Short excerpt from a YouTube video in which Chris Hipkins argues that political parties need a balance between career politicians who understand how government and parliament operate and newcomers who bring external perspectives; he warns that outsiders without procedural knowledge often become frustrated and leave, so parties should mix experienced insiders with fresh entrants.
Some people would say that I'm a career politician because I've spent a lot of time in politics. But ultimately, I think you've got to have a bit of a balance in this place. You need to have some people who understand how the democratic process works, how parliament works, how the machine of government works. But then you also do need people who come in and bring some external perspective from time to time. And I think the challenge is if you only have people who are coming in from the outside, they don't know how to actually achieve the things that they're coming in here to achieve, and they get really frustrated. And in many cases, I've seen people who have had high flying careers outside of politics come into politics, be really frustrated by the place, and then leave within a relatively short space of time, and that's just a waste. And I think the secret in all political parties need to manage this is to get the balance right. So you've got some people who have been around a while who have worked in a variety of different roles in politics, and then you balance that out with people who are coming in with a fresh external perspective as well.
