Mayoral aspirant with safety banner

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 21

Mayoral aspirant with safety banner

Name: Morgan Francis Fahey. Age: 57. Born Little River, October 2, 1931. Education: Christian Brothers School, Dunedin; University of Otago. Job: Family physician, Shirley Medical Centre. Elected office: Christchurch City Councillor since 1980. Marital status: Married, four daughters. Recreation: Golf, cooking.

By

KAY FORRESTER

IT SEEMS almost unfair to toss Morgan Fahey into a mayoral race with two candidates as assertive as Margaret Murray and Vicki Buck. The nine-year veteran of the Christchurch City Council seems too much the gentle man to cope with the hurly-burly of the hustings.

But the prospect of taking on two of Christchurch’s most capable politicians does not daunt the good doctor. He has the greatest respect for the talents of both and says he has no plans to get into personality politics in this election. The shock withdrawal of the long-time standard bearer for the Citizens, Sir Hamish Hay, left Dr Fahey well behind the start line when the gun went. “My dilemma is that the other two candidates have had months to prepare themselves and bags of money — well, strong financial support. I’m starting from behind.”

He says he will run his election build-up in a way that suits his style — no door knocking, slogans, or double-decker buses. “I won’t be campaigning because that is not my style. I haven’t campaigned in nine years on the council.” Some might argue that the reluctance to go door knocking to talk to voters is typical of an aloofness Dr Fahey seems to have. Others might argue he is a little neglectful of his constituents.

He says that through his council stint he has been no more than a telephone call away from his voters. “My numbers are in the book. I’m happy to take calls whenever. People have rung me. They have no problem getting hold of me.”

It is his belief that the hoopla of electioneering does not gain many votes — “I’m appalled by the thought of all that. If it’s what you enjoy go and do it. It might even be fun ... but it’s not me.” He sees no reason to change his approach now, just because he is a mayoral candidate. “I’m still accessible to the voters.”

Voters who do ring him have the promise of a hearing from the man who describes himself as a professional listener. He says his position as a family physician in Christchurch for almost 30 years has been a privilege, bringing him into close contact with families and their problems. "In my work I listen to problems. Every problem has a solution. I’m frustrated by the chronicity of the problems but there is a solution to every dilemma.

"Mostly those problems are not health problems. They can be problems of insecurity, fear, of poverty and aggression. There is real fear for the future from the new elderly poor.

“On the council we have to listen to problems also. Again there is a solution. You can write a social prescription as well as a medical one.”

Morgan Fahey says he’s a people person. His time on the council has been concerned with people issues — “not buildings and drains.” The most recent issue he has taken up — and when he does speak out on an issue it is usually

passionately — was the ban of open fires as part of the extension of Christchurch City’s clean air zone.

He argued against the banning of the open fire, painting a picture of the elderly huddled over two-bar heaters in cold houses.

“I knew what we were being told about fires causing major pollution and health problems was not correct. Why create an unenforceable regulation that would cause so much needless heartache?”

The group an open fire ban

would affect most is the elderly — a group to which the city owes more consideration, he says. “There are more older people now. The city has to look at what it can do to make their last decade as comfortable as they deserve.” He has combined this feeling for the elderly and another of his interests in his bid to make things safer for pedestrians in Christchurch. Road safety and Morgan Fahey’s name have become synonymous in Christchurch — and New Zealand — as he has campaigned for many

years for safer roads and drivers. He is chairman of the Roadshow Trust, which aims to show young drivers the effect of carelessness in a car through theatre productions. Now he chairs the council’s traffic safety co-ordinating committee and is a member of the Road Safety Research Foundation. “A main social concern in the city is road safety,” Dr Fahey says. "Christchurch’s accident rate relative to other cities is diminishing. In the 1970 s ours was the highest.” The reason for the reduction is the city’s response to accident black spots, he says. But there is much still to accomplish.

An accident just up the road from his Shirley Medical Centre in the early 1970 s made him realise the need for skilled roadside treatment at accidents. “Ambulance drivers in those days were not as well trained as now.” He talked to ambulance men and offered to attend any accident in the north-east of Christchurch. In the 10 years from 1972 he attended 1000 serious accidents.

With his partner at the Shirley centre, Dr Lanktree Davies, he set up a pre-hospital medical team that attended accidents and treated patients before they got to hospital.

The work won him a Wolfson travelling scholarship in 1975, the first awarded to a general practitioner. He studied roadside medicine in Europe, Denmark, Britain, the United States and Australia, and on his return to New Zealand, lectured on the subject. Two years later an Accident Compensation Commission grant took him back to Europe to study emergency medicine. He spoke at an international disaster conference in Mainz, West Germany. He joined the Club of Mainz, an international think tank on handling disasters of all kinds. The Club of Mainz gave birth to the World Association of Emergency and Disaster Medicine. Dr Fahey will end a four-year presidency of the international association at its Hong Kong conference this month.

The association gave him an insight into large-scale accidents of all kinds and how they can be handled — “The Bhophal disaster, nuclear diasters, airport crashes, everything.” He is also a consultant to the World Health Organisation on global accident prevention and to the International Civil Aviation Organisation on Airport Safety.

In the Club of Mainz he

chaired a committee on airport and aircraft safety and from that grew his involvement with Christchurch’s own airport. He describes his chairmanship of the council’s airport committee from 1984 to 1988 as among the most exciting tasks he has had on the council. “We achieved so much that we are seeing the results only now,” he says. That includes the numbers of people coming through the airport as travellers but also the physical changes to the terminals and the use of airbridges. It a great disappointment to him that when the airport committee handed over to the new airport company he was not among the councillors chosen as company directors. “That was because of political manoeuvring. Councillors still blamed me for the airshow loss.” The Christchurch Airport Jubilee Airshow was held in 1987. It was run at a $245,000 loss to the council. Dr Fahey was the chairman of the jubilee committee. Labour councillors, led by a current mayoral rival, Ms Buck, called for his resignation as chairman of the airport committee because they said he failed to report to the council that the air show was in financial trouble.

Morgan Fahey defended himself by saying the workload was too great and other councillors should have helped. He hung on to his chairmanship when his fellow Citizens councillors stood by him on the vote for his resignation, but the four-month public scrap over the air show cost him a place in the new company set up. He says now that the air show has brought much positive publicity for the airport. As chair-

man of the organising committee he had to accept the responsibility and he did that. “Tour operators say now they’re amazed we achieved so much publicity for such a small amount. We now have several direct SingaporeChristchurch flights a week, because of the publicity in Singapore during the air show.” He is sad that the new company has allowed Christchurch’s direct link with Los Angeles to be lost; “Auckland is now the international routing centre. It is the gateway to the South Island — not Christchurch as it should be. And what about the South Island manufacturers who were using that service to get direct to American markets? The company did not work hard enough to stop the direct link being lost.” Dr Fahey says it won’t worry him if his opponents bring up the air show during the mayoral campaign. “It just proves they have nothing else to criticise. They would be scraping the bottom of the barrel to go back to that.” One of the matters Dr Fahey had to sort out before accepting the United Citizens candidacy for mayor was his practice. He has been in general practice since 1961 after working at Christchurch Hospital, the Princess Margaret Hospital and Sunnyside. He now has a locum assisting with his patients. “I have a commitment to my patients. I have to think of them, too. I’m not selling the practice.” Morgan Fahey knew he wanted to be a doctor almost from the time he was born at Little River in October, 1931. He grew up as an only child. As a youngster he cut up his teddy bear and stitched it back up. From then on he was fascinated by medicine. He collected old medical texts from doctors — “with the naughty bits cut out” — and acquired some old surgical instruments.

The family moved to Dunedin when the young Morgan was about eight. He went to the

Catholic Christian Brothers School and later to Otago University.

At 16 he passed his A.T.C.L. and won a Trinity College exhibition scholarship that would have taken him to London to train in speech. “That would have given me a Career in drama but it was impossible financially. I’m glad it was. I wanted to be a doctor.” As a medical students he worked on Dunedin’s wharves at night as a "seagull” and also in the city’s hotels as a barman.

Morgan Fahey is set in the same mould as the man he succeeds as the United Citizens candidate, Sir Hamish Hay. He has a similar presence and reserve.

He is married and lives in Fendalton. His four daughters, Belinda, Piera, Gabrielle and Anthea, are all in their 20s and no longer living at home. He has a grandson named Andrew Morgan.

His family is very supportive of his moyoral bid, he says, as they were of his bid in 1980 for the National Party candidacy for the Fendalton electorate. He is determined to see the talents of his predecessor used. “Hamish has such a wealth of experience. He will not be made redundant. He has a role in the United Citizens campaign and in the continuing life of Christchurch.”

What Christchurch needs most now, he says, is experienced leadership. The important issues are the social problems leading to increased violence, the elderly and the young, attracting visitors to Christchurch and promoting the city as the gateway to the south.

Unworried by

air show remarks

Role for predecessor