Mayor of Rotorua the Hon. Steve Chadwick is an activist with patience. She’s used to seeing the ‘big picture’, campaigning for change, and then working steadily and patiently towards making it happen.
Perhaps always two steps ahead of her time, Steve – Stephanie is her given name, but she’s been ‘Steve’ from an early age – has never been afraid to stand up and fight for social change when she sees a better way forward. Even as a school girl in Hastings she was ‘outing’ old-fashioned norms, though likely with less patience back then.
Why? “Because it’s the right thing to do,” she says, and this has always been her driving force.
At primary school she ran a successful petition to get rid of “stupid” berets, and at Karamu High School she continued her crusade against social injustice and fighting for what she wanted – this time collaborating with fellow students, David Butcher (former Labour MP) and (the late Sir) Paul Holmes to form “a political arm” in the school to put their arguments to the Board.
“I could always see the bigger picture and was always challenging the school, getting everyone involved and driving the principal crazy. We campaigned for a seniors’ common room, and felt the choir could be more funky so we got our own tutors.”
SHAPING HER FUTURE
Despite causing a few grey hairs for staff, Steve was marked for leadership early on and became head prefect in her final year. But impatience got the better of her as the bigger picture beckoned. Her boyfriend, and later, husband – the late John Te Manihera Chadwick, NZOM – had started law school in Wellington and Steve was miserable, so she left school a few months into the year and moved south to join him. Initially she lived at the nurses’ residence at Hutt Hospital where she had begun her nursing training, but in her second year, in 1968, she challenged the board for an exemption to get married (unheard of for a student nurse in those days!) which it eventually accepted. The activism didn’t stop there. She petitioned to get rid of nursing caps, and won, and lobbied for longer breaks, inevitably becoming the Nurses Organisation representative.
As a teenager she learnt that one of the most important things in creating social change is to share your vision and gather support around you, and she continues to operate that way today. “It doesn’t matter what the issue is that presses your button; find the others who also enjoy that space and develop an approach. Never do it alone; build a group around you, widen the vision and bring people on board.”
Staying faithful to the bigger picture certainly worked out well for Steve, even though her impulsive teenage decision to follow her dreams shocked her parents and the school at the time. She and John stayed together, “madly in love”, and enjoyed a very long and happy marriage together, with three children – two sons who live in Rotorua, and a daughter in Auckland – and now eight grandchildren.
She also completed her nursing training and went on to do post-graduate qualifications in midwifery to advance professionally – always with a big picture eye on future leadership roles. As freedom of expression and activism gathered more energy during the 60s, living in Wellington paved the way for Steve’s interest in politics to really take off in earnest, predominantly with her involvement in the anti-apartheid movement.
But by the early 70s, an OE beckoned, and with a new baby now in tow, Steve and John headed to London, once again to the chagrin of her parents. A six- week stopover in Papua New Guinea to stay with her sister turned into 12 months, with Steve wasting no time in setting up a birthing unit for women in Lae, the second largest city, and upskilling the birthing attendants. In 2002, she returned to Lae as leader of a parliamentary group, and, seeing the unit in a state of disrepair, donned her activist hat once again to get it rebuilt.
CREATING COMMUNITY CHANGE
Campaigning for social change continued upon the family’s return to New Zealand in 1975. In Rotorua Steve held management positions at the former Lakeland DHB and established the first family planning clinic in Rotorua. She was also involved in setting up the first Women’s refuge in Rotorua and the Rotorua School for Young Parents. She entered parliament in 1999 as the Labour MP for Rotorua and over the course of the next 12 years spearheaded a number of high profile legislative changes as Minister of Conservation, Minister of Women’s Affairs and Associate Minister of Health.
Dedicated youth health funding into all DHBs and newborn hearing screening were some of her major achievements, and she is also proud of the work done around sexual health, HIV and AIDS, and youth services for contraception. However, the Smoke- free Environments Amendment Act 2003 is perhaps what she is most well- known for. Despite being one of the most challenging things she has taken on – incurring vindictive letters and death threats – it is among one of her proudest legacies; that and securing $72 million in funding for the clean-up of Rotorua lakes.
“As a health practitioner, I could approach it from a pragmatic angle because I had seen the effects of smoking and second-hand smoke on babies. We had the empirical evidence and knew it was the right thing to do at that moment. But you have to bring the community with you or you’ll never get something through and the moment is lost.
“Now, of course, the country asks, ‘what’s the next step?’ and it’s good to see the current government picking up the smoking in cars issue. At the time, however, it was an incredibly long journey; I had death threats and absolute hatred expressed. It didn’t scare me because I knew I was doing the right thing but I was advised to stop walking to work at parliament. We know that societal change is slow; there’s always going to be a period of antagonism and that’s a good thing.”
Sometimes, as Steve found out with her abortion law reform bill, society is just not ready for change. She firmly believed abortion was a woman’s choice and should sit in the health act, not the crimes act but was not allowed to put it into the ballot on advice that it would not be supported by the public. It’s the community that tells you when the time is right, she says.
TREASURING THE PEOPLE
Steve sensed the time was right for her to campaign for the 2013 mayoralty, even though she hadn’t been planning a return to politics and public life. She saw an opportunity for Rotorua to reinvent itself and worked with the community and business leaders on a plan based on sustainable growth (care for the environment balanced with economics) and treasuring the people. That big picture plan is called Vision 2030 – The Rotorua Way, and with the backing of the community, the city is quietly driving change and making Rotorua “a place for everyone”.
Now, population and economic growth have had a dramatic turnaround, with the local economy consistently performing above the national average. The inner city has a lively vibe, and innovation, opportunity, enterprise and diversity are celebrated.
“One of the strands of our Vision 2030 is growing community resilience, not just economic success,” she says. “That’s been my whole value system, still is, and will never change. I hate inequality so I want to find ways to give others hope and opportunity – that’s what we’re trying to inspire in this community.
“It’s social change, and will take time, but it’s exciting to see things starting to happen at grass roots level, like the volunteers who work every day at the community gardens. By connecting people back with the land, growing food and feeding the people, you’re going to make a profound difference in a community’s resilience.”
Central to Vision 2030 is the Council’s formal partnership with Te Arawa – formed in 2015 – which has strengthened the true meaning of biculturalism in the city. Even though it was seen as radical at the time, Steve says she knew absolutely it was the right thing to do.
“It’s been said that leadership is not a popularity contest, it’s about doing the right thing, and following through your principles. I had lived with biculturalism, so to me the question was how do you make it happen at a council table? We used to have an advisory board that sat in another room; well we changed that into a true governance entity, Te Tatau o Te Arawa. They now sit at the Council table and really strengthen and change our views, and we’re working on some wonderful initiatives together.
“Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it happens with a plan and that plan needs leadership to implement. I came in to Council to implement that vision and I’ll know when to go.”
So, she’ll be standing again?
“Oh yes, we’ve got to nail the things we’ve started – getting the funding for the museum restoration, finishing the lakefront development, the Whakarewarewa forest plan, upgrading Kuirau Park and more things I’ll announce when I launch the campaign. There’s a massive workload and I still love the work, but I will know when to stop.
“I love Rotorua. It’s been particularly generous to us. My husband was Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūwharetoa, so when we moved here it was very deliberate to raise our children to be bicultural and Te Arawa has been very embracing to both of us. When he died 18 months ago, I learnt the generosity and kindness of this city – why would you ever leave this connectedness with the place and the people?”