OPINION
In the 1930s Sir Āpirana Ngata hand-picked five “young bucks” from within the Māori community to help lead everyone in New Zealand towards a stronger, brighter future where fewer Māori were left behind.
Ngata’s idea was innovative and bold, and required the training of a handful of young men with sensitivity and the smarts to walk in two worlds at the same time, one “world” being te ao Māori and the other the wider Pākehā world.
My father was one of those “young bucks” groomed for leadership as a trailblazer in Māori education, and who went on to have a long career as a senior academic at Auckland University working tirelessly for equal citizenship of Māori.
The idea of equal citizenship is a deeply held value of the National Party, unchanged across decades. My dad became vice-president Māori of the National Party through the 1960s and 1970s. I grew up in Auckland in a household filled with the boldest and best ideas with academic minds and rangatira of the time, who spoke about equal citizenship could it be advanced so no one would be left behind, economically and socially.
When he died, I followed in his footsteps and my own hāerenga with the party saw me joining the Young Nats in 1980.
Now, in 2023 it’s clear we have endured six years under a Labour government of a trend of divisiveness within our society, and the abandonment of our long-held, nation-building sense of equal citizenship.
In a number of areas the government’s work on Māori outcomes have failed (for example, rangatahi Māori education results) and in other areas the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction (for example, Three Waters reform); at both ends of the scale there is frustration, fear and failure of leadership by the Labour government.
That failure by Labour puts at risk the good progress made over the past several decades. It’s a disturbing new trend of the last six years, which must be stopped.
To get us back onto the right track about equal citizenship and many, many other matters is the reason the National Party, after two decades, is putting forward a candidate for Tamaki Makaurau. As that candidate, I’m proud to be part of a long line of local leaders leaning in here.
In my professional life, I’ve always been driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and have held numerous leadership and governance roles across cultural, social and community development organisations.
National stands for tino rangatiratanga, the empowerment of individuals to help themselves and get ahead rather than rely on someone else to give them a mana-reducing hand-out.
My working career tells a story of creating opportunities for local communities and regional economies to bring about creative social change, using myriad art forms to improve learning and wellbeing, increase tolerance, build resilience and increase overall well-being for both individuals, families and the communities we share.
My daughter is 28, part of the now and next generation, part of the 30 per cent of rangatahi Māori under the age of 40. I worry for her and her generation.
She is innovative and socially progressive but this generation does need better policy to get into affordable housing and easier access to health services when and if they need it.
They need equal citizenship for all so they can focus together on other problems they will all face together such as climate change, which is indiscriminate about race.
Like leaders of her grandfather’s generation, my daughter has a clear eye on the importance of equal citizenship and what that means into the future.
Strong National values, for her and the people of Tamaki Makaurau, is what I bring to this election with passion and commitment. There’s no time to be lost.
We’re all in this together, he waka eke noa, as the waka has been travelling in the wrong direction for too long. It’s time to get it back on track.
Hinurewa te Hau, Waikato Maniapoto, Tūwharetoa, Ngati Raukawa with Samoan, German and Portuguese ancestry from her mother; Te Whakatōhea, Ngati Hine, Ngati Kahungunu with Irish ancestry from her father is the National candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau.