Despite working as a lawyer and consultant, new National Party MP James Meager told the 54th New Zealand Parliament his roots were humble.
Mr. Meager described himself as a “part-Māori boy raised in a state house by a single parent on the benefit. Now a proud National Party MP in a deeply rural farming electorate in the middle of the South Island. But there is no contradiction there.”
His father, he said, was “kicked out of school at 14 and never told his parents,” and spent his days hiding in his bedroom or at the river until he reached 15 and could convince his parents to let him get a job.
From then on, most of his life was spent in a freezing works. Present to see his son sworn in, the previous day was the first time he had ever set foot in the North Island, Mr. Meager revealed.
His mother, who had worked as a cleaner, a teacher and now at a supermarket, was also present.
“Mum and Dad split up when I was in kindergarten, so Mum brought me, and my younger brother and sister up on her own. A single mum in a state house on the benefit, with three kids. I know what it’s like to be poor,” Mr. Meager told the House.
He walked everywhere because his family didn’t have a car until he was nine, and shared a bedroom with his brother until he was 18.
His paternal grandfather was a truck driver and freezing worker, and his grandmother a seamstress and wool carder, while his mother’s parents were a refrigerator repairman and a cleaner.
“My recollection is that yes, we were poor, but we were never in poverty. Mum always made sure there was food on the table, clothes on our backs, and books in our school bags. Mum made sure schooling was everything. We always went to school. Every. Single. Day,” he said.
Credit to His Mother, Not the State
Because she'd worked all her life rather than claim what would then have been a sole parent’s benefit, Mr. Meager credits his mother, not the state, for saving his family.“The job of government must be to create a system which makes it as easy as possible for good people to make the right decisions. But, instead, we have a system which creates broken families and turns good people into lost souls. It’s not right, and it must change,” Mr. Meager said.
While it was traditionally parties of the left which claimed to represent the interests of the less well off, there was no basis for that fact, he asserted.
“Members opposite do not own Māori. Members opposite do not own the poor. Members opposite do not own the workers. No party and no ideology has a right to claim ownership over anything or anyone.
“We, on this side of the House, are a broad church: town and country, liberal and conservative, old and young, and professionals and workers. What unites us is our fundamental belief that it’s the individual family unit that knows what’s best for their family—not the state, not the government, and not us.
Social Investment
The key to improving the living conditions of the poor is social investment, he said.Citing as an example: “If we invest thousands in supporting the first thousand days of a child’s life, we can save millions in long-term costs that stem from poor health and poor education.”
That required following where the data leads.
“Good programmes should be enriched, and bad ones should be cast aside,” he said.
Complicated audits and reporting mechanisms for taxpayer-funded programmes were unnecessary as government already has the information required to assess which programmes were successful in addressing areas including health, education, housing, crime, and welfare-dependency.
“All we need is to be more reasonable, be more sensible, and be more savvy with the use of this data,” he said.
“When we look at spending as an investment rather than a cost, we can focus on outcomes that benefit not only the health and wellbeing of the individual but also the back pocket of the taxpayer. That’s what social investment does.”
