Stand back, we’re going in.

There’s a fierce battle going on in The Spinoff’s backyard this election and we’ve decided to roll up our sleeves and step into the middle of it. At 6pm on September 30, we will host The Great Mt Albert Debate and stream it live, here on our website. Our editor-at-large – the one, the only Toby Manhire – will moderate.

The Spinoff moved into the Mt Albert electorate in 2018, and in 2023 we saw a feisty fight for our neighbourhood’s seat. Labour’s Helen White beat National’s Melissa Lee by just 18 votes in what had previously been seen as a safe red seat. 

Now, 2026 is looking even hotter. White and Lee are standing again and the Opportunity Party, polling at heights it has previously only dreamed of, is running its leader Qiulae Wong in the seat.

Opportunity is gunning for 5% of the party vote as its pathway to parliament and while a series of polls have pegged its support above that threshold, the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia poll has the party a whisker shy, at 4.5%. If Opportunity doesn’t get 5% on November 7, its other chance at parliament rests on Wong winning Mt Albert. That would land her a ticket to Wellington and enough space on her teal coattails for a clutch of other Opportunity MPs to journey with her.

Did we mention that Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March is also running in Mt Albert and got a thoroughly solid 24% of the vote last election? Act’s Alex Price and NZ First’s Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri are also in the mix. 

What’s more, boundary changes have seen the electorate lose most of the left-leaning Grey Lynn and gain right-leaning parts of Balmoral, Sandringham and Mt Roskill, so it’s really anyone’s game.

But wait, this political tour of our neighbourhood is not over yet. Make yourself comfy while we talk you through the history. Mt Albert has been the seat of two prime ministers – Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark – and was contested by Robert Muldoon in 1954, who would go on to become PM in 1975. David Shearer, a former Labour leader, has also been the MP for Mt Albert. 

If we wander further back in time and loosen the electorate boundaries a little, Michael Joseph Savage, the country’s 23rd prime minister, held the Auckland West seat, which existed before the Mt Albert electorate was created, from 1919 to 1940. 

All of which is to say, the Mt Albert seat has history and heat and we suggest you watch it closely this election, starting with our debate at 6pm on September 30, right here on The Spinoff.

See you then.