Our man in Parliament
You learn a lot about people when you meet them at their local pub. It is easy to make a pub your local, but you do not become a local at a pub so easily.
A Friday afternoon beer at Palmerston North’s The Celtic Inn with Iain Lees-galloway is not long enough to tell if he is a local there yet. He talks so much it takes an hour for him to down a pint of Guinness, but it’s fair to say the people there at least do not mind their local member of Parliament.
One woman hugs him, a few others wave, some arrange meetings. A parking warden reminds him to get the warrant of fitness on his Toyota Hiace van sorted. It is easy to pick out – it has his face plastered on the side of it.
Lees-galloway brings up nine years as Palmerston North’s MP in 2017. Well, he technically needs to win his seat at the September election – it would make a nice present in the same week as his birthday – to bring up nine whole years, as he entered Parliament in November 2008.
While he would need another three terms to equal the six-term streak his predecessor Steve Maharey had, it pushes him closer to being labelled a career politician.
But if things went according to Lees-galloway’s initial plan, he would be a long way from that title.
Joining Labour in 2005, he expected to spend some time in the private sector before possibly standing in a seat like Rangitikei.
Labour Party members call standing in Rangitikei ‘‘doing God’s work’’. If Labour candidates are evangelists, the people of Rangitikei may as well be disciples of famous atheist Richard Dawkins – Labour has not held the seat since the 1930s.
Being a candidate was far from his mind in 2008, he says.
‘‘I was ready for the first time to be a Labour Party volunteer, deliver pamphlets and hammer signs, be a foot soldier and a Steve Maharey champion,’’ Leesgalloway says.
‘‘And then Steve said ‘see ya later’.’’
Securing the Palmerston North candidacy for Labour, then the seat, no doubt made him happy. But it is at odds with his upbringing and family background, which, if anything, should have plonked him on the opposite side of the political divide.
He was packed off to Anglican boarding school, ending up at King’s College in Auckland. Former National leader and prime minister John Key’s son Max Key is also among the alumni there.
Lees-galloway describes the school as ‘‘a hotbed of right-wing politics’’, where he became involved in debating.
But even then he knew he would not be voting National.
His parents, a conservative mother and a father who voted Liberal Democrat in the United Kingdom, bought land in New Zealand in the 1980s to farm beef.
He says his mother was never a Labour fan, with Rogernomics and the death of farming subsidies killing any idea she had of ever voting Labour.
That forced his family, and many others, off the land. While his parents had careers to fall back on, many others in their community did not, he says.
All that made telling his parents after the 2005 election he was becoming a Labour Party member an interesting conversation.
‘‘I remember it so vividly. I was just coming to the end of my term as [Massey University] student president and I had decided I would join the Labour Party when I had finished my term.’’
His father had read comments he was making to media and asked where his politics sat.
‘‘I said, ‘I voted Labour’, and mum sort of sat up.
‘‘And then I said, ‘actually, if I’m honest with you, I’m thinking about joining the party’.
‘‘Mum just lurched forward and said, ‘what the hell would you want to do that for’?’’
Dad took the news much better. He is now a Labour member and helped members of Palmerston North’s Bhutanese community get their votes in at the 2014 election.
Lees-galloway says his belief Labour did more than National for middle-class families was the reason for his vote in 2005.
He specifically points to interest-free student loans and the establishment of Kiwisaver, both promised by Labour before that election, as evidence that showed him the party could handle things on the economic front.
‘‘When I was growing up it was all ‘the Labour Party is lovely, they’ve got good intentions, but they can’t run the economy’.
‘‘I saw them run surpluses, establish a [superannuation fund] and Kiwisaver – they did all that and gave interest-free student loans. ‘‘I went and looked at people like [former Labour leader and prime minister] Helen Clark and [former finance minister] Michael Cullen and thought ‘these people aren’t crazy’.’’
But neither of those people were holding the reins once Lees-galloway made it to Parliament. It has been a frustrating three terms on the opposition benches for him. ‘‘I’m getting sick of being in Opposition. There’s a lot about being in Opposition that’s frustrating.’’
He feels he would get more done for Palmerston North if he was in government, but having National’s Ian Mckelvie as the MP for Rangitikei has its positive side, Lees-galloway says
Lees-galloway believes he has had success despite being in Opposition. Keeping the Capital Connection commuter train between Palmerston North and Wellington running, despite the executioner’s axe never being far away, is a highlight for him on a local level.
But it is the work he and his staff do with people in Palmerston North, work that flies under the radar, that he gets the most satisfaction out of.
It shows him the power government can have in a community.
‘‘I get very frustrated [when people say] ‘government shouldn’t do that’. Government is an expression of the community. It is the entire country getting together and saying ‘we are going to elect those people to govern our community’.’’
He sees it as no different to a union, church or sports club electing people to be in charge.
‘‘Our government is just a sports club committee for the entire country.’’
Lees-galloway is extremely positive of where Labour will be after the election – ‘‘we will be in government on September 24’’ – almost to the point of fanaticism.
While he gives the official line when asked about what role he would want if his dreams become reality – ‘‘I’m very happy being a member for Palmerston North’’ – he is quick to deviate.
‘‘I think all of us deep down want to be a minister, because that’s where you can make stuff happen.’’
Minister for workplace relations, immigration or defence – all portfolios he has held for Labour – are roles he thinks would be a natural fit, but he is quick to add that he would not turn his nose up at a lower-profile role.
‘‘I’m looking to be part of the government. I don’t just want to be a government back bencher.’’
He sighs when asked if he would ever want to be prime minister. He points out the time away from wife Claire and their three children, and the intense pressure that comes with the top job, as the main negatives.
‘‘I never say never, but it’s not really what I’m pursuing at the moment.’’
But he does want a life after Parliament, with social entrepreneurship – using the same techniques start-up companies employ to help solve social issues – a possible avenue.
‘‘Going into Parliament when I’m 29 means... I could have a full political career in both Opposition and government, hopefully make some positive change and be able to leave with plenty of time in my life to have a full other career afterward.
‘‘What I don’t think I’ll ever lose is the desire for my community and the people around me.’’