Rebuilding Better: Shane Te Pou - Why I am optimistic about Aotearoa New Zealand

Shane Te Pou says we have a few reasons to be optimistic about the future of Aotearoa. Photo / Dean Purcell

OPINION:

I am optimistic about Aotearoa New Zealand. I believe in our future.

That might seem like a strange thing to say, when the news is full of this crisis and that crisis. When we’re told the health system is creaking, the kids aren’t going to school, and prices and interest rates are going up. When we have tractors blocking our motorways to oppose investment in water infrastructure and a price on climate pollution.

But I am optimistic.

We have full employment with quarter of a million jobs created in the past five years. 66,000 fewer children are living in poverty than were five years ago.

Employers are falling over themselves to get workers, and wages are rising faster than inflation.

We have record house-building. House prices and rents are falling. So are the wait lists for state houses, and the number of families living in motels.

Kids’ attendance at school has bounced back after the Covid wave. Yes, 60 per cent of kids were off for four or more days in Term 2, but in Term 4 daily attendance has hit as high as 88 per cent.

Programmes like Better Pathways are getting young people in trouble back in school. Re-offending dropped by a third, compared to 15 per cent for boot camps that cost $250,000 per kid. And ram raids have been cut by three-quarters in recent months.

Despite the increased workload caused by Covid, we have more doctors and nurses than ever before. Other countries saw their health systems collapse. Ours didn’t.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to a lab technician during a visit to the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research at Victoria University in Wellington. Photo / Getty Images

We finally have a real plan to reduce our greenhouse emissions, and businesses and government are coming together to make it happen.

And we no longer sweep racism and discrimination under the carpet. We are confronting it. That is difficult and uncomfortable for many but as a society, we are saying we will no longer put up with it.

Yes, we see violent rhetoric and violence from white supremacists and incel wannabe fascist losers but, the fact is, they are losing. What were once acceptable bigoted attitudes are now the purview of extreme minorities.

But that does bring me to one thing that needs change – the treatment of women of colour.

We are far too accepting of the discrimination and bigotry that has been levelled at Nanaia Mahuta, Cindy Kiro, Marama Davidson and other prominent wāhine Māori both in mainstream media and social media. Likewise, we need to stop accepting the wage gap that sees wāhine Māori and Pasifika women earning a quarter less than Pākehā men.

We all need to call this out. If we can move past these prejudices, and right these wrongs, we will truly unleash the power of women of colour, and that will help create a better Aotearoa New Zealand for all.

This country is not, and never will be, perfect but it is a wonderful place to live. If we choose to make it so, it will become an even better place for us all.

This will be my last column for the Herald. I’m stepping back from political commentary to focus more on my day job and my family. It has been a privilege to have this opportunity.

He kupu whakamutunga mōu

I leave these last words

He kupu whakaaro mōu

and these thoughts

Ka puritia e au ngā tapuwae kua aratakina e tātou ki aku mahara

I bare the footsteps we have paved together

Ko te reo aumihi e rere ana ki a kōutau e hikoi ana i te mata o te whenua

To those who have embarked on this journey with me

wētahi kāore i whakaae ki wāku nei kōrero, engari kei a koe tōu reo, kei a koe ōu kōrero, me tōu mana motuhake

Some of you have not agreed with my views, however I have valued your views, your words, your stance

Tēnei te mihi ki a kōutau taringa areare, e tautoko nei i au

Salutations to all those who have listened, those who have supported me through this journey.

Hei te mutunga, he pāpā, he tama, he hoa, he kairipota ahau, engari ko te mea tino whakahirahira ki au, ko tōku kāwai whakapapa nō roto o Ngāti Raka, Ngāi Tūhoe

Finally, I am a father, a friend, a columnist but most importantly my genealogy acknowledges my descent from Ngāti Raka, Ngāi Tūhoe

“Tūhoe moumou kai, moumou tangata ki te pō”

“Tūhoe people known for abundance with food, treasures and people”

This is Shane Te Pou’s last fortnightly column for the Herald.