Valedictory speech season has begun at Parliament, and if there’s a common theme cropping up already, it’s a plea for a less toxic style of politics in the place.
MPs on the way out, giving their final statement in the chamber, have less reason to hold back about their real feelings. Yet you might be surprised to find that their real feelings - in terms of relations with MPs on the other side - are actually quite warm.
Three departing Labour MPs who all entered Parliament in 2017 gave their valedictories last night. Their thoughts turned to the adversarial nature of the political system and the media news cycle that feeds off it.
Labour MP Marja Lubeck gives a valedictory address prior to her retirement as an MP. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Marja Lubeck said Parliament could work better if there were fewer de-humanizing forces at play. Speaking about her work with the rainbow community, against discrimination, and towards a ban on conversion practices among other efforts to protect young people, she decried the lack of airtime given to “positive” stories about the work of MPs.
“There are a lot of people in this place who care and are working hard to make things better. They often give until there's nothing left in the tank to give, and that is the story we're telling. But in the era of social media, clickbait, and the 40-minute news cycle; trolling and rampant misinformation, it feels, at times, that it's not the good stories that make the headlines.
“I wish politicians and media could stop their focus on catching people out with perceived or real slip-ups—or 10-year-old tweets for that matter. Feeling powerless witnessing the take-down of some of my colleagues over the years has been the source of my greatest frustration.”
Lubeck admitted Parliament is an adversarial environment and that she had done her fair share of heckling.
“Jason Walls (political reporter with Newstalk ZB), you called it: I spoke my mind, because you know what they say: ‘many people are too polite to be honest, while the Dutch are too honest to be polite.’ But as one of my colleagues said, ‘politicians are not prey’. And that is how it feels to me at times, preying on the imperfections. We are not robots; we are humans, good people, doing our best—often to the detriment of our personal lives. If we could just make the political and media culture less toxic, I think we'd make a lot more progress.”
Labour MP Paul Eagle gives a valedictory address prior to his retirement as an MP. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Before he finished his valedictory, the Rongotai MP Paul Eagle said he had one wish for Parliament: “to urge our future parliamentarians to rise above petty politics”.
“Let's see what unites rather than divides us—to know that pragmatism is not a dirty word. I believe we fundamentally sort of agree on most issues, but politics sometimes gets in the way from us seeing that. Everyone knows that a divided House is a recipe for failure, but a House underpinned by kotahitanga is a foundation for success.”
Recent research commissioned by government showed a new level of willingness to resort to violence among the public, particularly in the context of misinformation about public policy. MPs have generally never felt so targeted in this country as they do now.
“Politicians are public figures—we know that. We get into this job and we understand that,” said the retiring Hamilton East MP Jamie Strange.
“But often, particularly around social media, people tend to turn politicians into an object rather than a person. There have been many times, particularly early on in my career, when people have shared their views on social media and I've commented and I've said, ‘Look, book in a meeting’, and I'm actually genuine. But none of them book in a meeting.
“So I'd encourage everyone out there who's listening: please feel free to make your comments, that's our free and open democracy, but also meet with MPs—meet with us, talk with us; we're open-minded people.”
Whether most MPs are open-minded enough to work together on the big problems that confront us is unclear. But Strange has shown himself able to dispense with tribalism in Parliament.
As co-chair of the parliamentary prayer group along with National MP Simeon Brown, Strange espoused the merits of this cross-party group of MPs who provide a support network for one another, “a sea of tranquility in amongst the hustle and bustle of the parliamentary life” as he describes it.
Labour MP Jaime Strange gives a valedictory address prior to his retirement as an MP. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Strange has always been generous with praise for MPs who are theoretically his political opponents. And in his speech he went out of his way to praise National’s David Bennett, a fellow Hamilton MP. Strange offered an example of Bennett's pragmatism during an inter-parliamentary football match versus Australia.
“I knew we were in trouble. However, all of a sudden from nowhere, David Bennett came flying in and just wiped out an Australian MP, and David was standing over the top of him and the guy was sharing his views about the tackle. I came across and David looked at me and he said ‘I had to do it’. He's right; he did. And we held on and we won the game.”
That the mild-mannered Strange could appreciate the brute force of Bennett taking out an opponent like that and hold it up like a life lesson was not something I saw coming. He then finished his speech with a prayer, the recital of the national anthem, its extended version in English.
This week’s valedictory speeches are a reminder that speaking from the heart is usually a good way for an MP to operate. It also begs the question, if you have something frank to say, why wait until your last speech in Parliament to say it?
