'The fight for me continues': Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan balances electorate, portfolio needs

Up close and personal with Labour candidate Priyanca Radhakrishnan on the campaign trail discussing what it was like to adjust to being in opposition and looking back with pride at setting up the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.

Nine years after entering Parliament, Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan – one of two Indian-origin MPs this term – is fighting to win back the Auckland bellwether seat of Maungakiekie that she lost by more than 4000 votes in 2023.

After almost a decade in Wellington, the obvious question is the legacy she has built.

“For me, every term has been quite a steep learning curve," Radhakrishnan said.

"Your first term you're trying to figure out what you're doing, what your levers are. In my second term, I had the privilege of being a minister,” she said.

“Setting up the Ministry for Ethnic Communities was a huge honour.

“Also, for a period of time I was the minister for disability issues. I hold that portfolio in opposition.

“Now it has been three years of sustained attacks against the disabled community in terms of the current government reducing their access to support and undoing so much of what we did to make New Zealand more accessible and more inclusive.

“So, I think the fight for me continues.”

Radhakrishnan spent the first two terms on Treasury benches and the last one in opposition, which brought about different experiences.

“This is my first stint in opposition and, if I'm completely honest, at the start of this term I was trying to figure out if I could do opposition and what that meant, what that looked like," she said.

“Very soon — March 2024— is when the first of the government's cuts to disability support started. And that gave me a renewed sense of purpose to fight for communities.

“Fighting for the communities that I serve is what I did before Parliament. And that's what I continue to do, whether it's fighting for the electorate here, as I am on the campaign trail, or for the communities that I serve through my portfolios.”

Radhakrishnan said Maungakiekie had seen high transience, cancelled state housing and rising homelessness, which she blamed on government cuts.

She said cost-of-living pressures were the biggest election issue for Maungakiekie voters, from families skipping medication to businesses struggling with workers' transport costs.

Her local priorities were cheaper fares, solar support, a Mount Wellington community centre and better transport links, she said.

She believed boundary changes and earlier enrolment deadlines had also reshaped this year's race.

Although the electorate has higher proportions of Asian residents and Pasifika households compared to the country’s average, past results indicate the marginal nature of the seat.

In October 2020, Radhakrishnan became one of two Indian-origin candidates in New Zealand's parliamentary history to win an electorate seat, overtaking National candidate Denise Lee after special votes were counted to win Maungakiekie by 635 votes.

Radhakrishnan subsequently became the first-ever Cabinet minister of Indian-origin, taking over the ethnic communities' portfolio.

Born in India and raised in Singapore, Radhakrishnan entered Parliament in 2017 as a list MP based in Maungakiekie, which is the Māori name for One Tree Hill.

National's Lee won Maungakiekie in 2017, beating Radhakrishnan by 2157 votes.

Prior to that, Labour's Mark Gosche held the seat from 1999 to 2008 before National's Peseta Sam Lotu-liga held it from 2008 to 2017.

Radhakrishnan lost the seat to National’s Greg Fleming in 2023 but returned to Parliament as a list MP.

Fleming is once again a candidate for National this time against Radhakrishnan and the Green Party’s Adam Powell.

In 2023, Sapna Samant was the Greens candidate for Maungakiekie.

Samant is also of Indian origin, managing to secure 3138 votes and hurting Radhakrishnan's chances.

The electorate could be seen as a bellwether for the rest of the country, indicating which party has best captured the hearts and minds of the "average New Zealander".

For Will Matthews, who has worked on Radhakrishnan’s election campaigns since 2017, that party is Labour because “the mood this time is very different from 2023”.

“Last time there was negativity. People were really fatigued after a couple of years of lockdowns,” he says.

“[This time] people are really seeing the damage that has been done by this government to workers, to the public services, to the health system … lots of people are keen for change … we have to make sure people are enrolled and get out to vote.”

Karim Dhanani, a member of Radhakrishnan’s social media campaign team, said campaigning had changed markedly over the past three years, with more young and middle-aged voters turning online to make up their minds.

“Young people are worried about AI taking over their jobs. They are moving to Australia for better opportunities. Many are not even enrolled to vote,” he said, adding that Labour was running a positive campaign aimed squarely at those concerns.

Asked whether Radhakrishnan can repeat her 2020 electorate win, Mt Wellington local Matthews said it was "really close”.

“[But] the message is if people around here enrol to vote and do two ticks Labour, then we can get Priyanca back in as the MP for Maungakiekie,” he said.