English reels in votes from wrong side of Tasman
When National leader Bill English went fishing for votes on the Viaduct Harbour, he racked up a few — but had to throw some of them back.
Among those he met was Australian couple Terry and Bronwyn who moved to Auckland about a year ago.
Their sons Darcy and Harry were visiting from Melbourne and English turned into matchmaker — deciding one way to get them to stay was if they “met a Kiwi girl”.
He cast about for likely prospects and when none arrived, he moved on.
Terry and Bronwyn then admitted they couldn’t vote: “But if we were voting, he’d get our vote. He’s got a bit of substance to him.”
Hypothetical votes are useless and the same Viaduct walkabout also saw English stop to talk to tourists from America, a couple from Brazil, more Australians and the United Kingdom — as well as a multinational boat crew.
He did have some success in sniffing out locals — he was waylaid by television show hosts Jono and Ben and chatted briefly to one young man sitting on a bench who told English he was going to vote — but stopped short of saying who for.
When he was asked after English moved on, he nodded in his direction and said “probably him”.
The probables are the ones English was after on his proselytising mission.
Then came Sonny, a Samoan construction worker who chatted amiably. English had wife Mary — who is Samoan — with him and he introduced her. Sonny said “that’s why all the Samoans will vote for you”.
Perhaps not Sonny though. He later said he was yet to decide.
Other than the walkabout, visits to corporations were the order of the day for English.
A day in the glass towers of Auckland’s corporate sector was quite a contrast to Ardern’s day at a union rally and packing food boxes at a South Auckland food bank.
But English rejected any suggestion he had neglected any sector of society, saying his campaign trail had taken him to more places than Labour’s campaign from welfare centres to factories.
He spoke to staff at Vodafone where one person heckled him on child poverty and the environment — just after English had told them that now the books were in shape again, National could focus on both areas.
He wound up at law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.
He told them that National’s management of the books during the economic crisis had put the country on a solid footing. “There are issues that have been around a while that we can now deal with.”