ELIZABETH PEREY profiles Metiria Turei, NZ MP
This young woman is impressive – take a look at these bits and pieces I have cobbled together
Metiria Turei, NZ MP
No Rangitane, Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa me Ati- Hau-nui-a-Paparangi. Ko Ngati Moe me Wainuiarua oku hapu.
Contact Metiria: Facebook Twitter Email Dunedin
A GREEN MP since 2002, Metiria’s focus has been on Conservation, Maori, and Education issues over the last 6 years. She’s been leading the campaign to protect the Mokihinui River, and has fought for greater protection for marine animals and the marine environment. More recently, Metiria became the Greens’ spokesperson on Law and Order, advocating for restorative justice, the rights of victims to support and compensation, and for effective rehabilitation of offenders. Metiria has also been the Green Caucus Musterer (Whip), a role that manages the back room politics within Parliament. While this work has often kept her out of the public eye, it is crucial to ensuring the caucus maximises its opportunities for real political gains.
Through all the different stages of her life Metiria has been motivated to remedy injustices, and she continues to work for the implementation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Metiria is proud of her work in helping to usher Green legislation, like the Waste Minimisation Bill, into law. Her darkest time as an MP was during the Foreshore and Seabed legislation. Metiria was the Dunedin North Green Party Candidate in the 2008 election, and was pleased to be part of a campaign that saw a 54% increase in the party vote in that electorate. When able to escape the world of politics, Metiria relishes spending time with her family in Dunedin.
She has also now been nominated for Female Coleader of the Green Party. Metiria will be meeting with members over the next month and looks forward to the Conference at the end of may in Dunedin, when the party makes its decision.
Green Party Spokesperson on: Conservation, Corrections, Fisheries, Alcohol & Drug Issues, ICT, Law & Order, Maori and Treaty Issues, Tertiary Education, Youth, Treaty of Waitangi (Assoc).
What’s New?
Green Party Elects Metiria Turei Co-Leader
30 May 2009
The Green Party elected Metiria Turei its new female Co-Leader today.
Mrs Turei was elected by delegates at the Green Party’s AGM in Dunedin.
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Metiria Turei
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Metiria Turei MP
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2nd Female co-leader of Green Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2009
Preceded by Jeanette Fitzsimons
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Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Green Party List
Incumbent
Assumed office
27 July 2002
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Born February 13, 1970 (1970-02-13) (age 39)
Palmerston North
Nationality New Zealand
Political party McGillicuddy Serious Party (1993)
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (1996)
Green Party (2002-present)
Metiria Turei (born 1970) is a member of Parliament and the female co-leader of the Green Party of New Zealand
As of 2008[update] she is the Green Party spokesperson on Conservation, Disability Issues, Education, Fisheries, Health (Assoc Alcohol & Drugs), Justice, Maori and Treaty Issues, Youth, Constitutional issues, and Information Technology.
Between 1989-1991, Metiria was the Tumuaki o Te Iwi Maori Rawakore o Aotearoa and involved with Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa. Metiria was a founding member of the Random Trollops performance art troupe. She was a candidate for the McGillicuddy Serious Party in the 1993 election and for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party in the 1996 election. She was elected as co-leader at the party AGM on May 30th 2009.
In the 2002 general election, the Green Party received 7.00% of the vote, which allowed them 9 seats in Parliament. Turei was ranked 8th on the Green Party’s party list, and so entered Parliament as a list MP. When she was elected, Metiria left her job as a corporate lawyer for Simpson Grierson to become a Member of Parliament.
She retained her place in Parliament at number 6th on the Greens’ list in the 2005 election.
In 2008 she was ranked 4th on the Green Party’s list and stood in the Dunedin North electorate. She lost the election in Dunedin North to Labour’s Pete Hodgson, finishing third with 11.09% of the vote. However she returned to parliament due to her high ranking on the Green Party list.
On 30 May 2009 Turei was elected as the fourth co-leader (second female) of the Green Party. In line with Green Party policy, there must be both a male and a female co-leader. She was elected ahead of Sue Bradford, a veteran MP, who had passed three private member’s bills by then.tg
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Q+A: Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei on her new role
Q+AMetiria Turei
METIRIA TUREI interviewed by PAUL HOLMES
PAUL The Greens Co-Leader Metiria Turei is with us in Dunedin. Congratulations on gaining the co-leadership.
METIRIA TUREI – Green Party Co-Leader
Oh kia ora Paul, thank you.
PAUL Kia ora, now what kind of a leader are you going to be?
METIRIA I’m very focused on facilitating the grass roots leadership of our party, the strength of the Greens comes from the more than 4000 members that we have, and the fact that we work on a consensus basis and we have an excellent caucus, a fantastic team in caucus, to carry that work, so that’s the kind of facilitation of the expertise of all of our members and our caucus is what I’m focused on.
PAUL Right but there still has to be a leader doesn’t there, or couple of leaders?
METIRIA Yes, that’s right, and my job as I say is to facilitate the better face of the party, and to lead where that needs to be done, and follow sometimes when the party makes decisions as it’s entitled to do.
PAUL What did you learn about leadership from Jeanette Fitzsimons would you say?
METIRIA Jeanette is a very gracious leader, very focused herself on facilitating how decisions are made, and making sure that she takes people with her when she’s needed to lead from the front, and I think that’s been a really important model for leadership in our party, and Rod Donald was the same too and I think Russel is the same as well, that really we work – because we work together as a collective group we have a great deal of faith and trust in our leadership, and that has been built by Jeanette.
PAUL There will be people, no offence to you of course, but there will be many people around the country possibly who don’t know too much about you, won’t know that you’ve been a big corporate lawyer at Simpson Grierson for example. Tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t know.
METIRIA Well I was born and raised in Palmerston North, I’m very much a country kid from Palmy, I live in Dunedin now which is a beautiful place, and I have three children, two step children who are in their 20s and one of my own who’s 16, and I have a very eclectic background, and I’ve been involved in a lot of different activities whether it’s political protest or corporate lawyering, and I think it’s that diverse background that I come from that has been a real advantage in being an MP, and now as a Co-Leader.
PAUL You were very generous with those things we didn’t know. Why did the party choose you over Sue Bradford do you think, Metiria?
METIRIA Well the party had a very difficult decision yesterday, because both Sue and I have a very common background in social activism and representing and fighting for the most vulnerable communities, we’ve also got very good reputations in parliament, particularly Sue Bradford with the passage of her three private member’s bills. So I think it’s an issue of regeneration of being real about the new face of Aotearoa New Zealand and looking at – being prepared to accept that some level of youth I guess is an advantage for the political landscape that we’re entering into. We have a new generation of support, a new generation of members, and we need to reflect the new face of New Zealand society. The Greens are very pragmatic and we’re also often leaders when it comes to issues of supporting younger people into leadership positions.
PAUL I suppose too while one of those private member’s bills of Sue Bradford’s was the anti smacking stuff, was there a feeling in the party that while that was very good legislation worthwhile legislation, nevertheless the politics of it were difficult, was Sue perceived perhaps as too left, too old Greens?
METIRIA We are very proud of the work we’ve done to protect children from violence, and we’re very very proud and grateful to Sue Bradford for her leadership on that issue. Again this is where the Greens have the greatest strength, we are leaders on difficult issues, but nonetheless significant and important ones, and so we’re very pleased with the results and we think that it’s been positive for the country overall.
PAUL You mentioned the world pragmatic before, and I know that you’ve said that you want the Greens to become a broader church. Would it be fair to say that you are more in the centre politically than Sue is?
METIRIA I find that whole left and right spectrum unhelpful frankly, I don’t think it properly reflects Green politics, Green politics is much broader than just left and right.
PAUL Well the Greens are a left wing party though. Up to now you’ve been a left wing party.
METIRIA Oh I think we are certainly on the left absolutely, I certainly agree with that, but at the same time as I say it’s not helpful.
PAUL No, but would there be a desire – if you want to turn the Greens into a major party for example, which I assume you do, do you?
METIRIA Yes we are on a trajectory of growth and we will continue to grow, that’s certainly true.
PAUL Is it fair to say that you probably need to more therefore into the centre?
METIRIA No, I don’t think that that’s the way to characterise how the Green Party will grow, we are gaining more and more support from across the spectrum of the community, more and more people are concerned about environmental issues, and the impact of environmental degradation on our economy, and they understand that the Greens are the only political party that recognises the connection between the two, that in order to protect our economy and ensure it is resilient long term, we must protect our environment and ensure it is able to sustain us. That is the concern across a much broader spectrum than say a left and right spectrum might provide, and that is why I think the left and right concepts just don’t reflect real Green thinking, or indeed the modern thinking of a new generation of New Zealanders that are coming through now.
PAUL But you see let me ask you this, what’s more important to you, social justice or environmental issues? I mean if you ever had to choose which side would you come down on?
METIRIA That is the problem, there is no need to make a choice, and in fact you can’t, because in order to achieve your goals of social justice and resolving social equity, we must protect the environment and ensure it can sustain us in the long term, and the opposite as well. So the fact that others try to create a division or a dichotomy is a false dichotomy and we don’t accept it, and our solution provides for both, that’s what the Green New Deal is all about.
PAUL Well let me give you a decision you might have to make though. I could be for example that the Greens wanted one day to save a piece of land that was key to the environment, that you wanted to save a key piece of the environment, but it meant evicting people against their will, which side do you come down on?
METIRIA Oh that doesn’t happen Paul, it doesn’t make any sense to say that, in fact the opposite is the case. For example the Mokehinui River which is a campaign I’m involved in as conservation spokesperson, Meridian wants to built an 85 high metre dam on that river, it’s the seventh most significant river in the country and pristine, that dam will require the community of Mokehinui and Seddonville to be moved, and so people will be losing their homes as a result of the construction of the dam there. Now the protection of that river will protect those communities and protect the clean water source for that area, as well as protect the biodiversity of that area, so again by trying to create this false dichotomy you distort the issues, and the Greens are the ones that provide the solution and the clarity on dealing with these kinds of issues.
PAUL Well let me talk about your background, you’ve got a colourful history, you’ve been an anarchist of course, in 93 you stood for McGillicuddy Serious, in 96 Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, how can we take you seriously with a background like that?
METIRIA My background demonstrates that I understand that different communities have different kinds of needs and can be brought together under a very similar banner, if we look at values and commonalities instead of looking at differences. I’ve worked very much with young Pakeha who have been very much marginalised from society.
PAUL These are very fringe parties, the McGillicuddy Serious and Legalise Cannabis Party – do you want to legalise cannabis?
METIRIA They are parties that reflect the younger people who were involved at that time, again who were marginalised from mainstream society, particularly young Pakeha, so it’s important that those people have a voice too.
PAUL Do you want to legalise cannabis?
METIRIA Our policy is for harm minimisation Paul, I’m sure you’ve seen this, our policy is for harm minimisation, which is about reducing the harm of both drug use and drug abuse. We don’t believe that people who are drug users should be prevented from accessing the health support that they need where they should be treated as needing help rather than being criminalised.
PAUL Do you want a separate justice system for Maori?
METIRIA No that’s not the case, we’ve proposed a parallel Maori justice system that maintains the one law for all concept, but works like kohangareo do, and works like kurakaupapa do, a system that runs alongside the existing system – 60% of women in prison are Maori women, clearly something is very wrong in our legal system that creates those kinds of circumstances, so let’s look at different ways and explore different ways of dealing with it.
PAUL So if you’re Maori you get one kind of punishment, if you’re Pakeha or someone else you get another kind of punishment. Clayton Cosgrove says New Zealanders want criminals punished according to their crimes not according to their race.
METIRIA Yes and Clayton Cosgrove isn’t the most rational when it comes to these kinds of issues. If you look at what we have said about our policy – by dealing with the fact that there is some bias in the system, by enabling Maori to take responsibility for their communities and by being aware that no single solution will ever be okay for every single person, whether Maori or Pakeha, that we do have the option for talking about different alternatives in the different ways of doing things. Pita Sharples has recommended a kind of Maori rehabilitation system.
PAUL Maori prisons.
METIRIA Ones that are in prison already, and ones outside of that, we think that that’s worth exploring.
PAUL Can I just get you on the record on this. Do you want effectively a separate Maori justice system – yes or no?
METIRIA No, and I’ve said repeatedly that that’s not our policy and that’s not what we said. We talked about a system that runs parallel just like kura and kohangareo and the wananga do, so under the state system but with Maori being involved in how those kinds of institutions might be run, but also recognising that our current legal system fails many of our community, Maori and Pakeha.
PAUL Let’s go back to the politics again, particularly to the previous election. You recently made quite a belated deal with the National Party that got most of your insulation package through in the Budget, was refusing to deal with the Nats before the election should they win, a mistake?
METIRIA No, I think our party made the right decision which was that we would work with other parties where we had common ground, and that’s what we’re doing.
PAUL No, you said you would not make a deal with the National Party, and of course it made you irrelevant after the election.
METIRIA That’s not what we said. No, what we said was that we would not enable National to govern, so we would not give them confidence and supply for example, and then we also said that we would work with them where we could find common ground, which is what we are doing. So we took the right position before the election, we were clear with the public about how their vote would be used if they gave their party vote to the Greens, and we’ve been able to achieve for what is a very vulnerable community of those living in the poorest and dankest and dampest housing, and ensure that they get some relief from that. I think we’ve done a very good job of meeting our promises.
PAUL And you have done a very good job to become the Green Party Co-Leader, and again congratulations and thank you for joining us this morning, Metiria Turei.
Green Party Co-Leader Metiria Turei’s Speech
Monday, 1 June 2009, 3:30 pm
Press Release: Green Party
Green Party Co-Leader Metiria Turei’s Speech to the Party Annual Conference 2009
June 1 2009
Full Text
There is much to celebrate today.
We have elected a new co-leader and should celebrate is that it was an election, an act of democracy.
The Green Party is carving a distinctive path through New Zealand’s political landscape and our commitment to democracy is part of what makes us distinct.
In other parties a handful of MPs or some inner circle appoints a leader. We make the decision collectively.
We commit to honest politics and open government and we stand proudly apart from other parties in New Zealand.
That commitment to honest politics is particularly important today. We all know of the funding scandal in England, MP’s claiming money for mortagages that were already paid, the cleaning of ones moat (only in England) and barbecues sets..
Fortunately our system does not work like that. New Zealand has a more robust system for MP’s claims. New Zealand MPs are accessible and under scrutiny by the public.
But we can improve our system. The Green Party has led the debate on open government and public participation for many years.
We are leading again to meet the public unease over the funding to MPs for parliamentary work.
I am very pleased to tell you that our Green Party caucus has committed to making our MPs spending public.
Following the example of Russel Norman as our candidate in Mt Albert, this week we will release the costs of all MPs air travel, taxi use, rental car hire, Wellington accommodation and out of Wellington hotel costs for the period 1 January to 30 April. Thereafter we will release this information annually.
We are the first political party to make this commitment to transparency and we hope that the others will follow suit. It is traditionally the role of the Green Party to keep the old grey Parties honest and we will do so again.
There is significant public discussion about how funding to MPs and political parties is managed.
There are complicated issues around political campaigns and party funding for example.
What is not complicated is the principle that the public has the right to know and to make decisions about their own democracy.
That’s why we have fought for a citizen’s assembly on electoral funding, so the public can have their say over how their democracy is funded.
If our commitment to democracy gives all of us reason to celebrate. For me personally it adds to the responsibility and accountability that comes with the female co-leadership.
While I bring a new face and I hope a new energy to the role, it will be energy devoted to the same cause and founded on the same values of our Party.
In other parties, leadership changes can mean a change in direction as well. But in the Green Party, just as the appointment is a collective decision, our direction is also decided together.
I look forward to working with and learning from Russel who has shown exceptional leadership after assuming the male co-leader’s role in difficult circumstances. I look forward to forging an even stronger partnership in the coming months.
I am also very glad that Jeanette’s reservoir of wisdom remains with us. There will be many lessons to learn and Jeanette I will welcome your guidance in this challenge just as you’ve guided so many of us in the Party for so long.
I want to thank Sue Bradford again. Sue is one of the most effective MP’s this parliament has ever seen. And she has made a unique contribution to both our caucus and to NZ politics as a Green MP.
As I have campaigned with her over the last few weeks, my respect for her passion and her work has grown. She has helped to protect children from violence, and taken the heat for all of us in doing so.
But that is not her only contribution to our party and I want to acknowledge the breadth of Sue’s expertise on mental health, workers rights and in Green economics. For those of our members whose preference was for Sue, their work ensured we had a democratic process and I will do my best to make you proud of my leadership.
I want to thank those who supported me in the campaign for the co-leadership. Like any campaign it is crucial to have a group of people around you who will provide support, criticism and advice. And I can’t thank you enough for that support and advice.
And of course, my family. This is not a job, it’s a dedication and our family has together made this commitment to our party.
Every leader of course brings their own style to the task.
I believe that the means is the ends. What we create is determined by how we create it. What we change is determined by the changes we make first to ourselves.
We heard that philosophy from Kevin Clements last night. He challenged us to look at our own methods as agents of change and to take risks to reach out to those who challenge us, frighten us, disagree or mistrust us.
As he spoke I was reminded of a story that Kim Workman tells of his school in the Hutt, where the children of gang members were disruptive and mostly failing to even turn up. He along with the principal and the school board decided to be inclusive, treating the families of their students not as ‘gang members who happen to be parents’ but as ‘parents who happen to be gang members’.
They met with the parents and were told of how the parents were excluded from the school community, unsure of how to communicate with teachers and how passionate they were about their children having a decent education.
This approach eventually meant the doors of the school opened to these parents who happened to be gang members and their families. Their children are now attending, now achieving. These families have an investment in the school community.
We need more of these stories of engagement and connection. We hear enough of the results of exclusion and retribution. The means is the end.
I came to Parliament to protect the vulnerable from the violence and degradation inflicted by the powerful. I well remember the economic disaster of the 1990’s when unemployment rose and hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
I remember how those people were treated by the laws that cut their income, and by the policy that treated them as failures. I, like many of you, watched our families suffer from that political cruelty.
As we watch our country go into this current recession, watch more and more New Zealanders losing their jobs, the Green Party vows that we will do everything, everything in our power to protect them and their whanau.
It’s not just our people who are vulnerable, but our environment too. One area where our environmental protection laws are weakest, and where destruction and degradation continues out of sight, is our ocean. Our ocean area is 15 times larger than our land area. Yet, there is NO environmental regulation for the ocean beyond our coastal zone, and we still have NO marine reserves in our exclusive economic zone.
New Zealand’s much-touted Oceans Policy has been lost at sea for a decade. The latest draft focuses more on commercial exploitation and ignores climate change.
Our oceans are sick. Coral, cockles and krill struggle to create their skeletons and shells. The UN reports that 80% of the world’s coral reefs may die within decades. The impact of this on marine biodiversity will be devastating. Our kaimoana, on which so many communities and jobs depend, is at serious risk.
We heard on Saturday from the Otakou whänau about efforts to establish a mätaitai in Otago Harbour. We fully support the exercise of kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga. And we continue to support pakeha tools such as marine reserves.
Our ocean is not “out of sight, out of mind”; it is our backyard, our pätaka kai and a marvel of nature for all New Zealanders.
I work in hope that the power of community, conservationists, iwi and hapü and fishers who understand will win out against those who put short term profit first.
The old economics of pillaging are over
There is a growing unease about National’s absence of vision, most clearly its lack of economic direction.
At a time of economic crisis, National promised New Zealand a ‘rolling maul’ of stimulus. That maul collapsed without much progress. The over hyped jobs summit achieved little because National failed to engage training or education.
The National-led Government bowed to the climate-change deniers in the ACT party and it continues to dither over New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme, creating uncertainty for New Zealand industry and businesses.
This dithering means trees remain unplanted and so the emissions reductions we need to make will simply be more expensive to implement. The longer we leave it the more expensive it gets.
If National promised anything to New Zealanders, it promised tax cuts. Tax cuts that it swiftly introduced and then quickly reversed. That meager vision proved to be a mirage.
This weeks Budget was notable only for one bright spot: a home insulation fund, the Green Party’s home insulation fund.
The budget also confirmed $50 million to develop a network of cycleways in New Zealand. It was a new idea to National but it has been Green Party policy for a very long time.
Green Party members can carry their heads high in any New Zealand political discussion. We are the party with a plan.
It is clear that the best ideas for economic recovery belong to the Green Party. We can be exceptionally proud of this.
We can be proud that more New Zealanders will live in warm, healthy homes because of the Green Party, that New Zealand’s energy efficiency will increase because of the Green Party, and that New Zealand’s rate of asthma and bronchitis will decrease because of the Green Party.
And can I pause to acknowledge Jeanette’s role in making this happen. While we have all played a part in this, Jeanette has been a tireless and patient champion of this cause in Parliament. The result is the $323 million warm homes fund. Jeanette, it is a fitting finale to your time as co-leader.
We also celebrate the rest of the Green Party’s economic vision. We recently launched an economic stimulus package. It is a package that tackles the economic crisis and the climate crisis at the same time. It is a package that grows the right parts of the economy, moving us towards a sustainable prosperity.
In broad terms, the stimulus package spends $3.3billion over three years and creates more than 43,000 jobs.
Importantly, the Green Party’s stimulus package is costed, meaning we did the maths carefully and conservatively. Respected economic and political commentators such as Colin James and Brian Fallow have reviewed it enthusiastically.
So it is another point of pride for us as a Party that our policy is more than a wish list. It is a clear plan for economic wellbeing in New Zealand, a plan grounded in reality. It is a path to prosperity for our people, as well as our water, land and wildlife.
The Green Party initiatives all share certain characteristics with the home insulation fund; they create jobs, they transform our economy and they help the environment. And like the home insulation fund, we will share these ideas with other political parties.
And like the home insulation fund we will celebrate each of them when the economic logic, when the pull of commonsense and common decency means they become Government policy.
So what are the additional implications of well-designed economic stimulus.
One of the effects of better public transport is a reduced need to import oil. Even if you look at this issue through just the narrow financial lens the effects are profound.
New Zealand spends $8 billion every year importing oil. Most of that oil is used in cars and trucks. That $8billion, in turn, contributes to our current account deficit which currently stands at about 8.5% of GDP.
In simple terms it means that, as a nation, we spend more money than we’ve got and we borrow from other countries to fill the gap. And the problem is the gap continues to grow. The last time we saved more than we spent was 1973. More motorways are part of this problem. Better buses and trains are part of the solution.
The Green New Deal would also create 43,000 jobs. We have not included in our calculations the savings that come in unemployment benefits. These are calculated at nearly half a billion dollars. That is half a billion dollars that the government can spend elsewhere.
How do we quantify in economic terms the social impacts of employment; what it means for the well-being of families, what it means for the dignity of working men and women?
Similarly, when you make schools more energy efficient what are the impacts on learning? What are the benefits to society if we take the money saved from school power bills and spend it on teachers?
These are very the questions Green politics was designed to address. Our thinking always unites the environmental and the social.
These are the braids of our Green river- caring for our people, our economic wellbeing and our environment – that I will focus on within the broader Parliamentary and Party flow.
I began today by saying there is much to celebrate. As well as our unique Green politics, this is an opportunity to celebrate our Party’s strength.
We are over four thousand members strong and we are growing steadily.
We have nine Members of Parliament.
We have a champion sprint horse in Mt Albert, galloping up from behind to seize the day. While we have gathered here in Dunedin, other Green Party members are on the ground in the electorate, knocking on doors, delivering flyers, putting up billboards.
Meanwhile many of you have been part of our effort to take an economic message directly to New Zealanders. In recent weeks, Green Party members have delivered more than 300,000 copies of Green Times to households. 300,000.
Our effective and consistent work this year makes the 2008 general election feel like a long time ago. But it is worth remembering the Green Party has been recognized for running an excellent campaign. When I spoke to a group of public relations professionals earlier this year, it was our campaign that was celebrated, especially our online work.
We are growing, we are energetic, we are smart. This success is the fruit of our collective effort and it is a collective achievement worth celebrating.
From this conference you can take a sense of pride and excitement about the Party and its work back to your families and communities. I hope it will give all of us an impetus to our work, whether that is developing policy, branch organising or campaigning on Green issues.
You can take home and into your communitites a message of reassurance. The Green Party has a plan for the future. We understand how to confront the formidable challenges our country and our communities face. And today we are ready to lead.
ELIZABETH PEREY
