Escaping politics
As a new political year begins, Lucy Bennett catches up with former politicians and asks whether they will return
Ex-MPs including David Cunliffe, Steven Joyce and Todd Barclay open up about life in the real world and why they’re in no hurry to return to Parliament.
Former Labour leader David Cunliffe says wild horses wouldn’t drag him back. Not that there’s a vacancy for a Labour leader at present.
Cunliffe says he’s enjoying life since leaving politics.
Now a partner in management consulting firm Stakeholder Strategies in Auckland, the 18-year veteran of politics and former Labour minister says his only link with Parliament now is “watching with interest”.
“I’m enjoying having a life and . . . working in a new environment.”
He says he now also enjoys “working with a high-performing team who have each other’s backs”. Read into that what you will.
Asked if he might ever consider a return to Parliament, Cunliffe’s response is swift: “Wild horses wouldn’t drag me.”
Cunliffe led Labour for just over a year until the general election in 2014 when Labour suffered its worst election result since 1922.
Labour polled just 25.13 per cent, forcing Cunliffe’s resignation. He initially promised to recontest the leadership but stood aside after widespread criticism.
Former “Minister for Everything” Steven Joyce has now become “Consultant for Everything”.
The former senior National minister’s Joyce Advisory is doing some big projects in Australian government and commercially here as well.
“It’s quite fun to be looking after your own diary and all those things again . . . quite liberating.”
Joyce, who entered Parliament in 2008, retired in April last year.
He misses some of the people and some of the policy discussions, but not the commitment required.
He says he hasn’t given any thought to ever returning to politics.
“I think once you’ve had your go, you’ve had your go,” he says.
“It was a wonderful privilege to do the things I got to do over the nine years I was there, but now it’s about focusing on other parts of my life.”
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga made his name for the wrong reasons while presiding over the Serco debacle while Corrections Minister in the former National Government.
He was vehement in his belief he made the right decision to resign from Parliament in 2017.
Lotu-Iiga, with his wife Jules, adopted baby Luka as a brother to daughter Hope shortly before he resigned after nine years in Parliament.
Now deputy chief executive Pasifika at Manukau Institute of Technology, Lotu-Iiga says the role’s challenging but he’s enjoying it.
“I’m enjoying asking ministers for money, the same ministers who in opposition asked me for money.”
On why he left politics, he says: “Having a daughter and then a son, I think it crystallised a lot of what I was feeling about my family at the time. I know I made the right decision.
“In fact, it wasn’t that I made the right decision, it was Jules and I and the family that made the right decision.”
Lotu-Iiga says he misses some of the people he used to work with in Parliament but not the time away from his family.
Likewise, Te Ururoa Flavell is in his happy place working in education. The former Ma¯ori Party coleader is three months into his new role as the chief executive of Wa¯nanga O Aotearoa. “It was a bit hard transitioning out of politics and getting a proper life [but] I really, really enjoy it, being back in the education sector and the job. I love it. I’m in my happy place.”
He spent 14 years with the Ma¯ori Party as an MP, co-leader and Cabinet minister, most recently Minister of Ma¯ori Development and Wha¯nau Ora in the last National Government. Flavell, who with fellow Ma¯ori Party co-leader Marama Fox was turfed out of Parliament at the last election, says he benefited hugely from the experience and time in politics, but he wouldn’t be back. “I’ve done my dash.” Former National backbencher Todd Barclay, once a rising star of the party, says he doesn’t plan on returning any time soon.
When workplace bullying and recording staff were not heard of among MPs, he was accused of both. He resigned fairly quickly in June 2017 after Newsroom broke the story. Barclay, who spoke to the Weekend Herald from London, says he loved his seven years working in Parliament, three of them as an MP.
“But I feel like I’ve had my turn . . . There are other ways to be involved and make a contribution.” Barclay now works for the Ishii family, the Japanese owners of Queenstown’s Millbrook Resort. “I’m the Europe and Middle East representative for the family’s group of design, software and IT companies, Too Group. “I miss Parliament but not the politics. I miss being able to meet and work with a wide range of interesting and talented people across Clutha-Southland on exciting and meaningful projects, and in particular I miss working on individual constituent cases.” One former MP who is not ruling out a return to politics is Richard Prosser. He has probably burned his bridges with his old party, New Zealand First, after calling leader Winston Peters “erratic”, among other things, but he might have his sights set on National.
He’s back working for the irrigation company he was with before he went into Parliament in 2011.
He spends a lot of time travelling around the South Island now as a business development manager.
Prosser was a controversial MP who was not returned to Parliament in 2017 after being demoted from third to 15th on the NZ First list.
Although he didn’t like leaving unfinished business when his political career ended, he feels like he dodged a bullet given his former party chose to form a Government with Labour.
“I can’t see it being a particularly happy arrangement to be in. If you look at the leopard not changing its spots [he’s referring to Peters], they’re all going to be jockeying for position and they’re all going to be trying to eat each other’s lunch.
“That party won’t survive once he’s gone. It won’t survive anyway, but once he’s gone it has no future because it’s a one-person party.”
Asked about a return to Parliament, Prosser says he’s not sure there is a political home for him at the moment. “My leanings have always been more towards blue than the other direction. I hope in some way . . . to assist in the restoration of team blue.
“At the moment I’m probably happier not to be there . . . [but] I wouldn’t rule it out.
“Like I say, never say never.” Former Labour MP Sue Moroney has found her niche after retiring from politics in 2017.
She’s using her experience as a social justice advocate to head up Community Law Centres O Aotearoa.
Starting last June, Moroney, also a former journalist and unionist, heads a team of 170, as well as 1200 volunteers, at 24 centres nationwide.
“It’s a great continuation of my work fighting for social justice because what community law centres do is that we ensure there’s a quality of access to justice for people on low incomes,” she says.
She credits her 12 years in Parliament for teaching her some of the skills she now uses. “I bring my skills of working with people and being able to harness the amazing talent throughout our organisation.”
Asked what she misses, she says: “I certainly don’t miss feeling like I’m back at school because I have to respond every time a bell goes, and I don’t miss the long hours.”
But she feels she might have missed the bus with the coalition Government. “I do miss the opportunity to have been around the Cabinet table because I think I could have made a good contribution to progress and policy around there.
“But . . . the role I have now is a nationwide one where I can continue to ensure social justice issues without the constraints of Parliament, so it’s a perfect role for me.”