Thursday, August 25, 2011

High Fibre Electioneering

Perhaps a better headline for this story is "Broadband roll-out a priority in rich enclaves of marginal constituencies:
"Homes in Plimmerton, Papakowhai, Whitby, Kelson and Churton Park will be among the first to be connected with ultrafast broadband by Telecom... Chorus said construction work would start in the five suburbs before Christmas."
That list of suburbs seemed oddly specific, so I cross referenced Chorus' map of the roll-out with a quick search of houses for sale in the areas, as well as the electorate boundaries.


Churton Park is Peter Dunne's Ohariu seat. Kelson is in Rimutaka, a seat that National is trying to rip off from Labour's Chris Hipkins. And the overkill in the Mana electorate shows how badly National wants the seat from the vacuous Kris Faafoi.

Sorry Petone, sorry Cannon's Creek. You're too poor to be a swing voter.

Further afield, Labour's Ian Lees-Galloway is facing a strong challenge from saturation broadband provided by Joyce Caesar:


Auckland is perhaps the most obvious Nat sew-up:


From top to bottom, the broadband rollouts for Year One match up to John Key's Helensville electorate, Nikki Kayes' marginal Auckland Central yuppie enclave, the Remuera Tractor farmers of Epsom, the multi-national industrial park of Lincoln Rosebank Road in Mt Albert and newbie Nat MP Jami Lee Ross in Botany. He'll no doubt be wanting to increase is bare majority there a bit.

National. Looking after their own and the rest can go hang.