Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

ACT's Dunedin South candidate is determined to continue the fight this election, despite having his newly-signwritten car stolen and torched while he was out for dinner.

Colin Nicholls was out for dinner on Saturday night in Caversham (not far from the Carisbrook ground), but when he returned later that evening, his car had disappeared.

Police discovered the burnt-out shell of his sign-written Ford Laser in Green Island (about 10 minutes away) on Sunday morning.

Nicholls says it could have been a random act of vandalism, but suspects it was more likely to have been a pre-planned attack on his ACT Party car, because the culprits would have needed a second vehicle to return from Green Island.

Given the demographics of Dunedin South, I reckon it was probably a cowardly Liarbour supporter, scared that a change of government involving the ACT Party would force them to actually do some real work and not rely on free handouts from the state.

The seat of Dunedin South (currently held by David Benson-Pope) is one of the poorer electorates in the country, and the core suburb of South Dunedin makes the likes of West Auckland seem a bit like Epsom in comparison.

A recent comment over on Kiwiblog on DBP's possible campaign plans hit the nail on the head, describing Dunedin South as real “tiger country”...

"I love Dunedin, did tertiary ed there but that South Dunedin/Mosgiel area has some strange people there, some willing to die for the Red Flag and still fighting the old class war."

Anyway, back to ACT's candidate for Dunedin South Colin Nicholls, who says the attack has made him even more determined to ensure that ACT gets a good party vote, to ensure more ACT MPs are elected in November.

* Channel 9 Television report: ACT Candidate Target Of Crime


* ODT: Act candidate's car stolen, torched