Dave Mollard’s Change is Constant: Political noise-makers need to spend more time listening

Stop Co-Governance organiser Julian Batchelor is wrong because he has not factored in our obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, writes Dave Mollard. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Opinion

“If you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart, and if you are not a conservative when old, you have no brain.”

The origin of this quote is unclear, but it’s often touted as showing the difference in worldviews between those fresh into adulthood and those of us with more grey hair and wrinkles.

Either I’m not old yet, or I have no brain, because with half a century under my belt, I’m still a liberal, a socialist, a leftie. Blame my university lecturers, blame my red-leaning mum, even blame my rugby team that shares the cost of kai and beers. Actually don’t blame anyone, I’m happy with my choices.

Traditionally, Kiwis are a conservative bunch - I don’t mean politically, I mean with how we display our emotions. We don’t usually shout, scream, cry or rage when we don’t get our way; we turn the other cheek when confronted. The gap between the centre-left and the centre-right is usually no wider than a handshake and a few tut-tuts.

However, our closest cousins across the Tasman have, for the past decade, widened that gap until it became a valley.

In the USA, the land of the free, that gap is wider than the Grand Canyon. Both parties stand on the rim and shout insults at each other. The yelling and the distance completely cancel out the ability to listen to what the other side is saying.

My fear is that our gap in our motu will widen this year, not because of the silent majority, but the vocal minority.

It’s election year, a time when we look internally to figure out which political colour warms our hearts and feeds our minds. Our two main political parties fight for middle New Zealand, while the greens and the yellows fight for votes of those standing slightly outside the mainstream. While 75.6 per cent of us voted for centrist parties Labour or National in 2020, the balance voted for one of 15 minor parties whose voices got to be heard on the hustings.

I’m all for free speech, and the great thing about MMP is that many views and ideas get to be communicated. All I ask is that the noise-makers spend more time listening and thinking before talking.

Julian Batchelor is touring Aoteraoa talking about co-governance and what he does not like about it. That is his right, but he is also wrong.

He is wrong because he has not factored in our history and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He is wrong because the free speech rights we give him are not being extended by him to those who oppose him. In some reported cases, security at his hui is not allowing people that don’t share his whakapapa or opinions to be heard.

I’m confident his opinions reflect a tiny minority of Kiwis, but I also know that the media attention (yes, I see the irony in my writing about him - I refer you to my last line) will be vastly out of proportion to his following.

If he comes to Palmerston North, I would love to hear him speak, but only if he is willing to listen in return. If he is not going to listen, maybe I need to start shouting!

Oh dear, I’m such a hypocrite.

Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.