Rob Campbell: Focus on law and order always punishes those without much to gain from current order

Damage to a liquor store on Great South Road in Takanini. Photo / NZME

OPINION

The pollsters tell us that concern over “cost of living” is the big election issue.

So do many politicians, who as a group are notoriously reliable for circular opinions, which have been extensively taste tested for palatability but have little “nutritional” value.

A broad-based increase in the cost of things does draw attention. I have even heard it referred to recently and without irony in discussions on company director and chief executive salaries. But it does not mean the same thing to all.

There is a big difference between being able to afford a new car or holiday destination without sacrifice, and being able to pay the rent, power or food bill for your whānau.

Health will be a major election issue. Photo / 123rf

In this waka we are supposedly all aboard, there are some sunning themselves with a cocktail, while others are paddling like mad or just hanging on to the side, almost waiting for the inevitable.

In the same way, concern about “law and order” means very different things to all of us.

It is a common catch-cry at election time, when politicians blame other politicians for their failure to prevent people breaking laws or to provide adequate penalty for it.

What we know is Māori will feature negatively regardless on law and order and hauora (health) debates.

Currently the pollsters and politicians put law and order as a major issue, even ahead of health. The cry is really about crime and punishment for others.

The law-breaking being referred to is seldom “white collar” crime (in fact the term “collar” could even be mostly dropped) - and the punishment is always for someone without much to gain from the current “order”.

It is always about “the other”, the ones “not like us” - those whose order benefits most from the laws, the ones who make the laws and give the orders.

So I’m deeply suspicious of it. Not because I do not care about assault and robbery and their victims, but because I can see it as a catch-cry which is not really concerned about law which is evenly applied to all, nor about order in a sense that includes us all.

It is really about punishing “other” people. A moment’s reflection will tell you who is calling for punishment and who is getting it.

It is because I care deeply about victims of crimes that I hate this biased trivialisation of the issues.

We silo off the enforcement and punishment issues from the causes. There are no solutions on this path.

Quite different in one sense, but the same in another: we do it with “health”.

At a policy level we keep referring to “hauora” or to “health and wellbeing”. But in practice we maintain a silo (or a series of them) which is really all just about the reaction to or treatment of ill health. This is necessary given that we do not live in ways which promote “hauora”.

Then our political debate when it focuses on “health” focuses on the gaps, failures and shortfalls within the silo. The issues here are important, and concern about the pain and stress is fully justified, as it is with crime. But again, no solutions down this path.

Healthy people live in healthy whānau. Healthy whānau live in healthy communities. Healthy communities in a healthy country. It builds like that.

Rob Campbell says health is as important as law and order at the election booth. Photo / NZME

What we know about both “hauora” and absence of crime is that they are built from the same base.

We will not punish our way to less crime, any more than we will treat our way to hauora.

Ill health and crime are real costs of living the way we live. So we must include that view in how we respond to the issues.

I guess I hate the separate ranking of voting issues most.

That framing obscures what we really need to understand and how we should act.

Rob Campbell is a professional director and investor. He is chancellor at AUT, chairman of Ara Ake, chairman of New Zealand Rural Land, and an advisor for Dave Letele’s BBM charity. He is also the former chairman of Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand.