Coal, politics and division on the West Coast as election nears

Labour's long hold on the West Coast is being tested by division and shifting loyalties, with less than three weeks until Election Day.

RNZ South Island Correspondent Tim Brown and camera operator Louis Dunham travelled through Te Waipounamu for a series, Backroads to the Beehive, to hear from places outside the usual political spotlight. The first instalment focuses on the West Coast RNZ.

The West Coast's forests and mineral wealth gave rise to New Zealand's labour movement, according to RNZ. Key figures from the Blackball miners' strike in 1908 later served in New Zealand's first Labour government, and the Coast has been a Labour stronghold since the 1920s.

That history has not guaranteed Labour victories. National has won previously unwinnable West Coast seats three times since 1990. In 2023, Maureen Pugh defeated Damien O'Connor by just over a thousand votes, and National has won the party vote in West Coast-Tasman at every election this century apart from the 2020 Labour landslide.

Both names familiar to Coast voters will be gone from the contest this time. Pugh is stepping down in November. O'Connor, who represented the West Coast for 33 years, is running in the Waitaki electorate in Otago and South Canterbury.

National is standing Katie Milne, a West Coast dairy farmer and former Federated Farmers president, in West Coast-Tasman. Labour is standing Rory Paterson, a North Canterbury-based teacher.

Voters RNZ spoke to described different views of Labour's place on the Coast. Ruru fisherman Allan Rooney said he was a Labour supporter until the party lost its way in the 1980s and now supports New Zealand First and ACT. Moana mechanic David Larkin said the values of the Labour Party are nothing like the Labour Party that formed on the West Coast.

Others remain with Labour. Blackball local Matthew Howard, who prefers to be known as Mr Howard, said he will vote "Two ticks Labour all the way down the line".

The 2026 General Election will be held on Saturday 7 November 2026 Elections NZ.