Youth policy Q&A: Potaua Biasiny-Tule

Potaua Biasiny-Tule says it starts in families. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Politicians were asked to answer questions on their policies as part of the Herald's commitment in this election campaign to informed choice - our promise to explain the real issues. We have held forums on tax, transport, health and education.

Now it's time to hear about issues facing younger voters. Here are the edited highlights of the 45-minute question-and-answer sessions with young Maori Party candidate, Potaua Biasiny-Tule, standing in the seat of Hamilton East.

We've lowered the drinking age. Do you think it should go back up again?

Politics needs to be inclusive. Too often, people are making decisions without asking us. Why say 18-year-olds are allowed to drink, but not give 18-year-olds that right to decide. All of a sudden the adults say, "Okay, you can drink". Then later on when it doesn't work, "Okay you [can't]". It is young people it is going to affect the most, so young people have to be included in these decisions.

I would say it should be 18. But young people from as young as 12 need to be involved in this, because they'll be the ones going forward to make the decisions. Maybe have better education through the school system.

How would the Maori Party help young migrants integrate into New Zealand

Maori have got to be a bit more confident about belonging here. I think sometimes we feel like Pakeha are trying to get Asians in and kick us out. If we're confident enough to say we belong here, then we should be welcoming when everyone comes.

When people turn up, you welcome them, you show them hospitality ... and then start to talk. If they prove [to be] bad, they'll do it in their own time, but initially we should be welcoming. We do need to give more attention to migrant communities by supporting and normalising [them].

There's a loss of respect for the police. How would you address that in young people?

The police are doing it to themselves sometimes. The only time you have interaction with the police is when they're pulling you over. When you really do need their help they're usually not there to help you. If your house gets burgled and you ring up and you ask could someone come and help me, they're not going to come straight away, they're going to come in a couple of days.

So what are the police there for? I think that they are very important, but they need a bit of a churn up.

Is the relationship with police different for young Maori?

Yes, a lot of the time we see them, they're just picking on us. You see it in small communities. It's easy just to isolate the Maori or isolate the ones in the hoodies. But those aren't usually the criminals, they're just a group of people hanging out and their uniform - like hoodies - gets in the way. Police or security is hassling them in the mall. So those interactions lead to distance between the two groups.

How would you be a good role model for them personally?

Be a good husband, good father, and good brother, because it all starts in your family. If you're going to treat your family well, then it is easier to treat other people well.

You can't save the world if your own kitchen's a mess and there's problems in the home. I see too many leaders telling us one thing and doing another. We notice.

Who are your role models then?

My mum and dad. I'm from a big family - the eldest son of eight kids, five brothers and three sisters. We've also got 11 in our next generation, so my mum and dad helped keep us together in pretty tough times through the 80s. I'm from Rotorua, and that was really tough living through.

Before that we were just basically used as the labourers for the forests and for the tourism industry. But when the forests fell flat in the 80s, all of our people lost their jobs and so home life became really tense because benefits weren't enough to go round. The men didn't have jobs any more and the families all fell apart.

So my mum and dad are heroes because they helped keep us together and their parents, my grandmothers and grandfathers, were inspirational. They helped me learn lessons about the land I lived in.

Political leaders?

Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela. Inspirational, like the Patea Maori Club who we knew from Poi E.

But we shared their struggle because they lost their jobs with the freezing works. They came together as a community, they built a kapahaka group, songs, music, expression, so we tried to do the same in Rotorua.

Should New Zealand still be taking into account the effects of colonisation on Maori?

Yes definitely. Historically, we were a colony of Britain, some people now say we're a colony of Aussie.

It should be educational, because there seems to be no sense of history that there was a colonial process that ripped up this country for 150 years. So maybe more education through the schools, education through television, the media - 1800 is really a blank spot for most New Zealanders, but colonisation hit us full on then.

It is really about our independence, because New Zealand being a colony meant we were attached to Britain, and today to Australia and the market of America. Primarily, we should be independent, uniquely independent. The effects of colonisation won't affect us that much if we can believe in ourselves.

What is your vision for New Zealand in 30 years' time?

Hopefully a bit more optimistic, a bit more realistic. There needs to be more optimism among Maori communities and sometimes it just isn't there with government policy.

Take the peaceful festival at Parihaka. This country is unique because its peaceful. You travel to other parts of the world and there's definite conflict. Here it is peaceful. We shouldn't be afraid to be communities of peace, to be people of peace. But that will take 30 years just to get to that because there's a lot of anger still out there.