Labour picks first islander

New Zealand

PACIFIC Islanders in New Zealand have a good chance to put one of their own into Parliament in this year’s elections. In November, the Labour Party selected 37-year-old Sa moan union official Taito Phillip Field to contest the traditionally red-ribbon seat of Otara, in South Auckland. It’s the first time Labour has chosen a Pacific Islander to contest a winnable seat.

Otara became the focus of Labour’s Pacific Island supporters throughout the country. For four decades, Pacific Island voters have helped Labour retain at least five urban seats, particularly in Auck land. In the past, calls for Pacific Islan ders to be chosen to contest winnable seats had been drowned out by the party hierarchy, who feared white voters wouldn’t support a brown candidate.

The 1990 elections offered Labour a se

vere choice: only Otara offered a vacan cy for a Pacific Island candidate. The other four likely seats are held by youn gish, European MPs and if Labour failed in Otara, Pacific Islanders faced a wait of more than 10 years for another chance.

Ten hopefuls five Pacific Islanders lined up to fill the vacancy left by retiring Agriculture Minister Colin Moyle, one of five senior Cabinet minis ters stepping down at this year’s elec tions.

At least 400 people packed the Te Puke O Tara community hall in Otara township for the often emotional selec tion meeting, during which several Paci fic Island candidates hammered home the message it was time for Labour to pay its debts to a loyal Pacific Island constituency.

Field himself avoided playing overtly on his ethnic background, explaining afterwards he didn’t want any taint of “tokenism” about his selection. He be lieves choosing a Pacific Islander for an electorate which contains one of the largest Island communities in Auckland is not only fair but essential for Labour to retain the seat. Despite being an out sider Field was an organiser for the Hotel Workers Union in Whangarei, north of Auckland he believes Otara’s Pacific Island voters will identify with him, particularly the Samoans who’ll

appreciate having a bilingual MP.

Labour no longer regards Otara as a safe seat. Last election, Moyle’s majority was halved to about 2400 votes. Otara

township’s mainly Polynesian population

has suffered greatly under Rogernomics.

There’s record unemployment with the closure of the freezing works and factor ies. A recent housing survey estimated as many as 5000 families may be officially

designated “homeless” in South Auck land, many in Otara. More than 1000 of these families are on the Housing Cor poration’s waiting list for homes. At the same time Labour is undercutting many of the fundamentals of low-income fami lies: free education and health care.

Along with attacks on Western Samoa’s immigration quota, talk of a Whites Only

immigration policy and the charging of

fees for foreign students, this has left many Pacific Island voters disillusioned with Labour.

Field is already bracing himself for a

bruising year-long campaign. The left

wing New Labour Party has targetted Otara as one of two key seats for the elections, and Field believes the NLP and its strong candidate, Maori union official Malt Robson, pose a real threat. Field can call on his union links to reach the Pacific Island workforce and intends to

campaign on “working people’s issues”

of equitable access to health care and

education, job training schemes and

promoting more community pride in

Otara township.

But shepherding voters away from the NLP isn’t Field’s only worry. The other part of the electorate is Howick, a mainly affluent European area which now hold half the electorate’s population. Fewer than half of Howick’s residents voted Labour last election and new housing subdivisions now put the area firmly in the camp of the opposition National Par ty. Several of the European candidates for selection threw up the threat of a racial backlash in Howick against a Paci fic Islander. But Field doesn’t believe this will eventuate, as his emphasis on economic policies will appeal to the Howick residents whose concerns lie with interest rates and business investment.

However, Labour’s informal polling in Howick shows considerable resistance to any Labour candidate, with a Pacific Islander facing an extra hurdle. □