CHRISTOPHER LUXON
MEMBER FOR BOTANY, NATIONAL PARTY

Which people or institutions have had the largest role in shaping the way you think and work?
My parents had a huge influence on me and gave me such a great start in life. From my Mum, I learned about people, and I inherited my sense of humour. She taught me to walk across the room and engage with people different from me. From Dad, I learned to set big goals, work hard to achieve them, stay positive, and never let your circumstances define you.

My work experiences also shaped me. I left New Zealand after university and lived overseas for 16 years. I worked for Unilever, and that gave me a truly global perspective. Then, coming back and running Air New Zealand gave me an even deeper appreciation and understanding of New Zealand and New Zealanders.

What are the biggest challenges your generation has faced?
Like many other Kiwis growing up in New Zealand who wanted to build a global career, I think many of us felt we were maybe ‘second class’ to our better educated, more confident and richer colleagues overseas. However, I learned very quickly that I could compete with the Oxbridge intellectuals from England, Ivy League educated Americans, and born-confident Australians. We must never apologise to anyone for being from New Zealand.

Stepping into Parliament, what’s one thing about the culture there that you have found difficult?
As a commercial guy, I am used to taking complexity and simplifying things down to make messages clear for people and organisations to follow. Parliament is set up for lawyers, and sometimes they take simple things and like to make them more complex!

However, I also have immense respect for the place. Our democracy, while imperfect, functions very well relative to so many other countries in the world. At the end of the day, it really is truly a privilege and great honour to serve in parliament.

You’ve identified as a Christian, citing various examples of people whose Christian faith compelled them to advocate for justice. Do you see an area of injustice that you are motivated to address?
I would love to work on the scourge of modern slavery. As a little boy I read stories about the African slave trade and remember thinking when we got to be the leaders, everyone would be so enlightened that these issues wouldn’t exist. But sadly, that just isn’t reality. There are about 40 million people enslaved in the world today. It’s a big challenge and ultimately a shared responsibility for government, community, and business to solve.

What lessons or values do you want to pass on to the next generation?
I think for each of us it is about getting connected to a mission and purpose that’s bigger than yourself. The challenge is, how you take all the skills, abilities and experience you have and hook it up to something bigger than yourself? When you do that, you end up living a life of both success and significance, and in doing so make your life count.

The best leaders I’ve met have both huge amounts of personal humility and massive amounts of professional determination for their cause, country, or organisation. That requires each of us to work on ourselves as leaders because who you’re becoming as a person, not what you’re doing as a job, is so much more important.

GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN
LIST MEMBER, GREEN PARTY

Thinking about what you’ve inherited from previous generations, what are you most grateful for?
I’m incredibly grateful for the sacrifices that my parents were willing to make so that I didn’t grow up under an oppressive, theocratic regime. My parents instilled in me a sense of what is worth fighting for. For them it became literally dangerous. So, I find that sense of looking at the world around you and what you can do to improve it really inspiring.

Which people or institutions have had the largest role in shaping the way you think and work?
My parents pitched New Zealand as a place where we would have rights and dignity because everyone had rights and dignity here. We didn’t have that in Iran. So, I have an obligation to work towards those values as they had.

Then as I got older, I more consciously thought about what it would have been like to have been left in Iran. My inspiration is still drawn from the people who are stuck under oppressive regimes, and the fact that they keep fighting.

What are the biggest challenges your generation has faced?
For me, the core challenge is the climate crisis. But in combatting the climate crisis, we can’t forget social justice, racial justice, workers’ rights—these are the root causes of environmental degradation. Unless we say that we want a fair and just world for everyone who lives in it, we can’t come together to combat the environmental issues. It’s global inequality and the climate crisis, and we must address those things together.

Stepping into Parliament, what’s one thing about the culture there that you have found difficult?
I came from working in the criminal justice system—an adversarial system. But I’ve never been in a place more adversarial than Parliament. On a personal level, people get on, you say, “Hi,” and hang out. But in terms of the debating chamber, and the way that decisions are made, it was wild to me how unmovable and unconstructive that culture was. People come in and do a debate speech and then leave the chamber. That’s not a debate!

How do you navigate the challenges of understanding and responding to the concerns of people who are from different generations and have different life experiences?
I draw from my understanding as a refugee or migrant from a non-Western culture. It’s interesting how much we have in common in core values. Some of our life experiences have been different, but there are core human values, and everyone shares them.

When I first ran, I’d sometimes get this question: “How can we help other migrants assimilate as well as you have?” And I’d go, “What makes you think I’m so assimilated?” And they would list things that were compliments; “You’re a feminist, and you’re well-educated, and you’re an independent woman.”

And I’d go, “I learnt to be a feminist from people who faced torture for equality or democracy.” We’re bringing these values from all different places, and we share them, they just look different.

If you bring a willingness to have that dialogue, it always works.

HON. KELVIN DAVIS
MEMBER FOR TE TAI TOKERAU, LABOUR PARTY

Thinking about what you’ve inherited from previous generations, what are you most grateful for?
For being Māori. For being able to speak Māori, for thinking like a Māori. Being able to walk in both worlds. I thought before I got into Parliament that I could walk in each world as well as the other. I realised that’s not true, I’m more comfortable in the Māori world.

My whakapapa goes back 94 generations, and I can whakapapa to almost every region in the North Island. My great-great-great- great grandfather signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi; his name is the third one down.

Which people or institutions have had the largest role in shaping the way you think and work?
The marae and all the people associated with that. My hapu, we grew up spending time out at the marae. Every month we had to go and mow the cemetery and go to the church at the marae and start our apprenticeship at the marae like Māori kids are meant to. Back in the day, you had big teapots and you’d go around and serve people cups of tea. Doing dishes, peeling spuds, opening seafood, all that sort of stuff.

What are the biggest challenges your generation has faced?
The loss of language and culture and connection to our roots, our foundation. And now we’re looking at all the problems that are associated with that—lack of identity, lack of connection, uptake of alcohol and drugs, mental health issues… I’m dealing with all of that on a daily basis.

Stepping into Parliament, what’s one thing about the culture there that you have found difficult?
Being a classroom teacher, when you want children to think about ideas, you do a whole heap of collective brainstorming. I sort of expected, maybe naively, that MPs would sit down and throw out ideas and there would be a lot more collective brainstorming than there is. It happens, but it’s very difficult to sit down with a couple of ministers and just talk about stuff without having an army of officials and everyone sitting around you.

What’s one thing you appreciate about the way things are done in Parliament?
The fact that you can get things done in Parliament.

Do you think it’s wise for a politician to admit they were wrong or change their mind about something in public?
You just try hard not to do things that will be proven to be wrong later. I don’t think there’s harm in admitting you’ve stuffed up.

What lessons or values do you want to pass on to the next generation?
One of the lessons that I got from my parents was that doing what’s right isn’t always easy, but it is always right.

And the most loving word that my parents ever said to me was “no.” No meant no, and a lot of people don’t appreciate that these days. And a lot of parents, I think, are scared to be parents. You’ve got to have standards and boundaries and stick to them.

NICOLE MCKEE
LIST MEMBER, ACT PARTY

Thinking about what you’ve inherited from previous generations, what are you most grateful for?
I have a mother who was able to bring us up in a way that made us appreciate everyone and everything.

My mum is Pākehā, and my dad is Māori. My mother had to struggle through the late ’60s and ’70s bringing my sister and I up as a single parent. My father had issues with their breakup and didn’t behave very well. I remember saying to my mother, “I don’t want anything to do with my Dad.” And she would say, “Whatever has happened, happened between us. Your father will always be your father.”

Mum brought us up to realise that everybody has a backstory. I’ve always looked to the reasoning behind someone’s behaviour, before judging people. Mum taught me respect for people, and to always have an open mind when you’re dealing with them.

Which people or institutions have had the largest role in shaping the way you think and work?
My Mum and my husband are the two people. I’ve been with my husband for the last 21 years, and I never would have thought I’d be where I am now. A lot of that has to do with his support; he had more confidence in me than I had in me.

And the institutions—I mostly went to Catholic schools, they are very disciplined in the way that they teach and their expectations of you. My schooling has had a big impact on me, developing
the personality that I’ve got and being able to cross between different worlds.

What is the biggest challenge you see your children’s generation facing?
Buying their own home. My kids are very lucky; we still live in and own the house that they were born in, so they’ve known nothing else. They have a good understanding of their whenua, their land, their home, and how important it is. And I worry that they will never be in a position to purchase their own bit of land.

What’s one thing you appreciate about the way things are done in Parliament?
Everybody’s respectful, everybody’s working for the same outcome, and with our team with ACT, we all get on really, really well. The helpfulness from the clerks in the House and the people who’ve been there a long time has just been exceptional. The people they have in there are really good—reliable, efficient, trustworthy.

What lessons or values do you want to pass on to the next generation?
I’m going to come back to that ‘respect’ word. Especially when we look at some of the things that are being said about or to people on social media—that nasty type of trolling never used to happen before.

Can’t we just be honest with who we are, and can’t people be more respectful to each other? I guess that’s not going to happen while we can hide behind screens and keyboards. But a good starting place is making sure the next generation has an appreciation of where they’ve come from, and have respect for that place.