The race is on in Wellington Central for the National Party candidate selection where a well-known pub owner will battle it out against a human rights expert on Sunday
National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis has contested Wellington Central at the last two elections but, like her Green Party and Labour counterparts, has bowed out this time around, leaving the door open for new candidates.
Willis won the nomination for neighbouring electorate, Ōhāriu, while Green Party co-leader James Shaw and Finance Minister and Wellington Central incumbent MP Grant Robertson have both decided to go list-only.
READ MORE: * MP's emails show pattern of personal attacks on ministry * James Shaw opts against Wellington Central run
It’s left the capital's central seat with no incumbent or repeat challengers at October’s election.
Labour has picked backbench MP Ibrahim Omer while the Greens have selected current Wellington councillor Tamatha Paul.
National’s candidate will be finalised on Sunday and the two nominations that have made it through the pre-selection process are Backbencher publican Alastair Boyce and international law and human rights expert, Scott Sheeran.
Boyce became a regular face of business owners during the three-week occupation of Parliament.
His pub was severely impacted and forced to temporarily shut its doors due to Molesworth Street being completely blocked off by the protesters.
He’s a regular commentator on The Platform, broadcaster Sean Plunket’s online radio venture, and has penned columns highly critical of the Government and its “racially divided” systems.
“Indigenous elites can increasingly demand influence and potentially equity before any progressive economic or environmental change can occur,” Boyce wrote in his Breaking Views column in January.
In a change from the leadership of John Key, Bill English and Simon Bridges, Christopher Luxon has made the call to run candidates in two of the seven Māori seats.
In striking contrast, Sheeran spent several years in the New Zealand Foreign Service, including two postings to the United Nations in New York.
He has extensive experience in public law, diplomacy, human rights, and the military.
Sheeran was previously a senior legal adviser to the New Zealand Defence Force and its legal counsel in the Operation Burnham Inquiry looking into the joint military operation undertaken by NZSAS troops in Afghanistan.
Once Wellington Central is confirmed on Sunday the next electorate on National’s selection list is Taranaki-King Country, which will be decided on Thursday.
National’s sitting MP in the seat, Barbara Kuriger, is being challenged for selection by Waikato secondary school teacher Brian Winter.
There had been speculation Kuriger might step down at the election after Luxon stripped her of her portfolios late last year and said she wouldn’t be minister of agriculture in his Cabinet after a serious conflict of interest was revealed.
Kuriger’s son pled guilty in 2020 to animal cruelty charges that resulted in 23 dairy cows being euthanised.
Emails released to Newsroom in December revealed a pattern of personal attacks on Ministry for Primary Industries’ officials by Kuriger, which she didn’t register as a conflict of interest or deem inappropriate despite her holding the shadow agriculture spokesperson role.
The National Party has decided the serious lapse of judgment isn’t enough to disqualify her during the pre-selection process and next week she will go head-to-head with Winter.
In a change from the leadership of John Key, Bill English and Simon Bridges, Christopher Luxon has made the call to run candidates in two of the seven Māori seats.
Tāmaki Makaurau is about to open for National Party nominations and Te Tai Hauāuru is going through pre-selection processes after nominations closed on Wednesday.
National MP Harete Hipango, who lost the Whanganui seat to Labour at the 2020 election, announced last month she won’t be contesting the general seat and will instead put herself forward for selection in Te Tai Hauāuru.
It’s unclear who else plans to contest it for National. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Labour MP Soraya Peke-Mason have already been nominated.
In Tāmaki Makaurau, nominations have been announced for most parties with incumbent and ACC Minister Peeni Henare selected by Labour and Takutai Moana Kemp for Te Pāti Māori.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson ran in the seat at the last election, but has announced she will go list-only this year and Darleen Tana Hoff-Nielsen will instead contest the electorate.
There are two other general seats still up for grabs for National, but no firm date set for selections.
Bay of Plenty is going through a new candidate process after Todd Muller was picked to contest the safe National seat again in November but last month announced he had decided to retire at the election.
A National Party spokesperson told Newsroom the process would be a “truncated” one due to be completed by mid-May - applications opened in Bay of Plenty on Thursday.
Labour is in the same boat having to reopen nominations for Napier after former minister Stuart Nash was sacked from the executive and decided he wouldn’t contest the seat at the election.
The only other seat left for National to finalise selection in is Christchurch East, considered to be a safe Labour seat, held currently by Poto Williams who is retiring at the election.
Chair of the People’s Choice in Christchurch, Reuben Davidson, won the Labour nomination last month.
