Venu Menon
Wellington, September 27,2023
Police Minister and current MP for Hutt South Ginny Andersen says she has kept her promise on RiverLink, a major infrastructure project, that the National Party had pledged but failed to honour.
“Previously, while National had promised that [project], it wasn’t funded. By funding that, we can have the flood protection, reduce the congestion, and we can open up the river for a great recreational purpose,” Andersen told local community members gathered at the St. James Anglican Parish Hall in Lower Hutt last week.
The event was organised jointly by community service organisation Ekta, Voice of Aroha and Hutt Multicultural Council. The session was moderated by Prabha Ravi and Luis Perez.
Housing was the next box Andersen ticked. “When National was in government, we lost about 315 state houses that were removed here in the Hutt. We’ve built that ground up to 200, with over 500 in the pipeline.”
Then she touched on schools.
“There are two major high schools – the Wainuiomata High School and Hutt Valley High School. They’ve had full rebuild. Both the schools had mould, damp classrooms, leaky roofs. They were completely fixed up and progressed to a much better place for young people to be able to go and learn each day.”
Every primary school in the Hutt Valley had been upgraded with new libraries, classrooms and new roofs, Andersen pointed out.
Hutt hospital was next in line for an upgrade, she announced.
But Chris Bishop, the National Party challenger standing from the Labour stronghold of Hutt South, who wrested the seat for National from 2017 to 2020, focused on the ethnic diversity of the parliamentary electorate, saying: “It’s not just about economics. It’s about the enrichment and the diversity that the Hutt has.”
Currently a National List MP, Bishop noted a satisfying part of his job was “attending citizenship ceremonies run by the Council.”
Bishop projected himself as a strong advocate of immigration: “I am someone who believes that immigration to New Zealand, and the variety of different faiths and ethnicities and religions that we have here in the Hutt Valley, is something that enriches the Hutt and makes it a more vibrant and culturally better place, alongside economically [better] as well.”
Acknowledging that both government and council had a role in fostering that multicultural ethos, he said the real strength of those institutions came from the community and “from people putting their hand in their pocket and deciding to celebrate [customs] such as Raksha Bandhan and Baisakhi.” The role of MPs was to participate and help foster that multicultural vision in government.
Next up was Neelu Jennings of the Green Party, a disability advocate campaigning for “a fair and inclusive Aotearoa where disabled people are valued and visible on their terms.”
The mother of two highlighted the difficulty for disabled people to access services that others take for granted. “I and the Green Party feel that anyone who wants to make Aotearoa their home deserves to have a fair chance.”
The Green Party was committed to creating fair and achievable pathways to residency for immigrants. “They want to keep families together. They want to remove barriers and ease the rules for immigrants to come to New Zealand. We also want to fund more resettlement programmes for refugees,” Jennings said.
The Green Party’s mission was to “protect the environment, to restore nature and to create a fairer and inclusive Aotearoa for everyone,” she said.
The Opportunities Party (TOP) candidate for Hutt South, Ben Wylie-Van Eerd, a physicist by training, said he was driven by the reality that “people are still hungry, cold, living in cars, and dying of preventable diseases” in New Zealand.
Admitting from the outset that he was “not a migrant, not a member of any ethnic community in New Zealand,” Ben said his party was committed to social cohesion and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
“The March 15 [2019] terror attacks [in Christchurch] focused the attention of the nation, perhaps for the first time, on the needs of our ethnic communities,” Ben noted. Though the country’s response to that tragedy was heart-warming, it had not been sustained since then. Social cohesion had been fading away, he noted.
The candidates responded to questions based on the key recommendations made by the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Christchurch Mosque attacks.
Ginny Andersen referenced the setting up of a firearms registry “as a way of making sure that we keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people.” She stressed the government had accepted “all 44 of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Enquiry.”
She said the Labour government had put resources to address racism in schools, and thought children needed to be taught the history of migration in New Zealand to be able to learn to foster and celebrate diversity.
National’s Bishop said his party endorsed all the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Enquiry, except the one relating to hate speech since that area was adequately covered under the present law. He thought the implementation of the recommendations was patchy. Leadership rather than strategic frameworks delivered results, he noted.
The important thing was not to divide communities on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion. “The best thing we can do as politicians is to foster diversity, promote cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism. Celebrating festivals was a key part of that,” Bishop noted.
On racism in schools, Bishop said teacher training needed to be robust so that “we can try and change minds and behaviours through the schooling system.”
Greens’ Jennings noted her parents were Muslim and lived in Christchurch. She had relatives who underwent trauma in the wake of the March 15 Mosque attacks.
She said the Green Party welcomed all the recommendations made by the Royal Commission of Enquiry. “We specifically want to be working at the level of children because we think that social cohesion and change starts with children.”
Jennings wanted schools to be better funded so that they could promote and celebrate diversity. “We face the same exact issues in the disability sector,” she noted.
TOP’s Ben lamented that the Royal Commission report “still sits on a shelf.” It took political courage to make the changes the report recommended, he noted. He wanted “civics education” to be part of the school curriculum to curb racism.
The floor was opened to questions before the evening wrapped up.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
