'Gloves off' for List MP against Electorate MP

Around the Beehive, around Blenheim, even on flights in between, Jamie Arbuckle and Stuart Smith have a positive relationship conducive to allying in Parliament.

Each is a Whip – Jamie for NZ First, Stuart for National – responsible for keeping his partymates moving in the same direction. They meet in this capacity as well as in the standard member arenas. Their parties’ coalition composes Government.

Through 7 November, though, competition will overlay cordiality. Stuart, the Kaikoura Electorate incumbent, and Jamie, a List MP, will face off in a race which also includes Matt Flight for Labour and Tom Spooner for ACT.

Vying for votes, it’s “gloves off”, Jamie said Monday morning at Raupo during the first in a series of coffee talks. In 2023, Stuart won re-election and Jamie joined Parliament by virtue of his party’s polling and his place on the list.

“There was no need really in the last three years [to spar],” Jamie noted. “It’s better to work together than against each other. But now we’re in a campaign; I’d like the seat, and he’d obviously like to retail the seat.

“It will be on policy,” he continued, “and we’ll see how voters decide on November the 7th.”

His standing
Jamie served as a Marlborough District Councillor from 2010 into his first year as MP. (His wife, Sally, is a current Wairau-Awatere Ward councillor.) After his party missed the mark for list MPs in the 2020 election, Jamie joined NZ First’s board and concentrated on a “blueprint” for candidates.

Thirty-five stood for NZ First in 2023. Jamie expects over 60 to stand in November; the list will come out in September.

Serving as a List MP as opposed to the Electorate MP, Jamie “didn’t want to step on his feet,” he explained, “but there were things I could get done for this electorate”. He cited as an example the Regional Infrastructure Fund allocations for Springlands Creek and Havelock Marina – RIF falls under ministerial authority including NZ First Deputy leader Shane Jones.

Jamie sees the Picton ferry project (under ministerial authority of Winston Peters, NZ First’s leader) as a key point of difference – bone of contention, even – with his fellow whip.

“All due respect to Stuart, but his views on Port Marlborough, on the movement to Clifford Bay, have been very miscalculated,” he stated. “Being in Government, he’s really read the room wrong.”

Gloves off, indeed.