As the election nears, Q+A will travel around the country to look at some of the most interesting electorate contests in this year's campaign. This week, reporter Whena Owen visits Tāmaki.
National's Simon O'Connor says being outspoken about his socially conservative views has "probably" held back his political career, amid new challengers to his electorate seat.
"It always comes down to what leaders want. But it probably has had an impact. But I went into Parliament to be me," the Tāmaki MP told Q+A.
O'Connor, who has been the electorate's MP since 2011, said people may disagree with his views on social issues or strong positions on China. But he added people respected him as an MP that spoke his mind.
O'Connor was trained as a priest. He voted against bills reforming same-sex marriage, abortion, and end of life choice in Parliament. In 2022, he took down a Facebook post welcoming the US Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Q+A's Whena Owen meets the candidates running in the hotly-contested Auckland electorate. (Source: 1News)
He's also part of Parliament's cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. The international group aims to create a coordinated response to China on trade, human rights, and security. In Parliament earlier this year, he launched a friendship group with Taiwan with Labour MP Ingrid Leary.
Tāmaki electorate's other contenders
It's led ACT's deputy leader Brooke van Velden to position herself as a socially liberal alternative to O'Connor in this year's election.
Before becoming an MP, she worked for lobbying Matthew Hooton and then as a staffer in ACT leader David Seymour's office. She was tasked with helping to build support for Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill.
Van Velden said people had been asking her to stand in the electorate for years.
"I want conservative and socially liberal people throughout Tāmaki to fell like they have a representative who believes they should have choice over how they live their lives."
She's got two months of street corner meetings ahead of her. In one Q+A attended, some asked her questions about te reo.
Van Velden said the language is "beautiful" and that its increased use should be welcomed.
She added, however, that the speed at which Government departments had taken up its use was quicker than what a lot of people understood. She believed this was causing "resentment" among some.
"I think firstly, we need to go back to having English first and then have Māori second," she said about street signs and Government department names.
Tāmaki has been continuously held by National since 1960, when Robert Muldoon won the seat. But ACT's own internal polling puts National and ACT neck-and-neck in the electorate: O'Connor is at 36%, while van Velden is at 34%.
Labour, meanwhile, is at 8%.
"Who knows. They might split the vote here… Labour could potentially come through the middle," the party's candidate Fesaitu Solomone said.
But that's unlikely, National's O'Connor said.
He said he could stand on his record, helping thousands of locals with everything from immigration cases to getting a stove in their Kāinga Ora home.
Q+A with Jack Tame is Public Interest Journalism funded by New Zealand On Air.
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