PM warns against strategic voting at ‘posh’ launch of Tāmaki election bid
Friday, 26 June 2026
In the words of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, this was the “poshest campaign launch” he’d ever been to.
On each table, little individual bags of blue M&Ms sat alongside plates stacked with slivers of beef and tuna. It was bubbles on arrival, but bottles of wine were already perched uncorked on the tables as well.
This was the campaign launch for someone who thinks they’re going to win.
But while Tāmaki was blue for six decades - dating back to the Rob Muldoon era - it’s going to be a tough competition for National’s Mahesh Muralidhar to snag it back from ACT on at the general election on November 7.
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While incumbent MP Brooke van Velden isn’t on the ballot this time, her ACT Party successor James Christmas (himself a former National candidate) is a well-respected public law barrister with government experience.
A campaign launch isn’t typically too newsworthy, but it’s the battle between two coalition parties that makes this an interesting race.
And it’s not just about the votes.
There has been speculation in recent days that National Party higher-ups were worried that too many electorate victories could see high-profile list MPs (among them Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and Gerry Brownlee) thrown out of Parliament unless the party turns its overall polling around.
The list of attendees at Muralidhar’s Tāmaki campaign launch appears to suggest the affluent East Auckland seat is one National does intend to fight hard for.
Along with Luxon, other party heavyweights in the room included president Sylvia Wood and former presidents Michelle Boag and Peter Goodfellow, the latter overseeing the Tāmaki campaign.
Luxon made his views on who to vote for clear.
“I don't need anything funky going on here in Tāmaki. I don't need you thinking you're helping me by doing some clever strategic voting,” he told the assembled crowd.
Despite Luxon’s appearance, media had not widely been alerted that the campaign launch was taking place. Only two outlets, The Post included, were in the room.
Attendees in the crowd told The Post it was a seal of approval to have Luxon attend Muralidhar’s campaign launch and a strong signal that this was an electorate the party wanted to take back.
But ACT’s James Christmas said it would be unusual not to have the party leader’s strong endorsement.
“I think it would be extraordinary for the leader of the National Party not to show up for one of his own candidates. I mean, a routine campaign launch isn't usually a news story. The fact that it is is interesting of itself,” he said.
“When I go door knocking, I think everyone just automatically expects David [Seymour] supports me.”
While Christmas said most conversations in the electorate were about local issues, some National voters appeared to be realising that the party risks losing some of its top team if too many electorates turned blue.
Matthew Malaghan, chairperson of the National Party's Tāmaki electorate team, dismissed that as “petty”.
He also took aim at Christmas, along with Labour’s candidate Max Harris, for not living in the Tāmaki boundaries.
“Max and James are flying in,” he said. “They don’t live here, whereas Mahesh goes deep. He’s bought a house. People are getting to know him.”
Christmas defended this and said that he lived five minutes away and that Tāmaki was “the electorate where I spend basically every day of my life”.
While Luxon was adamant he wanted to see National go blue, he also stressed the importance of the party vote - himself acknowledging the risk of losing ministers to potential coalition partners.
“It's really simple … based off that party vote, I get to choose ministers that actually get to run the government off the talent that the New Zealand people deliver us, and I don't want to lose a Mark Mitchell or an Erica Stanford for some complete unknown from some other party that I have to be in coalition with down the road,” he told the crowd.
“The only answer … to make sure I get the quality of ministers I need is that you need to party vote National. It's a very simple thing.”
He then stuck the boot in.
“You may know the leader of some of the parties, but you don't know who their number two, three, four or five is. I know who my numbers one to 49 are, and I can tell you we've got high-calibre talent … that actually we want to get through.”
There was no direct mention of ACT from the PM, but the coalition partner was more explicitly addressed by Goodfellow.
He told the crowd it was encouraging to see “how many people want to see us wind back that pink mist that descended over Tāmaki in 2023”.
He added: “It was very disappointing to come out of that campaign with the loss of such an important electorate for the National Party. Yes, National still won the party vote here by about four to one, so … this is a blue seat, but members want to be represented by a National MP, someone who more closely shares our values and our aspirations.”
Later, The Post was gently ushered out of the room ahead of a fundraising auction. A fancy looking bottle of something was sitting up front, though who bought it and how much it went for will remain a mystery.