The Green Party's co-leaders spent time in Wellington in the final days of the campaign, seeking to boost two electorate candidates in key seats
While Chris Hipkins is in South Auckland and Christopher Luxon is campaigning in Rotorua on Friday, the last day of the election campaign, Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw have turned their attention to Wellington.
On Friday morning, the pair visited the Island Bay Marine Education Centre alongside a local school.
"Critical issues like ocean protection have been largely ignored by other parties, so here we are again reminding everyone that we have everything we need to create the kind of Aotearoa our kids deserve," Shaw said.
Ocean protection would be a bottom line in any coalition negotiations.
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The visit wasn't just about policy, however. Island Bay is part of the Rongotai electorate, where the Green MP is running what's widely considered an underdog campaign to flip the Labour stronghold. Incumbent Paul Eagle is stepping down after his failed mayoral bid and former city councillor Fleur Fitzsimons has picked up the red rosette to vie for the seat.
In the Greens' favour, the party received its second-highest party vote total in the Rongotai seat last election. Though commentators were doubtful about the merits of Julie Anne Genter's bid when it was first announced, the Green ground game here has been strong as well.
Rongotai was also the focus of two campaign stops by Shaw on Wednesday. On Thursday, both co-leaders participated in a campaign rally (featuring the comedian Karen O'Leary) and joined Green volunteers for phone-banking in central Wellington.
That's the heart of the other local seat the Greens are hoping to flip, Wellington Central. This is the electorate that beat out Rongotai for voters who gave their second tick to the Green Party in 2020.
It's also considered more winnable because it's something of a three-way race. Though votes for National candidate Nicola Willis plunged last election alongside that party's general support, she did get 25 percent of the candidate vote in 2017 and National's Paul Foster-Bell topped 30 percent in the two contests before that.
Popular incumbent Grant Robertson is also stepping down, handing the Labour baton to backbencher Ibrahim Omer.
Tamatha Paul, a 26-year-old Wellington City Councillor now in her second term, is running for the Greens in the seat. She isn't on the party list, meaning this is her only avenue into Parliament.
Wellington Central and Rongotai are seen as the Greens' best two hopes for pick-ups, though they are also running a two-tick campaign in Mt Albert in Auckland. Hence, the focus on Wellington from the Green co-leaders in the final days of the campaign. Both races could be close and the extra attention Shaw and Davidson have put into the electorates could well help tip the balance.
