A parliamentarian stands down : a Connections article.

By Ken Russell in Articles

Sue Bradford has been a terrier for the voice-less, a champion of politically unpopular causes, an irritator of the public conscience,

I was just visiting. An elderly parishioner, actually. Just before twelve, last Friday. There was a (very) loud knock on the back door and before either of us had a chance to open it she bustled in.

The meals-on-wheels lady. With hardly a glance at either of us, excited, she burst out with her question "had we heard the good news?"

"And what good news might that be?" I asked. "The smacking woman. She's gone, resigned. And good riddance!"

She didn't stay long, and not much more was said. My lovely parishioner acknowledged how much she enjoyed the free meals, and as for me I have long since learned that you don't use a parishioner's home as a forum to argue with a third party. So I bit my tongue.

But, yes, I had heard the same piece of news just an hour before, and needless to say I didn't share the same jubilation that Sue Bradford was calling it quits after 10 yrs as a Green MP. Quite the reverse. I was sad for the Greens and for Parliament. I rather fear that political commentator John Minto is correct when he said this week her departure later this month will remove the strongest voice for the most vulnerable groups in New Zealand. Neither, he says, is there another MP who will step up to fill her shoes. Sad, again!

Has any MP of recent vintage, save perhaps one that languishes in prison for child abuse, attracted such vitriol as Sue Bradford?? Probably not. Of all the women brave enough to raise their head above the barricades in the last couple of decades, this Auckland mother of five has arguably more to show for the common good than other more illustrious dames and matrons who have strutted their stuff in public life.

The reason is simple. Sue Bradford has been single-minded in the service of those whose interests she felt compelled to advocate. She has been a terrier for the voice-less, a champion of politically unpopular causes, an irritator of the public conscience, scratching where other legislators were afraid to scratch. In short, a contemporary female Amos railing against privilege and social oppression.

She has successfully introduced three private members bills and had the satisfaction of seeing them pass into law. With one of these, mothers in prison were authorised to keep their young children with them for substantially longer. With another, she won the minimum wage for 16 and 17 year olds. But it is the third, the Crimes (substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007, passed by a huge majority in the House, for which she earned notoriety in the eyes of those like my nameless meals-on-wheels visitor. A perfectly just and necessary measure to remove the legal defence of "reasonable force" for adults prosecuted for assault on children was dubbed the "anti-smacking bill" by the conservative Family First movement, and polarised the country. A subsequent citizens initiated referendum revealed just how deeply the Bradford Bill had penetrated the violent psyche of the country, but to their credit parliamentarians on both sides of the House have deemed the Bradford law to be working effectively, and despite the referendum vote no further changes are likely.

To get back to Bradford herself. The point is well made that for any backbench MP to pass one private members bill in a parliamentary career is noteworthy. To pass three inside 10 years is remarkable. As well, she has never tired in keeping issues of unemployment, workers rights, and child poverty to the forefront, often to the embarrassment of first the ruling Labour Govt, and more latterly the National.

In all of this, the nation has watched the development of Sue Bradford herself. From a dowdy street-fighting radical at for the forefront of every noisy left-wing cause, she has grown in self-esteem and stature to an articulate defender of the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged at the seat of power, fighting battles where they count most.

She may be seen as a political scarlet woman by the likes of the so-called moral majority, but if truth be known she has advocated better for the vulnerable of this country than those who so outrageously claim the name of Jesus in opposing her. She has been scandalously defamed, and even suffered death threats for her courage. And even sadder, she has felt sidelined by a leadership vote in her own Party that went against her.

There will be no royal accolades for Sue Bradford. She is altogether too far to the left for today's Greens, too unpolished, too uncompromising, too driven by the imperatives of low-paid workers and beneficiaries to graduate to the directorships reserved for discarded politicians. But I suspect we have not heard the last of her, and that good man Len Brown, emerging candidate for the new Super-City mayoralty, has said he would like to work with her. That could be good for the many poor of Auckland. Good for the country!
--Ken Russell

Reprinted from the Parish weekly bulletin for Sunday, October 4, 2009.