Trotter on Aged Care

The vexed subject of Aged Care has been in the news in the last week. Dr Judy McGregor from the Human Rights Commission wrote a damning report on the Aged Care sector, which the government has agreed to consider.

Chris Trotter has commented on the Aged Care sector this morning as well. Over at Bowalley Road, and in his syndicated newspaper column, he reminisces:

FOR A FEW WEEKS, towards the end of 1973, aged just seventeen, I worked as an orderly at Siverstream Hospital. Speaking frankly, a few weeks was all I could stand. Officially, this public hospital catered for “long-term care” patients. Unofficially, it was an old people’s home.

Many of Silverstream’s residents suffered from dementia. Some were violent, while others drifted in and out of reality in the most disconcerting fashion. The most difficult to deal with, however, were those who remembered enough to know that they didn’t want to be there. Recalling how we would apprehend these brave old souls as they tried to “escape” still gives me pangs of guilt. The bathing, the feeding, the replacing of colostomy bags: it was all hard and emotionally draining work; but the sight of those tears, falling silently from eyes that saw a world their aged owners could never re-join; that was heart-breaking.

There was, however, nothing heart-breaking about the pay. Anyone working through Christmas could earn a week’s wages in less than 72 hours. Overtime, double-time, triple-time: back then the workman and workwoman were worthy of their hire. Mind you, back then union membership was compulsory. Back then we had a Labour Government worthy of the name. Back then, the prediction that my job would one day be described as “modern day slavery” would not have been believed.

Two years later, not so very far from Silverstream Hospital, just a couple of miles up the Hutt Valley at Brentwood School, I cast my first vote. I still remember how my hand hovered above the name of the Values candidate. I had read the party’s splendid manifesto, Beyond Tomorrow, and my head told me that the policies enunciated by Values were the only policies to take the future seriously. My heart, however, recalled “Big Norm”, and I voted Labour.

Silverstream Hospital, built by the New Zealand government for the repair and recuperation of American sailors during World War II (and visited in 1943 by no less a personage that Eleanor Roosevelt) has long since been decommissioned. In its place stands the very handsome Silverstream Retreat – venue for the 2012 AGM of the Green Party.

Trotter then devotes a couple of paragraphs to lauding the Green Party, and rightly so; the Greens are doing a very good job of cannibalsing the Labour vote. They certainly stole a chink of Labour support at the 2011 General Election, and their performance in the House has been by-and-large, superior to Labour's, with a few exceptions.

But Trotter is a former Labour man, of similar vintage to ourselves. It must have been the 1975 General Election when he cast his first vote, as did we. Big Norm of course has passed away by then; succeeded by Wallace "Bill" Rowling who was swept away by a Muldoon tidal wave.

Digressing slightly, we actually saw Norman Kirk speak in 1972, at Labour's campaign opening at the long-demolished Palmerston North Opera House. Labour, thundered Big Norm, would "knock inflation for six" (allowing Muldoon to quip in 1975 that they'd actually knocked it for 12!), would stamp out the bikie gangs, and would not let politics interfere with sport. On assuming office, Kirk promptly cancelled the proposed 1973 Springbok tour of New Zealand, proving that that porkies and broken promises are by no means a new political phenomenon.

Back to Chris Trotter; as he winds up to his close, he unleashes an extraordinary blast against the 2012 version of the Labour Party in an Aged Care analogy; read on:

When Labour’s legacy was still potent enough to win hearts and minds, Mr James’ analysis may have been correct. In 2012, however, I’m not so sure. When the 150,000 mostly female, mostly professional, voters that National wooed away from Labour in 2008 and 2011, and whom they now seem so determined to drive away, decide to go in search of an alternative, are they really going to choose Labour? Does David Shearer really have the emotional heft of a Norman Kirk? I don’t think so.

More and more Labour is beginning to resemble those dementia patients at Silverstream Hospital. Some of Labour’s caucus, like Trevor Mallard, are prone to violent episodes; others, like Shane Jones, test the boundaries of political probity in the most disconcerting fashion. The most pitiful to contemplate, however, are the likes of David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson. They know there are alternatives out there, they can see them, but their colleagues will insist on hauling them back to their beds.

How sad it will be if New Zealand’s oldest political party is forced to end its days looking out at a world it is no longer able to change; weeping tears of silent rage as younger politicians, with the courage to look beyond tomorrow, get ready to inherit today.

This is vintage Chris Trotter; acid-tongued, acerbic, and getting right to the heart of the issue. Trevor Mallard has indeed become Labour's senior citizen; second only to Phil Goff in terms of service, and tainted by far too much baggage. Phil Goff is the last of the Class of 1981, and Annette King is rumoured to be looking at greener pastures.

If David Shearer is to lead Labour into a new era, he needs to get the pruning shears out. It is something of an indictment that if Shane Jones quits (as is strongly rumoured by bloggers as diverse as David Farrar and Robert Winter) he will be replaced by the union-aligned Carol Beaumont, whilst two of Labour's most impressive from the 2008 intake, Kelvin Davis and Stuart Nash languish outside Parliament.

We doubt that Labour will ever get back to being the party that Chris Trotter remembers. But in a week where Aged Care has been a talking point, Trotter has provided excellent and thought-provoking copy.