Of course Phil Goff is running for Auckland Mayor – let’s turn now to the Mt Roskill by-election

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
18
7

Phil-Goff

TDB called it first last year, Phil Goff is running for Mayor of Auckland City. I spoke at a charity debate for City Vision last month where Phil Goff was the MC and it was fairly obvious that Goff was running then.

Len Brown will be convinced of standing down and Goff’s backing from the Left and the centre will mean he’ll win. No other Right wing candidate can match Goff’s red – Williamson is dogs tucker after his sexist and homophobic jokes, Banks is a sad old joke, Goff wins.

The real question next is who runs for Goff’s electorate of Mt Roskill once Goff stands aside. A by-election is now on the cards. The hands down favourite for the seat will be the very talented Michael Wood (who incidentally was participating in last months fundraising debate). Wood should get the nod and then it’s up to the Mandarins of the Left to see if they can convince NZ First and Greens not to run so it’s a two horse race between National and Labour. If the Greens run, it suggests splits on the Left and if NZ First run it suggests you can’t trust Winston. Labour will need to get both parties on side if they want to be certain of a victory. National will want to apply real pressure here as a safe Labour seat turning any shade of Blue would be a great win for the Government in the lead up to the 2017 election and further sap Labour Party morale.

It’s possible if National place a very strong candidate into the Mt Roskill By-election that they could cause an upset. Goff had 8091 majority but look at the Party vote. National gained 14 275 party votes to Labours weaker 12 086. It’s an electorate that certainly favoured National at the last election and that Goff gained a majority is directly down to the hard work and respect the voters of Mt Roskill have for him personally so Michael Wood can’t take anything at all for granted.

If the Greens and NZ First agree not to run, Mt Roskill will stay a safe Labour seat, but a split vote on the Left could give National a shot they would most certainly take.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

18 COMMENTS

    • @ Tuan Nguyen – I fear you might well be correct in your summation. Particularly after James Shaw’s latest move, doing a deal with FJK, to block a bill from Labour!

      So what do we have –

      Labour is full of lite blue neo libs.

      Winston can’t be trusted not to join with NatzKEY should the opportunity arise.

      And now it seems under Shaw’s leadership, the NZ Greens are not beyond prostituting themselves either.

      Who or what else is available to us of the left persuasion? Nothing much at all now it seems! A pretty scary thought!

    • What a load of baloney. I find people who spread their cynicism right across the political spectrum more depressing than National supporters. I catch a bus with a person who hates the government but when I asked if he would take part in an Anti-TPPA march that was happening in our town he said he thought it was pointless as it wouldn’t make any difference. Maybe it wouldn’t but he could have marched anyway, it was barely a few hundred metres from where he lives. It wasn’t asking a lot. So I thought that was pretty depressing.

    • I find people who spread their cynicism right across the political spectrum more depressing than National supporters. I catch a bus with a person who hates the government but when I asked if he would take part in an Anti-TPPA march that was happening in our town he said he thought it was pointless as it wouldn’t make any difference. Maybe it wouldn’t but he could have marched anyway, it was barely a few hundred metres from where he lives. It wasn’t asking a lot. So I thought that was pretty depressing.

    • There’s no possible way that the Greens can be “neoliberal” or “fascist” given their position on the political compass. You can surely argue that Labour are close enough to the economic right to be neoliberal, and you can surely argue that New Zealand First is socially conservative enough to be considered fascist, but you can’t make that claim about the Green Party.

  2. lets not get ahead of ourselves here;
    there are many unknowns–is Len definitely not standing? are Banksie and Palino def not standing?

    is there a left “Minto for Mayor” style candidate/ticket option pushing free public transport, living wage city etc?

    Goff has name recognition and with the usual puny turnout will likely win well, but he is also likely to be captured by the council bureaucrats, CCOs and business lobby like Len, but hopefully Phil would have some bottom lines

    as for Roskill it is now classic nu-rentier and nu-arrival territory, the aspirational ones that bought old state houses and now wait on their capital gain while enjoying accommodation supplements income from the taxpayer, highly likely to go for “Keysie”

    • Im for JohnCampbell and NZ Ist, Labour is not much different from National .
      The Greens are easily bought.
      The only ones we can trust to fight the government is Mana party.
      NZ ist with genuine candidates like John Campbell is our best bet,
      I don’t think he would let Peters get away with much.

  4. Good.
    If Mr student-loan-scam needs someone to pack his bags, I’m willing to help.
    On behalf of Gen X & Y…fuck off Phil

        • How depressing.

          The Right-wing go on about the Left creating “Nanny states” but taking away poor people’s ability to get a tertiary education while creating a dull television soap opera to brainwash said proles and petit bourgeoisie alike with incorrect propaganda about recreational drug use, all while seemingly promoting the use of alcohol and our binge drinking culture, is pretty “1984.”

    • Would you prefer to be paying interest on your student loans? So thank Phil Goff for that, if for nothing else. It is also true that not enough was done under Helen to keep State Houses in better repair, but they did build 2 billion dollars’ worth of new ones, also initially Phil’s area of responsibility. He was also central, way back, to the plan to scatter State Houses through suburbs like Remuera to avoid ghettoisation. Also a pretty far-sighted notion. I’m sorry, but some dumb BS shouldn’t be allowed to pass without comment. You will be lucky to have him as mayor.

      • OK then Nick Morris. We thank Phil Goff for introducing neoliberal education policies and then tinkering with them.

        Also, I’d like to thank the person who invaded my flat a few years ago…thanks for not burning it to the ground.

    • Did you not live around here under previous mayors , who all broke promises about max rates rises ?
      Naivety seems to spring eternal

Comments are closed.