PoliticsMay 10, 2017

‘Let’s be honest, I wanted to throw up’: Kiri Allan on taking the Labour message from the doorsteps to the TV studio

Guest writer

In her second candidate diary for the Spinoff, Labour’s candidate for East Coast describes door-knocking in the electorate, meeting fellow diarist Chlöe Swarbrick, fronting a press stand-up after that controversial list announcement, and a big TV appearance.

I knocked on the door. It was one of the last ones for the day on my sheet of over 50 names. I was out with my team of about 20 dedicated foot soldiers doing a morning door-knocking round. We were due to meet for a late lunch in Kawerau, followed by a meeting on housing with Phil Twyford, Labour’s Housing spokesperson. I knocked politely on this door again (can’t be so pathetic that they don’t hear the knock or too enthusiastic such that you risk it being perceived as an emergency) and waited briefly. My typical “appropriate” waiting time is about 10 seconds. I hit the 10 second mark and stepped away, back towards the roadside.

“Hello?” a woman in a beanie and blanket sleepily called out to me from the ajar door.

“Oh, kia ora! Sorry for waking you!”, I responded.

I looked at her, and realised she was a young woman and it was midday on a weekend. Probably had a good night out, I thought. “Good night out last night?” I asked cheekily.

She smiled wryly through her sleepy eyes, “Ha, na cuz, night shift.” She yawned. “Anyway, what’s up?”

Kiri, Ed Takako and the Coastie Campaign Caravan. Photo: supplied

I was wearing my bright red “Labour” emblazoned tee-shirt with my blazer over top. The bright red was usually a sign for people to either: quickly duck behind a door and pretend they aren’t home (even if their house is clearly open and TV blaring); emerge hesitantly wondering what I want; or, as is sometimes the case, bound out with enthusiasm. I explained I was Labour’s East Coast candidate and we got into a discussion.

Her partner came to the door midway through our conversation, adorned in a blanket as well (also a night shift worker – I found out both worked in kiwifruit). They shared with me some of their reality. Turns out they had recently taken in a family of seven people – five kids and a mum and dad for nine months. The dad had a job in the kiwifruit industry and made a decent wage. But, with rising rents in Kawerau, the family sought to find better paying work in Christchurch and relocated. The working situation in Christchurch didn’t work out and when they relocated back home to Kawerau they figured it would be easy enough to get a rental again. They were wrong. Unfortunately Kawerau, previously a town that had plenty of rental properties at reasonable prices, had the highest capital gains in the country of 41% so the rental market was all of a sudden very small.

Despite trying hard, and the dad earning approximately $500 a week after tax from seasonal work in the kiwifruit industry, the family could not find an affordable rental. And, people are proud aye. Despite the fact this family had broader family in the region, they didn’t want people to know that they could not find somewhere to live. So, they sent two of their kids to family in Auckland and the rest (five of them) initially “moved” to the beach where they lived out of their car. The occupants of the house I had just knocked on shared their story of trying to work with Housing New Zealand and WINZ – but they were unable to provide help. So, they opened up their home and for nine months, the parents slept outside in a tent erected on the lawn, and the kids inside.

This is the New Zealand I live in.

Kids are living in cars at the beach, parents who are working hard to feed their families can’t find homes, and a government that could help isn’t helping many of those in need. This story is not an anomaly. It is unfortunately the growing norm, often hidden behind pride and closed doors of homes that now house far too many people. Our reality is that we have a generation of workers who now form a class: the working poor.

We have knocked on thousands of people’s homes in Maketu, Matataa, Kawerau, Edgecumbe, Whakatāne, Opotiki, Gisborne and throughout the region. We have a team of telephone callers calling the homes we knock on but miss. Our team are burning the rubber on their soles this campaign and we are seeing stories like the one I shared above everywhere. There is a gap between the “haves” and “have nots”, and when you step back and look at it, this isn’t the nation I grew up in, or signed up to.

My team is comprised of almost every class bracket – from single mums struggling to feed their kids, to successful business people, and indeed a knighted former deputy prime minister. Each one of us is compelled to act for a range of reasons, but primarily, it is because the direction we see our country headed in goes against our moral code. We were the nation that was held up around the world for introducing a welfare system for those that needed a hand, for building homes for families and for implementing world class schools and a health care system that, well, cared. But the guts of these systems have been ripped out systematically for far too long.

Strategic long-term thinking is desperately needed to replace governance by popularity polling alone. The lack of this thinking is evident in the cuts to the Cullen Superfund (that was supposed to be a way of saving for our imminent baby boomer generation retiring), the dog chasing its tail in the fresh water developments (where the government seems to be taking a hands off approach that is resulting in un-swimmable waterbodies) and a lack of focus on regional development. Our country needs a clear formalised direction with our communities at the centre, and the goal to take action when action is needed – like now. I’m hearing it on door steps, in community halls and in the pub chats I’ve had throughout the electorate.

This month has been a whirlwind on the campaign trail. Some of the highlights were:

Sir Michael Cullen opening up our mobile office Kiri’s Coastie Campaign Caravan.

Getting to spend time with Chlöe Swarbrick. We decided to meet up after we both realised we were writing candidate diaries for The Spinoff. I am so pleased that there are young people coming into our national political forums that are committed to where New Zealand is headed as a country.

Hosting the Hon Annette King and Hon Trevor Mallard in Opotiki, Whakatane and Kawerau talking to constituents about health, jobs and education.

Having my live national TV debut on Q + A with Willie Jackson and Peeni Henare. I have been on TV a number of times before offering my thoughts and academic views on various topics. But this was different – this was as a Labour candidate and it is one of the major weekly political shows. Suffice to say I was somewhat nervous (let’s be honest, I wanted to throw up before the interview). But I thought we went well as a team.

We were asked expressly about the seabed and foreshore and how we could reconcile being in Labour given the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. I said that our party had done a lot of things right for communities over our 100 year history, and that we had also made some egregious errors. Andrew Little and Jacinda Ardern have both stated they would have dealt with the seabed and foreshore in a different manner. In addition, I’m confident that our team of staunch, community focussed members including Meka Whaitiri, Kelvin Davies, Willie Jackson, Peeni Henare, Willow-Jean Prime and many other in the Labour Party that are committed to ensuring that something like that never occurs again.

The Labour list announcement presser. Photo: supplied

The Labour Party list announcement. I’m proud to have been ranked in position 20, and I’m particularly proud to be a part of a skilled, fresh and future focussed team committed to putting New Zealand back on track: a place where we look after our kids, protect our water ways, prioritise our regions and make sure everyone has access to decent jobs, schools and healthcare system. Because that’s the New Zealand I grew up in and it’s one I am willing to advocate for, for a life time.

My first media “stand-up”. The day the party announced the list, I attended the media stand-up with the party leadership –Willie made me answer a few questions and my pulse was pumping!

Attending ANZAC commemorations in Kawerau, Te Teko and Whakatāne. Me maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou.

There are 136 days to go until the election and lots more rubber on the soles of our shoes to burn! We are building a grassroots movement of people dedicated to change. If you’re keen to come on board our team we totally want you! Sign up here and let’s #ChangetheGovt!

This content is brought to you by LifeDirect by Trade Me, where you’ll find all the top NZ insurers so you can compare deals and buy insurance then and there. You’ll also get 20% cashback when you take a life insurance policy out, so you can spend more time enjoying life and less time worrying about the things that can get in the way.

This election year, support The Spinoff Politics by using LifeDirect for your insurance. See lifedirect.co.nz/life-insurance

Keep going!

PoliticsMay 10, 2017

Kiwis in Australia are victims of political neglect. Careful, or we’ll go on strike

Barnaby Bennett

Guest writer

The surge in student fees for those living across the ditch is just the latest one-way curbing of trans-Tasman privileges, but it’s more about political incompetence and indifference than cultural loathing, writes Barnaby Bennett, a New Zealander resident in Sydney.

I grew up in New Zealand but have spent around six years living, working, teaching and studying in Australia. Being both a New Zealander and a student in Australia can be confusing. On one hand the Australian government has been extremely generous to me and supported postgraduate studies, given me funding to pursue it. In this way I’m treated exactly the same as any Australian, which is quite remarkable. But then at the same time, New Zealanders don’t get access to the cheaper student transport and other student supports that Australian students enjoy.

We live in two states as both “almost-Australians” and “foreigners”. Similarly, long-term taxpaying and community supporting New Zealanders in Queensland were denied access to emergency funds during the floods there. There’s a host of other examples. We get public health, but not access to any sort of welfare support. While the concept of the dole-bludging New Zealander in Australia has a certain poetry it is in fact legally impossible.

The status of New Zealanders living in Australia has been questioned by the sudden announcement by the Australian government that we will no longer be treated in the same way as domestic students for tertiary studies. This means New Zealanders living in Australia will now have to pay $20,000 or more annually to get degrees instead of the current $6,000 or so. This has ignited a fresh debate about the “special relationship” between the two countries and the way that we should treat each others citizens.

Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and her NZ counterpart Gerry Brownlee in Sydney last Thursday. Photo: Julie Bishop/Facebook

Firstly, lets acknowledge the special bit of this relationship. A significant part of my extended family now lives in Australia – most of them moved over here for work in the 80s and 90s. Like many migrants they carry both their old allegiances and have become part of their new country. They are still New Zealanders, but they have children and grandchildren that consider themselves Australian. Despite being adopted by, and adopting, the country here they still love nothing more than seeing the Australian cricket team lose (but then I know plenty of fully fledged Australians that share that rare pleasure).

My grandparents moved to Australia about 15 years ago to spend more time with their children and grandkids (and great grandkids). When my grandfather died a few years ago (at 93 years old) the Australian Army turned up at his funeral to perform the last post and recognise his service. This was simply because he was an ANZAC soldier. Because that’s what they do for each other.

Similarly when the earthquakes hit Christchurch, then Australian prime minister Julia Gillard pledged complete support and what unfolded was the first and only time all Australian territorial and defence forces have worked together on one project. It took our disaster to bring Australian forces together. What touches me about these gestures is they go beyond the idea of family. These aren’t acts of generosity to loved ones, but like so many moments during war and disaster they are kind offerings to strangers, perhaps based on the knowledge that in another moment or life the positions could be traded. This is a deep bond that is culturally embedded, but not reflected in the current government’s attitude to non-Australians.

Every nation has its contradictions. Australia’s is the strange mix of being brilliantly multicultural (something NZ could learn from) while also illustrating an extraordinary capacity for racism and xenophobia. Its treatment of refugees is one of the grossest injustices I’ve seen in my life, rivalled perhaps only by the Iraq war, which Australia also supported. At home I detect a concern that New Zealand is becoming caught up in larger and more scary feelings towards outsiders. Others might have different experiences, but I think we are too much part of the wallpaper here for that to happen. I think the inconsistent and confusing treatment of New Zealanders is a political problem, not a cultural one. Like so many other issues the people of Australia are far ahead of their governments views.

Australia is a blessed country in many ways, but for the last few years good government isn’t one of those blessings. They have somehow turned a once-in-a-generation resources boom into a structural deficit and have decided that cutting the funding to a group that can’t vote them out will take out some of the pain of breaking promises to the electorates that do. They haven’t picked up our habit of nine-year terms, and as a result their political climate is one of fear, crisis, and poor management.

The issue of university fees is really just a function of a problem of citizenship and representation. Around 650,000 New Zealanders live in Australia and while we can vote at home, we are not able to participate in the political life of Australia. This is the core of the problem, and if I was to give any advice to Gerry Brownlee (why does this feel familiar?) it would be to focus on creating an easy and convenient pathway for New Zealanders to gain dual citizenship, or to give residents voting rights as we do in New Zealand. Failing that perhaps we need special seats in the New Zealand parliament to represent large constituencies overseas. “Could the MPs for Nth Fitzroy, Bondi and Tooting please be seated.”

From what I can tell most of the problems of being a New Zealander in Australia are because of political incompetence and indifference rather than any determination to mistreat their Kiwi neighbours. It’s for this reason I think that the ability to scare the politicians and law-makers is the key to making this all a bit fairer.

Failing that I call for a national strike of all New Zealanders living in Australia till we get some fair and consistent treatment. We could shut this place down. It’d be nice if we didn’t need a world war or national disaster to bring us back together.

This election year, support The Spinoff Politics by using LifeDirect for your insurance. See lifedirect.co.nz/life-insurance