Steve McCabe - MIT.

I am standing for the role of National President-Tangata Tiriti because I believe in public tertiary and vocational education as a public good, and I believe that our sector is best served by a strong, principled, and democratic union, one that is member-led, organising, and campaigning. Our collective strength lies in our people, and I am committed to ensuring every member’s voice is valued, heard, and backed by action.

Our sector is under massive threat from a government that fails to understand the importance to our country’s future prosperity of a well-funded public tertiary and vocational sector, but instead is happy to see pay stagnate, programmes get slashed, and our people, our most valuable asset, depart offshore. We need leaders that can effectively oppose this threat, and I believe that I can be such a leader.

Over the past five years, I’ve served as Branch President at Te Whare Takiura o Manukau MIT, advocating for members through restructures, bargaining, and countless workplace concerns and difficulties, and I have gained extensive experience of on-the-ground organising in the process. I’ve also had the privilege of serving for two years on TEU Council, and contributing nationally through the Industrial and Professional Committee and the Te Pūkenga collective agreement bargaining team. This has given me insight into union governance, national advocacy, and collective strategy, and an understanding of how vital it is to connect national decision-making to members’ everyday realities of job insecurity, precarious employment, and vulnerability.

As a Tangata Tiriti candidate, I understand the importance of grounding our union’s work in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That means supporting and uplifting Māori leadership, and holding ourselves accountable to being a genuinely Tiriti-led organisation. Tangata Tiriti have a responsibility to act with courage and humility in that space. I have seen our current National Presidents start to build a model for co-governance, and I want to continue to work on embedding Te Tiriti in all aspects of how our Union functions.

I also bring strong communications skills to this role. As a regular guest on RNZ National’s The Panel (listen, for example, to https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018993771/the-panel-with-steve-mccabe-and-wendyl-nissen-part-2 from 50s in), I’ve learned how to speak clearly, passionately, and publicly about the issues that matter. I plan to use that platform, and every platform available to me, to promote the union’s goals loudly and widely. When public tertiary education is under threat, we need leaders who can speak to the media, influence public debate, and make the case for our sector and our values in ways that resonate.

I will bring experience, commitment, and passion to this role. I believe in solidarity, in the power of collective action, and in building a union that is inclusive and transformative. I believe in supporting our most vulnerable members, in fighting for the needs of all of us, and in promoting a well-funded public tertiary education sector.

It would be an honour to serve as your National President-Tangata Tiriti, and I humbly ask that you vote for me.