National convert promises 'a fair go' for the people

Borrows backs communities. Picture / Wanganui Chronicle

If Chester Borrows' younger self could come face to face with the man he is today, he might feel as if he was "meeting the enemy".

As a youngster, Whanganui's new National MP had strong socialist roots and a tradition of voting Labour.

Any thought of joining the National Party was "an anathema".

The former policeman last month captured the Whanganui electorate from Labour at his third try to win the seat for National.

His political conversion from socialist to conservative came in 1987 when, as sole-charge policeman for Patea, he was called to attend a gang brawl by himself.

The tiny Taranaki town, still reeling from a freezing works closure which left wide-scale unemployment, was reacting to the withdrawal of the Project Employment Programme (PEP) on which many people had worked for their dole.

"I had a lot of young guys out on the street with nothing to do," Mr Borrows said.

"On the first day that the PEP scheme was withdrawn, they all went out and got drunk and had a fight. I remember waking up to deal with this fight on my own thinking, 'Where the hell are you now, Prebble?"'

Labour Cabinet minister Richard Prebble was a driving force in the radical economic reforms of the late 1980s that caused rural New Zealand so much pain.

A few days later Mr Borrows drove to Hawera and joined the National Party out of spite. But. National's track-record in government during the 1990s kept him in the party.

"National encouraged people to get out of welfare dependency, to be independent and remove government from people's lives."

After failed attempts to win Whanganui in 1999 and 2002, he and his family were on the verge of quitting politics when the party convinced him to try again.

With his skill base "unrepresented" in caucus, National's leaders wanted him in Parliament. He was elevated to 33 on the list, assuring him of a place in Parliament if National performed well on election night.

National did so well he did not need to come in off the list - he was one of 10 National candidates to oust Labour incumbents.

He said a desire for change by voters and his work over three campaigns finally won him the elusive seat.

"I've built credibility because a lot of the things I've been involved with in the community have been around supporting people who find life pretty tough.

"All those people want is a fair go.

"My whole reason for getting into Parliament was to work for people, because I saw it as an extension of the community and volunteer work I'd done."

He believed scrapping the Maori seats would give Maori a chance to form a "strong and cohesive" political party.

"There's enough tokenism in society in respect of Maori things. Maori want to be treated as serious partners rather than people who always need a pat on the head and are dragged out for ceremonial occasions.

"Maori are not single-issue people - they are interested in getting the government out of their lives too, interested in being independent."

Maori support for him was strong, he said, despite his party's often controversial stand on Maori issues.

"What Maori say to me is that they know where I stand and where National stands in relation to things like the Maori seats issue, the Treaty settlements and those sorts of things."

On other issues, the Presbyterian church elder said his approach to legislation would reflect his conservative nature.

Chester Borrows

* One-time Labour voter turned National MP

* Lawyer and police officer

* Married, three adult children

- NZPA