The three-term Wairarapa MP, the world's first transsexual politician, said she was disillusioned with life after politics and upset at the treatment she had received from her former Labour Party colleagues.
Ms Beyer said that while other former Labour MPs were appointed to boards, she had received nothing and was turned down for a position on the Human Rights Commission.
The former chairwoman of Parliament's social services committee said she had been forced to accept the unemployment benefit for several months late last year before selling her house to pay the bills "so I didn't have to be on the dole".
"I have all this accumulated knowledge and experience and no one wants to employ it, and I'm not sure why," she said.
"That I'm of no further use to my country is why I'm considering Australia, that my former parliamentary colleagues seem not to want to appoint me to anything, but are quite happy to accommodate others who have left or are about to, so as to shut them up from whingeing from the sidelines in election year.
"One could be forgiven for being a little vexed."
Pardon me Ms Beyer. People are supposed to be appointed to public office on their merits, not merely because they have been an elected MP. This expectation that one can step of the Parliamentary gravy train is a blight on successive governments, although it must be said that Helen Clark's Labour-led government has taken the practice to new heights.
Then again, when she sees the favours which have been bestowed on the likes of Diane Yates, you can understand why Ms Beyer, held up by Labour as a flagbearer for the gay, lesbian and transgendered community might be miffed. And she has added to the perception that Yates and her like were bought off to allow "fresh faces" such as Louisa Wall and Su'a William Sio to be brought into Parliament.
3 comments:
I think that you are being a little hard on Ms Beyer. She brought a great deal of experience working with the so-called underclass into Parliament -- impressive enough that the people of the Wairarapa elected her first mayor of their largest town and then their MP, despite her progressive background. She then added to that in her role as MP.
This will be the rationale or excuse (depending on your view) for appointments of former National MPs given by any future National government.
She wouldn't be the first in NZ's parliamentary history to feel hard done by relative to others.
"That I'm of no further use to my country is why I'm considering Australia,.."
She seems to assume that she was of some use in the first place....perhaps now she'll go take all that wonderful expertise out into the real world of private business and find out what it's really worth.
Very little, I suspect.
kg - I think she's already found out her worth to the real world, hence the decision to up sticks and cross the ditch.
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