Scoop's "Meet The MPs" Project: Carol Beaumont

Scoop's "Meet The MPs" Project: Michael Dickison Talks To Labour’s Carol Beaumont

Labour MP Carol Beaumont spoke to Scoop about her role models in Parliament, the smacking referendum and the future of MMP.

Ms Beaumont picked women for all but one of her top seven role models in Parliament.

Ms Beaumont said she respected Labour’s Annette King, Lianne Dalziel and Ruth Dyson and the Green Party’s Sue Bradford, Jeanette Fitzsimons and Metiria Turei as women in leadership positions.

She rounded out her selection with Jim Anderton “for his persistence”.

But no National, ACT or Maori MP had yet won her respect, Ms Beaumont said.

“Frankly, as a new MP, you want to make people you look up to role models. I still haven’t found any in the National Party or in the ACT Party, or yet in the Maori Party.”

Ms Beaumont said the results of the smacking referendum showed governments need to spend more time generating support for law changes.

The government was in the right to sometimes push unpopular causes, she said, comparing the anti-smacking bill to the anti-smoking legislation passed in 2003.

“You’d be struggling to go down the street and find somebody who’d argue against [the smoking ban] but at the time it was a major controversy.”

MMP was working well overall and the possibility of making adjustments to overcome its flaws should first be discussed before considering another referendum, Ms Beaumont said.

“Overall the positives of MMP outweigh any negatives.

“What we know is that our Parliament is much more representative than it used to be.”

Click for big version

BIOGRAPHY

First-term Labour List MP Carol Beaumont is a life-long supporter of progressive causes.

Ms Beaumont’s interest in politics was sparked during her school days in the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty when she was exposed to apartheid and women’s liberation movements.

She became active in student politics and labour unions while in high school and took on the role of union delegate in her first full-time job out of university.

Ms Beaumont continued her involvement in union politics overseas, spending time in London and Sydney.

When she returned to New Zealand in 1995, Ms Beaumont began to work with the Labour Party, sitting on its council for a couple of years and campaigning in Auckland’s Maungakiekie electorate.

In the 2008 elections, Ms Beaumont took over from retiring MP Mark Gosche’s to run for Parliament in Maungakiekie.

She lost the electorate to National candidate Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga but entered Parliament on the Labour Party list, on which she ranked number 28.

Ms Beaumont is Labour’s spokesperson on consumer affairs and associate spokesperson on labour and has also been vocal in the super city debate.

Even though she has been involved in politics her whole life, Ms Beaumont said her first term in Parliament had been a steep learning curve.

Michael Dickison is a journalism student at Massey University

ENDS

© Scoop Media