexed philosophers since the beginning of time, but I just took a bold, decisive stab.

No egg, I said, but really, I’d be happy either way. A filled roll is a filled roll. I was just delighted to be lining up a free lunch.

I recently hit upon the idea of exploiting the upcoming election by inviting politicians to bring me around some tucker and talk turkey.

Chloe Swarbrick and Matt Lawrey of the Greens rocked up with a lump of salmon quiche. They talked, I ate, then wrote it up.

But it’s important to give other players a shot, if only to score more free food. I suggested National’s Nick Smith could buy me a meat pie, and the local Labour hopeful might want to whip around with a filled roll.

To her credit, Nelson Labour candidate Rachel Boyack called my bluff. She arrived at my house bearing a filled roll… with egg! I hustled her in through the trademan’s entrance, in honour of her party’s long association with the working classes.

We adjourned to my kitchen. You must be pretty chuffed, I said between mouthfuls, about last week’s change in Labour leadership.

The party was a dead duck, a sinking ship, a steaming pile of poo. Now, with Jacinda Adern at the helm, you guys are back in with a chance.

‘‘I respected Andrew Little,’’ she said, ‘‘but yes, things have certainly changed. People tell me they haven’t seen the cohesion they want from Labour, and they have that now.’’

She paused to dispatch an inch of her sausage roll.

‘‘We’ll pick up undecided voters now, soft Nats, younger people, and some who went to Winston while they thought Labour was in disarray.’’

Boyack was a person who walked the talk. She spends her days as a trade union organiser, trying to get a better deal for people paid far too little to work in sawmills and supermarkets. She is also Christian. ‘‘I’ve never understood why Christians would vote for a market economy that supports growing injustice and inequality, which are the fundamental moral issues of our time. It’s not just about feeding the poor, it’s about changing the structures that set people up to be poor in the first place.’’

The Labour Party was itself ‘‘a broad church’’, she said, convened in its early days to fight injustice.

‘‘It was working people, unions, Maori, women, church goers, all working together to end poverty. That’s still what drives me.’’ She talked about healthcare, affordable housing and that wily old coyote, Winston Peters.

Boyack struck me as thoughtful, articulate and a bit of a hoot.

‘‘When we were kids, my brother would count out the potato chips into four piles so we all got the same amount,’’ she said. ‘‘My family has always had a strong sense of social justice.’’

She has an uphill battle. Many liberal voters have jumped ship to the Greens, and National’s Nick Smith has held the Nelson electorate seat continuously for more than 20 years.

Boyack is 47th on the Labour list, and they’d need about 40 per cent of the vote for her to get in.

‘‘Yes, but Nelson was once a Labour stronghold, and it can be again,’’ she said, brimming with optimism as she got up to head off for her next meeting.

‘‘You know, I once went to see Nick Smith to lobby him about union stuff, and he was so impressed, he offered to write me a reference for my next job. But my next job is his job.’’

"When we were kids, my brother would count out the potato chips into four piles so we all got the same amount. My family has always had a strong sense of social justice." Rachel Boyack