Once upon a panda, now in Parliament
Amelia Wade meets Jan Tinetti, who talks about her time as a panda and the National MP she admires
What has been your work history? I started work in 1990 as a primary school teacher and spent seven years teaching. I had two children as well but kept on working. In 1997 I became a school principal in Southland. So I was principal of three schools in Southland and principal of one school in Merivale and Tauranga.
What is an example of something you were proud of pre-politics? I’m very proud of being principal at Merivale School, a decile 1 school, where there were lots of issues. When I left we had children and wha¯ nau who were really proud of who they were. They were mainly Ma¯ ori and really had a sense of identity of being Ma¯ ori and [were] proud of it.
Did you ever work as a student?
I absolutely did. I had several jobs. I was a cleaner working in hospital kitchens. But my probably most unusual one was that I was a panda, working in a Chinese restaurant called The Panda and welcoming people that came in.
Any horror stories about that suit? It was pretty revolting. About three of us were pandas and back then you didn’t have health and safety guidelines around wearing those sorts of suits. So I would get in it and it would still be wet from the last person and it did stink quite a lot. But you know, it was a student job, I had no money, and I was happy to dance around and be the panda.
I did it for about two years, probably working about three or four shifts a week. This was back in Christchurch in the 80s so I think there’ll be people that remember The Panda restaurant and they’ll remember the panda coming and dancing around.
What about your upbringing?
I grew up in Christchurch, in the grounds of Templeton Hospital, a psychiatric institution. My father was the hospital secretary and we had the only staff house on the grounds. It was an unusual upbringing because I didn’t really understand that people with cognitive disabilities were not out in society at that stage. It was only in later years that I worked out it was so unique I had people who had Down Syndrome who were good friends of mine because I lived amongst them — I didn’t realise other people didn’t have that interaction. So it was pretty amazing because it taught me about diversity without even realising.
Tell me about your family now
I live in Tauranga with my husband,
Dave, and I have two sons who both live in Auckland — Liam, who’s coming up 26, and Zak, who’s 24. Liam works as a teacher aide at a school and Zak is an international sailor.
How did you get into politics?
I was a little bit of a reluctant politician. I was the principal of a decile 1 school and quite outspoken about the social injustice for my families. Labour asked if I would stand for them. I said no — five times. Then I had an ex-pupil who unfortunately took his own life and that probably tipped me over the edge. I thought, “I could be doing this all I like but I’m not actually making those significant differences and where I can make those significant differences is here in Wellington”. So I said yes and here I am.
Is there someone you admire in another party and why? Probably the person I’ve admired most has been [former National MP] Nikki Kaye. Nikki was passionate about education and I have a lot of respect about her views on that. We’ve had a lot of argy-bargy but we’ve also had a lot of really good conversations about where we see education heading and I still keep in contact with her.
What are the most pressing issues in each of your sectors?
Of course the most pressing issue is going to be Covid. It is impacting a lot across every single sector. So we’ve got to look at it around what that means for women, what is its meaning in my internal affairs portfolios in the different areas and of course in education — although I don’t know my education delegations at the time of this interview.
Top three priorities as a minister? To find out as much information as I can, that’s No 1. It has to be that I have to find out what those portfolios are, to look at our manifesto and I’ve already said make sure the manifesto and those priorities I’m finding out about from my briefings are marrying up. And then to write my work plan to make sure that I’m going to make a difference and be successful over the next three years.
How did you vote on referendums? I voted yes on both. On the End of Life Choice Act, that was obvious because it went the whole way through Parliament and I had voted yes the whole way through.
On the cannabis referendum I was “no” right up until about the last week. But I did a lot of research in this space, I took that vote really seriously.
What is your favourite beach?
It has to be the Mount’s main because it’s in Tauranga and I love going there. I can get there on the bus so it doesn’t take me long. Beautiful beach.
And your best overseas holiday? It was actually supporting my son when he went to Poland on his first trip sailing. I loved it over there. We went to a part of Poland called Kamien Pomorski, a summer retreat for Polish people. It was fabulous.
If you could take an actor to dinner who would it be?
I would love to meet Julia Roberts because I’ve always thought [she] was such a strong, amazing woman.
I’d have to take her somewhere in Tauranga — let’s say Oscar and Otto.
Quick-fire quiz . . . KFC or Macca’s? KFC.
Tea or coffee?
I don’t drink coffee so a cup of tea.