Kiwiblog

Cactus Kate has blogged her Dom Post column rating the female candidates. But she is not rating them on looks:

It is a challenging column to write as I could over-excite the male readership in having them believe that I find women attractive, empirical evidence proves this actually does little harm to a woman’s chances with the opposite sex. But refusing to engage in faux celesbianism, I shall analyse from the perspective of how women choose their men in New Zealand, not solely for physical attraction, but power, status and general usefulness at home.

So who does Cactus declare the hottest candidate:

The worst part of this column was going to be declaring that the winner of the hottest female candidate has to be Helen Clark. She’s been the most powerful person in the country for nine years, has interfered in your lives, told you not to smack your children, stole a third of your income, given some of it back and expected thanks then persuaded with minimal charm and maximum control to get you to vote her in once and back for two more thrashings. Not content with that she has the “charisma” to turn around and call the other guy untrustworthy, controlling and a domestic bully.

So Helen wins!

Cactus Kate has been rating the male candidates in her Dom Post column. To help her out she asked un-PC Lesbian to rate the female candidates. A unique perspective!

Another little request for someone with some time.

My candidates page has been very popular, especially as some parties have not listed candidates on their main sites. But at present it only includes the two major parties plus room for one third party candidate if they look like they could win the seat.

If anyone has a few hours spare, it would be really useful to collate up into an excel spreadsheet the names of the candidates in all 70 electorates for the following parties:

1. National
2. Labour
3. Maori
4. ACT
5. NZ First
6. United Future
7. Progressive
8. Kiwi
9. Family
10. Pacific

Also would be useful to have the ranked lists for each party. I have some of them in HTML on the existing page but if someone collates them into Excel, then I can publish them side by side.

If you”d be keen to do this, drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you the template.

Idiot/Savant has the full United Future list, along with how it has changed from last time. The top ten are:

1. Peter Dunne
2. Judy Turner
3. Denise Krum
4. Graeme Reeves
5. Selio Solomon
6. Murray Smith
7. Neville Wilson
8. Frank Owen
9. Janet Tuck
10. Karuna Muthu

I don’t know Selio Solomon, but can comment on Denise Krum and Graeme Reeves. Denise is UFNZ Party President and seems quite an able sort. She did quite well appearing for UFNZ for the broadcasting allocations.

Graeme Reeves was National MP for Miramar from 1990 to 1993. He was a good MP then, and would be again today. Plus I always have a soft spot for Graeme as he took the lead in Caucus in the early 1990s in expelling a certain W Peters from the Caucus.

So if the election saw United Future get up to four MPs, I’d have no problem with that – so long as they don’t take votes from the centre-right only.

The NZ Herald editorial says about time:

When the National Party published its candidate list on Sunday a greater ethnic diversity was immediately apparent. Six Maori, three Asians and a Pacific Islander have been placed high enough on the list to get into Parliament if National polls as well as it expects.

I am guilty of this myself, but I amused how Asians are all lumped together, when in fact in winnable places are a Chinese, a Korean and an Indian Sikh. All quite different races and cultures. But hey as I said, I do it myself sometimes.

Samoan Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, Korean-born Melissa Lee and Indian Kanwal Bakshi can probably count on joining Pansy Wong, too long National’s solitary representative of immigrant communities.Indeed, she has been almost a solitary Asian voice in Parliament, for Labour has supplied only the Pakistani Ashraf Choudhary, who has been practically silent, and the smaller parties have offered no seats to non-Maori minorities.

Is Choudary still an MP? My goodness.

National’s list, incidentally, still looks light on women; only four rank in the top 24, from which a cabinet would be likely to be drawn.

There is still some way to go. It looks like women will comprise 26% to 28% of National’s caucus, much the same as is currently the case. This is more than double the international average for female parliamentary representation. The problem is not so much where women are placed on the list, but that not enough stand to be a candidate. I may touch on this at some later stage.

As for the top 24, it would be very foolish to assume that the top 24 are automatically the Ministerial pool.

Though only one Maori, Georgina te Heuheu, ranks in the top 24, three more, Tau Henare, Hekia Parata and Paula Bennett, are in positions for an almost certain return to Parliament and two others, Rugby Union director Paul Quinn and Tauranga prosecutor Simon Bridges, will make it if National wins 60 seats. Six of 60 would be an advance on the present three of 48.

It is possible that after the election National will have more Maori MPs than Labour.

National has released its party list for the 2008 election.

Now the nominal list by itself is only a partial picture. One has to look at the “Effective List” to work out who may come in when. The Effective List is the likely List MPs, after taking account of those who will win their electorate seats.

Now let us assume the 29 candidates who already are Electorate MPs will retain their seats. Let us also assume Amy Adams will win Selwyn (replaces Rakaia which is ultra safe National) and Simon Bridges will win Selwyn Tauranga (based on Colmar Brunton poll).

Which other candidates may win their seats? Well there are no public polls in those seats, but I did calculate an electoral pendulum back in May which calculates what seats would fall on a standard swing. The swing never is standard of course, so these are not predictions – just an assumption on the best public data there is. The One News Colmar Brunton is the only poll which asks how people will vote on the electorate vote, and in July it had a gap between National and Labour of 15%. Now on the electoral pendulum this would see the following seats picked up:

1. Taupo (Louise Upston)
2. Rotorua (Todd McClay)
3. Otaki (Nathan Guy)
4. Hamilton West (Tim Macindoe)
5. West Coast-Tasman (Chris Auchinvole)
6. Palmerston North (Malcolm Plimmer)
7. Auckland Central (Nikki Kaye)
8. New Plymouth (Jonathan Young)

So assuming National wins 39 electorate seats, you then ask how many seats National would win overall based on its party vote. Now we do not know what vote National will get, but let us go off the date and time weighted average of recent polls at curiablog which has National at 50.9%. One also then needs to work out what National’s share of the effective vote is, eliminating the parties that fail to qualify for representation. At present the minnows get 1.1% and NZ First 4.4% which means 5.5% is wasted. National’s effective vote is 50.9%/(100% – 5.5%) = 53.9%. This would get National 64 MPs in total and on the assumptions above 39 electorate MPs, and 25 list MPs.

Now NZ First is close to 5% and if they make it, that will have an effect, so in the table below I’ll do two columns. The first showing what percentage of the party vote is needed for a candidate to come in off the list if NZ First do not make it (and wasted vote is 5.5%) and if NZ First do make it (and wasted vote is say 1% as it was in 2005).

Now once again this is not a prediction. This is a scenario based on publicly available polls. I am not saying National will win 65 seats, nor am I predicting what electorate National will win. I am reflecting the current public poll data.

Now let us look at some of the individual winners, before we look at the overall possible Caucus.

Caucus are all in the top 50, which will be pleasing to them. Unless National drops below 43% (if NZ First do not make it) or 45% (if NZ First do make it), all MPs will be returned.

Of the 2005 intake, the top ranked are Chris Finlayson and Tim Groser who are ranked 14 and 15, which is no 2 and no 3 on the effective list. Next is Tau Henare at 26 (7), Jonathan Coleman  29 and Kate Wilkinson at 30 (8).

Of the new candidates, Steven Joyce is in a league of his own at no 16 (4). Then four new candidates are placed in the 30s, above some MPs and guaranteed of entry so long as National polls as well as last time. They are Sam Lotu-Iiga, Hekia Parata, Melissa Lee and Kanwal JS Bakshi.

After the top 50, you have seven mainly relatively young candidates in Simon Bridges, Amy Adams, Louise Upston, Todd McClay, Tim Macindoe, Aaron Gilmore and Nikki Kaye. On the standaed pendulum, most of them will win their seats and not need the list place.

After them making up the 50s is Cam Calder, Conway Powell and Stephen Franks, all in winnable places. In fact few positions are not winnable on current polls (which is why six extra list only candidates were added onto the bottom of the list as an insurance policy in case National got more than 67 MPs. The Fairfax poll yesterday would have it receive 70 MPs. Roy Morgan however would have only 58 MPs.

So what does the next National caucus look like? Well on the current public polls average, it would be a caucus of 65 with:

• 17 female MPs (26%)
• 13 MPs under 40 (20%)
• 7 Maori MPs (11%)
• 1 Pacific MP
• 3 Asian MPs

What if things tighten up? What would it be if NZ First do make it, and National gets say 47%? That would be a caucus of 57 with:

• 17 female MPs (29%)
• 11 MPs under 40 (19%)
• 6 Maori MPs (10%)
• 1 Pacific MP
• 3 Asian MPs

Under either scenario it will be a relatively diverse caucus, with a lot of new talent coming through.

Colin James touches on some of National’s new candidates in his column yesterday:

… the parliamentary party’s future looks brighter now than for a very long time. That is not because National is streets ahead in the polls and odds-on to lead the next government. It is because there is an impressive crop of late-20s to early-40s new candidates: Nikki Kaye, 28, in Auckland Central, part-Maori Simon Bridges, 31, in Tauranga, Amy Adams in Selwyn, Sam Lotu-Iiga of Maungakiekie and Louise Upston in Taupo, all 37, Todd McClay, 39, in Rotorua, and Michael Woodhouse in Dunedin North and Melissa Lee, both 42, on the list.

Most of these hold multi-degrees, some with first-class honours, and have useful life experience. In intellectual potential they look more like a Labour intake than a traditional National one. Add Harvard- and Oxford-alumna Hekia Parata, 49, and media mogul and campaign chair Steven Joyce, 45.

The class of 2008 looks to be indeed a good one. I just hope as many of them make it in as possible.

So when National ranks its list on Saturday it has rich pickings. A Prime Minister Key reshuffling cabinets would have quality replacements for old lags he could not avoid initially appointing.

Indeed. If National wins in 2008, I would not expect initial Ministers to serve a full nine years (if re-elected). Rejuvenation is key and I would not be surprised if by 2011 the majority of Cabinet is taken from the classes of 2005 and 2008.

The message to Labour when it does its list on August 30 is that to stay competitive it will not be able to afford passengers. That is a crunch test for Clark.

Labour have a real challenge. Will they protect incumbent MPs as they usually do, or put enough new blood higher up the list, so that they will come in even if they get a poor result.

Sent in by a reader. Would make a great billboard in real life!

National has announced two of its list only candidates. They are Steven Joyce and Melissa Lee.

Steven will be a very popular choice – he played a key role in the 2005 campaign which lifted National’s vote by 18% or so, and is an incredibly capable and talented individual.  He is also the Chair of the 2008 Campaign Committee so this gives him an incentive to get a really good result!

Melissa Lee is a member of the APN Board of Directors. And no before the conspiracy theorists get excited, that is not APN Media but the Asia-Pacific Producers Network.  Ms Lee is the host of Asia Downunder and has 20 years of broadcastign and journalism experience.

Steven also has a background with broadcasting – In the late 80s he co-founded and then became CEO of what is now Radioworks NZ Limited, building it up over 14 years to a sharemarket capitalization in excess of $100 million.

The only seat I don’t have a candidate for is Waikato – for Labour. I’m sure there is one. Can someone helpful let me know who it is.

Tracking down candidates is not that easy. National now have them all on their website, but Labour don’t list any candidates who are not MPs (they can’t as their site is taxpayer funded).

ACT list only eight candidates at this stage. I’ve actually met them all!

The Maori Party do not seem to list candidates at all, like Labour. And the NZ First candidates are even more secret than their donations.

United Future have the most helpful list so far. They have 22 candidates to date.

The Greens have a list of candidates, but ordered by list ranking, not electorate. 48 selected to date.

The Progressive Party has only one candidate

The Greens have released their party list. No Right Turn has it, along with changes from 2005.

What I thought I would cover is how it varies from the list the hierarchy drew up, and sent to the members. Not a lot of changes (ie most people ranked them in the order supplied) but a few:

1. David Clendon up from 11 to 10 (+1)
2. Gareth Hughes down from 10 to 11 (-1)
3. Mikarere Curtis down from 13 to 16 (-3)
4. Quentin Duthie from from 14 to 15 (-1)
5. Rick Leckinger down from 15 to 17 (-2)
6. Mojo Mathers up from 16 to 13 (+3)
7. Jon Carapiet dropped out (was 17)
8. Donna Wynd down from 18 to 20 (-2)
9. Jeanette Elley up from 19 to 18 (+1)
10. Richard Green dropped out (was 20)
11. Virginia Horrocks up from 21 to 19
12. James Redwood down from 22 to 23 (-1)
13. David Hay up from 23 to 21 (+2)
14. Diana Mellor up from 25 to 22 (+3)
15. Jan McGlachlan up from 26 to 25 (+1)
16. Mike Ward up from 27 to 14 (+13)

Mike Ward is the one who has changed most. Obviously the party members think a lot more of him than the hierarchy do. It will be interesting if will will roll over and allow Russel Norman to leapfrog him to become an MP in a few weeks.

On current polling the Greens would get seven MPs. Some months up to nine. So the likely Caucus at this stage is:

1. Jeanette Fitzsimons
2. Russel Norman
3. Sue Bradford
4. Metira Turei
5. Sue Kedgley
6. Keith Locke
7. Kevin Hague
8. Catherine Delahunty (possible)
9. Kennedy Graham (possible)

The National selection fro Selwyn has been under since around 3.30 p.m. with five candidates competing. The seat is about as safe National as one can get, so who-ever is selected will be an MP for a reasonably long time.

So far there have been three ballots, and it is down to the final ballot between Amy Adams and Alex McKinnon. This is pretty much a win-win as both of them are exceptional candidates, and someone at the meeting described one of their speeches as “Prime Ministerial” and the other as “Outstanding”.

I’ll update with the final result when known. There are several hundred voting delegates so it can take a while to count the votes.

UPDATE: Amy Adams won on the fourth and final ballot. Huge congratulations to Amy and commiserations to all the others – great to have such a good contest with so many good candidates. The big winner is actually the residents of Selwyn who are going to get a superb MP.

Amy is a bit of a super-woman. She is in her 30s and manages to be a mum to two kids, a lawyer, a lobbyist for the NZ Health Trust, helps with the farm, chairs the local school board of trustees, is a director of various companies and oh yeah is training for triathlons.

It has been great to see so many good people being selected as candidates.

To help with the list ranking for the Green Party, all candidates are required to sit a test to see how good they are at spinning for the Greens. A helpful person has provided to me the “exercises” they were asked to do, and best of all the responses from all 42 candidates.

The exercises were commenting on the A1 vs A2 milk issue, and commenting on Auckland City Council’s draft annual plan. Interesting that they ask national politicians to interfere and comment on a local body’s plans.

So here are some of the responses:

Craig Carson:

One method to reduce the cost of water is to reduce consumption. There needs to be a system that ensures everyone has access to minimum requirements and charges rise as use rises.

Water Meters for everyone. An idea I support.

Kevin Hague though disagrees with water charges:

New Zealanders access to security of fresh , clean drinking water is a fundamental right, and it’s outrageous that ordinary kiwis are charged at all for this necessity of life. What’s next – a price for air?

And on the milk issue

Mikaere Curtis: 

Scientists reviewing studies made have concluded that milk containing the A1 protein could be linked to type 1 diabetes and heart disease.

Wow that is dangerous territory to talk about scientists “have concluded” and to talk about a link (causative) rather than just possible correlation.

But that is mild compared to Virginia Horrocks:

It would be relatively easy to change the whole NZ herd to A2 within 10 years so why not go ahead now. Like the tobacco industry and the lead industry before them, the milk industry is risking NZs health for profits

Yes the “milk” industry is just like the tobacco industry.

Keith Locke joins the label them killers meme:

“We can’t have people die of heart attacks and diabetes just because the government won’t give a few million dollars to research A1 milk”.

Now I could carry on, but that is enough for today. Tomorrow we’ll do some more quotes. And once I get bored, I’ll post the pdf of all the 42 answers.

National has announced a further four candidates, bringing them close to the end of their selections with 61 out of 63 electorate candidates selected. Only Dunedin North and Selwyn remain. The candidates list has been updated.

Dr Jackie Blue has been re-selected in Mt Roskill. Jackie has been high profile for a new MP, especially on the Herceptin issue.

Mita Harris is standing in Mangere. Mita is a Programme Manager for Community Relations and Biodiversity Asset.

Cam(pbell) Calder standing in Manurewa is is a Doctor and Clinical Research Director, and a past President of the French New Zealand Business Council.

In Manukau East, Kanwal JS Bakshi is the candidate. He is a graduate of Delhi University, the Secretary of the Auckland Sikh Society and Vice Chair of the Indian Trade Group and Hindu Heritage Management.

The selections are not quite complete, as there are up to five list only candidates to be nominated plus the two outstanding seats. However it is interesting that it is already one of the ethnically diverse slates of candidates with six Maori candidates, a PI candidate, a Chinese candidate and two Indian candidates. National isn’t into quotas at all, but does have an awareness that it is desirable for its candidates to represent the diversity that makes up NZ. Heh in some parties diversity probably means you have been a member of both the EPMU and the SWFU

I’ll wait until all candidates are confirmed before doing a full demographic breakdown. The occupational breakdowns are often interesting too – how many from business, how many farming, how many doctors, teachers, community sector employees etc.

The Herald reports that to help counter the under-representation of unionists in Labour’s caucus, CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont will be the likely Labour candidate for Maungakiekie.

They also mention that Jacinda Ardern and Raymond Huo are expected to get good list rankings. Ardern is London-based.

At some stage I will set up a list of list-only candidates for parties also, to complement the list of the major electorate candidates.

Congratulations to Paul Quinn, who has won the Hutt South nomination for National.

Paul will be a strong contender (but amongst many) for the List also.

Paul is an experienced company director and principal of his own strategic planning and commercial advisory services company.

He is most well known probably as a former Captain of the NZ Maori and Wellington rugby teams. Paul is also a current board member of the NZ Rugby Football Union.

Delighted to report that Sam Lotu-liga has won on the first ballot the Maungakiekie nomination for National. With Mark Gosche retiring as Electorate MP, Sam has an enhanced chance to win the seat.

Sam has an MBA from Cambridge, is a very personable guy, and has a great future ahead of him.

Also congrats to Ravi Musuku who has recently been selected for National in Mt Albert. National only has selections left in Dunedin North, Hutt South, Mangere, Manukau East, Manurewa, Mt Roskill and of course Selwyn.

I am missing candidate information for Labour for Clutha-Southland, Tamaki and Waikato. Have they been selected yet? The candidates list has been updated.

Finally National also announced today their new General Manager is Mark Oldershaw. Mark is currently CEO of the Hotel Council of NZ and a former General Manager of World of Wearable Art Ltd.

National has had to postpone its Selwyn selection, due the granting this afternoon of an injunction to Roger Payne.

Payne failed to gain an injunction last week, but filed further reasons, and Justice Panckhurst has reversed his earlier decision, and granted an injunction.

The injunction can be viewed here as a PDF.

I have had a read through it, and some key aspects:

• No decision has been made on the merits of the case
• The criteria for an injunction is firstly merely whether there is a serious question to be tried, and Justice Panckhurst has said he now accepts there is a question due to reference to Section 71 of the Electoral Act.
•  It then comes down to the balance of convenience, and this is really why the injunction was granted. If it was not granted, Payne would have permanently lost his chance to gain selection as a candidate. By comparison, National is inconvenienced (especially the accepted nominees and the delegates) but not permanently disadvantaged.

A substantive hearing will have to be arranged. This should be a matter of just weeks, not months. But until there is a substantive decision, the selection meeting scheduled for next week can not be held.

It is unfortunate for National, that it happened in Selwyn where there had already been issues around process. But this could have happened in any seat at all, where someone rejected decides to take legal action.

I’ll briefly touch on the substance of the case.  I’ll reinforce that again no decision has been made on the substance, so any conclusions about the eventual outcome are premature. The key aspect is Section 71 of the Electoral Act 1993:

Requirement for registered parties to follow democratic procedures in candidate selection

Every political party that is for the time being registered under this Part of this Act shall ensure that provision is made for participation in the selection of candidates representing the party for election as members of Parliament by—
(a) Current financial members of the party who are or would be entitled to vote for those candidates at any election; or
(b) Delegates who have (whether directly or indirectly) in turn been elected or otherwise selected by current financial members of the party; or
(c) A combination of the persons or classes of persons referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

 Now the National Party Rule 94(b) says:

The Board shall consider the material submitted and shall have an unfettered discretion to approve or disapprove a nomination received. The Board may undertake an investigation on its own behalf of any candidate but shall not be bound to interview a candidate it rejects or assign any reason for rejection.

Now this rule has been there in various forms for some decades.  It is very very rarely used, and I indicated in my previous blog post what I thought was suitable reasons for its use – the fact Mr Payne had previously failed to abide by the obligations he entered into, when seeking the candidacy in 1999.

Now in terms of  s71, the requirement is only for local members and delegates to participate in the selection. It does not state they are the only people to be involved. As it happens National has extensive involvement, as the *only* people who select the candidate are local members and delegates *once* they have cleared the hurdle of board approval and pre-selection.

The substantive case will be very interesting, and no doubt observed eagerly by all political parties, as I think every significant party has a similar power for its central board.

But that substantive case is a week or so away.  All that has been decided so far is that there is a serious question to be answered, and that as Payne would be permanently disadvantaged without the injunction, and National only temporarily disadvantaged, the injunction is granted.

The list of major 2008 candidates has been updated, and it now includes hyperlinks to a website or blog for the candidate. Thanks to Carl H for his help in converting my excel file to some neat HTML.

If you have the names of any missing candidates, please let me know. And if a candidate has a website I am not linked to, send that through.

National has two more candidates. Hekia Parata was selected a couple of days ago as National’s candidate for Mana. And I was at the selection meeting last night for Rimutaka where Richard Whiteside won a three way battle. Richard is one of those rare creatures in politics – a small business owner. Amongst his various endeavours, he owned for around a decade what is now called the Speights Ale House on Tinakori Road in Thorndon.  Richard has firsthand experience of what it means to invest your own money into a business, and the environment needed for small businesses to succeed. He’s also been involved with local environmental issues – specifically the toxic sludge from the Hutt based Exide factory.

National has also announced the names of the five candidates seeking the nomination for what should be the very safe Selwyn seat.  They are:

• Amy Adams
• Alex McKinnon
• Dugald McLean
• Todd Nicholls
•  John Stringer

I know, or have met, four of the five candidates over the years.  It will be a hard fought contest, and I suspect it will go to all four ballots on the night.

I blogged previously on how gruelling the National Party selection process can be with 60 delegates to meet and impress. Well Rakaia is even worse for the candidates. Not only does it stretch out over a couple of hundred kms, but they have sought and been given permission to have universal suffrage for the selection meeting. That means that instead of 60+ delegates voting, over 700 local members (who have been members for at least six months) can and generally will vote.  So I predict a lot of travel over the next couple of weeks as the candidates get around Canterbury.

National also selected its Rotorua candidate last night.  Rotorua is marginally a National majority on the new boundaries, so it was vigorously contested by five candidates.

The evening stretched out to the maximum four ballots, and Todd McClay won in the final round against Don Hammond.

Todd has had a fascinating career including many years as the Cook Islands Ambassador to the European Union. He is very respected for his advocacy work on behalf of many Pacific states. He also has a strong business background.

His father, Roger McClay, is a former MP for Taupo. Roger was (and is) a hugely likeable guy who said in his valedictory speech he was probably leaving without an enemy in Parliament – a rare feat. He later served as Children’s Commissioner.

As I have said previously Steve Chadwick will be no pushover, but I think Todd has a fine parliamentary career ahead of him.

Talking of selection meetings, there was a really good question asked at another candidates meeting I attended this week (not Wellington Central).  The candidates were asked “What question do you not want to be asked, and what would be your answer to it”.

That was a very cunning question.  I’m not sure what question I would least like to be asked if I ever sought a candidacy. Probably something about why I was one found underneath a hedge in Dunedin pretending to be a hedgehog!

National Party selections are in full swing, as they try to get them all finished by early to mid April. Last Thursday there was a Meet the Candidates Meeting upstairs in the Backbencher at 5.30 pm. I popped in seeing it was on my way home.

The three Wellington Central candidates are Paul Quinn, Stephen Franks and David Broome.  They all spoke and answered questions well.  Obviously only one of them can be candidate for Wellington Central,but I hope more than one of them can make their way into Parliament. It’s great to see all over the country so many good candidates stepping forward.

These meetings are not public, so I can’t go into details, but I can reveal that I asked a question stolen from Grant Robertson’s blog – which was to ask all the candidates to name a policy they think would be good for NZ, but which would be unpopular.

Most people probably don’t realise how gruelling a National Party selection contest can be.  So I thought I would use this post to explain.

First of all the selection meeting is made up of at least 60 delegates, based on a delegate  for every 15 members in the electorate, plus a top-up if that doesn’t make 60 by the local Region .  You have to have been a party member for at least six months to be a delegate.  The largest electorates can have around 150 delegates at the selection meeting. The Head Office gets no say at all except they can veto unsuitable candidates at the pre-selection stages.

Now once nominations close, candidates get told who the delegates are. Because it is a defined group of people (unlike Labour where any member or affiliated union member can turn up on the night), there is intensive lobbying.

In a serious contest, each candidate will have one on one meetings with all 60+ delegates – lasting about an hour each. On top of that there may be half a dozen “cottage meetings” where a dozen or so delegates are invited to hear a candidate talk and ask questions informally.

Then you have the three formal Meet The Candidates meetings. All delegates must attend at least one of these, and  they consist of 6 – 8 minute speeches from each candidate (with them all staying in the room for each other’s) and then questions from the floor which can be to one or all of the candidates. This can go on for some hours, and you can get some aggressive or tough questions.

Then you have the selection night, where each candidate has a ten minute speech, and then they have to answer two questions – one from the Leader and one from the President.  The same questions go to all candidates, so they don’t stay in the room for each other’s speeches. Then you finally have the vote.

So a candidate for the nomination may end up doing 60+ one on one meetings, half a dozen cottage meetings, three meet the candidate meetings plus the actual selection meeting.  It is no small commitment.

I’ve done another update of the 2008 candidates page. Thanks to those in both Labour and National who have sent through additions and corrections. At present it is an image of an excel sheet but I have 95% worked out how to convert it to HTML so have started hyperlinking candidates to their websites. The hyperlinks won’t work while it is just am image, but will eventually so feel free to e-mail me any candidate websites.

The latest addition the list is National’s Auckland Central candidate, Nikki Kaye. Nikki is one of my closest friends and an amazingly hard worker so I’m thrilled for her. She won a very tough selection battle tonight, which went all the way to a final third ballot.