Venu Menon
Wellington, October 11,2023
The party faithful have gathered in their blue jerseys at the Harbour side event centre off Taranaki St in Wellington . They have come from the four corners of the Greater Wellington region, and await the arrival of their leader.
National’s campaign chair and Hutt South candidate Chris Bishop is tasked with keeping the spirits of the troops up, peppering them with wit, picking out faces in the crowd for special mention.
As they wait, the party congregation picks up Bishop’s cues like a symphony orchestra following the motions of a conductor.
“It’s been a long campaign, frankly, it’s been a long six years, that’s right, too long,” he says as the crowd lustily cheers. “We are ready to turn the country around and get it back on track.”
He breaks off abruptly to announce the arrival of Christopher Luxon, accompanied by Nicola Willis.
“Here comes into the room our next prime minister and deputy prime minister Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis,” Bishop says, pointing towards the entrance. The room erupts with applause and loud cheers as everybody is up on their feet.
Luxon takes the dais at the centre of the room as loudspeakers belt out his favourite song. “October 14 is our day,” he tells the crowd, amid thunderous ovation.
Luxon runs through the National Party candidates from the Wellington region who are seated in a row in front of him. He starts with Nicola Willis. The room explodes with applause.
“She’s up against [Labour MP from Ohariu] Greg O’Connor, but every day Nicola is taking on Grant Robertson, our finance minister, and absolutely destroying him in debate after debate.”
Luxon surfs the crowd like a maestro, riding the crest of the waves of applause.
He continues: “Holding him to account for the fiscal vandalism he has inflicted upon New Zealand.”
Luxon is banking on Willis to turn the red seat of Ohariu blue on October 14.
Then he presents Rongotai candidate Karuna Muthu to the audience, and is met by loud cheering as he commits to “double the tunnel” at Mt Victoria.
Luxon invites “my friend and our next minister of finance” Nicola Willis to take the floor, who straight off the bat plays up her identity as a Wellingtonian.
She gives it up to the “young Nats” in the room, who are “bluewashing” the walls, quietly waiting their turn to catch the gaze of their leaders.
There is the customary nod to the party base. “When Chris and I get up and we take it to this government in those debates, when we push for the change that this country needs, we do so knowing we have you at our back. We do so with your voices behind us, because we in this election are fighting for you, we are fighting for your children, we are fighting for our country and for its future, and you make us proud.” If the ovation that follows is any indication, her words are well taken.
Wellington comes up as “our city, this region, [that] has been overlooked.” Her lament is vacuumed up with glee. “The best we’ve got is a diagram on the front page of The Post,” she mocks. “We deserve better.”
Her words carry the gloom of an epitaph engraved on a gravestone.
But her sermon injects new life in the assembly. “We’re gonna double that tunnel,” she echoes Luxon, which triggers energetic applause.
“We’re gonna build a road from Petone to Grenada. We’re gonna get traffic off the gorge and open up land for more than 5000 homes,” she intones. Willis has her finger on the pulse of Wellington, its existential woes, and the locals are loving that.
“We’re gonna give this great city that I love, that I’ve given 36 of my 42 years to, we’re gonna give it a strong voice at the centre of a National-led government,” Willis rounds off, appealing to her “fellow Wellingtonians to vote for it.”
Luxon lifts the discourse from regional to national. He talks about crime being out of control, of threats to National’s candidates from gang members “up and down this country,” particularly to Siva Kilari in Manurewa in Auckland.
He promises to “back our police, tackle the gangs, have serious consequences for young offenders and make sure they get stronger sentencing.”
Luxon references a “lovely woman and her son” who are former refugees and running a dairy in Nelson. “Now they are victims of a ram raid.”
This election must be won for the victims of crime and hardworking New Zealanders struggling with inflation and high cost of living, Luxon sums up before exiting the venue.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
