ACTivate - Ep 133

Excellent.

The use of the word unease really resonates with me and unfair.

And as I was hearing you speak, it did make me think of that New Zealand myth that we are an egalitarian society.

We're a great place for children to live.

And a lot of the time that's true.

And that's maybe where this confusion is coming in.

But now we're seeing signs that that's not true for one in four children.

That's not true for homeless people.

So that's, I guess, yeah, I like the feeling that there's a mismatch that you're trying to explore.

What about if we can just crystallise down the problem? I always sort of think it's that old saying that a problem well stated is half solved.

So you've talked about a lot of things and I really like that exploration.

Is there a way to drill down and think what is the problem that you're trying to fix? Or have you not actually got there yet with having that answer?

I think it's a bit of both.

I mean, I think the different way that I could maybe frame what the problem is that this campaign is sort of responding to rather than solving.

So some people are calling it authoritarian creep.

So that idea of maybe our democratic principles or the guardrails that maybe were there to protect the way that our democratic system works.

So that is how decisions are made.

So how decisions are made at maybe a local government level or central government level are maybe not working in the way that they once did.

And what is popping up instead is what we're seeing overseas in some jurisdictions, but I think we're starting to see signs of it here as sort of that strong man syndrome or, you know, a one or a small group of leaders who make all of the decisions and, you know, communities just sort of follow along.

Maybe we have a chance to vote every three years, but in between that, we're just sort of doing our jobs and looking after our kids and our children.

our families.

And so I think that is the problem that we are noticing.

We are testing, is that a problem for you? And we are encouraging people, really the campaigns about sparking community conversations about this stuff.

So, you know, I think individually people might be thinking something's going on here, something's not quite right.

But what we know to be true is that collectively as a community, We should be talking about these issues more and we should be raising our voices in a way that is listened to by the people who are making decisions for us.