Opinion: A 64-year-old Wellingtonian shares his views on the state of Aotearoa and the upcoming election.
How many people live in your household? Just myself.
What’s your annual income? It varies, I work for myself but it’s roughly $60,000 to $80,000.
What's your profession? I work in the area of suicide prevention, as a counsellor and a consultant. That’s why I hate this government.
OK, that was my next question. Have you decided who you're going to vote for? Yes, Labour.
Are you a long-time Labour voter? I was breast-fed on the Labour Party, yes. But it’s interesting, on the vote compass, I’m more Green. But when an election is a bit dicey like this one, I go back to the tried and true.
What are your reasons for wanting the current government out? I think they've been so destructive and have done nothing to contribute to people's well-being.
Which particular policies have rubbed you the wrong way? Where do you want to begin? The move on orders, the seabed, the way that they dealt with the minimum wage, pay equity. We have a minister of mental health [Matt Doocey] who is useless. We say we’re serious about suicide, but then we cut the mobility subsidy, which ostracises people. All the diminishing of people's [Māori] culture, which is critical to their well-being. They’ve funded services, but they’ve not really funded the right services. I could go on for hours.
From your professional perspective, what can governments do to have a genuine impact on suicide rates? Well, we need to work upstream and not just in crisis. So investment in early childhood – the first 1000 days of life; attending and addressing violence and sexual harm; things like adequate housing, adequate access to food and income security.
For older people, it's addressing the pandemic of loneliness.
And finally, we need to have leadership and government that has integrity, but also has a vision. And I think the problem with this election, and the last election, is we've got major parties more worried about polls. There's no cohesive vision: ‘This is a challenging time for this country, but we can get through it together’. There's no collective sense of efficacy.
So it sounds like you’re not completely satisfied with the Labour Party either? No, I think one of the best things they did was the well-being budget [in 2019]. That was fantastic.
But recently, I just don't think they've got a vision. I think some of their policies are really good. But I think they're almost as populist [as National]. There's no sort of sort of real cohesive strategy that builds on social economic justice.
What do you think of Chris Hipkins as Labour leader? Well, he ain’t no Jacinda. I think he's nice enough but he doesn't capture people's imaginations.
Who in the Labour Party do you admire more? I like Kieran McAnulty. I think he’s really called them to account. I love Barbara Edmonds. And Arena Williams really knows her stuff, she can explain policy in plain language. She’s got some real leadership potential.
You know, there's some people who have done their time. They’re tainted with the last government. We’ve got to have new people. We've got to be more courageous about climate change. We’ve got to do things and not just say we’re going to do them.
What would you say to someone who said, your values are great but how are we going to fund them? The economy’s in the can, we have to build it. This notion that we're going to balance the books is just nonsense. I cite the World Bank study [after the global financial crisis of 2008] which looked at the difference between Iceland, who invested in their people, and did lots of public works and those who had a more austere budget like Greece; and it showed that Iceland’s recovery was earlier, there were fewer heart attacks, less family violence, less suicide, better wellbeing overall.
Whereas when you have an austere budget, you get more racism and social conflict. We've got to invest in our people. All these years of [focusing on] balanced books and look, our hospitals are falling to bits, our schools are falling to bits. Look at our social housing. When I first came back from overseas and saw the disgrace of homelessness in this country...
Earlier this week the Mental Health Foundation criticised ACT’s promise to tighten disability-related jobseeker benefits, and Paul Henry commented, “Who cares what they think?” What’s your view on his comment?
See, he's just got no idea. It’s this callousness. He's not a shock jock anymore. He's meant to now have standing and responsibility. Where are the responsible policies?
And Luxon not calling out the statements of Winston [regarding another MP’s race]. That's a lack of integrity and moral leadership.
And Seymour, he used to be very timid, but since becoming deputy it’s this thing of, ‘I don’t care what you think’. Look at his school lunches, it was a disaster, and still is.
But they don’t really care, it's this arrogance of, as long as we're looking after our mates. Trickle-down economics has been a disaster and they still want to propose it as the best way to get prosperity and productivity...
But [on the topic of potential new coalition partners] I'm worried about Opportunity. I don't trust it.
Why's that? I think it's this flexibility [with regard to potential coalition partners]. Who's behind the Opportunity party? I don't think they're as transparent as they say, and there’s a likelihood we could end up having the same kind of government we do now, with the same sorts of policies. A government that wants to drug test people on benefits, and that creates division and denigrates people.
Opportunity is not tried or true. She [Qiulae Wong] sounds very good, but trying for a job and actually doing the job are two different things.
When you actually look at some of their policy, I would say Opportunity is more like some of the ‘teals’ in Australia, they’re liberal conservatives more than they are social progressives.
What about the argument that climate change is so important, that we need a non-partisan, climate-change-focused party who could work with either of the main parties? Well, I don’t’ think Opportunity’s that party.
When it comes to climate change, we've got to be prepared to put up with the inconvenience for the long term game. Look at how much we pay for storms, and the impact of climate change – and there's no vision for that. You can only have your head in the sand for so long.
I come from the public health world. And the health implications of climate change are huge... Once again, if you look at suicide prevention... When I was growing up, we had the threat of a possible nuclear war, but in some ways the [reality of it] wasn't there. Whereas for young people, I hear all the time, 'why bother hanging around? We’ve got climate change. I'm never going to be able to afford a house. I'm going to be debt ridden by the time I start life.' That's what we've got to address. People don't have hope.
Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to comment on? Health. A couple of years ago, my sister died. In her last few visits to the hospital, she couldn't even get into a ward. There wasn’t enough beds, she spent that time in the ED, in corridors. Because often the beds are electric, there's no room to plug your bed in. So you've got all these [patients] all around the corridors. They can’t even have a cup of tea, they’re just left there.
We haven't invested for such a long time and, once again, it's your priorities. We don't need tax cuts. What we need is a health system that's responsive. Something that we used to be proud of in this country was our health system, now it's an embarrassment.
[Health Minister] Simeon Brown, has just got no vision. He just wants to blame everyone else.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The views expressed are not those of TVNZ.
SHARE ME