I’ve interviewed Casey Costello twice now on Reality Check Radio. She is a brilliant addition to parliament. After ignoring her candidacy, along with every other NZ First candidate, the NZ Herald seems to have taken the lead from me and finally woken up to how brilliant she will be as an MP. They’ve interviewed her, finally:
Costello has made a name for herself since 2016 as a spokeswoman for Hobson’s Pledge, alongside Don Brash, on what she sees as a trend towards racial division and for which she has sometimes been called racist.
At the campaign launch for Port Waikato on Sunday, she set out her whakapapa.
“By way of background, I am the granddaughter of Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Davis who descends from Tapua, whose sons were Patuone and Tamati Waka Nene, two of the chiefs that signed the Treaty of Waitangi.
“I am also the granddaughter of Renee Costello, whose grandparents arrived in New Zealand in 1860.
“Like all of us here, I am a New Zealander and like so many of us, I am tired of the division that has driven us to different corners, reluctant to seek out our common ground and develop answers that will benefit us all.”
So how does she respond to being called racist?
“I’ll wear it. I’m not racist. I’m demanding that we are given respect as individuals to achieve our potential and the more we tell our that the world’s against you, that you’re a victim, we are no longer advocating for the victim, we are advocating for victimhood.
“We’ve got to shift that dialogue because we are depriving them of their opportunity to succeed.”
She said she was advocating for Maori to be treated equally “and I think the worse thing we have done for Maori is tell our young people that you are pre-disposed to failure or that you are incapable of achieving on your merit.
“That’s the message that’s coming through strongest.”
She said the emphasis should not go on failure but on aspiration – to lift up Maori.
“We are creating systems that are, to my view, racist. We are treating people on what their race is and not on what their individual needs are.”
NZ Herald
Bravo… let’s have more of that.
She said if she became the local MP, the community would not lose Bayly – whichever of them wins the seat, they will resign as a list MP and their party will get an extra list MP to fill that list spot.
NZ Herald
Interestingly, National’s candidate Andrew Bayly ignored my requests for interviews and is taking the arrogant view that he will win regardless and as a result he is not attending any debates or candidate meetings. I hope Casey beats him. He’s in anyway off the list, so it may serve as a lesson to arrogant National MPs that they shouldn’t take things for granted…or ignore me.
She was vice-president of the Police Association and he was a National MP in Opposition.
In a rare move, the police union had mounted a protest against Labour Government policy which was threatening to substantially erode police superannuation.
Steve Hinds was the president and Graham Harding, who later went on to work for Peters, was the general secretary. Costello says it was her work as a delegate and office holder in the Police Association that politicised her.
“That was an introduction to lobbying and standing up for things. Because of the rules around the Police not being able to criticise Government, the association held that role of advocating for better law,” she said.
She left the police as a Detective Sergeant after 14 years based in Papakura and Franklin.
Among the big cases she worked on was the Red Fox Tavern murder in 1987 and the Schlaepfer family massacre in 1992 in which Brian Schlaepfer murdered six family members, his wife, three sons, a daughter-in-law and grandson, before killing himself. One young granddaughter saved herself from the rampage by hiding in the wardrobe.
Before joining the police in 1986, she had been working on her father’s local newspaper in Papakura, the Counties Sport and News, covering general news.
“I had done a few stories around policing and you get a bit romanticised about saving the world. I never thought I’d get in.”
Real-world experience; a refreshing change in politics where staffers and political tragics seem to get promoted above people like Casey Costello.
So what is her goal in the next three years?Most of us are successful.
“I want to be part to be part of delivering outcomes,” she says and as an example, cites changes in perception of Maori in prison.
“If we have an issue with Maori in prison, I want to be part of delivering something that keeps Maori out of prison.”
But she argues that the problem is not as big as is made out – Maori make up more than half the prison population but less than 1 per cent of Maori are in prison.
“The narrative is that Maori are over-represented in prison but 99.7 per cent of Maori aren’t in prison. People have got this impression that half of Maori are in prison. Half of Maori aren’t in prison.
”
Some Members of Parliament said democracy had failed Maori “but they are there – they are part of the decision process but they are not sending that message”.
“We don’t need to create a co-governance structure that appoints people with no accountability to people they are claiming to represent.”
She described the Treaty of Waitangi as an “amazing document – unprecedented in the world.”
“It’s an incredible document – we are all going to be treated equally before the law… but it has been weaponised, it has been misused, it has been used to support a narrative.
“But it’s simple; we ceded sovereignty, we protected our property rights and we are all to be treated equally before the law. That’s what it means to me.”
NZ Herald
Imagine the uproar if Casey Costello is made Minister of Maori Affairs. The treaty gravy train will end, as will the mealy-mouthed excuses.
I can’t hardly wait to see Casey Costello as a Minister.
Just by way of comparison, here is my interview with Casey:
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