Election campaign kicks off in Nelson with lively candidate debate
A lively debate kicking off the election campaign in Nelson tackled climate change, crime, and how to eat jelly babies. The Thursday evening event, hosted by the Public Service Association (PSA) union, saw union members fill the Suter Theatre. On stage, steeling themselves for a series of questions focussing on working conditions and other union matters, were Nelson Labour MP Rachel Boyack, National candidate Blair Cameron, ACT MP Chris Baillie, Te Pati Maori candidate for Te Tai Tonga Takuta Ferris and Green Party candidate Jace Hobbs. Facilitated by PSA organisers Kate Davis and Ian Hoffmann, the event opened with a call and response union chant. The candidates, with the exception of Baillie, joined in gamely. The first question was about climate change, and Hobbs and Boyack were in their comfort zones. However, Camerons response was drowned out by heckles about his partys transport plan . "You can't be green if you're in the red," Baillie began, before conceding that climate change is looming" Most candidates, mindful of their audience, hedged a question about whether they would keep or cut government jobs. The future is going to be very unpredictable," mused Hobbs. Baillie, however, was clear. Last weekend, ACT leader David Seymour had told a very different audience of his plans to slash thousands of government jobs. However, if people could prove their jobs were productive and necessary, an ACT government might consider keeping them, Baillie said. "How would they prove that? With an agility course?" Davis asked. Some questions afforded a glimpse into the person behind the would-be politician. Ferris likes beetroot on a lamb burger, Baillie eats jelly babies whole (not head first, like the others), and Boyacks mum plays the recorder. Hobbs, a comedian in his spare time, said his star sign was antelope. Name a woman you admire? Theres so many... Baillie mused, before settling on Kate Sheppard. Cameron, to groans, said Nicola Willis, and Boyack picked her mum. While the rest claimed to be working their way through tomes about climate change and politics, Cameron, with endearing honesty, admitted he'd not been able to get through Aravind Adigs The White Tiger, which hed started a few months ago. Baillie, with talk of youth military academies, the war on landlords, raising the superannuation age and cutting public jobs, drew the most heckles. To a question about fair pay agreements, Baillie pondered why there was such a "mistrust of employers" in New Zealand. "You just said you would cut thousands of jobs," Davis pointed out. The event grew heated as it neared its conclusion, with Cameron and Boyack clashing over public spending and gang statistics. Leaning into the debate, Cameron grew animated, leaping out of his chair and gesticulating at the audience, while Boyack, with a fixed smile, shook her head. An audience member asked how candidates would tackle divisive figures like Julian Batchelor, whose anti co-governance tour included a stop at The Honest Lawyer , a venue owned by Baillie. "We are convicted with, is that the right word? With free speech, Baillie said. Ferris retorted that a defence of free speech in regard to Batchelors rhetoric was pretty flimsy. Julian Batchelor is playing on the fears and ignorance of a particular generation, he said. A man from the audience asked Ferris if he could come to his marae and say whatever he wanted. At Batchelors meetings, he says something, you say nothing, Ferris told him. If you come to my marae, I say something, you say something back.