SARA HOLLYMAN and GORDON PREECE
The Top of the South turned blue during Election Day, with National Party candidates claiming all three electorate seats.
Stuart Smith retained the Kaikōura seat for his fifth term, winning by more than 8000 votes, while Blair Cameron unseated two-term MP Rachel Boyack in the Nelson electorate, which also covers Richmond and Hope.
Newcomer Katie Milne claimed the West Coast-Tasman seat, 6601 votes ahead of Labour candidate Rory Paterson.
The former Federate Farmers president, who is based on a dairy farm near Lake Brunner, succeeds the seat from National’s retiring MP Maureen Mugh.
However, Blair Cameron and Katie Milne won’t be the only ones representing the Nelson Tasman region, with Green Party MP Rohan O’Neill-Stevens and Opportunity’s Jodie Kuntzsch also making it through on party votes.
The final margin of victory for Blair was more than 1200 votes, but for much of the night it was just a few hundred, leading to tense scenes at both of the candidate events. Rachel formally conceded at around 10.30pm, ending her two terms as Nelson’s MP.
In passing the mantle, Rachel praised Blair’s commitment to the region, acknowledging the work he had put into two election campaigns and his involvement in the community between elections.
“You have done a great job as our MP for the last six years,” Blair, in turn, replied. “I have a huge amount of respect for you.”
Blair said he hoped to build on the work Rachel had undertaken in the electorate over the past six years.
“It looks like we’ll be three of us going to Parliament here in Nelson. So I think hopefully all three of us can build on all of the work that you’ve done over the last six years.”
“The result is the result and I accept it,” Rachel said, as the dust settled on Monday. “There will always be things you can look back on and say could have been done better, but my team and I threw everything at this campaign.
“It has been the privilege of my life to represent Nelson in Parliament, and I am deeply appreciative of the Nelson community for placing their trust in me over the past six years.”
Her message to Nelson’s new parliamentarians:
“We must fix our broken health system, sort out the transport mess in Richmond and continue to improve Nelson’s public transport system, and build more social housing for those without a decent place to call home.”
Third-placed West Coast-Tasman New Zealand First candidate, Jamie Cleine, has returned full-time to his emergency management role, with no campaign regrets and a pragmatic view of his result in the West Coast-Tasman race.
“That’s politics,” Jamie says.
With 4077 votes, Jamie is unlikely to enter Parliament once official results are released by the Electoral Commission on 27 November. However, he will remain on the party list, where he is ranked 14th.
“I thought I might have resonated more with the communities than that, but that’s how it goes,” he says. “It’s been a good outcome from the party vote point of view, which is one of the core things we try to achieve.
Jamie says Katie Milne would be “a very solid representative” for the giant electorate.
