GUEST BLOG: Willie Jackson – Why Labour for me and why now?

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For nine years I have watched communities disintegrate while some in our beautiful country have advanced.

As leader of the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA) and National Urban Maori Authority, I see the impacts of inequality first hand. There is a ferocious and increasing level of poverty in Auckland. The urban Maori organisations of which I am involved, help feed, educate, clothe, accommodate, heal, rebuild and strengthen those who are most in need.

This year alone, MUMA has directly supported 3000 families in the poorest parts of our city. We provide help to solo mums and dads, the unemployed, the under educated, former prisoners, the invisible hungry kids who later in life turn on our communities, battered women, victims and even the perpetrators. I am proud of the work that we do for our community.

There’s no getting away from the fact that a lot of our work ironically has occurred under the National and Maori Party government. I make no apology for this because as the CEO I must advance the interests of my community with whomever is in government. The fact is however my organisation is underfunded in every area of Maori development. Whanau Ora is a classic example. This is a programme where we are making real change in peoples lives empowering whanau to take control of their families and we are getting outstanding results yet the funding is minimal and pales in comparison to what mainstream agencies receive. This is a message that Labour party leader Andrew Little gets and one of the primary reasons why now I am committed to working with Labour. Unlike the Maori party who seem besotted with the iwi leaders, tribal elite and National party, Labour is committed to the poorest New Zealanders who have missed out from the rock star economy.

Why else have I joined Labour? Because all my life my passion, vision and energy has been directed at supporting the poorest amongst us and in my view Labour is the only political party wherein real change is possible. I want to be part of that change. I want to see Maori, Pakeha, Pasifika and working class families who have been ignored and forgotten achieve the same possibilities and outcomes of those in the wealthier suburbs of New Zealand.

Fifty thousand homes for first time home buyers, safer and less crime ridden communities and public services that don’t need an ambulance to constantly be waiting at the bottom of every cliff- that’s Labour’s promise and they are promises I believe in.

Like so many Kiwi’s, I demand real change from our politicians, and if I am fortunate enough to be elected in September, it is a demand I won’t rest on until it’s achieved.

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Thats why I have joined the Labour Party.

 

*First Published in the Manukau Courier

25 COMMENTS

  1. Kia ora Wilie. You seem to be able to list the symptoms of the problem, but even Bill English can manage that. Bill’s solution is to babble “social investment” rhetoric, and basically carry on with all the policies that have brought us to where we are. So, what are you and Labour offering as an alternative?

    “Fifty thousand homes for first time home buyers”

    So, 50,000 less households subject to the increasing exploitation of the rental market, although delivered into the increasing exploitation of the private finance market; out of the frying pan, into the fire. What about returning to the state issuing low-interest mortgages to first home buyers, as it did prior to Rogernomics, instead of continuing to let private banks use them as cash cows?

    Besides, as others have asked on this site, what does this do for the huge number of kiwis who would remain subject to the rental market? What policy does Labour offer for increasing the quality and security of rental housing?

    I would add, will these homes be built by the same corporate construction oligopoly that is being enriched by post-earthquake rebuilds? Those who know their history are aware that Fletchers made their fortune by getting the majority of the contracts to build the first Labour government’s state houses. Will your “affordable housing” policy also serve as corporate welfare, or as an opportunity to empower communities to run their own builds, or bootstrap cooperative green building companies? Will these “affordable hones” be nested in the same unsustainable, US-style subdivisions that corporate developers have been throwing up all over Canterbury? Or will they be modeled on papa kāinga, co-housing, eco-neighbourhoods, and eco-villages which build in the space and resources necessary for a level of household and community resilience?
    http://cohousing.org.nz/communities

    “safer and less crime ridden communities”

    This is just feel-good rhetoric, which National and ACT constantly bang on about too. It’s a goal nobody can disagree with, but will you and Labour set out to achieve it by understanding and addressing the deep causes of precarity and crime, or by hiring more enforcers, building more prisons, and further enriching the private security corporations who are the only real beneficiaries of the security-industrial complex?

    “and public services that don’t need an ambulance to constantly be waiting at the bottom of every cliff”

    Again, this is rhetoric that National could spout in defence of their “social investment” privatization scheme. What is Labour actually doing to do differently with the way public service organisations are run? Will Work and Income funds continue to be redirected to private security companies, while families live in cars and tents? I’ve seen as many as four security guards at one Work and Income office. Even bank branches don’t have that many. Will Labour address this ridiculous corporate welfare? I wait in hope, but I won’t be holding my breath.

    • I think your looking at this from the wrong angle, you’ve got to appoint the design team first before you’re able to answer all those questions because far to often buyers assume you can fit 100 units on a section then the design team comes in and says, “sorry, you can only fit 40 units on that section. So to answer your questions. Willie Jackson along with the rest of Labour must be the government in September so they can appoint the design team and answer you’re questions properly. There is opinion and informed opinion and I for one will not tell a reseed trial construction company what type of houses is best suited for a section.

      There are a few companies with in New Zealand with the experience/knowledge/supply chain/ect and Foetchers is one of the. Labour in executing Willies kiwi dream will advertise a price, receive offers, pick the ones that best suit there budget forecasts and then proceed in this fashion and not yours.

  2. Where are you going to put the 50,000 houses Willie?

    How will you get the consents for these houses through Auckland Council bureaucracy (which is what created the housing shortage in the first place)

    How do you propose to pay for them?

    If they’re state houses, how do you plan to stop the occupants from smashing them pieces?

    • Willie will pay for the houses the same way Bill is going to pay for all his election bribe promises with Andrew using the 2-5 billion surplus he has been saving while many suffer without services and much needed help

    • At least Willie and Labour have plans to address the housing issue that Key and National created.Why would they give away their plans for National to once again steal and call their own.

      Why did National create this crisis?
      Why was National so unwilling to work with the Auckland Council?
      Why has National created a society that results in people smashing State Houses?

    • “If they’re state houses, how do you plan to stop the occupants from smashing them pieces?”

      …and they say right-wing comedians don’t exist. Thanks for the lolz Andrew

    • If they’re state houses, how do you plan to stop the occupants from smashing them pieces?

      Or how do we stop successive National governments smashing the State house system full-stop.

      As usual, Andrew, your prejudice against the poor numbs you to their predicament, and blinds you to the neo-liberal causes of poverty.

      Remember, Andrew, once upon a time, when unemployment was counted in the tens or hundreds, rather than the tens and hundreds of thousands? Yes? No?

      How do you propose to pay for them?

      So, you suggesting the poor and Middle Classes shouldn’t live in houses, Andrew, unless they can afford million-dollar price tags? Is that your “vision” for New Zealand – homes only for the affluent?

      Is a cardboard box ok?

      • Frank even the cardboard boxes are going for a premium these days ,at least the car has a roof to keep out the rain.

        The epitome of the brighter future and our fellow New Zealanders who keep voting for it.

    • The Auckland housing crises was not created by Counsel bureaucracy.
      Lazy ‘fast money’ rampant immigration policy combined with overseas laundered drug money created this giant ponzi scheme.
      Why do you think the National Government refused to keep a register of all foreign buyers and speculators until the pressure finally forced them to.
      By that time the damage was done , the horse well and truly bolted over the hill and out of sight .
      Don’t kid yourself it was the counsel …. They’re are just at the bottom of the ruck after receiving a giant National hospital pass !!

  3. Welcome Willie, your positiveness is a breath of fresh air. Whilst others wait in hope or hold their breath, I believe we need change, without change we continue down the same destructive path. So whilst many argue that they are unsure as to what Labour will achieve, I say let them have that chance, after all, clearly National has failed and many examples over the past nine years give evidence to this. Along with the Greens, N.Z. First and the TOP party( if they enter parliament) I do see progression. Otherwise N.Z will become more divided.

    • Assuming that a Labour-led government will automatically be better than one led by National is what allowed Labour to be used as the vehicle for the neo-liberal coup, which would have been fought tooth and nail if the same policies had been tried under National. A change of leaders is the joy of fools. What we desperately need is a radical change of policy, which will help us move towards a change of system. Without this, as we saw under Clark, a change of government is merely new packaging on the same rotten rubbish.

      • I truely believe the only way to drag Labour left is if Mana and TOP get in or Labour risks looking unconvincing exactly the same way as the maori party looks unconvincing. Its going to take one hell of an effort to get them in but any one who takes moral crises seriously must have honest looks at MANA and TOP

        • TOP especially. Mana could be great, but they need to lead their list for the next election with younger candidates. I’d love to see Minto involved in education reform where his insights and principles can be of value to a left wing government, but he has that gravitas because he came to prominence young and in a relevant protest movement. Mana needs to engage people who were involved prominently in housing, TPPA and or GCSB/NSA related campaigns and get them the visibility and profile they need to inspire others of the younger generation.

      • Spot on.

        Throughout all the time Labour was in power between Muldoon and Key it failed to address any of the fundamental issues, and made all aspects of our collective predicament far worse.

      • And there’s enough rhetoric in support of this need, that the first credible party to embrace it has a huge body of support waiting for them. The political establishment is being left behind by public sentiment. And left behind by widespread public recognition of the failure of the neoliberal experiment , and the need to return to a sensibly managed economy.
        A new party might be needed clearly stating this as their platform.
        D J S

        • Strypey, Sam ,Cemetery Jones ,Afewknowthetruth ,David Stone. Yes, yes ,yes…. well done. The thread here is most encouraging.
          I can’t help feeling there is a staleness in the same old same old fodder we are being fed from the left. The total disarray and demise of the Democrats has a lesson for us somewhere.

  4. Thank you Willie I already knew why you are joining Labour and your right everything you have said is right and I will be backing you all the way

  5. Andrew Willie will pay for the houses using the election bribery money Bill has in his savings chest (2-5 billion) after cutting and slashing social services, and our safety net and denying too many struggling NZers the help they need

  6. I don’t believe in this man. I’ve listened to him on Radio Live, never once addressed real issues facing this country. It’s the same old. Shame on the Labour Party which has nothing better to do than adopt this self aggrandising one man band . I really despair for this once decent Country. It’s living in LA LA land incapable of sorting the real ugly shit afflicting this Country!

    • He was in the Alliance caucus back when I was in my late teens. They did very well in their short time in coalition with Labour, probably most of the good achievements of the Clark years were really theirs. That was Willie Jackson, Laila Harre, Sandra Lee, I hate to say Jim Anderton but while he might have been responsible for them breaking up, he did do some good before the fall. Pity he could never grow up when it comes to weed though.

  7. We’ve all made mistakes in our lives. (God knows I’ve made some real stuff-ups in my youth.)

    But if Willie has learned from those mistakes, he shouldn’t be denied an opportunity to contribute to a new government. Everyone deserves another chance.

    Of course, we’ll all be taking a deep interest if/when Willie’s Parliamentary career takes off (again). There will be many who will not hesitate to offer constructive criticism as and when it is needed.

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