Partisan politics doesn't serve our whānau / A.J. Hendry

Today's political climate is becoming increasingly divided. But, is our partisan approach to politics really helping us get things done and make change for our most structurally marginalized whānau?

Someone asked me recently what we can do about some of the big challenges facing our communities.

The challenges facing our community are immense, homelessness, extreme inequality and poverty, social division, it can feel overwhelming.

As I've reflected on this question, one of the key things I believe we can start doing is cease politicizing issues that involve our basic human rights.

The right to a safe and stable whare is not something we should be arguing about.

The right to eat, to healthy kai, isn't something that should be up for debate.

Regardless of whether you vote blue or red, or anywhere in between, the fact that we have whānau living on our streets, kids growing up in motels, teenagers experiencing housing insecurity, its a travesty.

These issues run longer than any electoral cycle, no one party or government can fix them alone. We need to act strategically and with a view to our future. And to do this, we need our politicians to think further than their direct political future.

You see, as much as it might get us RTs or reshares on Twitter and insta, it doesn't serve our whānau to play political games about who is responsible. At the end of the day, if we took a moment to step back, we'd recognize we are all responsible.

Why do you think poverty and inequality exists at the levels it does today?

Is it really just Nationals fault? Or Labour's? Or whatever government or era you choose to blame for the actions that have led us to today?

No, an uncomfortable reality is that our Government represents us far more than we like to think.

We have became far to comfortable with the inequality and poverty that plagues this nation. Homelessness and extreme housing insecurity has became acceptable to us. Something that is constantly on display whenever we defend our favorite political team, and provide excuses for why it's "the other guys fault".

Homelessness and poverty should be so unacceptable to us, that we provide whatever government is in power both the political license, and the accountability, they need to address and end it.

And yet, from every side of the political spectrum, we find ways to make these issues partisan.

It's easy to blame our politicians. And yes, we should hold them to account, due to the influence they hold. However, the values and priorities of our political parties are shaped by us. Political parties (specifically our large parties) will shape and shift as we do.

Our collective values and priorities are more represented within our Parliament than we sometimes care to admit.

When poverty, homelessness and extreme inequality become unacceptable to us as a collective, when we say with one voice that children in hotels, and rangatahi on our streets, is just not good enough and we won't allow it any longer….

That is when things change.

We need to depoliticize this kōrero.

We need to stop accepting the unacceptable.

We need to build a collective vision of what a Just, inclusive Aotearoa could look like.

And than we need to act.

#LoveIsTheWay