Not Rich Pickings

Prime Minister Helen Clark praised Mrs Rich.

"Personally I am sorry to see Katherine Rich leave politics I think she has made a contribution into public debate over education," Miss Clark said.

"I have seen her as someone who is very much at the liberal end of the National Party. The National Party needs such people and I think she will be a tremendous loss."

Miss Clark said she respected Mrs Rich reasons for leaving.

I am a firm believer that it is important how your enemies see you when you are no longer in competition with them. If they say nothing then it is a good sign, if they continue to criticize you then it is a great sign. But run out plaudits about how great you are and what a loss you will be, then chances are your time has not been well spent.

Katherine Rich is no exception.

She started out with so much centre-right promise. She ends her career in politics after nine years as a “darling” of the bloody left.

What the hell happened?

I have met Katherine Rich and agree that she is genuinely a nice person. She is incredibly pleasant to talk to, calm, intelligent and has a demeanor that makes you think she wouldn’t be mean and nasty to or about anyone.

The kind of woman who puts others ahead of her own ambitions. The kind of woman who thinks about others in creating those original ambitions. The sort of woman who you would be happy to have as a neighbour. The sort of woman who no doubt is a fabulous mother, daughter, sister, aunt or cousin.

But the kind of person ultimately totally unsuited to politics. No killer instinct at all.

Rich entered Parliament in 1999 at the age I am right now, 32. At a time when most women have actually already had all their still very young children, decided to have children in the immediate future or focus solely on their career, Rich entered the most unsuitable environment for the first two options imaginable - politics. During her time in politics she has given birth to 2 children in addition to those of her husband from a prior relationship. This raises interesting questions.

Rich is still only 40 which by National Party standards is extremely young. Had she waited, had the children and entered politics right now she would be infinitely better off. She would have been there with her children at home through all the dribbling and nappies. Chances are this would have driven her crazy by now and she would be in the right mind-set to actually start her career in politics. She would have escaped nine sole destroying years in Opposition where all she has achieved is positioning herself as someone that Helen Clark actually liked and opposes National’s fundamental thrust (well, one hopes) towards choice and vouchers for Education.

Even in retirement Rich lacked what politicians actually require. A great sense of inflated self-importance and confidence. This sums it up:

"While I know I could do a good job, it could not be done by me without having an impact on the lives of my kids," Mrs Rich said.

Can you imagine a man saying this?

No man would ever admit to being able to do a “good” job. They say “I have already contributed a large amount and would have gone on to greatness”.

Another Richism:

Mrs Rich said she was not resigning because of a dispute over policy or the direction or the party.

"I firmly believe in the direction John Key is going to take this country as prime minister.

"If I didn't believe in that vision, I would be the sought of person who would stay and fight."

Wait a minute, so if Rich didn’t believe that John Key would be good, she would have stayed on to roll him? That’s quite nonsensical. Well maybe not as she’s been through 4 leaders in those 9 years.

Katherine Rich continues a recent but deep line of National Party women who have met unspectacular and disappointingly weak departures after promising so much and been gifted the opportunity that others can only marvel at.

Ruth Richardson’s reign was tainted in my eyes with her statement I once read that after giving birth, nothing in Parliament seemed as important as her children. In Richardson’s case this was an extreme way of copping out as she had the most important job of all in the National Party – moving it to the right. She shuffled them slightly there but faulted and then got tanked on by the boys but instead of staying on and fighting and shaming them towards the right again, calmly stepped out of the way and retired to the green grass and cows to become a part-time housewife and international consultant.

Fuck that.

Jenny Shipley was a mascot for mediocrity and has actually done better outside of politics than she ever did in it. Her patronizing tones belting down the airwaves on the news as she cut benefits did nothing for the state of her career in politics. Interviews since have shown that these tones have gone. Had they never appeared during her political career she may have very well done better. She did though manage to juggle raising two children, having a husband and leading what looked a very happy family life, rather brilliantly.

In a white male dominated society that politics is, despite who is supposedly in “charge”, Rich, Richardson and Shipley’s actions in disappearing quietly taint all women. Women are still viewed just like Maori or Pacific Islanders, as a minority that needs special advancement. Not necessarily in numbers since the Labour Party have had nine years of terror, but in opportunity.

Despite its bad publicity and a few drawbacks, being a professional, educated woman does give you advantages that white middle class straight men often do not get. All you have to do is take all that opportunity.

In the National Party (probably in Labour as well) white middle-class straight men still view the road for the Katherine Rich’s of the Party as a lot easier to travel than their own. Women are promoted ahead of more suitably qualified, committed and much tougher men so they probably have a good point. There will be a lot of National Party people quietly fuming at Rich’s decision to now turn her back on the Party. She has firmly stated that the “wanting to spend more time with her children” is the reason. This is an awful cross for the children to wear. It grated me as a child reading a close relative of fellow blogger write about my mother in the local newspaper with words to effect "she quit her career to focus on her children". Fucking awful when you are used as a reason for what might have been had you and your siblings not been such a burden. And one day Rich's children will read the press given to this and ask her the same question.

So what’s Rich going to do now? Have a 9am to 3.30pm job in a shop and pick the kiddies up from school? Of course not, she’ll get offered another job with possibly the same pressures as before. She’s very employable.

So the next young childless (or with young child) woman who shows any promise in the National Party will suffer from the “Rich Effect”. Middle age, cringing bald men, token minorities and flunkies on selection committees and Councils will be thinking “will she have babies, go soft and then chuck it all in?”. This is not advancement for the National Party at all. But politics is like business in that respect, and employers want a return on their investment. Nothing irks a modern day large employer more than promoting and earmarking a woman to a position of power or status and then have her chuck it in when she almost gets there for "family" or "personal" reasons. Nothing.

We have seen it with Maori political candidates that have had at one point a wide-spread appeal then fizzed like a wet 5th of November. John Tamihere, so much promise so little delivery. Donna Awatere-Huata, rumoured now to be working at some “Trust” outfit out there in West Auckland, was another affirmative action nightmare. Tau Henare burnt his bridges and defaulted to the centre-right for the opportunity. He’s about as centre-right as I am qualified to attend a Socialist Workers meeting and will show it if National get into power. He's an A grade pain in the rectum. Career Maori Stateswoman Georgina Te-Heu Heu bug hangs in there for the perks and has achieved little other than nuisance value which again, when counted on she won’t step up.

So forgive me for not buying the feminist hype that Rich has done the best thing for her children and is a rolemodel for women. Witness "only just a Pinko" Stef who makes the very valid point that may not just apply to politicians:

Particularly as if a politician of her calibre cannot manage to juggle raising young children and politics, what hope is there for other young mums who want to enter politics to change society for the better?

There is nothing to be happy about Rich’s departure other than it’s best to find out someone’s metal sooner than later so now is the right time to quit.

I am not buying the “spend more time with children” line.

She should have just announced she didn’t want to be an MP anymore.

I would have understood and wished her the best, because not many sane people want to be an MP either.