National’s leader probably only took about 180 steps on this most auspicious of election campaign walkabouts: Lynn Mall on a busy Friday lunch time.
But there might have been 180 selfies taken with Christopher Luxon in that short distance. There were certainly 180 renditions by Luxon of royal family-level small talk:
How are you sir?
How are we all?… well?
Good to see you Ma’am
Nice to meet you
What are you doing in your holidays?
Having a good day?… yes, I’m having a good day
Wow – three kids – well done
What have you got in the bag? Oh, lunch…
The lightly choreographed walk had at first been in and out of two restaurants: One in which a female diner called out something about the Treaty that went unnoticed, and one where staff provided the Prime Minister with a takeaway coffee with a very smartly, permanent markered, No New Taxes label printed across the lid.
The only slogan in evidence at Lynn Mall was on this cup, handed to the National leader at Bodrum restaurant and cafe. Photo: Tim Murphy
Cup proudly in hand, Luxon strode off into the north-eastern end of the mall in New Lynn, with shoppers being put forward for chats and photos by an informal advance guard, including Roskill MP Carlos Cheung, who seemed to recognise a few faces.
A prime ministerial staffer kept holding his hand aloft a few metres forward, trying to direct both his star’s direction of travel, and his eyeline into the right camera lens – whether it be the campaign’s or a member of the public’s. Another staffer was deputed to get each potential voter’s phone, take a decent photo and hand it back.
Up here, Prime Minister. Christopher Luxon meets the people and keeps his eye on the correct camera lens. Photo: Tim Murphy
It wasn’t quite clockwork, but they managed to ‘crack on’ as the boss would expect.
This walkabout was far from the throngs Jacinda Ardern encountered here in a mobbing during her visit in 2017, or even the 100-metre-an-hour pace Bill English endured as Lynn Mall sought out the National leader that year.
But a decent number on Friday did want to get close to Luxon and pose for photos with the nation’s current leader. And they greeted him warmly, in the main. He seemed upbeat.
His capacity for rattling off greetings is almost as profound as his ability to pour out lists of quarterly or full-term achievements by his National-led coalition. It continued:
How long have you being doing this role?
Got a big client base?
How many years here? All at the same branch?
Awesome
Thank you for your support
We’ve got a great country
And then, a break in the standard meet, greet and selfie when a young Asian boy stopped the Luxon patter in its slowly moving tracks.
He quietly told his bright-eyed, blue-jacketed visitor something he probably doesn’t get to hear much in politics.
Luxon announces chirpily: “I’m so handsome? You’re saying all the right things,” then chats briefly about school holidays and doing your best.
The posse stalled around the Espresso Café in the first junction in the mall, resetting for photo after photo; the staffer who acted as executive producer clicking fingers here, waving there, swapping his own devices at speed to capture the moment.
A few steps on, a woman stepped forward, telling the staffers her daughter wanted to get a photo for her dad.
This one stopped the Luxon train too. The young girl had long red hair, and Luxon, father of two gingas, was able to offer a word or two.
Luxon meets the young girl who wanted a photo with him to show her Dad. Photo: Tim Murphy
“So lucky, eh…” he could be heard saying, amid talk of his two children.
The mother was delighted. “All the best,” she told the National man. “You’ve got this.”
Twenty more steps on, several more poses and a final group shot with National candidates under the Lynn Mall sign, and the micro visit was over. All up, about 30 minutes, having moved past three shops, a bank and two kiosks in the aisles.
It was the first exit door to the west. Back in 2017, English had managed the other three-quarters of the mall under equal or greater popularity, but then his party was hovering in the mid 40s in the polls; Ardern who was taking Labour out of the 20s and to an unlikely governing position had had to give up on Lynn Mall halfway through because of public crowding concerns.
Ardern returned to the mall on the last day of campaigning before her landslide win in 2020.
Where English tried to ask people if they were enrolled or who they intended to vote for, Luxon’s connections did not seem to stray into that level of democracy. He might have, out of the hearing of the media straggling along nearby, but it wasn’t his go-to approach.
Staff give the PM direction as the police diplomatic protection squad members stand by. Photo: Tim Muprhy
There was little or no policy offered or raised. No one appeared to bring a personal or political issue before the top man. The No New Taxes coffee cup lid was the only slogan uttered.
Luxon did have a spring in his step and a gleam in his eye, and those who approached were attracted to the presence of the country’s number one politician. There were cherished images and two signed books as mementoes of his visit.
He came. He greeted. He engaged. And then, when he was doing so well, it was all over.
The Crown BMW, with Luxon singing out “Have a great rest of your day, team” and sitting next to the staffer with the cameras and their precious social media feeds, glided off.