By Maria McMillan
“Why should young people vote for me? Well, I too was young once, full of dreams, and hopes and….seriously, I can only say why I’m standing and let you make up your own mind.
I keep thinking about Greta Thunberg and her absolute contempt for adults in power. Her insistence that she is a child and she should have been at school not leading our global response to climate change. That her clearsightedness about what is happening deprived her of just hanging out and being a kid. Where the hell are the adults in the room?
I have been a leftish, feminist, environmentally-minded peace activist and thinker my whole adult life and I’ve been thinking it’s not on me, to step up into a system I have so many problems with. But part of me knows that it is on me. That kids and young people are shouldering an unequal burden of responsibility and pain about the climate breakdown. And in terms of what young people are facing, let’s throw in low paid work, widespread poverty, on going racism. Let’s throw in NZ’s high rates of family and sexual violence, persistent gender stereotypes, pressures around identity and sexuality, high rents, crappy sub-standard housing and the idea that you could one day own your own home becoming laughable. Let’s throw in global injustices like the war in Ukraine, a young woman killed in Iran for not covering her faces. And I wonder what could possibly be fuelling the youth mental health crisis of depression, anxiety and overwhelming feelings of feeling overwhelmed. And I think again, where are the adults who are really taking all this seriously. Not talking around it or trying to minimise it. Where the hell are the adults in the room?
Not those, impressive as they are, in the first throes of adulthood, but those who have a bit of time and experience to wield. I am in utter awe and have much respect for the young people working on all of this, but I do not think you should be having to deal with this shit alone. You should not be the ones who have to be clear sighted, patient, strategic and far wiser than your years in meeting the challenges of what’s happening in terms of the planet, equity and justice.
My name is Maria McMillan. You can read more about me and my policies in my flyer, on facebook or on twitter. I am standing for a justice-based climate change response, a living wage, and iwi, hapū and community-led projects.
I have postgraduate degrees in politics/policy and information. I’ve worked in leadership, strategy and in some very boring roles in the private sector, in education, libraries, government departments and in community groups. I’m not swayed by fads, or new jargon that tries to talk its way out of old issues, or complex technical babble that obscures facts, hides injustice or makes up science. I won’t blame deprivation on poor life choices I’m into evidence and facts and justice. I can see the bones of an issue. I know how to work with people, I know what’s in and out of scope for Council and, in this one place, in this one small way, I can try and be the adult in the room. Kia ora.”
Maria McMillan is a Districtwide candidate for Kāpiti Council