In the year of a tightly contested election, having an independent candidate represent a relatively small but growing town may be an excellent strategy that pays big dividends. Whichever party gets into power, they might need the extra vote from Sam. Having an independent MP representing Ōtaki would be a huge political coup for the town – it would be the equivalent of having a genie in Parliament being able to grant any wish the electorate wanted.
This week we talk to Sam Jennings about his ideas, hopes and motivations in running as an independent MP representing Ōtaki.
Balance Transfers: It would be pretty unusual to see an independent candidate run in Ōtaki.
Sam: Well, there was actually two last election. I think that both of them had single issues that they were really trying to get some attention around. But I’ve been here seven years, spent time growing up in Kāpiti and Paraparaumu and attended Kāpiti College. I love this area and I think that there are some big issues that are facing us. Kāpiti and Horowhenua have the two highest proportions of older people. It’s going to be a real challenge for us going forwards. The road between Ōtaki and Levin – I’m really concerned about how that will impact on the community. I think it’s a good thing for Kāpiti, but I think there were some issues with the process and how people were consulted with and treated. As a lawyer, I feel like the need for fairness and upholding people’s rights is a strong (motivation) for me. I’m realistic about my chances, but Nathan Guy, the current MP – he’s done some things for me, but I kind of get the feeling that now his focus has shifted from being a local MP to being a Cabinet Minister. He’s kind of moved on, and he’s going to be in Parliament anyway – so he’ll still be there waving the Ōtaki electorate flag, but my goal is really to get a second voice there, someone who is really focused on the local issues.
Balance Transfers: So let’s assume you’re successful. What would be your vision for Ōtaki over the next three to five years?
Sam: Well, for me, I guess I want Ōtaki to grow, but grow in a way that it wants to grow. For me, key priorities would be public transport. In the short term, immediately getting some decent rail services. Whether that’s running a capital connection during the day, that’s one or two services between Wellington, Paraparaumu and Levin, so that we can connect them to Waikanae with the electric rail. But longer term, I think we need electric rail to Ōtaki and Levin. And I think that that will make it far easier for people to live here, have families here, go and do study, go and do work. One of the things that has hit home to me during the campaign is that I have a girl, a fifteen year old girl, who lives here on the beach in Ōtaki. She was saying she has to choose between whether she has a part-time job, or whether she goes and does training down in Porirua. Because the public transport is so bad here, and because Ōtaki is so neglected, she couldn’t do both. She couldn’t get to the course and back in time to go to her part-time job. She couldn’t afford to live closer to the training organisation. So she’s kind of had to make the choice – well, I have to work, so I can’t get training. And that just brought home for me that having good public transport is so essential to make people’s lives just that little bit easier.
Balance Transfers: Public transport is costing us some real opportunities here.
Sam: It is. Absolutely. Absolutely. And particularly young people because not everyone has a car. I mean, around this area you basically can’t get anywhere without a car. I know there’s some bus services that have been trialed, and there’s the capital connection, but it’s not enough. If we really want this area to grow and for people to prosper, we actually need to be able to get them places. I laugh when we have all these conversations about “housing affordability” and building more houses in the big cities, because we’ve got all of these regions in New Zealand struggling and we could be building the houses there, and it starts with actually having the right transport connections. It makes it a far more attractive option as a place to live and raise a family. It’s crazy, I find, that we’re not backing the regions more, and particularly this year – I feel, I mean, the Ōtaki electorate is quite unique in that it’s got a suburban part, which is Paraparaumu and Waikanae, and a regional part, which is Horowhenua. But in the middle you’ve got Ōtaki which is quite neglected as part of Kāpiti, but it’s within the Mid Central District Health Board. So it’s kind of the forgotten town, and I think it’s a good example of other places in New Zealand that are struggling in a similar way. For me it’s all about infrastructure and services to make it a more attractive and easier place to live.
Balance Transfers: Speaking of infrastructure, I noticed on the website that you talk about the recent petition to set up a hospital in Kāpiti. What’s your stance on that?
Sam: Well, for me, I’ve always thought that health services on the coast have been problematic, even Paraparaumu where, if you want a doctor after 10 o’clock at night, you’re out of luck – you have to go to Wellington or to Palmy. And with such a high proportion of older people as well – I actually think it’s criminal that we make people travel an hour each way to a major hospital. And particularly Ōtaki is a good example, where you’ve got to go all the way to Palmy, so you’re talking an hour, and if you get discharged in the middle of the night and you’re an 80 year old pensioner, how do you get home? So I feel like we need more health support services, but I definitely support a 24/7 satellite hospital.
There are number of challenges with that, but I think we’ve got to do it. We’ve got 80,000 people in Kāpiti and Horowhenua that could utilise health services right here on the coast. And with all the roads that are being built, they’re going to make Ōtaki closer to Wellington and Paraparaumu that it is going to be to Palmerston North. There needs to be a real rethink, and, I guess, have some collaboration between the two DHBs. I don’t know to what extent they’re talking. There seems to be quite a lot of doing their own thing, and lack of coordination.
One of the other things I recently heard that is quite sobering is that in Levin, for example, there are 100 people currently with dementia – in 10 years, that number is going to be up to 500, and in 20 years, 1000. That’s a huge amount of people that have a serious health condition that needs support, and what kind of pressures does that put on a health system? We actually need to be thinking about how we’re going to manage these things.
Balance Transfers: What’s the reason for that growth?
Sam: Just the growing population and the ageing population. I think in NZ at the moment we’ve got 700,000 people over the age of 65. In 25 years it will double. We have huge growth in our older people and it will place huge demands on our health system. It’s about working smarter and having a plan right now so we can manage that. And regional towns such as Ōtaki, it’s going to have a particular impact.
Balance Transfers: Is it tough being an independent candidate in an election year that’s so fraught?
Sam: Yeah, it seems to be that the big parties are generally taking all of the oxygen away from the small parties, but I guess if you can be genuine and convincing in your vision, you can get your message out, and it will register with voters. I’ve kind of got a feeling that people are sick of the same old politics – and that’s not a National vs Labour thing – it’s just the same old politicians over-promising and under-delivering. I don’t have any political baggage, I don’t have any fixed affiliations, I’ve just got ideas and visions and I’m very committed to this area.
One of the key challenges is actually convincing people that (voting independent) is not a waste of a vote, it could give this electorate huge input and huge negotiating power. Because the big parties are only going to be looking for one or two seats in order to support them, and this gives us a really significant opportunity to say – “well look, we’re happy to support the Government, whether that’s as part of it, or as a minority government with supply and confidence, but we’ve got all these local priorities that we want to push forward – how are you going to come to the party?” Because unfortunately, that’s the reality of our political system.
Whether we like it or not we actually are competing with other regions of New Zealand for infrastructure and dollars. So that’s really my pitch as an independent.
Balance Transfers: I agree. I think it would be very smart for most of people from Ōtaki to vote to do that. It’s very MMP focused.
Sam: Yeah, exactly, it is. And I’m amazed that there hasn’t been successful independents under the MMP system. Because for me, the positives and the pluses are just so clear. I studied Politics and MMP at Victoria University, and it was clear to me 15 years ago that there were surely going to be “the age of the independents”, and I’m a bit surprised that (it hasn’t happened). I think that one of the challenges is getting across that message to voters that it’s not a wasted vote, and although you’re essentially a part of one, what you can achieve as a party of one is sometimes going to be greater than a voice or a series of voices in a bigger party.
Balance Transfers: You were talking about attracting businesses to Ōtaki. What do you think is involved in that?
Sam: We have this huge tourism boom in New Zealand at the moment, and our region is particularly bad at pulling in some of those tourist dollars. We’ve got some really cool attractions – we’ve got Kāpiti Island, we’ve got wildlife sanctuaries, we’ve got Ōtaki Forks up here, whitewater rafts. We’ve got Foxton with the windmill, we’ve got all sorts of attractions. So for me, one of key priorities would be saying “what can we invest in? Is it marketing? Is it infrastructure? How can we get more of that activity happening here?” And then that has flow-on effects in terms of tourism activity here. The more guests you have, the more milk you buy. It also then creates more part-time jobs for younger people and full-time jobs for older people. So it’s all those wraparound services as well. I think one of the things that really struck me is the amount of innovation in our community as well. We’ve got bright people who are inventors and thinkers and who are potentially doing the job that no-one’s thought of yet or defined, but who are sometimes not necessarily the best business people, so it’s actually putting the support around them to say, “how are we going to commercialise your idea and sell it to the world?”
I’m really supportive of the idea of putting money into a fund that we can try and help these people who have these brilliant ideas. I think that Ōtaki had a business hub, I think they still do, where they’ve got a warehouse to develop and grow, with key spaces where people could rent and trial whatever they wanted to trial. We need those sort of business innovation hubs in our community, particularly in small towns and regions, with the bright business people linking up to the bright do-ers, and potentially taking the ideas to the world.
Balance Transfers: Te Wananga o Aotearoa has qualified candidates who could fill potentially highly skilled jobs.
Sam: Absolutely. I don’t know if you know about Whitireia in Paraparaumu, but it could be much bigger if you built a trainstation behind it, behind Lindale for example.
That’s really my key message. I want central government to stop focusing on the big cities. The big cities are important, but actually, it’s regional New Zealand that needs help and support right now. Because there’s so much opportunity. It’s not big dollars, it’s just about targeting the right things. That’s really why I’m doing this, and I’ve met some awesome people through the campaign.
