Mother speaks from experience

Janet Mackey hopes that her daughter Moana, a list MP, will succeed her in the East Coast electorate. Picture / Fotopress

As soon as you were elected in 1993, the caucus dumped Mike Moore as leader. Was that a traumatic introduction to politics?

If I had understood more of what was going on, I suspect it would have been more traumatic. But we were very new. Most of us were just swept up in the general tide.

How did you vote?

I voted for Helen [Clark].

What is the toughest campaign you can recall?

1996 - it is still nightmare stuff. The first MMP election had a huge impact on rural electorates. Suddenly, from a quite compact, tidy urban seat, I ended up with a seat which made me effectively the rural rump of the Labour Party. I had thousands of farmers and I have always had to have a good relationship and always have had, in my farming community.

Why are you leaving?

I'm tired. I'm very tired. This is a huge electorate and I think rural MPs are treated very, very badly by Parliamentary Service. If I drove 5000km a year in Manurewa I would get 96c a kilometre for my vehicle and my petrol; because I drive 60,000 I get 19c. My staff are working on a shoestring with second-hand everything. One year I paid for my office in Opotiki myself because I just didn't have the budget for it. I have four offices and they are all more than 100km apart: Wairoa, Gisborne, Opotiki and Whakatane. I've got all of Whakatane, Taneatua, Ruatoki. I've finally got Tame Iti.

That's quite an electorate.

It's a huge electorate. It's bigger than Wales and Taiwan and they have 600 bloody MPs! I am also at that age where there are other things I desperately want to do with my life and if I leave it much longer, I will be too afraid to take the risks.

What are you going to do?

I am opening a wine bar and bistro for grown-ups, a piano bar effectively, a place where people can probably still come in and tell me their problems.

You are part of the right faction of the caucus. When do the factions matter?

They simply don't in Government. You just don't have time to play games. When you have lots of time on your hand in Opposition they are an indulgence. We [Labour] are a broad church at the end of day and there has to be a place where we come together and put our arguments for different policies. It is a healthy process. It is certainly not as driven as the Australian process, where you nominate which faction you are in when you go in.

We are not put in that position. You naturally drift to where you feel most comfortable with the policies that are being discussed. I think it's healthy and I'm fascinated sometimes by the way it is beaten up as being a negative.

Is it hard being a smoker in Labour?

It's damned nigh impossible. Certainly I'm much less of a smoker than I was.

What is the best job you had in Parliament?

The thing that gave me the greatest satisfaction was between '93 and '99 and working with rural schools and writing a rural policy. Life is very different for a little station school with nine children to a school in Auckland where the principal is stressed because he is managing a $2 million budget. It is the sort of stress my schools dream about.

What was your worst time in Parliament?

Finding how our style of Parliament has absolutely no role for somebody who does not want to be in cabinet but is absolutely committed to being a good advocate for their region which has really been me. I am not ambitious. I wanted a role as a Government backbench MP and I don't care what the party, there is no role for a Government backbench MP. That saddens me.

What about chairing a select committee?

Chairman of a select committee is a role but in the MMP Parliament those no longer go exclusively to the Government MPs. They are now divided amongst parties so only two or three of you are going to get a role chairing a select committee.

What advice would you give to your daughter [list MP Moana Mackey] if she wins your seat?

Just keep your feet firmly anchored. Just remember one day you are going to step down either voluntarily or involuntarily and this is the community you are going to live and work in. Just make sure you can hold your head up in it.