Hernandez, glasses off and ready to rumble.<\/p>\n
Does he have a way to shut up that ruminating mind? In terms of distractions, Hernandez moonlights as a LinkedIn shitposter, and is a keen reader with \u201cniche historical obsessions\u201d \u2013 \u201cI went through an American Civil War phase, but I\u2019m into Napoleon right now\u201d. But for the most part, he\u2019s a total work horse: \u201cI\u2019m like a monk, basically: this is my life\u2019s work, this is my life\u2019s purpose,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m always thinking about work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if he gets a less than an ideal ranking on the party list, there\u2019s another way Hernandez can get back into parliament: by winning the Dunedin seat. The former president of the Otago University Students\u2019 Association (OUSA) reckons the city is ready for a green wave,\u00a0and it could be the first time the Greens flip a seat from an incumbent. \u201cI think there\u2019s an understanding that Dunedin being seen as a [Labour] safe seat has been bad for the city because it means that it gets prioritised less in terms of investment decisions,\u201d Hernandez says. \u201cLabour MPs based in the city don\u2019t feel like they need to fight very hard for Dunedin, and that\u2019s how we end up with things like cuts to the Southern Hospital rebuild because [they] think, \u2018people are going to vote us in anyway, why should we fight for them?’\u201d He makes a promise: \u201cWe\u2019ll give Labour trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez knows the streets of Dunedin intimately. Although, there was that one time during his stint with OUSA when he got a bit too pissed on a night out and couldn\u2019t remember where he lived. Members of the university\u2019s M\u0101ori Students\u2019 Association had to give him a hand and \u201ccalled every number on my fucking phone, even the vice chancellor at the time\u201d. She didn\u2019t know where Hernandez lived either, and they didn\u2019t discuss the call the next day.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Hernandez made it out unscathed and is now ready to be the city\u2019s elected MP. And with the Greens hitting 14.5% in the latest Roy Morgan poll \u2013 which I am assured is totally accurate and never wrong \u2013 Hernandez is looking ahead in 2026 with the same optimism as a Warriors fanboy. \u201cIt\u2019s genuinely our year,\u201d Hernandez says. \u201cWe\u2019re so fucking back this year. We never left.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A<\/p>\n
How much should a pint cost?<\/p>\n
Well, I think it\u2019s far too expensive. This is kind of like a weird hobby horse that I have been banging on about since I was OUSA president, but it\u2019s too cheap to drink at home and too expensive to drink out in Dunedin. It\u2019s basically killed the student experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So whatever the price is that like enables students to like actually drink in social controlled environments where they\u2019re like actually supervised is better than the alternative, which is like students getting like really fucking wasted at home and like staggering to pubs drunk.<\/p>\n
Do you have a karaoke go-to?<\/p>\n
\u2018Yellow\u2019 by Coldplay, because it\u2019s really easy to sing. Or \u2018Fernando\u2019 by ABBA; I mean, I\u2019m called Fernando so much that I might as well [sing it].<\/p>\n
Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?<\/p>\n
I like going to Emerson\u2019s Brewery. They\u2019ve got nice pub food, it\u2019s close to campus, and it\u2019s just nice, classic pub vibes, but probably slightly more bougie than a student pub. But there\u2019s hardly any student pubs in Dunedin these days. I pledge that if I\u2019m elected as the electorate MP to work to get a student-run pub.<\/p>\n
Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team?<\/p>\n
Can I just check which MPs named me, to be honest? Because I feel like you need to give the love back, you know. [Cue a few minutes of Hernandez name searching himself on The Spinoff.] My name\u2019s come up in [Green MP] Steve Abel\u2019s<\/a> so, yeah, probably Steve, I\u2019d have to put him in. [Act MP] Cameron Luxton<\/a> also named me, I\u2019ll put him in.<\/p>\n I think I\u2019d probably pick the PM, so I could lobby him on a niche Filipino thing. I\u2019d like to lobby the prime minister on at the moment is, like, when Filipino migrants come to New Zealand and they come with their pension from the Philippines, it\u2019s treated as income rather than savings.<\/p>\n It basically reduces the amount they can get on the Super, which isn\u2019t super fair from my perspective because [the Philippines pension], it\u2019s not actually money given by the Filipino government, it\u2019s literally just a savings scheme. So it\u2019s basically just like bringing over your bank balance, because there\u2019s zero contribution from the Filipino government. So I\u2019d like to lobby him on that, and National will have enough votes between our two parties to change the law. And this would help Paulo [Garcia, National MP,] leave a legacy \u2013 we\u2019re going to take joint credit.<\/p>\n Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?<\/p>\n Maybe [National MP] James Meager, because we were contemporaries in student politics. We actually served as a part of the same executive, and we tried to roll the sitting president. We were frenemies, you know, we were rivals sometimes, but we also worked together. He\u2019s more ambitious than he looks.<\/p>\n Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a Green Party policy or anything, but I really want to see how the licensing trust model that is used in West Auckland and Invercargill could be made easier to roll out nationwide. I feel like alcohol does produce some social harms, and the community getting the benefit of that would be really good. And another thing I\u2019d change is a glass bottle ban in North Dunedin, because glass is a huge problem.<\/p>\n What\u2019s a policy area we\u2019ve been nursing without finishing the glass?<\/p>\nFrancisco Hernandez, the most eloquent member of the Greens.<\/p>\n