Friday’s MPs
Hekia Parata hit out at the impact the “capricious ideas of officialdom” have had on small towns struggling to keep themselves going, saying she had seen communities such as the Ruatoria she grew up in “succumb to the disease of dependency”.
A former public servant and consultant in the business she ran with husband Wira Gardiner, she said in some communities state intervention had become the norm rather than the exception.
“Caregivers and providers and facilitators and sector workers replace aunts, uncles, neighbours and friends.”
Bravo.
She knows now that even the Ruatoria of her childhood was economically challenged. “But its cultural wealth and social richness, its determined self-belief and hard work kept it viable.”
However, in such communities state welfare – “rather than social welfare” – had become a first resort, spawning “an intergenerational life sentence, rather than a life line”. In such communities, “despair and alienation are masked by drugs and alcohol and abuse, and displaced anger makes victims of children and their mothers, where low expectation in schools is predictably repaid with low achievement; where fault and blame laying has become the defence of failure”.
She said she felt called to Parliament to “lay bare the causes of these symptoms” and act to find durable solutions.
Her recipe for doing so was for the state to play a lesser role in communities and instead be filtered through organisations that worked and lived with the people affected. She also believed cultural diversity should be invested in, “not because it is fashionable, but because it carries identity and the potential for innovation and new technologies”. The final ingredient was education.
“All other aspirations for economic growth, raised standards of living, national confidence and pride, will flow from getting these basics right.”
There is a reason why Hekia had such a high list ranking.
Paul Quinn
Background: Iwi affiliations include Ngati Awa, Tuhoe and Te Arawa. Former Maori All Black from 1977 to 1979. Degree in economics, he most recently ran his own business advisory and consultancy company. Has worked in the forestry sector and on Treaty settlements, including as a negotiator for Ngati Awa’s Treaty claim. Director of the NZ Rugby Union since 2002 and remains active at a grass roots level on the committee of his old Marist St Pat’s rugby club.
In his own words: “[The Treaty settlement process] is but one specific reason why I now stand in this House. It is my response to the total lack of leadership provided by the previous administration in getting on with the job, particularly when it was obvious there was a better way. I note they magically found that better way some six months out from an election.”
Paul, like Hekia, has an excellent background and will be able to make a contribution across a number of areas.
Iain-Lees Galloway
Background: One of Labour’s ‘fresh faces’ intake, 30-year-old has two pre-school children. Was president of the Massey University Students’ Association in 2005 and a campaigner for NZ Nurses’ Organisation prior to Parliament. Maiden speech focused on the need for community organisations to help parents support their children and the importance of investing in research and development.
Many of Labour’s new MPs were student association presidents.
Personal: Mr Lees-Galloway is evidence that National is not the only party taking new MPs that don’t fit in with the party’s stereotypical image. He was educated at King’s College, comes from a beef farming family and wryly admitted his parents remained “thoroughly perplexed” by seeing him on Labour’s side of the House.
His candidacy in Palmerston North presented them with the dilemma of choosing between their own son or their beloved National Party. “They came up with a novel if somewhat drastic solution: they moved out of the electorate. I’m sure [National and Rangitikei MP] Simon Power will be relieved to know he now has two more voters whose loyalty is unquestionable.”
I’m not sure Simon’s majority needed the help, but I’ve yet to meet an MP who doesn’t appreciate every extra vote!
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Hekia was just so unlucky not to get into Parliament in 2002 (she was the highest unsuccessful National list candidate) and for various understandable reasons chose not to throw her hat in the ring in 2005.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Maybe I’m doing her a grave injustice – and I apologise if I am, because I’m well aware that bits of what you say can be left out by the media – but Hekia Parata comes across as a bit of an ideologue in this piece.
You don’t remove “capricious officialdom” (i.e. government support) from welfare without also removing it from the productive enterprises that can generate wealth, jobs and foreign exchange. For a perfect example look no further than the dire warnings about doing something with 2ha of your own land posted here today.
Government regulation and interference has hogtied a lot of small to medium business activity, and no support is offered for activity like R&D. Then IRD comes along and gouges what little profit they’re able to make.
As a result they’re constrained in the numbers of people they can employ, and we end up with more unemployed than we would otherwise have.
What needs to be done is to first remove the “capricious officialdom” that stands in the way of progress. Then when growth has had a chance to happen we can look at reducing community supports because hopefully they won’t need any.
But to suggest the state play “a lesser role in communities” without also suggesting it play a lesser role (or better yet, no role at all) in regulating and punishing and taxing to death people who’re trying to create economic growth and jobs sounds to me very much like the same old beneficiary bashing.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
rex makes a good point , Parata seems to like the States money so long as its not the state dishing it out.
..er recipe for doing so was for the state to play a lesser role in communities and instead be filtered through organisations that worked and lived with the people affected..
filtered through organisations … sounds a bit like more Donna Huata and her presigned cheque books
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I think that comparison with Donna Awatere-Huata was uncalled for, jacob: you are hinting at fraud.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
In fact, it seems to me that what Parata is suggesting is not “beneficiary bashing” or taking away benefits, but trying to change the way they work so that necessary support is less corrosive of communities and does less to create a dependency trap. That is something I applaud. Yes, she does support, but she recognises the perils of that support and is seeking to find a path between Scylla and Charbidys.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
s.russell:
You could be right… the trouble is “the state playing a lesser role” is often code for “benefit cuts”, but it may not be in this case. It’d be helpful if she were to clarify how she sees this lesser role working in practice. Even if the same budget is spent, but “filtered through organisations that worked and lived with the people affected” then that’s exactly what will happen – a filter traps some things (part of the money) while letting some through.
And I don’t think jacob was accusing Parata of wanting to defraud the state, merely pointing out that privatised welfare delivery carries with it the very real risk of misuse of those funds – either with good intentions but risible outcomes (e.g. Hip hop courses) or bad intentions and even worse outcomes (e.g. Awatere-Huata).
Which is not in any way to imply that welfare doesn’t need a major overhaul – it does.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Ian Lees-Galloway absolutely fits the labour party’s stereotypical image – he’s a ginga geek who won’t do anything for Palmerston North, I saw him at a bar town before the election with a bunch of equally androdgynous supporters including Smarmy from Palmy Maharey. Clearly all students in brown homespun jerseys, or academia who went from student to lecturer and have never held a real job. IL-G needed to go pee and used the ladies instead of the mens, had to be asked by staff to play the game and stand up to piss. LAUGH! Unfortunately being a student and university town its a Labour stronghold but I’m hoping he’s a one term wonder.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
“it seems to me that what Parata is suggesting is not “beneficiary bashing” or taking away benefits”
What a pity, taking away most benefits sounds like a great idea to me.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
These guys are soooo boring. I can’t wait for Catherine ” Silly Party” Delahunty’s piece – there will be fruitbatomania for weeks!
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Hmm, Parata wants to help horis, but the help needs to go through organisations ?
Christ this gives me the absolute shits, want to start a business as a hori, do your bloody homework on what you are going in to.
Save your bloody money.
Just who the hell is Parata to believe that I may need her help.
And I bet she has never had to meet a payroll on bloody time.
Only one thing worse than patronising pakeha and that is patronising bloody horis.
Bloody easy to spout off when one has had the snout right in the taxpayer trough.
A bloody consultant that figures, what is the betting that her only customer has been the poor bloody taxpayer
[DPF: Actually GPL had many private sector clients, off memory]
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
[DPF: Actually GPL had many private sector clients, off memory]
And I wonder what percentage of her turnover was taxpayers money ?
Those private clients were they iwi organisations or organisaions whose bill was meet with taxpayer money ?
Yes David I do know how the consultancy games works for those Maori
involved.
Experts in their field they say, a rather artificial field is it not ?
[DPF: I've not worked for GPL and my memory is from discussions some years ago but my impression was a significant number of private sector companies, including several on the NZX]
January 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Sorry David but is is still bullshit, just the idea that Maori employee, employers need extra bloody help is absolute bullshit.
And these people are proud of the bloody fact that they are making dough because some Maori are too bloody idle to learn.
Dear god we have some companies in NZ who believe paying some prat to say a prayer in Maori will help productivity.
What these people know about raising productivity in different fields can be put on a pin head.