The battle for Tāmaki: how a ‘safe’ seat became a live contest

Sunday, 29 March 2026

It was a National stronghold for 60 years until ACT won it in 2023. But with Brooke van Velden out of the race, is the affluent Auckland seat now a battleground? Stewart Sowman-Lund spends a day on the campaign trail.

“I’m your new National Party candidate for Tāmaki,” says Mahesh Muralidhar, reaching out for a handshake.

“I’m knocking on doors and introducing myself. Can we count on your support?”

It’s a scorching hot Wednesday afternoon and Muralidhar, armed with a stack of pamphlets and accompanied by a “support crew” that includes his wife, is going door-to-door. It may be seven months from polling day, but every interaction counts.

On each doorstep, Muralidhar explains his background; he moved to New Zealand at 14 and in his adult life became a “successful entrepreneur”.

“Do you know what Canva is?” he often asks, slipping in that he was an early backer of what is now a multi-billion dollar online design business. Among the older residents he speaks with, this line does not appear to work.

The Sunday Star-Times spent a day with Muralidhar on the campaign trail just over a week ago, intending to profile the energetic National newcomer looking to unseat a senior ACT minister in a key Auckland battleground.

In a wide-ranging interview, the entrepreneur told the Star-Times he did not feel the eastern suburbs seat had been well looked after during Brooke van Velden’s time in office and believed voters wanted a National MP once again.

“I can see … people going: ‘Oh, it's a National Party guy who can hold two sentences together.”

Days after we spoke, news broke that Muralidhar would not be going up against van Velden after all, with the 33-year-old Internal Affairs minister deciding to leave politics at the coming election. On the same day, Labour announced its Tāmaki candidate would be local barrister Max Harris.

Harris is a higher profile name than expected for the party given it has not won this seat since 1957.

Political commentator Ben Thomas says Muralidhar had been “set up to fail” by the National Party when it expected van Velden to be running. But her departure opens a clearer pathway for Tāmaki to turn blue once again. ACT, however, won’t be going down without a fight. Insiders say the party is “100%” committed to retaining the seat, with their thoughts now turning to who will be picked as van Velden’s successor.

‘National Party heartland’

Muralidhar exudes a breezy confidence that many would aspire to.

A youthful 46, and with a smile he claims he has been told is a vote-winner, the self-proclaimed “successful entrepreneur” is returning for a second shot at politics.

In 2023, he came second behind incumbent Chlöe Swarbrick in the Auckland Central electorate, losing by about 4000 votes but well ahead of Labour’s candidate (a result so perplexing, in his mind, that there must have been a concerted plan by the two left-leaning candidates not to split the vote).

Since then, Muralidhar has moved to upmarket Mission Bay, inside the Tāmaki electorate, purchasing his first home with wife Praveena. He says he didn’t solely buy the house because he knew he’d be campaigning there, but admits it had crossed his mind.

National held Tāmaki comfortably for six decades, from Robert Muldoon through to Simon O’Connor. Then, in 2023, ACT swooped. It’s a blip, says Muralidhar, and he wants to correct the course. “At the end of the day, it's National Party heartland,” he says, speaking to the Star-Times in an Uber heading toward St Heliers, a wealthy suburb in the heart of the electorate.

Muralidhar was only selected as National’s Tāmaki candidate a little over a month ago, but is determined to hit the ground running and knock on as many doors as possible between now and November 7.

Name recognition will be key. ACT Party internal polling, seen by the Star-Times, had Muralidhar trailing in third position behind ACT and Labour. There are caveats to this polling, given it was carried out at the end of last year when van Velden was still on the ballot and neither National nor Labour had confirmed a candidate.

Nevertheless, ACT felt confident polling on Muralidhar as the rumoured National Party contender. The poll of 750 Tāmaki locals had van Velden on 50%, Labour’s 2023 candidate Fesaitu Solomone on 15% and Muralidhar on 13%.

Muralidhar “hasn’t really registered” within the electorate, an ACT insider says. “If we can get a strong candidate … which we're hoping to do by the end of April, and give them a good few months of campaigning, and build on the optimism that Brooke has already put in place, then we feel pretty confident.”

Neither National nor Labour have carried out any polling in the electorate to date, it’s understood.

Nevertheless, Muralidhar appears to have given little thought to not being the next Tāmaki MP.

There is “a proud history and mythology around the National Party in this electorate”, he says, which means many people will go ‘two ticks blue’ by default. “Like, you actually have to train otherwise.”

But that’s exactly what happened in 2023; National comfortably secured the party vote but O’Connor, the incumbent, lost the seat.

Muralidhar believes that has more to do with O’Connor than it did van Velden. “It was an anti-Simon thing,” he says, specifically the scrutiny O’Connor, who sat politically on National’s right flank, faced over a social media post celebrating the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States, the law that provided abortion rights.

O’Connor did not respond to a request for comment.

Putting all the eggs in one basket

Born in India, and spending his early childhood in Singapore, Muralidhar moved to New Zealand in the mid-1990s to attend Napier Boys’ High School. From there, he studied at Auckland University - a place he maintains a strong connection to. His big break came through his early involvement with Canva (he was employee 25), the now multibillion-dollar tech start-up born out of Australia.

He’s now “financially free”, he says. Or in other words: wealthy.

His Auckland Central loss in 2023 had, he claims, “no effect” on him. “Because I'm on a path and I didn't stop,” he says. “I don't have the privilege to allow for too much disappointment.”

It’s not so much that he doesn’t think he could lose again, but that he’s fully committed to winning. “I suffer from less lack of clarity than most. I'm fairly clear why I'm doing something, what I want to get out of it, what the journey is. So I'm willing to put all eggs in one basket.”

The announcement that Muralidhar would not be facing van Velden took both him and the party faithful by surprise; but while the National Tāmaki WhatsApp group was blowing up on Tuesday, Muralidhar says he tried to keep everyone calm.

A party-crafted PR was sent to the Star-Times in the hours that followed: “For me, the goal doesn’t change,” it said. “I am running a campaign focused on fixing the basics and building the future for all people in Tāmaki.”

Muralidhar has an ‘always on’ personality, at least in public. Privately, he considers himself a “bit introverted”, happy to be on his own with Netflix on the TV. On the flipside, he describes an event we have just travelled from, in which he spoke to aspiring young entrepreneurs at Auckland University, as “downtime”. It’s instantly evident how energised that left him.

“I could do that non-stop,” he reckons.

Where does ACT look next?

Tāmaki is one of the richest electorates in the country, taking in seaside Auckland suburbs like Mission Bay and St Heliers, along with parts of leafy Remuera. It also includes the less wealthy area of Glen Innes and, due to a recent boundary review, Point England - suburbs which usually favour Labour.

Asked whether Tāmaki is currently well-represented by ACT, Muralidhar answers bluntly: “I don’t think it is”.

He criticises van Velden for, in his opinion, not prioritising her work in the community and having the safety of a high list position which meant she would be in parliament regardless of whether she won the electorate or not.

“I'm a community guy. I'm an electorate guy. I think if you don't start your career electorate first, it is not the number one priority. Brooke, the incumbent, gets into parliament because she's number two on the ACT list,” he says.

Muralidhar’s list ranking isn’t known yet, but in all likelihood winning Tāmaki will be his path to parliament.

The pay equity debate, of which van Velden was the public face, damaged the ACT MP’s credibility in the electorate, he believes.

“A policy needs to be matched by the messaging, like any product. And there were definitely some challenges in regards to how she messaged.”

Whoever ACT chooses to succeed van Velden as their Tāmaki candidate will still have to defend the pay equity decision but won’t be so intertwined with the baggage.

Aside from leader David Seymour, ACT has three Auckland-based MPs that could feasibly run in Tāmaki: Simon Court, Karen Chhour and Parmjeet Parmar. It’s understood the party has also already received interest from people outside the current caucus.

Seymour said “several people” had approached the party about standing and was confident a strong candidate would be found, but he wouldn’t be “drawn” on whether interest was mainly coming from inside or outside caucus.

Asked for his opinion on Muralidhar, he said: “I did meet him once, and look, I wish him well.”

National Party pollster and Kiwiblog writer David Farrar said if he was advising ACT, he would suggest running with a “known quantity”.

Simon Court could “well be the logical” option, he added. It’s understood Court, who grew up in Glen Innes but now lives in West Auckland, is considering putting himself forward and has received some encouragement to do so. Next steps would likely involve canvassing his colleagues along with people in the local community.

A decision is expected within the next month and any prospective candidate would need the confidence of ACT’s caucus.

Court could point to his work in Government, such as helping to shepherd through complex resource management reforms, says Farrar.

There were “pros and cons” to having an incumbent run, adds Seymour. “You could make the argument for either. What's important to us is that the person will be someone who'd answer the phone on a Friday afternoon.”

Thomas, the political commentator who has worked for both National and ACT in the past, believes that Muralidhar has a clearer path to victory now that van Velden is out of the picture.

It’s not “impossible” that ACT could hold on, he says, citing the party’s continued success in Epsom across multiple party leaders from Rodney Hide in 2005 to David Seymour.

He questions how hard National would have worked to win Tāmaki if the incumbent was standing: “I don't think there's been any polls suggesting that National could remain in government without ACT. And you'd think … is [Tāmaki] where you want to put your resources, trying to win that seat back off ACT?” he says.

“National is already over-represented in electorates … So any new electorate that you pick up is bad news for your deputy leader and finance minister for one thing [Nicola Willis is a list-only MP].”

Farrar jokes that Muralidhar should have bought a Lotto ticket this week. Winning the seat off van Velden would have been an “uphill battle”, but he is currently the frontrunner.

“She's high profile, and I guess the case that you would have been having to make is: why would you throw out the deputy leader of your coalition partner who's helping keep you in government?”

In his view, Muralidhar’s selection as the candidate was likely the outcome of a smaller field of potential options. “Mahesh could well have won a more contested selection if Brooke hadn't been known to be standing again, [but] it’s quite possible there would be quite a different mix of people standing.”

(Crimson Education co-founder Jamie Beaton had been working on outreach work in preparation for a Tāmaki bid for National but chose not to run, it was reported last year.)

Adds Farrar: “There's a difference between a very safe National seat and a seat you have to win off a coalition partner.”

Labour running two-tick campaign

On the doorstep, Muralidhar is warmly received by most residents, many of whom seem to have already decided they’re voting National. Of course, this is one street in one suburb - but Muralidhar claims that’s the usual reception he receives when out and about. He hasn’t door knocked in areas like Glen Innes yet, but says he intends to.

Labour, though admitting that winning Tāmaki won’t be easy, also launched a two-tick campaign this week.

“It is a blue seat, but now that it's so open Max [Harris] could give them a run for their money,” says Labour campaign manager Beth Houston.

“It's a fairly conservative community, but there are plenty of Labour Party supporters there, and definitely a lot of party vote, which is the thing that we are most concerned with here at HQ.”

Adds Kieran McAnulty, campaign chairman and senior MP: “Max Harris is a fantastic candidate with a wealth of knowledge, and I am excited for him to bring his energy to the campaign trail.'

Harris says he is running to be the MP, not just to improve the party’s overall vote share. “I think that the race is wide open after Brooke van Velden's announcement,” he says. “Nobody would say it's an easy electorate for Labour to win, but I think anything could happen.”

Labour barely comes up in any interactions between Muralidhar and Tāmaki locals, but then again, neither does ACT.

At one of the few doors we visit where Muralidhar isn’t greeted by immediate praise for National, he’s told: “I don’t vote for National, but I like people - I believe in people.”

Muralidhar springs into action, stump speech at the ready.

“I came back home to serve the country and the community,” he says. “I’m standing in front of you asking for the opportunity to serve. It’s the biggest thing that I’ll ever do”.

It’ll be up to Tāmaki to decide if that pitch is enough.