The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The dream run for Act is over.

For a party that has been as clean as a whistle in terms of candidates, it all came unstuck yesterday.

This past term saw an increase in numbers and as history shows, in parties like New Zealand First, the United Party, and to some degree the Greens, when you expand you run the risk of having a talent pool issue.

The star of that show is New Zealand first and the arrival of the Tight Five - Tau Henare, Tuku Morgan and all that particular cluster that eventually imploded.

It is a salutary lesson in expanding too fast, or not being prepared for an electoral result that is better than you anticipated.

This past term Act has seen the rise of people like Brooke van Velden, who stands, according to polling, a very real chance of a boil over against National in the Tamaki seat.

Nicole McKee has been a rising star. You need to be a bit of a parliamentary wonk and follow matters closely, but Chris Bailey, Simon Court and Karen Chhour have also performed well, just not with as high of a profile.

So far so good - until yesterday when the nutters got flushed.

One has gone a while back and sang some weird songs about Jacinda so let's discount him.

One quit because of past social media commentary around vaccines and Nazi camps and one asked a bunch of dumb questions around vaccines and drowning that he now says was a mistake.

Here is the mistake - not doing the due diligence on fruit loops.

For New Zealand First, the Kirsten Murfitt candidate from the Bay of Plenty, to a degree, is grist to the mill. She's representative of a party and a bloke so desperate for power he will hang out with anyone for a vote.

But, they are fringe. It's sad but it’s the sort of thing I am not surprised at, given the past three or four years of Covid and our response.

Act though, are mainstream. Act have been the rockstar party of the past term. David Seymour's unrelenting prosecution of his particular political ideology is admired, even by people who would never vote for him.

He has rightly earned real credibility and the polls have shown it.

No party has been more consistent in their polling and no party has grown their vote as well as Act. There is a reason for that - it isn't because they have the crazies for candidates.

Labour is spending a lot of time and energy now looking for dirt, because they don't have a record to stand on. What Rawiri Waititi did in the house is unforgivable.

But this is where this campaign, tragically, is going. The trick is to stay clean, be beyond reproach and be above the fray.

You don’t do that by selecting candidates who will haunt you.

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