Nanaia Mahuta on post-election life and politics

ALTHOUGH philosophical about her own new direction, former Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says a National government may turn New Zealand’s clock back.

She is deeply concerned about a potential Treaty of Waitangi referendum, a parallel to events in Australia and “a travesty for indigenous rights”.

Health initiatives could also be lost for Māori and across rural communities like Te Rohe Pōtae, she said. And dismantling programmes like free school lunches, and not offering ECE access for toddlers, could heat up cost of living pressure.

Finally, “things could get very real” when ratepayers in areas like Waitomo were required to fund necessary upgrades to water infrastructure, under a rollback of Three Waters.

Labour’s most experienced female MP spoke to King Country News on Monday – despite having “a lot of things to tidy up”, around the office.

The former member for Hauraki-Waikato, who is closely connected to the King Country, had already come to terms with the consequences of Saturday’s vote.

Nanaia lost her seat to 21-year-old Hana Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, running for Te Pati Māori.

“I accept the outcome of the election. Let’s be clear about that,” she said

She has not had time to think much about her own future plans.

Nanaia chose not to be named on the Labour list, well aware that by losing her seat, she would lose her position in Parliament. That is what happened.

“I made the decision to come off the Labour list and stand as an electorate-only candidate for Hauraki-Waikato, in the belief that actually, it’s up to voters.”

She knew it would be a hard-fought election, and a tight contest.

“The right thing for me to do was to put that question fairly and squarely to the voters of this electorate and say, ‘Well, look, you choose. A time for changing? You choose.’

“I did that knowing there was quite a high prospect that I wouldn’t get in. But after 27 years of service, I’m okay about it. I’ve got no regrets.”

People needed to feel their voices mattered, she said.

“We’ve got to abide by the democratic principles of our country. So, the people have spoken. The outcome isn’t the one I would have wanted, but I accept the outcome.”

She said the situation now was “wait and see,” given the incoming Government had not yet confirmed the nature of its coalition.  

The changes the new Government committed to achieving in its first 100 days would give “a very clear sense of the direction this country will be going in”, she said.

However, there were already a number of concerns.

The most challenging of the policies would turn the clock back on investing in public services, she said.

“Turning around reform which tackled some of the challenges in terms of Māori aspirations and opportunity; some of the gains that we’ve been progressively making to lift families out of poverty and address cost of living issues, that would be under threat as well.”

Her biggest concerns relate to health reforms, which she describes as “quite worrying”.

“The statements have come through from National that they will not continue with [health service] Te Aka Whaiora ... which was proposed to address the issues of health inequity.

“So, that would be a big concern for Māori. Because there’s been systemic inequity, not just for Māori, but for people living in rural and remote communities, for Pacific people and the elderly.”

The partial assistance on the prescription co-payment was another example.

“You only needed to go into small communities prior to the change that we made, to see that people were leaving their prescriptions on the shelf for longer.

“We can’t have that, especially when elderly people or high-needs people are making decisions about, ‘Do I pay the bills, or do I pay for my medicine?’

“That’s not the kind of trade-off we want to see. That will have a real impact on people.”

Risks to education include the future of the school lunch programme, despite research and feedback from schools showing real benefits.

“When kids go to school, and they’re fed, they’re more likely to learn.”

Winding back those initiatives would contribute to cost of living pressures on families, having “a very real impact” on their front pockets.

She said plans to extend early childhood education to two-year-olds hadn’t had much traction in the election debate. But it was important for mums wanting to return to the labour market.

“That’s fundamentally ... another way you can lift household incomes to enable mums to feel confident about going to work, because their child will be in a centre and can be cared for, and learning.”

What is her take on the future of cultural initiatives – such as language revitalisation?

Bilingual signage had been “clearly under attack,” she said, despite being usual in other countries where there was more than one nationally recognised language.

There it was a given, but in New Zealand it was a debate.

It would also be concerning if premier cultural event Te Matatini had its funding cut.

She would not like to see Māori

language education limited to only broad-based programmes aimed at the wider community.

Of most concern to Māori was the ACT policy to put the Treaty of Waitangi into the referendum, she said.

“It’s a travesty for indigenous rights.

“Because with rights come responsibilities, both ways.

“The Treaty is not just about rights. It’s actually about reciprocal rights and responsibilities towards each other.

“When you have a proper informed conversation around rights and responsibility, that’s what nation building is formed from.

“It would be a travesty for New Zealand if we went down the route of the Treaty being put to a referendum, because there’s such a negative focus at the moment on Māori issues.

“It’s our founding document. To think that it’s even a thought, that it could be put to a referendum.

“In fact, a more constructive approach would be to continue with our commitment towards a constitutional dialogue. And call it a dialogue, because we won’t have all the answers all at once.

She said as New Zealanders we must commit to asking the big question: what should our nation look like with the Treaty at its heart?

We can make progressive and incremental change as society could tolerate it, she said.

Nanaia said the new local government spokesperson might be in for a shock, as would residents in places such as Waitomo.

“Whoever the new local government spokesperson is, they’ll open the books. They’ll see how challenged the local government sector is to finance infrastructure, and that’s beyond the water network.”

It would extend to local roads and community facilities.

“Unless the new government is going to fundamentally change the revenue coming into the sector, they are going to have to have some serious conversations with the sector about doing things differently.

“[That is what] led to my proposed reforms around financially sustainable funding of water infrastructure and it was all based on an international model, international exemplars where scale and aggregation, and separation of balance sheets, enabled you to get finance into that space.”

“I still believe ... that scale and aggregation is, in part, a way to help achieve long-term sustainable funding for water infrastructure.

“You take Waitomo: the challenge is out in your smaller communities, and the cost on a low number of ratepayers.

“They’re going to say, actually we can’t cope with the increased cost if we have to upgrade our infrastructure to the degree that will be resilient. It’s at that point that things will get very real.”