National's Ohariu Belmont Decision No Surprise, Says Dunne

United Future leader and Ohariu Belmont MP, Hon Peter Dunne, says the National Party's reported decision to contest the seat at the next election comes as no surprise.

Mr Dunne, who has held the seat since 1984, says he has never taken elections for granted, and will not be doing so next year either.

"Seats in Parliament have, thankfully, never been won through inheritance or Party gift.

"I have always believed that the only way to gain the confidence of the electorate is to work hard on their behalf throughout the full three year Parliamentary term."

"That has always been my approach, and will remain so," he says.

Mr Dunne says National's reported decision has more to do with reviving their flagging Party Vote support and offering some measure of comfort to their party hierachy in Ohariu Belmont.

"Opinion polling before the last General Election had a National candidate coming in a distant third with 15% of the vote."

"Labour polled at 20% and my share was 55%."

"As it turned out the actual vote for the Labour candiate and me was remarkably close to this poll."

"The voters in Ohariu Belmont have, obviously, worked out how to use both their two votes effectively to ensure they have the person they want to represent them, electorally, as well as voting for the Party that best suits their interests."

"National's long-expected decision will change nothing in that regard and will have little influence on the result," he says.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>