It was also the location of the only election campaign debate set to occur between Prime Minister John Key, who holds the seat, and leader of the Mana Internet Party, Laila Harre.
People turned up over an hour before the advertised meet-the-candidates session and greeted each other as we waited for close to an hour outside the local Baptist Hall.
It had been chosen, we found out later, because it was the only place in town with a decent sound system.
By the time the doors were opened and we had all barged in to claim the best available vantage point, it was clear there were some very big expectations for the night.
Police, security guards, a special – and very large – media area, television cameras, and two advisers per candidate were all there. It was hard to find an actual local constituent although the gathering was supposed to be for their benefit.
Green party MP Kennedy Graham drew heavily on the wrongs of dairying both in his initial address then in answers to questions posed by the audience.
His party was all about making New Zealand’s 100% Pure brand not a deception, he said.
The Greens wanted to work towards a future where the country wasn’t dependant on the price of milk or land sales to foreigners.
Key hit back saying air quality was never better and his government had set higher water standards, rolled out better rural broadband access, and improved highways. These all had readied the economy for “tremendous growth”, he said.
Harre said change was possible if only voters, including those in rural communities, would reclaim politics. She drew on what she described as the “recent crash in dairy prices and raw log prices” to explain why that change was required.
There were a lot of local issues canvassed. The Waimauku roundabout a couple of kilometres down the road on the way to Helensville was mentioned more than a few times.
Police, security guards, a special – and very large – media area, television cameras, and two advisers per candidate were all there. It was hard to find an actual local constituent although the gathering was supposed to be for their benefit.
The focus was on employment, education, and health for Labour candidates Corie Haddock and Kelvin Davis, a virtual repetition of election promises made by leader David Cunliffe at that party’s campaign launch just the day before.
Cunliffe had urged voters to reclaim the vision of NZ as a “plucky little jewel in the South Pacific”, reliant on more than dairy prices and insurance cheques.
ACT candidate Phelan Pirrie zeroed in on the Resource Management Act, saying it needed to be completely rewritten.
Independent candidate and Auckland City councilor Penny Bright took aim at the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She also posed the question: “Why does all the growth have to come to Auckland?”
Haven’t farmers been thinking exactly the same thing for years?
But it was Te Tai Tokerau candidate Te Hira Paenga who really won the audience over with his admission he was “rubbing shoulders with the big guns here”.
Well before the scheduled 9.30pm conclusion the audience indicated they’d long-since had enough through their restlessness and suppressed booing.
There was what sounded like a noisy haka going on outside as Maori Party supporters gathered, and with the promise of chocolate brownies and tea or coffee, the debate drew to a close.
Politics had come to Kumeu and left just as rapidly. It was a reminder that while dairying carries on earning overseas income, election campaigns have to work hard within a very compressed time frame to gain credibility. And even then that might not be translated into votes.
