Act MP Cameron Luxton is a spiritual being in an animal body.
Cameron Luxton reminds me of the type of bloke time almost forgot, a man who fixes up his “tinny” on the weekend (“not that kind of tinny! It’s a boat!”), knows how to build a house and can give you some pretty decent advice about trapping. As someone who is chronically online and at one point averaged nine hours of daily screen time, these are the kind of qualities I really admire in a person. This doesn’t mean I’m going to go outside more and start trapping (not that kind of trapping! It’s hunting!), but it’s good to know there’s a lot going on out there.
On the surface, there’s maybe not a whole lot in common between a city slicker like me and Luxton, a man who will do anything to avoid leaving his comfort in the Bay of Plenty. The Papamoa native is probably the Bay’s biggest cheerleader, gushing about everything from the sand dunes to the bush and the sea surrounding it all – so, really, why would you to be want to be anywhere else? “You might not find 1,000-year-old buildings, but you can find a 100-year-old one, and it still tells a lot of history. You might not be diving Great Barrier Reef, but hey, there’s a marine reserve out the back of Tūhua Island,” Luxton says. “That’s what I like about the Bay: I’m only 36, and even to this day I’m constantly discovering new things.”
Luxton’s admiration for the Earth may qualify him as Act’s greenest MP (next to old mate and reformed Greens voter Simon Court), and he tells me there’s something “biblical” about our inherent connection to nature. “I think as humans, we’re kind of like spiritual beings in animal bodies, and trying to be in touch with both of those things is a very important part of life.” He shares some key advice from his uncle, a farmer in the Waikato: you can always tell where good soil is, because that’s where the flash houses and milk sheds sit. Good soil fuels good produce, which brings in overseas dollars for a nice house, and the nice-to-haves – if you’re stuck in the bad soil, you’re stuck in a rut.
“When you’re super struggling, you can only think about the problem in front of you,” Luxton says. “As you start thriving, your circle of concern expands, and if you want that to expand to the environment, you’ve got to make sure people are doing well in their own lives, and that they have a connection [to nature] … If people are tied up in what they have to do to survive in a modern world, then they don’t get to experience the pay-off of enjoying the things that are free, like conservation.”
Luxton, if you’re reading this, I wasn’t kidding and I really do want you to show me how to fish and trap and be one with the Earth. I can probably fit in the back of your tinny and I’m also probably a way better learner than your kids (sorry kids). Please help: the only reels my dad is familiar with are the ones on Instagram.
THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A
How much should a pint cost?
Whatever it costs for someone to be able to give it to you. But I remember drinking as a younger fella, and really enjoying the efficiency of handing over a $5 note.
Do you have a karaoke go-to?
It’s not a floor-filler – I usually do it really bad – but ‘The Girl From Ipanema’. And a second one, it’s not really karaoke but it’s one of those job site radio songs and I sing it with my kids: Tonic’s ‘If You Could Only See’.
Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?
The RSA in Galatea.
Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team?
Um, who’s really smart? Brooke [van Velden, fellow Act MP] would be bloody good. But that’s the question: is it smarts, or is it fun? Chris Penk [National] is bloody good for banter, so maybe him, and Brooke because she’s bloody smart and knows tonnes of stuff, and she’ll also probably do the filling out of the [quiz booklet] as well. And Barbara Edmonds [Labour] is quite fun.
Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?
Francisco Hernandez [Greens]. We live in the same apartment block on the same floor – we’ve never sat down and had a drink, but we’ve walked home after work and he’s two doors away, and he’s also got a fair bit of banter. He’s a bit of a troll-type character too, aye? So I think he’d be a bit of fun.
Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?
I guess it has to be the Easter trading member’s bill – I thought it was a bloody terrible idea, the way our Easter trading laws were working out. The thing that I couldn’t bear is having laws that are not being enforced, like, just get rid of the bloody thing. I found out that there were a handful of councils that had made it legal to trade on Easter, and every five years you have to review that policy. But a whole lot of councils didn’t review, and they were allowing people to trade in their area without having an updated law, and not doing anything about it.
I was meeting people who said, “well, I’ve been fined for trading, but the shop down the road hasn’t because the policy isn’t being enforced correctly”. Councils are completely ignoring it as a law, and if it’s such a yawn-fest that people aren’t even interested in it, then let the people trade.
What’s a policy area we’ve been nursing without finishing the glass?
We moved to allow things like psilocybin for medical use and there’s a lot of research around MDMA [and therapeutic use]. We as a country were grown up enough to allow end of life choice, and if people want to use things that are no longer classed as hazardous – like psilocybin – at the end of their days, then let them do it. If you want to have a spiritual experience fuelled by a chemical, well, maybe that’s something we should let people do when they’ve done their time on Earth.
What qualities make a good drinking partner?
No offence, because I’ve bought two rounds, but people who respect the tikanga of the rounds system. Not that I’m pointing any fingers … Also, have you heard of the shithouse swerve? It’s when you pretend you’re going to the dunny and sneak out the back door when it’s your turn to buy the round. Maybe they’ve put a few under the belt, and they can’t face the music, but people who do the shithouse swerve need to buy the first round, and if you’re a good drinking partner, you’d own up to that.
Have you ever had a Schnapp’s election moment where you regretted your political instinct?
The Speaker made a ruling in the house based on another MP’s point of order about party labels in the House, and I got up (because the Speaker changed), and said, “Mr Speaker, the member had blatant contempt of the House”, and then it became all about my pin. I felt like, OK, I misjudged the way that politics works.
Up next on One MP, One Pint: Labour MP Duncan Webb. Read more OMPOP interviews here.
