IN 2014 Max Harris, a 26-year-old Kiwi working in Helen Clark's office at the United Nations in New York, fainted. He was diagnosed with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that often enlarges the aorta, likely to fatally weaken it. At the end of that year he had successful heart
Kiwi author Max Harris to talk politics at Escape! festival
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It's a juggling act but Max Harris is keen to see younger people voting. Photo / Supplied
He has worked at the Supreme Court as a clerk for Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, as well as short stints at the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet (as a speechwriting intern) and the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.
Harris is keen to see younger people voting, but admits there is no one answer to mobilising this age group.
"There are different reasons why young Maori, young recent migrants, young Pasifika, and younger people in lower socio-economic brackets don't vote," he says. "Part of the solution is rebuilding community so people feel they have a stake in the election.
"Another part is presenting a politics that takes young people's futures seriously — by addressing long-standing problems such as incarceration, climate change, or inequality, even where they require political courage."
Although his detractors may dismiss him as an idealist, Harris is comfortable wearing that badge.
"I think it's important to be practical and specific about the changes we want in politics. But there's also a need for idealism and ambition, because it's through having high hopes and big dreams that we can mobilise people into action.
"It's through having ideals that we decide how our politics is falling short of what we need, and where we want to go in the future."
Max Harris talks about The New Zealand Project on Friday, June 1, at Baycourt and on Saturday, June 2, leads a panel discussion with MP Todd Muller, financial journalist Bernard Hickey and social affairs writer Emma Espiner. Tickets from www.ticketek.co.nz or Baycourt. See the full Escape! programme at www.taurangafestival.co.nz