Wise words from a fine man...

We're not great fans of Paul Holmes. But on his Newstalk ZB programme yesterday, we listened transfixed by one of the best interviews we'd heard for some time.

Holmes was interviewing Henare O'Keefe, a Hastings District Councillor recently awarded the New Zealand Local Hero of the Year. You can hear the interview here.

He talks about his years working at Tomoana freezing works where he "went in as a boy and came out as a man.". He also talks about having earned a PhD in relationships while working there, and that becomes evident in his later comments.

At around the 8m35s mark where O'Keefe talks about his belief that children are the products of the environment in which they are brought up; he says "there's no such thing as a bad baby. Something has happened in that child's life for them to walk around with a chip the size of Te Mata Peak on both shoulders." He then says "Change the home and you'll change the community, in my humble opinion.".

Holmes then asks Mr O'Keefe about his experiences as a foster parent; he and his wife have fostered over 200 children. It's fantastic to hear him talk about children who has thrived as a result of the environment to which they had been exposed in the O'Keefe whanau home.

And then comes the real kicker; he tells of his own childhood, and the lesson he learned from his parents that "poverty is not an excuse to fail". And he's dead right. Earlier in the interview he comments that his goal and prayer is to "get Flaxmere out of grievance mode", and that while communities may have issues "we harbour the solutions as well".

This is a wonderful interview with a man of great wisdom and mana; it's well worth the investment of 15 minutes of your time this morning. New Zealand is a far better place for contribution of the likes of Henare O'Keefe. We congratulate him on being deservedly awarded the title of New Zealand Local Hero of the Year; kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui.