Simon Anderson
A dickhead with a camera: the Establishment’s dissident.
The first time I met Nikki Kaye was 16 years ago.
A mutual friend introduced us in a restaurant. I’d never heard of her: she was just some chick with an incongruously deep voice who immediately started talking about public policy.
In a restaurant. Late on a Friday night, to someone she’d only just met. Who was drunk.
She was running for office in my electorate, Auckland Central, which has always been Marxist-controlled territory. No centre-right candidate had ever won it. Despite her disconcertingly myopic focus I gave her no chance.
She won. Beating out the homespun incumbent, then the archfiend Ardern, a few times and outraging the Marxists who consider Auckland Central their fiefdom. Kaye ended up prevailing in four elections and remains the only democratic representative the constituency has ever had.
Crikey she was formidable. Her constituency surgeries were legendary. Take any problem to Ms Kaye and it got solved. Largely I suspect, because officials and bureaucrats were scared of her. And right to be so.
Her dedication to her constituency and the people within it was as admirable as it was unsurpassed. For a city yet to recover from the devastation wrought by Ardern and continued by her successor Chloe Swarbrick, Kaye is a wistful memory of better days.
What could have been. If Kaye hadn’t made the injudicious decision to back Muller, life would be better for Aucklanders. Kaye wouldn’t have collaborated with Ardern, as Swarbrick did during Covid, to bus huge numbers of criminals into the CBD, destroying businesses and ruining lives. By force of will alone, she would have prevented it and life would be better now for all of us.
She was young when she made her misstep, when she gambled and lost. She had to go but it is the great shame of our party political system that a place could not be found in New Zealand public life for this lady to contribute her considerable talents. I suppose some tried, but suspect her health became a barrier.
Though I didn’t know her well, I really liked Ms Kaye and I admired her. Those who knew her better are better placed to comment, but when I think of her I think of her character. A young lady who confronted diagnosis with a grave illness by running a marathon. I think that is who she was.
Peace be upon you, Nikki Kaye. You shined.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.
