A routine marketplace walkabout for the Labour leader Chris Hipkins has nearly been interrupted by a pedestrian bridge swinging wildly from the momentum of his following crowd.
The bridge over a creek/drain stayed in place and the event carried on but it was an instance of how these election campaign events have the potential to turn, unexpectedly, when politicians are among crowds.
Hipkins was early into his meet-and-greet at Wesley Market on Tuesday morning when he walked across the bridge with probably 20 or 30 accompanying police, staff, media and members of the market crowd. The sudden weight and movement caused the structure, a couple of metres above grass and the waterway, to sway and bounce markedly.
Hipkins, who was past halfway when things really got moving up and down andsideways, didn’t miss a stride. But those behind him reached for stability, unnerved, and were pleased to reach the other side. One commented on the ‘swing bridge’ only to realise its movement might not have been intended.
If Hipkins was put off balance, on the morning of the first televised major leaders’ debate, he didn’t show it. He is an improved face-to-face campaigner from his first go in 2023, with sufficient small talk and a dash of warmth now to make a walk through a crowded market a success rather than a cringe.
The market at the Mt Roskill Memorial Reserve is part of the Mt Albert electorate in which Labour’s incumbent MP Helen White is in what one poll suggested is a tight fight with National’s Melissa Lee.
White, who is at times a bit wide-eyed, upbeat and unvarnished for some in the national media, certainly knew this market, introducing Hipkins regularly by name to stallholders and recommending their products, including dates from Iran she said she had enjoyed on past visits. Auckland Central candidate Naisi Chen was also along for the walk, frequently translating exchanges from Mandarin for Hipkins.
In the sunshine, among shoppers at mixed stalls selling vegetables, second-hand goods, and Pasifika, middle eastern and Chinese products, Hipkins’ progress was slowed for photos and several people wanting their say.
One, Stephen Trevett, knew it was debate day. “Keep him off balance and he’ll unravel,” he advised the Labour man. “I’d like to know what your nine new taxes are …”
That sudden turn saw Hipkins respond rapidly that Labour didn’t have nine new taxes. Trevett explained he wanted Hipkins to ask Christopher Luxon live on air to name these supposed taxes, and “if he can’t name them, just tell him ‘bollocks’.”
Hipkins: “I’m not allowed to use words like that, or I’ll get told off.”
He met a woman, Sara, who had been made redundant from her retail role and whose husband had also been out of work and wanted to know what Labour could do to help. Hipkins’ desire to “get the employment market moving again” and commitments on capped public transport costs and free GP visits didn’t seem to fully address her concerns.
But she asked for a selfie because “my family loves you”.
Another woman said she was a National voter because she supported capitalism and thought there was “a lot of money with your party that’s wasted and I’m not into that”.
Hipkins: “We’re very careful not to do that.”
But her primary concern seemed to be the state taking money away from her for having a boarder, and the former lawyer, White, stepped in to field the query.
Keith Yong, with shopping bag in tow, told Hipkins he was his favourite politician and “you’re going to win”.
Yong told Newsroom he thought Hipkins was “quite genuine, you know, quite sincere”.
He felt National “is out of date. My prediction is 62 seats to the Labour side, and I was right last time.”
At a media standup near the shaky bridge, Hipkins addressed the morning’s RNZ-Reid Research poll showing Labour slipping 1.4 percent to 30.8 (and National down 3.2 points to 25.9) using the old line “there’s one poll that matters and that’s on election day”.
He and Luxon, who deploys the same wording time and again, probably need to accept that there may be that one poll that matters but actually all polls matter. Not individually but collectively, and their trends matter. The message the combined polling, over time, is sending for those two parties is not good.
Perhaps buoyed by getting across that bridge, and engaging warmly with all but two market attendees (one man approached Hipkins at the walk’s end and police moved in, and a woman called out to him about abortion law), he said Labour’s campaign was doing well and getting positive feedback.
Quizzed by Stuff’s Jenna Lynch on the two major parties’ votes collapsing over time, he focused only one way: “There’s no question National is the most unpopular first-term government this country has ever had.”
Her colleague Amelia Wade double-checked if he was saying Labour had momentum while polls indicated it was falling, to which Hipkins said the RNZ poll was comparing Labour’s performance from its last survey months ago. He wouldn’t discuss Labour’s own polling but said “I’m happy to say we’re getting plenty of momentum behind our campaign and I’m confident we are going to get a very good result on election day”.
He told Newsroom he felt good ahead of the debate – his fourth one-on-one against Luxon after the series they engaged in in 2023. “It’s a big event. I’m looking forward to it. I hope it will be about the future.”
His sweary episode at Labour’s campaign launch nine days ago would likely not be repeated. “I’m going to be on my best behaviour.”
Tuesday afternoon prep would involve “quiet time to go over my notes and make sure I’m across the issues”. He wouldn’t discuss his team’s pre-debate “rituals” such as who had played the role of Luxon.
Helen White, asked if she was in danger of losing Mt Albert, acknowledged it was an important contest and close, urging those who wanted a progressive candidate to vote her way.
“You can see in this amazing place” she said, gesturing towards the market place stalls, “it needs someone who is their local champion”.
Asked about Opportunity party leader Qiulae Wong and her bid for the seat, White said Wong’s fourth place in the Curia poll of Mt Albert raised issues over the splitting of the vote. “She seems a very nice woman but I have lived in this place for 40 years and I’m a hard-working local MP … and obviously, it looks like she is in anyway”.
Her concession that Opportunity could be assumed to be about to pass the MMP 5 percent threshold, thus making Wong an MP, prompted a follow-up question to Hipkins on whether he accepted that scenario.
“Most of the polls recently have them over the 5 percent threshold but that’s going to be down to voters. There’s still four weeks of campaigning to go.”
To a query over his willingness to talk to Opportunity: “I’ve said we’re open to working with them if they make it into Parliament.”