Crowd was a sea of red shirts
Labour Party members created strong visible and audible support at the final candidates debate in the lead up to the general election in less than 10 days.
Red-shirted supporters dominated the front rows of the New Plymouth District Council chambers as six candidates were given a last chance to impress upon voters at the Taranaki Daily News election debate on Tuesday night.
Labour Party candidate Corie Haddock was given loud applause and clapping from supporters when he got to answer early questions.
The two hour event at the council chambers turned into an entertaining evening for the 150 in the audience as the six candidates released both party policy and some personal insights.
Each candidate was given three minutes to introduce themselves and their party policy before replying to three regional based questions on immigration, sea bed mining and economic progress.
This was followed by three questions on putting back the Kiwi Saver $1000 kickstart, revitalising housing in Marfell and a capital gains tax.
A 10 question quick fire round drew out the personality side of each of the candidates unhindered by party lines before questions from the floor.
After an early cautionary warning hecklers would not be tolerated the candidates put their best foot forward.
Carlson opened the evening sparring to tell the audience she had entered politics because more young people should be in parliament.
If Chong felt slightly intimidated by the red t-shirts five metres in front of him he didn’t show it.
‘‘I can’t help noticing there’s a lot of red in the room, and some blue but there is also a lot of black.
With a strong contingent of over 60s in the audience Chong listed the party’s policies on extending the Gold Card benefits to superannuitants and a ‘‘one law for all’’ stance.
Labour’s Haddock focused on the numbers of people not living adequate housing, the 4900 youth not trained or skilled for employment, and the under funded health system which was contributing to 2500 children in severe poverty in the region.
Lawrence told the audience as a superannuant he shared the con- cerns of other superannuants.
He got a loud round of applause when he said the ‘trickle down’ theory had not worked.
Incumbent MP Jonathan Young referred back to former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon by holding up a graph showing the housing trends in the past decade.
He began with a welcome in Maori to celebrate Maori Language Week and continued with an explanation that housing pressure had not been built by the government.
Young said he was ‘‘frustrated’’ with the lack of progress around redeveloping housing in Marfell and hoped it would be resolved in six months.
Bramhall said the party would work to transform the economy starting with a green infrastructure fund based on investment in renewable energy opportunities.
An informal exit poll asking which candidate impressed most at the debate showed Haddock ahead 53 votes to National’s Jonathan Young with 40.
New Zealand First candidate Murray Chong received 15 votes, Green Party’s Stuart Bramhall, 14 votes, ACT’s Anneka Carlson, 14 votes, and independent candidate Basil Lawrence 2 votes.
The majority of candidates opposed seabed mining off the South Taranaki coast. One of the country’s most successful actresses has been trawling through Taranaki’s latest offering of short films.
Antonia Prebble, best known for her roles on television series’ Outrageous Fortune and Westside, has been enlisted as the celebrity judge for the region’s leg of the HP 48 Hour Film Festival.
Other judges include New Plymouth District councillor Stacey Hitchcock, former New Plymouth mayor Andrew Judd, the original competition organiser Bruce Gatward-Cook and cinematographer Edward Aish.
Last week, 12 finalists were announced from the 20 teams who spent two days furiously writing, filming and editing a five minute film last month.
Prebble was asked to come onboard as a judge by her friend and co-organiser of the event, Karlos Drinkwater.
She has since viewed the shortlisted films and said she was impressed with how many teams got involved.
‘‘Particularly so many school teams,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s exciting to see that young people are so passionate about film making.’’
It was important that people get involved in competitions such as these, she said.
‘‘It is not an easy task, the demands of making a film in 48 hours are immense and so the fact that so many people are taking on the challenge means the passion for film making is alive and well in New Zealand, which is excellent news.’’
While critiquing the films, Prebble said she was on the look out for ‘‘innovative, original stories that were engaging to watch,’’ and appropriate use of the respective criteria.
There was one film which was a particular stand out for the actress. She said Team Hi Stranger’s The Princess and the Neighbor was a well crafted story that was skilfully executed.
Co-organiser Anand Rose said the standard of films was up this year.
‘‘There’s definitely some really good, well shot films. ‘‘And there’s a lot more young teams.’’
While there would be one regional winner announced at the upcoming finals, Rose said there was only a small chance they would go onto the nationals.
‘‘Because we’re a smaller region we’re never guaranteed a place.’’
The films will screen and the winner announced on Monday, September 25 at Event Cinemas in New Plymouth. Tickets are available on Eventfinda.
Other finalists are 70 Media, Bread ‘n’ Butter Productions, Currie Street Creatives, Muse Crew, Pastafarian Productions, Playhaus Productions, The All Good, The Tanked Engines, The Wet Dreamers, Through the Lens Films, TTKLAYMM.