Our MP candidates … what do they stand for?

Do I want to know? Why or how does it matter?

But before addressing our HB candidates, let me be clear, how you cast your party vote absolutely matters.

One major party is intent on slamming on the brakes in so many areas, if not lurching backward, dusting off policies already shown to fail, selling the ‘trickle down’ that never trickles down. Baited by cave-dwellers further to the right.

The other party timidly avoids eye-to-eye contact, seemingly afraid of its own core values and the policies those should animate. With its would-be partner facing the lonely prospect of trying to keep warm embers burning ‘til the next cycle.

All riding a tide of disillusionment and disappointment, with voters more focused on blame than root causes, or plain exhaustion of spirit rather than rousing aspiration.

Nothing this column says will change your judgment about all of that!

But meantime, we also get to vote for the individuals who will actually represent our region as MPs.

Wouldn’t we like to know what they really stand for, their core values, the commitment to our community they have previously demonstrated? 

Unfortunately, it’s hard in most cases to penetrate the ‘party’ armour in which they are clad.

Why should candidates Catherine Wedd and Katie Nimon reveal themselves when they’ve already been anointed into Parliament – win or lose their electorate votes – by their party’s inner sanctum? An entitlement further confirmed in Wedd’s case by her presenting a Youth Parliament certificate at a candidate’s meeting as evidence that she was pre-ordained for elective office … no election required.

Ask either Wedd or Nimon any policy question, and you’ll get the well-rehearsed party talking point on the subject. If not immediately, a day or two later after they’ve checked the briefing book from party HQ. There’s no point in attempting to probe any further.

It’s unfortunate that we don’t get to know what they might actually fight for (or against) in their party caucus, or where they think their party might have it wrong. Or which interest in HB might have to be advanced over another.

With Anna Lorck, you also get a deference to the party line, but we’ve had years to see her in action, and it’s clear she’s not shy about speaking her mind or declaring clear priorities. As she said at a recent candidates’ forum, if she accomplished – and were to be judged by – only one thing if re-elected another term, it would be getting a $1 billion hospital for HB. Her commitment to that is palpable and believable. She gives you a reason to consider voting for her, irrespective of the party label.

And there’s no sense of entitlement in her case. She’s worked her butt off both to get elected in the first place and to outspokenly champion the interests of HB, taking her lumps along the way in full public view.

Definitely not a party Stepford wife!

Her Labour compatriot in Napier, Mark Hutchinson is also unusual in that he too actually has and expresses views. Are they aligned with his party’s line? Sure. But there’s ample evidence that he’s thought about the issues and can speak insightfully about Napier’s needs on that basis, and not from a script.

BayBuzz recently received a release from Hutchinson describing his “six pledge priorities”. At the top of the list was securing fit-for-purpose 24/7 medical centre in Napier. The list included looking into a biofuel plant for Hawke’s Bay, pressing Air NZ on more affordable regional airfares, and more. These are not talking points from the party briefing book, they represent applying his personal values to his perceptions of Napier’s needs. Indeed he has the temerity to support a capital gains tax. Take that Chris Hipkins!

I asked Katie Nimon if she would supply something like that – her six pledges – for comparison. No reply. Maybe her mail is late in arriving from Wellington.

If only because I believe we should not vote for robots, you might infer my leanings when it comes to these four individual candidates.

But actually I’m greedy. I want all four in Parliament, in the possibly delusional hope that four voices in Wellington championing the needs and aspirations of Hawke’s Bay are better than two. 

And since Wedd and Nimon have already been anointed to Parliament courtesy of their high National Party list positions, why not vote Lorck and Hutchinson in as well?

Voters of Hawke’s Bay, I say, get greedy!