WHY MY COLOUR WILL
ALWAYS BE LABOUR
My daughter once told a Labour
Selection Panel, “Like mum and dad, I’m as Labour as a meat raffle at the Otara
Flea Market on a Sat’day morning.”
People ask me, “Why are you so
dedicated to Labour when it’s betrayed Maori loyalty?” So many reasons.
Labour was first elected in 1935 which
immediately set out social policies which led the world and put people into
work building roads, bridges and homes for families therefore push-starting the
nation out of a slowing economy.
My gran
spoke no English but knew three words important for her, ‘Michael Joseph Savage.’
For Rimaha and Wairemana, there was no blot on Labour with its famous cry “...
make work schemes”, whereby the unemployed were put into work after a crippling
Depression. By the 1930’s Labour had
evolved into a party of social liberalism, with a policy
platform that called for the state to provide such things as free education, a
salaried medical service, a free public hospital system, adequate standards of
housing, the family benefit, a basic minimum wage and full employment. My grans received The Old Age Pension (years after Pakeha).
Labour expanded such initiatives as free milk in schools,
so proud when I was called out as “The milk monitor.” I loved the red apples too.
In
1935, and in 1939 Education Minister Peter Fraser explained the rationale
behind planned reforms with education its cornerstone. “Every person, whatever their level of
academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he lives in town or country,
has a right, as a citizen to a free education of the kind for which he is best
fitted, and to the fullest extent of his powers.’ Fraser acknowledged
that country kids were disadvantaged.
I am a product of Labour's policy to put school
buses into remote New Zealand that took me, and my Maori cohorts into High
Schools and Colleges. Kirk later said, “Social
Security does not imprison people. It
sets them free. It does not sap self
reliance. It strengthens it by removing
fear and insecurity.” Kirk took us further into a unique place in
global politics as a small nation prepared to take on a nuclear free stance in
the face of a super power. Lange and
Rata took the balance of the treaty to another level by introducing the Treaty
of Waitangi Act 1975 and Wetere in 1985 back-dated treaty claims to 1840. In addition, Labour had the guts to halt a
Springboks tour of New Zealand.
Education has failed Maori
kids. It failed Pakeha kids too. In 1990, under Geoffrey Palmer, we witnessed
change when The NZ 1990 Commission unloaded treaty education packs into primary
and secondary schools which ushered in a revolution – a revolution in
education, reconciliation and in nationhood.
Taken further, we can make
the strongest impact if we can demonstrate an end to injustice, discrimination
and disharmony in our own country. Taking a positive view, the diversity of
peoples on our planet is one of the greatest synergies for humanity and we
can do that and become the most livable small democracy in the world.
In peace, New Zealand can lead to a radical
contribution to world missions.
Redemption is a huge challenge that faces peoples globally. One of the most important things that take
place in the hearts of the offended is the release from unresolved grief.
Of course Education has failed us all.
But education is the only antidote I know to deal with fear,
helplessness and failure. Look to rangatahi
(Maori and Pakeha fluent in our two founding
cultures) to craft a vision drawn from the furrows tilled by Savage, Nash,
Semple, Fraser, Kirk, Rata, Rowling, Lange, Wetere and Clark and do more than just
acknowledge Maori loyalty by building a bicultural conversation around the
treaty, Kaitiakitanga, a generosity of spirit and trust. Don’t ever lose empathy. Mike Moore said it for me “I am very proud of
what Labour has done.”
We can do it again. I trust a new Labour government in 2017 will
suture the wounds and scorns and again bring us together as one nation unified
as in Hobson’s prophecy.
“He iwi kotahi
tatau.”