Raf Manji argues New Zealand's centralised government has stripped power from local communities, damaging housing, health, and education outcomes. He criticises the Wellington bubble and calls for decentralisation and stronger community empowerment to rebuild civic engagement and shared purpose.
If and when you step into Parliament, what is your key focus? The thing you're most passionate about, making a difference in, stepping up for?
Look, I mean, I can talk about particular policy, but I actually think it's having a different voice. It's talking about these sort of things. It's talking about, you know, we always get a bit scary about the vision thing, but actually being open about the challenges that we need to address, talking to people about how we might address those. So I think that kind of, you know, that, that civic support and civic structure is really critical because it impacts education, it impacts health. I mean, we've got to sort out housing. So we're very big on the housing issue. But when I look at our politicians, and no offense to them, I don't get any interest or excitement in anything they say about anything. You basically got one bunch essentially trying to defend things they're not doing very well and the other bunch basically trying to find things the other side are not doing very well and go on about them the whole time.
And the only people that lose out here are the citizens.
Yeah. And that's why people kind of turning off. And you see that just in the general polling that the shift away from the sort of the two major parties tells you that. And also fringe parties and not small parties, fringe parties over here. That's just a symptom of a problem that people are losing when people lose trust. We've seen it in the us A lot of that has economic issues like deindustrialization and high male unemployment is a huge issue. But people having no sense of what they're supposed to be doing, no sense of what the future looks like, no sense of community and falling by the wayside, seeing that there is no, I guess you could talk a social contract, you know, there's no social contract anymore. They have. That social contract has been around and it's very strong in other countries. And in a way those other countries are probably doing better. You know, when people talk about New Zealand, oh, it's like a third world country now, well, that's a bit mean to third world countries who are actually moving forward and they have a better sense of purpose, you know, and the politics is all very different, but people have a sort of an understanding of structures, rules, what they're supposed to be doing, how they're supposed to be doing it. And yeah, different levels of freedom, but generally people are moving ahead and it feels like we're stuck and this could be just an Anglo Saxon problem that we've reached the End cycle of a system which has kind of denuded us a little bit of these other things, like purpose.
Like civic engagement, like community. And we've got it all here, but we're just losing it. You know, the sort of the glue is becoming a little bit unstuck.
And to me that comes back to, okay, it's top down. So how do we get the leadership mindset to actually connect us again? So what do you think is the filter that the leaders that are leading our country, they need to be looking through to ensure that we do develop a deep sense of purpose?
I think Wellington is a problem. And when I say Wellington, I mean the Wellington bubble. So that is parliament, that is the public service. It's very insular, it's very inward looking. And, you know, if I put my political hat on, I think the centralization drive of the last six years of this government has been very damaging. They've stripped a lot of power.
From communities. And whether it's from Auckland or Christchurch and all around the country, so people are going, well, we don't really have a say anymore. And it's not like we're getting good results out of it. You know, the hospital's a mess, the polytechnic's a mess, you know, crime is up. So there's a sense that what's happening at the moment isn't working. So I would be saying we should be decentralizing, we should be empowering local communities. And this was the. We talked about this after the earthquakes again and again and again. You know, empower local communities. They have the answers.
The resistance. Do you think, why is that not happening?
Yeah, Wellington. Wellington's the problem. I mean, I said it a lot and so certainly, you know, annoyed a lot of people. But I'm looking at this very objectively because we need leaders who are.
Won't speak up.
Yeah, exactly. So, because I'm not part of the political apparatus and I'm not, you know, I'm not beholden to them, I don't really kind of care. I can speak more freely and I did when I was a city council. I speak frankly and openly and, you know, equally offend both sides. But I was trying to represent what was going on.
You be an advocate then when you can do that.
And, you know, I see myself actually as a kind of a facilitator and an advocate. You know, it's not about me. I kind of, you know, I'm not looking for this massive career. It's. I'm trying to essentially serve, but contribute in a way that I think I can, and I'm lucky. I've got a set of skills and experience that a lot of people don't have. You know, I'm not a spring chicken, so I've been around and seen a lot and I think I've got something to offer and I think, yeah, we need somebody. Same for. I'd be same for people in Auckland to go to Wellington and say, hey, this is not the center of the country. You need to get stuff out of Wellington. And also, the fact is, all our communities are very different, but if you don't empower them, they will do their own thing. And if you lose them out of this system, that is a big problem.
