Crossing the Floor by Helen Leahy

Author:Helen Leahy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Huia (NZ) Ltd

Despite Tariana’s words of caution, it was only a matter of hours before that same debate exploded.

As it turned out, one of my aunties had died in Taupō, and so I rang George and asked if he could pick me up from Hamilton. George said to me, ‘Whatever possessed you to say what you did?’ I said, ‘It’s the truth.’ He said to me, ‘You know you’ve always been drawn to saying things in a particular way and they end up being highly offensive’. I replied, ‘oh, so you’re offended too are you?’

We started to drive home and my daughter Lisa rang and told me not to go back to our house. The media were camped out in our garden, among the trees. My son then rings; it was like the hunga wairua with us, and he told me that Nanny Ada, my mother-in-law’s sister, was in hospital and it didn’t look good. This was another aunty, one of our very fit aunties, so it was a huge shock. We decided that instead of going home we’d go straight to the hospital. We’d just come out of the Parapara Road and we learned that she had died. I went to the hospital and we talked to the family about bringing her to my marae. Lisa by this stage has gone to my house to pack a bag; the media were still all staked out.

In the meantime, through all this, Helen Clark is overseas climbing a mountain. George and I are in the car; the telephone in the car rings. It’s Helen.

She asked me, ‘what in the hell possessed you to say what you did?’ I said, ‘because it’s the truth’. She said to me, ‘Look here, you can’t say things like that when you are a Minister of the Crown. You’ve turned the country on its head.’

And I said, ‘that’s more their problem than mine’. She grunted, ‘I’ll be back in two days’ time and I need to talk to you’. I told her, ‘ok, but in the meantime I’m at a tangi so I’m not available for the next two days’.

Well, the media all turn up at our marae. My nephew goes out – he’s quite a big boy – and tells them to go away because we have a tangi. ‘I’ll only offer once more for you to go away,’ he tells them, ‘because if you don’t go away, someone is likely to smash your cameras.’ They went.

In the meantime it gave me a couple of days to think about what I had said.

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