Passions are high in a North Shore electorate where two candidates – each with priors – are battling it out for the seat
In the sleepy suburbs just north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, one of the most neck-and-neck political battles in the country is getting rowdy.
Vote share between the two main parties has woven back and forth in Northcote electorate since its formation in 1996.
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Excepting a predominant National party vote during the exceedingly close 2005 election – as Northcote goes, so does the country.
Perhaps that’s why the race between current sitting Labour MP Shanan Halbert and National’s Dan Bidois has picked up impassioned support from both sides.
A recent highly spirited debate at Beach Haven Hall showed how the battle between Halbert and Bidois has drawn lines across communities.
Like a church packed for a wedding, supporters bedecked in red and blue were right up the front, divided by the aisle, like groups showing up either for the bride or groom, while a sprinkling of support for Act, New Zealand First and VisionNZ found their places around the rest of the room.
The audience was as jovial as the attendees were ready to heckle. Event organisers were forced to call for silence frequently.
“I don’t want to be here all night, all right, and neither do you guys. So sit down there like the little sheep that we all are and come the 14th of October you can have your say then,” the association’s time-keeper Barry said. “Just sit there, shut up, and listen. I love you all, by the way.”
Both frontrunners faced call-outs from opposing sections of the audience, with people accusing Bidois of not supporting Northcote’s Awataha Marae and others scoffing as Halbert went through his track record of delivery over the past three years.
He said Beach Haven and Birkdale were communities of which he was proud but “certainly a community that has some challenges in front of it and has for a long time.”
“Standing at the podium,” one audience member muttered.
Halbert’s core team of volunteers was just as keen to climb into it, pushing back on a number of the assertions from Bidois and the other candidates – Act’s Leo Foley, New Zealand First’s Dr Michelle Warren, and Mark Donaldson from Vision NZ.
A zealous volunteer corps is not the only thing Halbert and Bidois share. Both have had a turn representing the electorate in Wellington, both are around 40, both are Māori. They could both represent a new guard for their parties – especially if they swing this seat.
But it’s not been a race without controversy. Halbert was just last week the subject of allegations via a Newshub story, where former staffers came forward and accused him of bullying.
Halbert told Newshub he has received no complaints from former staff. But Newshub’s chasing of the Halbert story was distracted by a “kerfuffle” between one of Halbert’s volunteers and Bidois campaign manager Alex Loaf outside the Beach Haven Bakehouse.
Although the story put the spotlight on the Northcote electorate this week, it wasn’t mentioned by either side during the debate, aside from a few under-the-breath mumbles from some revved-up National supporters.
Nevertheless, a story like that breaking just three weeks before election day cannot be good news for the Halbert campaign team.
Speaking to Bidois, he's optimistic about his chances, but careful not to sound overconfident.
“I’d say there is definitely a mood for change in Northcote, but we aren’t complacent,” he said.
When asked why the political discourse is so lively in this corner of the city, he said it was likely the byproduct of the seat’s marginal status.
“It’s a bellwether seat.” But that doesn’t mean there are a bunch of undecided voters following Bidois and Halbert around.
At the end of the meeting, a National supporter who had been gleefully vocal throughout ambled over to Halbert and shook his hand.
“No swing voters in that room!” he says with a grin.
Halbert said: “That’s one’s of my main Facebook trolls.”
The social feeds for both Halbert and Bidois are full of robust discussion from locals who feel strongly about the state of their community.
But passion on both sides is no new thing. One local resident said during a 2017 election debate hosted by the Beach Haven Birkdale Residents Association, water pistols were handed out to undecided voters – presumably to dampen lies or punish speakers going over time.
Not all of the in-crowd debate was sporting, however. At one point in the debate a Halbert volunteer left in a state of distress after a dispute with two Vision NZ supporters.
The two men had been sitting next to the Labour supporter and continually harassing them, according to nearby people. However, the Vision NZ team vociferously denied this.
Nevertheless it was an ugly scene.
A security guard had been called over to the area to keep an eye on things at some stage during the evening. Then at one point, the Labour supporter started calling out Dan Bidois, saying his ideas were “always in theory but not in practice.”
“Take your meds,” one man yelled at the Labour supporter, who had an angry sworn retort for that. It was the swearing that seemed to be deemed more scandalous, reading the crowd’s reaction, rather than the comments about whatever medication the Labour supporter may or may not be taking.
That retort saw the Labourite kicked out, which raised the ire of others in the crowd who said the Vision NZ supporters were at fault.
“I will take my meds, and if you vote Dan, I’ll never be able to take my meds again,” the supporter said as they left, referring to the National Party’s plan to axe free prescription fees.
Locals said this debate had been tame compared with some in previous years.
Halbert seemed unfazed when speaking afterwards, saying his campaign would highlight the local investment he had driven.
“I’m really confident that the people in this community know the resources that have come under our time in government, and particularly since I’ve been our local MP,” he said. “The advocacy I’ve had to apply to Wellington is when we’ve announced policies that actually were about the North Shore."
He said it was a “tight contest” between two candidates who had both served as MPs for the area.
It’s one-all in the years-long battle between Halbert and Bidois. And if the future of the Northcote electorate will be decided in a best of three, perhaps it all comes down to which dedicated support base has campaigned the hardest over these past few weeks.
