How Our Betters Taught Us To Distrust Them And Blame Ourselves – a forlorn fantasy

Civics - isn’t it about community?

Imagine this - A New Zealand where trust isn’t begged for in speeches but built through practice. Where civics isn’t taught by elites to teach the peasants their place, but by communities sharing how they made change stick.

In this Aotearoa, the first step in governance reform wasn’t a rebrand, it was relinquishment. Decision-making power shifted from the boardroom and Beehive to the budget line of the local marae. Welfare policy wasn’t written by Treasury interns who’ve never skipped a meal but co-designed by solo mums who’ve had to choose between electricity and food.

Public services, once branded like discount airlines (KiwiBuild™, Better Public Services™, Whānau Ora™), were instead rebuilt around the actual lives of real people. Health reform started with listening to nurses, not merging DHBs. Education changed when rangatahi redesigned civics to include protest, power and whakapapa.

And crucially, those “least in need” paid their fair share. Not with one-off donations or foundation fluff, but through progressive taxation, closing loopholes and rejecting the lie that wealth trickles down instead of hoarding upward.

The budget, once a love letter to investors, became a treaty with the people,  investing not in asset classes, but in lives.

Civics wasn’t a compulsory subject. It was a community conversation. Everyone had a role. Everyone was heard. Respect wasn’t declared. It was demonstrated.

The people most affected got to write the rules and for the first time in generations, they stopped asking if they were allowed to trust and started demanding it.

Letter To The Editor

To the Editor,

I never thought I’d write this, but something has changed - for real.

At He Mana Tangata, we’ve been working alongside struggling whānau for years. We’ve seen governments come and go, each promising “better outcomes” while quietly tightening the purse strings.

But this time, it’s different.

Six months ago, the Ministry invited us, not to a staged consultation, not to a catered hui in a Wellington hotel, but into the heart of the design process. We sat around a table with policymakers, nurses, teachers and three solo mums from Porirua who’d never once been asked what they thought would work.

We didn’t fill out a survey. We co-wrote the service model.

Now, when someone comes to us for help, we can provide it without begging for approval from five different departments. There’s a liveable income floor. Tangata whenua lead the delivery of services to their own communities. Our funding is multi-year, inflation-adjusted and outcome-flexible.

But the biggest shift? Respect. Not just as a word on a poster, but in the way staff answer the phone. In the way people are trusted to know their needs. In the way government staff sit with us, not over us.

Trust isn’t a mystery. It’s the outcome of shared power and lived experience being honoured.

We’re finally building a system worth believing in.

Ngā manaakitanga,
Marama Tukaki
Kaiwhakahaere, He Mana Tangata Trust

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I’m still adjusting to what happened last week.

For the first time in over two decades dealing with government services, I wasn’t treated like a burden. I was treated like a person.

When my sister’s mobility allowance came up for review, I braced myself. I gathered documents, prepared to explain our story for the hundredth time.

But instead of a faceless letter, I got a phone call. A real person. Māori. From my region. She asked how we were coping and what would make things easier. Then she listened.

We didn’t lose the allowance. We got a little more, plus a home visit from a nurse who organised a wheelchair upgrade we didn’t even know we were entitled to.

I asked what had changed. She said the new approach was about “trust-first service.” It meant giving power back to those who use the system and ensuring the people designing it have actually lived it.

I’ve spent years writing angry letters. Today, I wanted to write a different one.

Respect can’t be faked. But it can be built, one conversation at a time.

Whoever decided we were worth listening to - thank you. Please don’t stop now.

Sincerely,
Angela H., Hamilton East

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