I am interested in politics and the effect of politics on our lives. I talk politics with others. I am totally open about my politics- why would I have beliefs that I couldn’t be proud of or support? This is H’s 4th general election. I doubt she remembers delivering green party leaflets before we moved to Nelson, or the one we spent at Kaitoke camping because it was a foregone conclusion that we would have another 3 years of a conservative ponytail pulling money speculator leading our country. This election will be different. We arrived home and she has immersed herself in election research- totally unprompted. Why is she interested? Is it the sport like idea of competition? Statistics?

Her election scrapbook has a description of the parties, their brochures, some news stuff and some policies. The kid who hates to write is choosing to copy down lots of writing.. (I shall secretly look at this to see if she needs any help – capitals are getting better)

When I was her age two important political events had major impacts on my life – One was the Springbok tour of NZ. I went with my mother to protest against South African apartheid and saw kids I knew from school go past us to watch a rugby match, some man called my lovely, kind mother a scab with such vehemence I can still see his face. The other was the Falkland war which set me on a path to pacifism. However the crises that Helena faces are all of the slow burn kind and they will impact her life, just like The Mother of all budgets (Jenny Shipley who wrote it has just been fined mega dollars for trading while insolvent) and Rogernomics (Neo liberal policies brought in by Roger Douglas) have impacted on my life in negative ways but slipped by unnoticed by me at the time. I try to let H know when there are things happening that are good; NZ attempting to redress the negative impact of colonialism, the use of te reo Māori, young politically active people like Chloe Swabrick, Rohan O’Neill, Tamatha Paul, the girls who organised the climate marches, our moves to be a more inclusive society but there is a lot of bad, and some of the things that negatively impact us are so hard to galvanise against… It’s like when in getting the vote women broke a wall but all the bricks are still there making the ground hard to get across but because the wall is gone people aren’t thinking about barriers at all even though no one is picking up the bricks and not everyone can get through. Personally I think that until women get as much respect and are a paid as much to care for people (children, sick people, disabled and the elderly) as a male CEO or surgeon there isn’t equality for women. It is the same with all the little bits of fiddling with laws, treaties, budgets etc it is hard to address the slippery things with lots of factors. I want H to have a feeling that she can influence the world, isn’t totally powerless….

I guess watching an election that I think will end up with NZ taking a great step backwards in our path to be better people than ever before is at least giving her an understanding of the process.