I never understood Tau Henare.
He announced today he’ll resign from parliament at the election this year but after 15 year in parliament it’s hard to see any political legacy.
I first met him as Raymond Henare when he was a young self-styled radical from Otara organising the Maori Peoples’ Liberation Front. I’m not sure it ever had more than a couple of members but he was part of the broad progressive political scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s when activism among young Maori was vibrant and strong.
He moved on to become an organiser with one of the unions – the Northern Clerical Workers Union – and in this capacity I invited him to speak to a class I taught at Hillary College in Otara. As a prominent old boy of the school he was a good choice to engage kids in seeing a wider range of possibilities beyond school. From memory he spoke to the kids about the importance of unions and sticking together to get a better deal from the bosses.
(Ironically the only piece of legislation I’m aware he pioneered as an MP was to try and make it more difficult for workers’ to take strike action in industrial disputes)
Later he joined up with New Zealand First and ended up supporting a National government in the first MMP election of 1996. It didn’t seem to worry him and it was all downhill from there. As the National/New Zealand First coalition disintegrated after Prime Minister Jenny Shipley sacked New Zealand First leader Winston Peter from cabinet Henare helped maintain National in power till the 1999 election. He’s been with National ever since, not seeming to be anything more than a parliamentary placeholder for the party, helping deflect criticism that it’s a rich-white-man’s party.
Tau says he’s happy with what he’s achieved in 15 years in parliamentary politics and talks about the hard work done by the Maori Affairs Select Committee in recent years under him as chair. Others would be better to judge his work there but my impression is of a reasonably colourful, nice bloke (if you didn’t talk politics) who failed to make his mark anywhere.
I was speaking with him on a panel to a lecture theatre of young teachers’ college graduates a few years back and I asked him afterwards how come he ended up in National after starting out in Otara – a community which needs anything else but National policies. He responded with a shrug of the shoulders and a humorous, dismissive comment which I think sums up his politics.
From his earliest days he’s been a piece of political driftwood, caught up in whichever local current came his way. He’s refreshingly non-ideological but that very lack of solid political direction has meant he’s been malleable to whichever political forces in whose orbit he happens to find himself.
So after a lot of early promise Tau ended up on the other side of the road from the people he grew up with. They needed a champion but Tau joined in with the bullies to give them more of a thrashing.
I don’t understand why.
Superb summation of a less than superb career. Not many Tories start out in Otara. I think the fact that he propped up National 1996 to 1999 when he jumped from NZ First to ME First, sealed his political course.
He was fairly ‘robust’ when he got stuck into Aaron Gilmore last year, maybe too hard on the little white boy. At least Gilmore knew who he was.
It’s a pity that Raymond forgot who he was at the end and those who elected him.
His arrogant dismissal last year of the cleaner who quite rightly protested her appalling hourly pay rate of $14.10 cleaning the very toilets Tau used, summed him up nicely:
“Here’s the question – if she doesn’t want the job, give it to somebody else that wants the job.” and added “I’m not the employer. Are we supposed to feel sorry for every person in New Zealand who’s got a hard job?”
It was straight out of a Dickens novel and rated up there with Scrooge. Hard to believe this guy came from where he did, what an unprincipled turn coat. It’s hard to imagine how he will look back with any pride.
And yet it was probably his greatest contribution to his buddies in the National Party and one who at least articulated openly what they all think anyway of such horrid little creatures that are the low paid.
I guess if nothing else he’s a good litmus test. He’s a rat deserting a sinking ship. If he hasn’t created a credible place for himself anywhere else with the National Party, where does he go from here? Well, he takes whatever he managed to score from the ‘insider trading’ that is National politics and he exits stage right, I suppose. He must be re-living 1999 and telling himself ‘this is where I came in’. Hehehe, National Party polies eh, its all boom and bust with them, bit like mining and drilling.
Henare is the archetypal right-wing bully boy. I won’t shed any tears to see him gone.
At a guess I would say he’s just like 99% of the rest of the population, looking for a comfortable spot in a miserable world where he gets a nice crust for little effort.
Must have lined himself up an even cushier number.
The guys a dick, he has no mana, he has no scruples, he has given us nothing of substance.
We we hear Nacts talking about beneficiaries, 3 types come to mind.
1. The Royal Family – about 20-30 generations.
2. Parliamentarians – can be many 3 year terms (Tau)
3. Winz recipients – the only ones who actually need it.
“He’s refreshingly non-ideological”
Nah, he’s the most ideological person in Government. What could be more ideological than a piece of political driftwood
Politician or carpetbagger? Hmmm. I think, the latter. I was surprised to see that Henare still attended parliament a while back as I’d thought he had faded out. Well, he had as it appears. What has he done for the low-wage worker? What has he done for poor communities? He could have been a spokesperson for a group of people he should have had the ability to empathise with. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. He didn’t.
The image that sticks in my mind is his face when he made his comment about the cleaners’ pathetically low hourly rate.
He obviously spoke before he engaged his brain. Henare proved he was self-serving. Won’t be missed.
I don’t understand why.
Surely you jest.
It’s been ‘Tau first’, all the way.
NZ will be better off with his retirement.
He will be forgotten by next year.
Thanks for this summary.
I had some dealings with him in the ’90s over land when he was Minister of Maori Affairs.in a National Government. He was affable but not engaged at all. He lounged back in his very big chair hands behind his head and just nodded from time to time, while looking out the window. He had done no homework on what the issues were and couldn’t have shown his lack of interest more clearly. A political time server.
This is a bitter piece from a failed career politician who has achieved nothing when compared with Tau Henare.
In our culture you don’t speak ill of the dead and the same concept applies when someone decided to step down from a career in politics. Regardless of your political beliefs to denigrate the efforts of someone else who was passionate about making New Zealand a better place is just about the lowest of the low.
John, if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say it.
Perhaps you might like to enlighten us Mathew on just WHAT Tau Henare has achieved, of any value ????????…apart from serving himself!!.
There don’t seem to be many tributes for the guy.
Like others have said, he’s a beige flip-flopper and no-one can pin down what he stood for. I thought John Minto summed that up perfectly.
As for political legacy, Matthew, people will remember John Minto long after Toe has faded into insignificance, and it looks like that process began years ago.
“This is a bitter piece from a failed career politician”
Yeah Minto, you’re a career politician. How many years have you been an MP? It must be at least zero years…sucking off teh taxpayz…
I am puzzled what makes Minto a career politician. I thought he was an activist who just happens to have stood for public office twice. And a full-time school teacher, so how is he sucking of the….
If people are going to hold themselves up as something special because they have been X number of years in parliament then they need to tell us what they have actually achieved during that time.
I am waiting for the expose of Ross Robertson and what he achieved for the people of south Auckland during all the years he has had a seat in parliament.
” to denigrate the efforts of someone else who was passionate about making New Zealand a better place is just about the lowest of the low. “.
Frankly if speaking the truth is ” the lowest of the low ” then we’re off to hell in a handcart .
I think Minto was very restrained actually .
Henare has pretty much just helped himself and bugger the people he was there to actually help. He has supported a Govt which has put thousands of kiwi kids into poverty, has overseen the rise of third world diseases, has spied on us wholesale, has given away millions to overseas corporations ..where do i stop ?
He’s no loss to anyone at the bottom of the heap in NZ , he never helped them at all and now he’s off to enjoy a big fat pension .
Why so bitter, TRM? John Minto is not a failed politician and, in the opinion of many, would be one of the highest achievers of his generation. John never sought fame, unlike one or two in the anti-apartheid movement, nor did he shirk from putting his body on the line. John will be remembered a century from now.
Tau Henare, on the other hand, was a self-serving bully and coward who could hardly look people in the eye. He has almost been forgotten already.
Whaaaat? Whose culture you talking about bei? (TRM)
Or are you being facetious?
Winstone Peters seemed to not mind speaking his views on Henare’s departure. Which culture is he part of?
Egotistical try-hard would sum up his political legacy well.
Having a brief look at his profile on Wikipedia, he has two ancestors who were prominent politicians and he “was told almost before he could walk that his future would be politics”. Well, his legacy provides a good example of the folly in the notion certain qualities can be inherited.
Then there’s the whole self-made, growing up in the poor end of town thing; a common attribute of some members of this National crop (Key, Bennett). They would like to have us believe they’re a blossom that grew out of the manure, however they prove to be heavy feeding carnivorous stench blossoms that deplete the goodness in the valuable “manure” they detest so much.
So after flunking University Entrance, Henare gets involved in the union and radical scene, next alternative available to fulfill his egotistical goals I suppose. Just entailed using these organisations/movements as stepping-stones in a manner befitting the typical apex creep.
Having achieved some hollow political legacy, cushy life and support role for National; his retirement seems as distinguished as pruning deadwood, probably because there’s a special crony creep earmarked to be grafted in place. National preparing next season’s vile crop.
Those who pursue power observe no ideology, given Henare’s time in parliament/politics, Trevor Mallard would be the best candidate to give him a “send-off”.
T’was along time ago but I do remember Raymond Henare at Hilary College. He was in the same form as me and he was a full on character, talking alot and being funny, a great personality. I also recall him trying to scab my sandwiches from time to time but being hungry myself he never got one. 🙂 Shame that he has not really made the most of his potential. Didn’t really get the fire in his belly from his early enviroment. Or if he ever did got too comfortable and complacent when the going became too hard. Who knows but I do believe it is never too late to get the fire in the belly. So many like myself who never took too much notice of politics and what’s going on in the world. But found myself getting more and more disturbed about the growing inequality of neoliberalism. Raymond you are still young enough to make use of your current, relative “infamy” and to make a difference? Are you up to the challenge? You will sleep all the better for it. 🙂
Has it occurred to you he was only in it for the money and perks which he will now be able to enjoy while quite liberally while literally drifting?
Indeed, too many of them in there for the perks. Many of them could never get a job in the real world paying that sort of money.
Too kind methinks .
He’s a money grubbing tory who stayed there long enough to get a good pension.
To claim to be ideologically free is a statement of ideology ie bereft of ideals or values.
I guess if Henare is a piece of political driftwood, Peter Dunne is a patch of surface scum.
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