Louisa Wall is Labour’s best bet for Manurewa

When asked about the challenge for the Labour nomination for Manurewa, the Prime Minister replied that selection processes were dealt with by the party. “They don’t tend to interest the rest of New Zealand”, she said. That may be true for most of the Labour candidates for the New Zealand Parliament, but it is not true in this case.

Louisa Wall MP is a national and international figure with a major profile. She is highly regarded by a large number of significant women leaders, by our nation’s sporting community, by community activists, and by the nation’s LGBTIQ community. She took the same courage she displayed as a Silver Fern and a Black Fern to her successful leadership for the Marriage Equality legislation.

I taught Wall in her undergraduate social work degree, and I supervised her M.Phil thesis (2001) Indigenous Representation as Members of Parliament. She knows that our first Ma¯ori woman MP, Iriaka Ratana, faced vociferous opposition from Te Puea Herangi when she stood for Parliament, and elders from Te Arawa turned their backs to her when she rose to speak. She worked with National MP Hilda Ross extensively on issues for Ma¯ori women and children.

My colleague Hon Peter Gordon said, that when Whetu Tirakatene Sullivan became Minister of Tourism in 1972, officials and industry leaders complained that she served tea and not alcohol, she did not give in to lobbying pressure, and did not play male games. Our second Ma¯ori woman MP led New Zealand’s delegation to the UN Conference for International Women’s Year in Mexico in 1975, and outrageously suggested that the word “sexism” be added to the World Plan of Action, well outside her MFAT brief.

Now Wall is being challenged for the Labour candidacy for Manurewa. The Labour Party President is reported as saying “members understood the need to select an MP who represented local issues”, in a report that also claimed “Labour has claimed almost every election there for 50 years”. Apparently, there is criticism that Wall is not in Cabinet.

Was there some advantage to Manurewa when Roger Douglas was in Cabinet? If I go back to 1972, the MP for Manurewa has had a Cabinet position for 16 of the 51 years.

Cabinet Ministers have less time to devote to electorate matters. The electorate does not receive resource and investment advantages. New Zealand needs some leaders who will forsake opportunities for promotion to Cabinet, where they will be silenced by the doctrine of collective responsibility, and may be invited to relinquish principle and integrity for Cabinet unity.

Wall is an exceptionally strong local representative. She doesn’t just make speeches, she makes things happen. Look at the examples: tackling period poverty, showers for the homeless and their access to primary health care, working with local churches for hospitality cafes, sight screening and glasses for children in Manurewa, introducing KidsCan to their first high school partnership, in Manurewa. She has a very good grasp of how the system works, how to access information and assistance for those who seek her help, and she responds quickly.

She has been a distinguished chair of the Health Select Committee. She has demonstrated significant leadership in the cross-party Women Parliamentarians group, and in teams working on marriage equality, abortion, female genital mutilation, mental health and addictions and end of life legislation, a quality New Zealanders want to see more of in their elected representatives.

I laugh when I read she is a “polarising figure in the Labour Caucus”. I was subject to the same criticism. Yet time has a way of showing that critical thinkers on the inside improve a government’s performance, especially when there are weak Opposition parties in Parliament.

I have great respect for our Prime Minister, but in this case we disagree. Many New Zealanders will be watching the Manurewa selection, and their party vote will hang on this outcome.