University of Canterbury student runs for parliament

Luke Jones (featured centre), at his Selwyn launch at the Rolleston Community Centre, in July.

A University of Canterbury student is running for parliament on a Labour party ticket for the electorate seat of Selwyn.

Luke Jones, a third-year political science and communications student, will graduate this semester. He was confirmed as a Labour candidate in June and will contest the seat in Selwyn at the upcoming general election.

Jones already has experience running a campaign, having run as an independent council candidate for the Riccarton Ward at last year's local body elections.

At age 20, Jones isn’t the youngest to be selected in this election, further south 19-year-old Ethan Reille has been confirmed as the Labour’s candidate in the Otago electorate of Waitaki.

In July, Jones launched the Labour Party campaign for Selwyn in front of a room of supporters and members of the community at the Rolleston Community Centre. He said that the campaign would be a massive task.

“Our goal; the same as the rest of us across Canterbury and across Aotearoa - to return Chris Hipkins and Labour to Government”.

He told Canta that it was his “desire to make a difference in the lives of people across the country,” which got him into politics.

Jones said that change could not happen overnight and that it needed to be pursued consistency and constantly. He built up his passion for politics through grassroots volunteering as well as advocacy, and felt it was time to make the leap to representative politics.

Jones has a tough campaign ahead with Selwyn, a traditionally true-blue seat, held by National since 1946 when it was reformed.

The seat has been held by some of the National parties’ biggest names including former Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson, 29th Speaker of the House David Carter, and senior National MP Amy Adams. Adams is now the Chancellor of the University of Canterbury.

The seat is currently held by National MP Nicola Gregg who won the seat at the last election.

Gregg, a former journalist, and political staffer also officially launched her campaign in July saying that she and her team were energised and ready to go.

Gregg’s election margin in 2020 was only 4968 over the previous Labour candidate Reuben Davidson. A huge shift from Adams’ majority in 2017 of more than 19,500 votes.

At the last election, Labour also earned the majority of party votes – 18,102, compared to National’s 14,616. The shift in 2020 can partly be attributed to the ‘red wave’ which saw Labour earn the first total majority under MMP.

During his campaign launch, Jones recognised the shift in Selwyn saying that it was thanks to the hard work of local volunteers and the previous candidate.

"The goal, for the team and I, is to push us over the finish line with a successful party and candidate vote result. People who are watching Selwyn closely will know how fascinating the electoral dynamic is in the electorate, and the old characteristics and demographics of Selwyn are no longer predominant,” he said.

Jones was hopeful for a win, but said he recognised that he had a political mountain to climb to win the seat.