Thank you for inviting me to join you today.
I want to use this time to get to know each other.
I want this time with you to be a moment where we talk about our vision for a better Aotearoa.
And I want to use this time talk about the actions needed to realise the dreams and hopes of working people.
Like many in this room, I grew up in a nation where people exclaimed this was a great country to raise children in. It was ‘gods own’. A pavlova paradise.
As a child I didn’t really understand why they said it so emphatically. I knew no world other than 1970s rural New Zealand.
In my small corner of the world, the homeless were people on American movies. Kids complained about their packed lunches and it was only far-far way in Africa where children’s bellies were empty. It was a nation where governments sat down with workers and businesses to create laws, infrastructure, and regulations which delivered strong wages, public health care and education, and good working lives.
But by the 1980s and 1990s this pavlova paradise began to vanish.
Successive governments turned away from a consensus to maintain an economic and industrial order focused on making us all a little more equal and able to live the life of an ordinary New Zealander.
In the 1980s, young people started living under bridges; whole communities joined hands to save local hospitals and post offices; workers took their newly minted qualifications as nurses and teachers oversees because there were no jobs here; and thousands of people were thrown into unemployment when profit-driven companies took over our forestry and energy industries.
Four decades on, I am angry that what we experienced in the 1980s and 1990s as young people now plagues my nieces and nephews. I am angry that for four decades of my life successive governments have made economic decisions which prioritise the needs of the wealthiest New Zealanders over workers being able to properly support their families.
My childhood was one where New Zealand had record low inequality. By the end of my teens the richest New Zealanders doubled their wealth and the rest of us were getting less and less of the profits. We became world leaders again but not in a way any of us should be proud of – New Zealand’s level of income inequality rose substantially relative to the levels in other OECD countries.
The last two years has seen us with a National-led government that has driven this agenda harder – their economic decisions seeing record high closures of companies, high unemployment, public infrastructure bursting at the seams, even greater inequality, and wages that aren’t keeping up with the rising cost of living.
We need to reflect on how Aoteroa got to this place where workers suffer as this sets out our path for change.
In the 1980s and 1990s there was an overt and systematic attack on workers acting in union.
An overt and systematic attack on our public services.
An overt and systematic attack on the poor.
And political decisions which continually placed the bulk of the taxation burden on workers not on shareholders and those who made money from property.
Before moving on, I want to just let you know that I don’t want to go back to the 1970s – the racism and sexism of the era, the homophobia and stifling social conformity are not welcome in our Aotearoa.
But workers do want real change.
They want the union movement, and you Labour, to be courageous, united, and make different economic choices for all our sakes.
The labour movement knows that the economic decision-making which has dominated the last four decades – and has been driven deeper over the last two years by National – fail workers, their families, communities, and fails a whole lot of businesses or organisations.
Workers have dozens of reasons to vote against National. We cannot afford another three years of National, Act, and New Zealand First pushing their anti-worker agenda.
But we need you to give us a handful of fundamental reasons to vote for you – Labour.
We need not only a change in government, we name a change in the economic, industrial, and social direction.
We can do it through three simple steps – we build and reignite relationships, we act courageously, and we unite.
Change begins with building stronger connections, finding common ground on the problems we face. Just relying on historic ties is not enough.
We need those of us in the Labour movement and all of you in the Labour party to spend time together. To talk, to share, to connect.
Over the first four weeks in my new role I’ve met hundreds of workers in meetings and on picket lines. There is one issue that comes up time and again when you talk with workers – people are struggling to even survive.
People are struggling to survive economically and emotionally – whether they are a Resene worker earning $1700 a fortnight and paying $1200 in housing costs; a nurse running from ward to ward putting on bandaids on an understaffed hospital system; a fire fighter unable to do your job because your fire truck has broken down; a workers in small town New Zealand with every major industry pulling up sticks; or a Wellington public servant watching cut after cut.
They want political leaders who genuinely reach out and hear their stories, meet their families, be part of their community.
And they want a permanent and enduring relationship which means their needs, their dreams, their lives can’t be forgotten when economic, social, and political decisions are being made.
If we take time to build on existing relationships and create new ones – and these are needed – then we have forged bonds that mean together we can be courageous.
Being courageous means we must reimagine Aotearoa. Workers want Aotearoa to be a place where tino rangatiratanga is something we experience every day and, in every place – including the world of work.
We need to all focus on ensuring a change of government will result in you being willing to take bold and decisive action to begin addressing the cost of living crisis.
We need an economy that works for everyone – people need to know that one job will be enough to cover the bills, that they will have secure work that allows them to plan for their future, that we will have public services that mean their families have good health care and great education opportunities; and workers need hope that keeps them here in Aotearoa.
Workers are putting together ways this can happen in Reimagining Aotearoa. This is not something dreamed up in an office, but what workers are calling for in meetings, in their tea rooms if they have them, on picket lines, and through ever more trying employment negotiations. Workers know the system is broken and know that it can be changed.
Thank you for committing to fair pay agreements and pay equity. Thank you for taking health and safety seriously.
But there is more. Strengthen the place of the union movement through automatic union membership. Help address the cost of living by buying back our energy system so we can invest in infrastructure.
Hear the plans of workers and take up the challenge to be bold.
Workers know that three changes in our economic, social, and political order are needed to ensure they can feed their kids, pay their rent, and have dignity at work and home:
- Workers want a genuine place at the table in their workplaces and in the national political realm. They don’t want big business dominate the agenda. Workers want a government that will genuinely ensure workers and iwi are full partners at the decision-making table.
- Workers want stronger laws protecting the right to act in union
- And workers want to ensure there are strong public services for all New Zealanders – and yes, we agree this can’t be all paid for out of income tax, it’s time to shift our tax base.
Workers can’t build a better world on their own, but you can’t do this without our voices, our support, our ongoing ideas and energy.
But dreams aren’t enough. We must be united.
We’re up against big money and powerful interests.
The biggest asset we have in the labour movement and your biggest asset is people. We know that every conversation matters, so let’s make sure we’re organised in our communities, workplaces, and networks.
We will stand with you Labour, if you give us hope and agree to deliver fundamental and systemic change.
We don’t have time to waste – we can’t be timid.
Together we can do this, after all its just a jump to the left!