Politics in the Pub: Mount Maunganui Edition

If, as the saying goes, drunken words are sober thoughts, what better place to ask people about their politics than over a few pints at their local watering hole? After a big week of political headlines, including Metiria Turei's confession of enrolling to vote at a false address following her earlier admission of benefit fraud and Jacinda Ardern taking over the leadership of Labour, there was bound to be gossip at pubs across the country.

With campaigns ahead of the September general election well under way, we hit the road and headed to the pub to find out what people really think about politics in this country. First up were the patrons of Rising Tide in Mount Maunganui.

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
I think it means different things to different people, but ultimately it's about a certain amount of freedom that comes from being here and a very high level of acceptance for who you are.

Do politicians care about you?
I think a lot do. One of the main issues we have here though is that there are no term limits on politicians, so there are many who use it as a career and they politic along the lines of what will get them elected rather than things that are actually going to make a change. All the politicians, they don't think long term, and to care about the people is to think beyond yourself.

What's your biggest issue?
I'm quite open-minded and really multinational, but as a New Zealander one of our main issues is actually foreign ownership of land, from my perspective. And it's not trying to dissuade foreign nationalists from coming here, because anyone who brings a new idea in, it's fascinating and grows our country. But it seems all too easy for people to come into New Zealand and not live here. American film moguls and wealthy people are able to come in here and buy up whatever they choose, and I don't think that benefits our country.

Word association game time. I say something, and you tell me the first word that comes to mind.

Jacinda Ardern
Interesting.

Benefit fraud
A crime.

Working mothers
The norm.

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
I think New Zealanders sometimes earn a bad reputation for themselves. I think we tend to think we're better than the rest of the world sometimes. We sometimes have this aura about ourselves because we're so isolated and so innovative it seems, and we honestly tend to have too much confidence in ourselves.

Do politicians care about you?
Maybe to an extent, but not really.

What's your biggest issue with the upcoming election?
To be honest, I don't pay attention to a lot of politics. I live a pretty quiet life, I don't even watch the news, but my biggest issue is probably the housing crisis, how they're evicting people out of state housing after them being there for 25 years. Like can we not at least direct enough tax-payer dollars to avoid such situations? Especially when there are terminally ill people involved and stuff—that's pretty bad. I think there needs to be more personalised interaction between the decision maker and tenants before things like that are put into force, you know? It's just not really fair.

Jacinda Ardern
Doesn't like discussing her want for children? I just read that news article today.

Working mothers
Case-by-case basis.

Benefit fraud
Metiria Turei.

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
Freedom, creativity, personality, cultural diversity, acceptance, loyalty, adventure. To always look upon the horizon but always come back home.

Do politicians care about you?
Yeah, they do. I think they all choose to build a really strong and diverse and really functional society. I think our politicians genuinely want to make our country really fantastic, diverse, and liveable, regardless of socioeconomic status. They all want a better and functioning future for anybody.

Biggest issue?
My huge issue is ignorance, probably. I need to seek a lot more education about what my vote entails and what it means to everyone else.

Jacinda Ardern
Really approachable, really natural, she appears quite confident in what she says. She's youthful which is quite exciting. Good luck to her.

Benefit fraud
Very situational.

Working mothers
Fair play to women who want their career, I think it's a really hard balance.

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
I'm South African-born, so I'm old enough to remember what it was like to live there, and old enough now to know the difference between the two places. So what it means to be a New Zealander is being able to make your own decisions no matter what your skin colour or what your education level is. Just being accepted for who you are and having the opportunity to move forwards and onwards.

Do politicians care about you?
There are some I think that care—the new Labour leader, I think she cares. To an extent. They all care about slightly different topics and slightly different aspects of who we are and what they want for the country.

What's your biggest issue with the upcoming election?
I definitely think there needs to be a bigger focus on health care. Not just hospitals, but a tertiary environment. There needs to be more women's health, more than there is now. And there needs to be a bigger community-based focus for healthcare, rather than people being unable to afford to see a GP or their practice nurse and just coming to ED for things like a cough or a cold or a flu. But it's too expensive.

Jacinda Ardern
Women's equality.

Benefit fraud
So annoying.

Working mothers
All the support they can get.

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
I think that if you've never been overseas before you don't really know what it is to be a New Zealander, because until you go somewhere else you don't realise how different it is overseas and how easy you have it here. It's just the ability to do whatever you want. People say that it's super PC over here but it's also a good thing because it means you can do whatever you want.

Do politicians care about you?
Yeah, they have to, it's what they're meant to do. I think they care but sometimes there's only so much they can actually do, like by themselves they can't do heaps.

What' your biggest issue with the upcoming election?
I think that it's the way that the voting is done. They are missing out on an entire population of people who could quite easily do it on their phone, and there is technology to do that. They're missing out on an entire opinion of people below the age of 40 really because people can't be bothered to go and vote, so it's quite skewed.

Jacinda Ardern
Teeth.

Benefit fraud
Strict, as in they need to be stricter with it.

Working mothers
I don't really think of it as a thing because you should be able to do both. You should have all the facilities available to be able to do that.

Follow Sophie on Twitter.