Editorial: Farewell Nikki Kaye, New Zealand is better for having had you

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The death of Nikki Kaye, after an eight-year fight against cancer, was hard news to receive, and hard news to deliver.

Death is very rarely a timely event but no one should die at 44, much less a woman with such passion and dedication to fighting all the good fights.

Much has been written about Nikki Kaye, especially over the last day since we all learnt of her death. Those lucky enough to cross paths with her in life spoke fondly of her strong sense of fairness, her commitment to helping others, her kindness towards everyone she met.

Through all the tributes, and there have been many, one thing was made clear: her affiliation may have been with the National Party, but her friendships came from across the spectrum.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern was among those paying tribute to Kaye on social media. In her post, Ardern recalled how the two of them were political opponents, running against each other for the Auckland Central seat.

“We may have been opponents, but there were so many things I admired about Nikki. She worked incredibly hard, cared passionately about her electorate, and she was always willing to agree an idea was good, or bad, based on her values rather than just politics,” Ardern wrote, adding that she wishes she could have spoken to Kaye just one more time.

“Rest in peace, Nikki. Politics was better for having you in it,” the former PM added.

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That same sentiment was echoed across Aotearoa, from people of all political leanings.

Kaye’s former leader and Prime Minister Sir John Key said of her passing: “New Zealand has been robbed of such an outstanding and wonderful person far too young”.

The Herald’s senior political correspondent Audrey Young said Kaye was “the only politician I tried to talk out of retiring”.

“She would work with anyone who shared her particular goal at the time, as she did with former Green MP Kevin Hague on social issues and Labour’s Chris Hipkins on education issues,” Young wrote in a tribute piece to Kaye.

Nikki Kaye showed us that there are no political sides to human decency.

When Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson received her own shocking cancer diagnosis, she reached out to Kaye before telling others.

Labour’s Kiri Allan also got Kaye’s support through troubling times. Whatever the colours of your party, she was there for you if you needed her.

That was possibly one of Kaye’s biggest achievements: the ability to reach out across any divide in her fight for what she believed in. She embodied civility, decency, respect for her fellow humans, regardless of political affiliations.

Throughout her life, Kaye was a strong advocate for environmental issues, as well as for youth, women and the LGBTQ community.

Cancer forced her to put an early end to her political career, but not before she managed a long list of achievements. If it hadn’t been for this horrible illness, who knows how much more she would have been able to give of herself to the country she loved so dearly.

That question will forever remain unanswered and it’s up to those who stay to make peace with it.

In her final speech to Parliament, which she made in July 2020, Kaye spoke about the pride she took of her achievements as a politician and the issues that mattered the most to her, including the environment, education (including te reo in schools), and looking after the nation’s most vulnerable.

“The question for any generation of political leaders is: have we had the courage and character to step up and solve the hard economic and social issues of our time?

“I hope that I’ve done my bit to step up. I hope that I stepped up as the member of Parliament for Auckland Central and as a Cabinet Minister,” she said.

Let us tell you, Honourable Nikki Kaye: you sure have.

Vale, Nikki.