How green was my valley ...
Had the 2014 election been decided in Wellington’s Aro Valley, the Greens would be in power, as Tom Hunt reports.
In Wellington’s Aro Valley, James Shaw is at home metaphorically and literally. Nothing, it seems, is shaking his party’s iron grip on the suburb.
The Greens co-leader’s home looks directly down on the Aro Valley Community Centre, which was New Zealand’s Green-est polling booth at the last election.
In fact, if only the Aro Valley Community Centre’s polling booth had been counted in 2014, the Greens could have romped into government with just the support of NZ First and Internet Mana.
But in recent weeks, things have been rough for the Greens. The party was aiming to increase its numbers in Parliament but, on the most recent polls, had dipped below the 5 per cent threshold needed to get back in.
There was co-leader Metiria Turei’s admission of historic benefit and electoral fraud, the loss of MPs Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, Turei’s resignation and – to some at least – a perception that with her went the party’s social conscience.
Not so, says Shaw. The party’s three focuses of the economy, society, and environment sit like a three-legged stool for the Greens: take away one and the whole thing falls over.
‘‘In Aro Valley, people really understand that,’’ he says outside the community centre, where he will attend a meet-the-candidates meeting on Monday night at which any speakers who go over their allotted time will be shot by water pistols.
At least for Shaw, it will be a short – if wet – walk home. The speakers outside the hall – there because there is never enough room inside – can clearly be heard from his home.
In nearby Aro Park, Sue Fazakerley is pushing her grandson on a rope swing and is not surprised to hear the valley is so Green, even though her vote is going to Labour.
‘‘They dress like Greens, their houses are like Greens, it’s a pretty funky suburb,’’ she said.
Christabella Boardman, a valley resident of 20-odd years, is undecided but certain: ‘‘It would be sad to see the Green Party go.’’
Briar Lawry, of Auckland, is strolling past the community hall. ‘‘I have alway voted Green each election since I was old enough to vote,’’ she said.
Grace Gollan voted National in the last election but views had changed since coming to university: ‘‘This time honestly, I’m still torn between Green and Labour.’’
In 2014, 1247 people placed their party votes in the Aro Valley hall and 565 of the party votes were Green.
There are famously three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. So in the interest of fairness, it should be pointed out that, proportionally, Onekaka Hall, in Golden Bay was higher.
Of the 139 votes cast there, 76 were for the Greens.
But back in Aro Valley, the Greens numbers would have given it 45 per cent of the vote and to reach a majority, the party would have needed just 59 more votes.
While this hypothetical Green government could have teamed up with Labour’s 336, that could have seemed excessive. New Zealand First’s 40 votes and Internet Mana’s 38 votes in the Aro Valley hall would have given it a comfortable win.
It was, of course, not how the wider general election played out.
Of the 2,416,479 party votes counted nationwide, 257,359 – 10.7 per cent of the total – went to the Greens in 2014.
National, who dribbled into a poor third place in the Aro Valley Community Hall with 236 votes, got more than 1.1 million nationwide and, again, became Government. In 2014, there were 19 polling booths where not a single Green vote was cast.
Of those, the ones where the most other votes were cast were Mangamaire School in Pahiatua, Weber School in Dannevirke, and Hedgehope School in Southland.