Vicki Buck: independent candidate and impatient

Press, 19 July 1989, Page 19

Vicki Buck: independent candidate and impatient

VICKI BUCK laughs off the label, “yuppie.” “If I was a yuppie I wouldn’t want to be Mayor,” says Christchurch’s first serious independent mayoral candidate for decades. The Christchurch City councillor, who turned 34 on July 16, is revelling in that independence. She says that resigning from the Labour Party was like having a huge weight lifted from her shoulders. The resignation was tendered last month to tidy up the loose end of her party affiliation in light of her independent bid for the mayoralty. It is independent with a small “i.” Vicki Buck hopes to use the tag, “The Positive Choice,” after her 'name on October’s ballot paper. It is her campaign theme. As an independent she has only herself — and the voters — to answer to for her views. It is surprising that although obviously chafing against the frustrations of a party machine and labels, she lasted 17 years within a party organisation. Vicki Buck is ambivalent about Labour, and probably always has been. She is an independent thinker, impatient for things to be done. Her supporters say so. Her critics say so. She says so. For her, independence and impatience are pluses. But for many Christchurch party members, they are black marks against the outspoken councillor. She joined Labour at the age of 16. It was not a case of following parental footsteps in a staunch Labour family — “mum and dad have probably voted everything: Labour, Social Credit, Values ... definitely swinging voters.” Rather it was 1972, a time marked for a teenager just delving into political science at the University of Canterbury by Vietnam, Manapouri, women’s issues, environmental issues. Labour seemed to have some answers. “Looking back, environmental issues were important,” she says. “The thing I really support about Labour now is the nuclear-free stand. That’s so important — part of the question of survival.” Did Labour have the answers?

She says, somewhat sadly, “The party’s in a mess. They have been so busy getting things changed they have forgotten to talk to each other and to the people, telling them what’s happening and why.” She is neither pro-Lange nor pro-Douglas in the party’s economic argument. “There are things about Douglas I support. But now that inflation is down, the Government should be more interventionist to create jobs. People don't , care if inflation is 4 per cent instead of 3 per cent. They care if they have a job.” Having worked for the Department of Social Welfare and Department of Labour she pretty much supports the reform of the public service — “I how

much fat was there in some places. The reforms may not have all been good, but the concept was.” And- what of Christchurch’s other notable independent Labour politician, Sydenham’s Jim Anderton.

“He’s charismatic, capable. I like some of the things he says. I strongly disagree with others. It’ll be interesting what happens in Sydenham.” She definitely has no interest in the Sydenham seat in next year’s General Election — “I have rather cooked my goose there, haven’t I?” In fact after dallying with the prospect of national politics Vicki Buck is now positive her role is in local government. She was first elected to the City Council as a 19-year-old in a 1975 byelection in the Pegasus ward. On the national scene she considered Mary Batchelor’s Avon seat when the member of Parliament declared her intention of retiring several months before the 1987 election. And she thought especially hard about Lyttelton when Ann Hercus stood down in 1987. “Lyttelton was tempting — a short campaign, a safe seat, going into a Government rather than an Opposition.” Why did she pass up the chance?

“I guess I always wanted to be Mayor of Christchurch. That’s the ultimate for me. I believe power should be taken from central government to local government. Being part of central government would have been like betraying that belief — and I hate Wellington. “I should have stood three

years ago, but I’d only just got started on the Local Government Commission and I hate leaving things half done. “People want a change. That’s what they are telling me. They want leadership that is dynamic and energetic. They want someone to get out there and get things done, not play it safe. That’s being a bit unfair to Hamish (Sir Hamish Hay, the incumbent Mayor). I know he does more than just be there, but there’s much more that could be done. I picture me rolling up the mayoral sleeves and getting stuck in, creating jobs, making sure tourism, projects happen.” One of the criticisms thrown at her is that she is good at getting projects started, but not so good at seeing them through. Ron Wright, the city councillor who most shares her urgency to see things done, says she has the persistence to see projects through. “Vicki has some good ideas and she’s prepared to follow them up.”

The'"two were the catalyst for the council’s city-centre ginger group, the Inner City Working Party. Another criticism is that she is not keen on the hard work, the unglamorous behind-the-scenes work. "That’s not true. I enjoy the behind-the-scenes stuff and I do it well. I like helping people through a bewildering process that should be more userfriendly.” What about hosting civic receptions, some of which she has previously dismissed as a waste of money? One senior council

official notes her reluctance to attend receptions during her 14 years on the council and her not turning up when she said she would. “The Royal functions. It’s a fair expectation of the Mayor to host Royal functions. I will, in the dignity and style the city expects. I said Royal functions were a waste of time in a council debate 14 years ago when the invitation list was just a privileged few all the time. Now the list has been opened up to include people from the electoral roll.”

How does the 14-year council veteran see the 1989 mayoral race? Is it polarised between youth and age, innovation and conservatism, the yuppie and the conservatives?

That is getting back to the realm of labels — and she objects. “I’m not a yuppie. Are yuppies interested in employment, childcare, housing, the mayoralty? The only yuppie bit is the business opportunities — and they’re community businesses anyway like the airport board and the Canterbury Development Corporation. Yuppie is a strange label to pin on me.”

What about the house with the Avon River view in Fendalton’s Desmond Street?

She counters, “This place is our home, our holiday home, our boat, our overseas trip.” (There is no second mortgage on it — yet — to fund her campaign, she joked to supporters recently.) She and husband Rob McKay moved into Desmond Street at the beginning of the winter a few weeks before their son, Daniel,

was born. Fendalton may be across town from North Beach where she grew up, but Vicki Buck says Christchurch is small enough for her to be in touch with ratepayers in the east and west. She played netball for Avonhead last year in the winter and softball for Heathcote in the summer. The Buck-McKay family is a single income one as the councillor is on leave from her $60,000plus Local Government Commission job until after October’s election. Earlier this year Rob McKay arrived home with no job, no income, no car. Guthrie Financial Corporation, of which he was the South Island manager, had gone into receivership. His solution was to buy the company’s South Island office, rename it Southern Corporate Services, keep the staff and offer foreign exchange advice and protection to corporates. That, and her own taste of unemployment, marked for Vicki Buck the social impact of unemployment. When her classmates headed for jobs in Wellington and Auckland after graduating, she opted to stay in Christchurch. After four or five months she gave up trying to find a job that matched her master of arts degree with honours in political science — and drove a taxi. “I hated being unemployed,” she says. Job creation is now a priority and she lists among her proudest achievements on the council initiatives in employment promotion. From the taxi ranks she went to the Department of Social Welfare as a social worker and later co-ordinator for a social work employment scheme that aimed to give teenagers-at-risk jobs rather than time to get into trouble. From Social Welfare to the Department of Labour and another job scheme, this time for disadvantaged groups. She completed research on the labour market for the department before going to the Local Government Commission in 1985. The flak that has accompanied her direct role in local government reform is shrugged away by her as part of the job. But she gets annoyed at the accusations from other Christchurch local body politicians that she tried to influence Christchurch reform. “I’ve deliberately had nothing to do with Christchurch — and they know it” Something else to irritate was the argument tossed up early this year by Waimairi’s Margaret Murray — herself now a mayoral candidate — that she could not be Mayor and mother. “I was appalled. It’s almost 1990 after all.” She is still adamant that neither the mayoralty nor baby Daniel will suffer if she is elected. Daniel has a nanny and will get plenty of parental attention, she says. She believes she gained a number of women’s votes from Mrs Murray’s com-

ments. “They were so angry at what she said.” She has no personal enmity for her mayoral rivals, Sir Hamish and Mrs Murray. She voted for Sir Hamish in 1986. “I’m not going to denigrate Hamish or Margaret in this campaign. Personally I get on well with Sir Hamish. I like him. I respect him. He’s a survivor. But the one thing I resent is that he’s occupying a position someone

else could do better.” Vicki Buck believes she has struck a nerve in the city with her philosophy that Christchurch just needs a bit of “get up and go.” She will not be distraught if she is not elected on October 14.

“I’m not going in to be second either.” The focus of her campaign is jobs, but her underlying drive is to convince Christchurch it holds the key to its own future. “Christchurch can do anything.”

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