confession of and Ex-Politician
Lila Smith
he's out of Parliament
By Neill Gordon of HB Country Scene
(page 12 of pdf at http://www.napiermail.co.nz/HBCS_book.pdf)
Fairbrother.
Napier people did him a favour voting him out last year,
ending six "wasted years" in politics, he says.
Initially seduced by appointments to influential committees
and his anointing as a future Attorney General, he ended up
feeling trapped in a system that prioritised patch protection
and power instead of what politics is truly about: "improving
the life of individuals."
"I just couldn't click into the thought pro- cess. I could never
get my head round it. I'd get on that plane [to Wellington] on
Tuesday morning and my heart would sink.
I'd think 'I just hate this' ".
The conditions at Parliament were tougher than at Mangaroa
Prison, he says.
He'd arrive at seven in the morning, couldn't leave till 10 at
night, and couldn't leave the premises without permission
from a party whip.
"So you're trapped in this building 15 hours a day, three days
a week... I felt imprisoned."
Parliament's stupidly long hours manufacture poor decisions,
the 65-year-old says.
"You've got middle-aged people who are on the go from at
least seven in the morning till at least 10 at night and you
point me to 45, 55, 65-year-olds who can make good
rational decisions when they've been awake and
concentrating at their place of business for 15 or 17 hours a
day.
"Some of the most important decisions are made under these
punishing conditions.
"Often meetings go till midnight or later and often they're
late because they're crisis meetings.
"So you're supposed to make contributions which require
quick thinking and accurate thinking, which is quite stupid."
Politics demands MPs become salesmen for party policy and
fosters "bully personalities", he says.
Russell couldn't and wouldn't play the game. He'd built a
successful legal career as an articulate, charismatic
persuader, but as a politician he came across as dull and
humourless.
"I withdrew. I lost my sense of humour; I lost my voice. I
couldn't even give a good speech as a politician.
"I was resistant to the skills you have to acquire, which are
skills of making yourself seem more important than you
really are and of suppressing other people's importance. It
just didn't wash with me."
Despite his disillusionment with Parliament he maintains he
is "really glad" he had the experience.
"It's a rare opportunity to have and, being near the apex of
power, you do see how people work and you do see what's
wrong back on the streets and so I have been pleased to
come back and work at a low level at the bar.
"I don't take too much work on and I turn away a lot more
than I take on. I do a lot of work for free. I do a lot of work
where I get paid with some gift, a bottle of wine, some-
times just a hug and it's quite rewarding.
"It takes me right back to what politics is all about - trying to
improve the life of individuals; not trying to strengthen the
position of people with power.
"In all the debate over the Auckland super city or the debate
beginning on Hawke's Bay local body amalgamation, no-
one is saying someone living on $30,000 somewhere is
going to measurably better off; the lives of individuals don't
come into it."
The contrast between the "good honest argument" of the
courtroom and vote- blinkered MPs was a huge frustration
for him.
Russell tried to set up a committee to try and get a New
Zealand definition of justice, but MPs "weren't interested in
big picture stuff, it was what would garner them votes next
week in their electorate".
Whereas a barrister operates under one rule - you don't
knowingly mislead the court - MPs "mislead the public all
the time".
"You're effectively a salesperson and you're delivering a
version of the facts. Like we'd trot out unemployment stats,
trot out this and that.
"Working for Families is a classic. That was a key plank of
the Labour Party, a very good part. But it took the Child
Poverty Action Group to take a case to the Human Rights
Commission to prove that it was in fact discriminatory.
"Because if you were a child of a family on a benefit you
didn't get the largesse that Working for Families offered the
child of a parent earning the same money who was in
employment. The theory being, of course, to get people off
the benefit into employment but you couldn't go out and say
this policy is disenfranchising kids of beneficiaries because
that wasn't politically correct. You had to say Working for
Families is the best thing since sliced bread.
"You sell them. It's policy rather than principle.
"Most backbench MPs could not put hand on heart and say
they've done a productive day's work and many cabinet
ministers couldn't do that either, because the work's done by
five or six people.
"The normal currency on the street is money, you work for a
dollar. In politics the currency is power and power comes
from information so that - you see this happening in the
National Party, it's not just a Labour Party thing - the few
people who run the country - there's about five - they have
the information and they don't share it, they feed it out to
you. It's like when you sell an insurance policy - this is the
policy you're going to sell. You don't have planning sessions
you have sales sessions in politics.
"John Key - and I'm not being party political, it was no
different with us - with the Maori seats and smacking bill, he
didn't say 'I'll take it to my caucus', he says, 'I've got some
ideas, I'll take it to Cabinet on Monday' and then he
announced what the outcome was.
"His caucus meets on Tuesday so the majority of his MPs
had no idea what Cabi- net endorsed of his idea until they
read the paper on Tuesday morning."
Russell says his recent suggestion that the number of MPs
should be reduced from 121 to 60 or 70 was made seriously.
Some MPs leave Parliament each week having "done
nothing for three days, glad to get home and play golf".
"MPs from some of the minor parties, they have nothing to
do, they don't know what their idiosyncratic leaders are
doing until they hear them stand up and say something and
you saw that the way the Alliance broke up," he says.
"With modern technology you don't need to be face to face.
You don't need 121 MPs.
We used to have 90 MPs with electorates of 15,000 people
and I think that was too many. I think we could get by with
60 or 70 MPs. It would save the country a lot of money.
Russell says he is far healthier now he is out of politics.
"I don't snore like I used to, my health's better and my
judgement's far better. I have time to let my head work
through issues and think about things."
www.windwand.co.nz
Taranaki Tourism Website
www.windwand.co.nz/organickitchengarden.htm
Organic Kitchen Gardening
Mob 021230 7962
06 7512942
122 Ngamotu Road
New Plymouth
New Zealand
john fitzgerald
Tony T-S
And on any list of massive political disappointments Australia’s one-time rebel icon, environmental activist and all-round clever bastard The why-exactly-is-he Honourable Peter Garrett would have to feature pretty prominently, I reckon.
Tony
From:
monbiot...@googlegroups.com [mailto:monbiot...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of john fitzgerald
Sent: 24 September 2009 09:14
To: monbiot...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Monbiot] Re: confession
of and Ex-Politician
Amazing, after all he put himself through over the last 6 years that he put himself up for re-election. I wonder if we would be reading this if he was re-elected?
There is, I feel, some parallel here with what Victor & John had posted earlier about whether Prof MacKay would be a prominent voice on the inside?
Mr Fairbrother was someone on the inside, but after 6 years of wasted time, failed to make an impact. I sincerely hope that Prof MacKay has more influence than Mr Fairbrother did in NZ and that it doesn't take 6 years to make his point.
Meanwhile the political machine rolls on. Saw an interesting quote today, it read------ The soul of our country needs to be awakened. When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.
Regards,
John F.
<snip!>
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.416 / Virus Database: 270.13.112/2391 - Release Date: 09/23/09 18:00:00
Lila Smith
www.windwand.co.nz
Taranaki Tourism Website
www.windwand.co.nz/organickitchengarden.htm
Organic Kitchen Gardening
Mob 021230 7962
06 7512942
122 Ngamotu Road
New Plymouth
New Zealand
----- Original Message -----From: Tony T-SSent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 11:55 PMSubject: [Monbiot] Re: confession of and Ex-PoliticianAnd on any list of massive political disappointments Australia’s one-time rebel icon, environmental activist and all-round clever bastard The why-exactly-is-he Honourable Peter Garrett would have to feature pretty prominently, I reckon.
Tony
From: monbiot...@googlegroups.com [mailto:monbiot...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of john fitzgerald
Sent: 24 September 2009 09:14
To: monbiot...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Monbiot] Re: confession of and Ex-Politician
Amazing, after all he put himself through over the last 6 years that he put himself up for re-election. I wonder if we would be reading this if he was re-elected?
There is, I feel, some parallel here with what Victor & John had posted earlier about whether Prof MacKay would be a prominent voice on the inside?
Mr Fairbrother was someone on the inside, but after 6 years of wasted time, failed to make an impact. I sincerely hope that Prof MacKay has more influence than Mr Fairbrother did in NZ and that it doesn't take 6 years to make his point.
Meanwhile the political machine rolls on. Saw an interesting quote today, it read------ The soul of our country needs to be awakened. When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.
Regards,
John F.
<snip!>
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.416 / Virus Database: 270.13.112/2391 - Release Date: 09/23/09 18:00:00
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.112/2391 - Release Date: 09/23/09 18:00:00
John Russell
Best wishes,
JR
Lila Smith wrote:
No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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