Nick Mills: Why does Tamatha Paul want to tear down our history?

OPINION Well, we've got a new idea from Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul and you better brace yourself for this one. She was in the paper over the weekend - not advocating for Wellingtonians, for our economy, our businesses or our vulnerable people. She’s advocating for something else entirely. She wants to strip prominent statues around Wellington of their heritage status. She wants these statues bowled. She wants to strip Wellington of its history. Now I can tell you Tamtha's got her sights firmly on the William Wakefield monument at the Basin Reserve. You know the one; the white Greek dome on the bank. She also wants to get rid of the bronze bust of Edward Wakefield on Mount Victoria. She also doesn't like the Queen Victoria statue between Cambridge and Kent Terrace. These three people are, according to our local MP, “thieving criminal colonisers". This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard coming out of Tamatha Paul's mouth, and remember, she's the Green MP who wants to defund the police. Imagine what's going to come out of Tamatha Paul's mouth next. I can guarantee you it’ll be nothing about Wellington’s struggles. Remember she’s not your average Green MP who is elected on the party list. She is Wellington Central’s local MP, elected by the people of the city. Why is our local MP focused on something like this? Now looking at what she wants to do here, it'll be a difficult feat for Tamatha to pull off. She'd have to pass an amendment to the Resource Management Act the same way Chris Bishop removed the heritage status from the Gordon Wilson flats, paving the way for the building's demolition. She'd have to persuade a majority of her fellow MPs to vote for her amendment, something that is not likely to happen. But that aside, why is she even talking about this? I wonder how she would feel if we talked about pulling down the statues of some of the more controversial Maori leaders? Questionable history isn’t limited to just colonial leaders. I think we can all appreciate that times were different in the 1800s. The conduct of some people we have statues of are far from acceptable. But it's our history. Should we just forget about it? Should we actively destroy it? At a time when we're trying to rebuild Wellington and our economy, should our local MP be looking at doing something so destructive as to pull down parts of our history? I personally love the statue of Queen Victoria on Cambridge and Kent Terraces, and I want the opportunity for us to have a piece of history that we can celebrate. And remember these memorials were created by previous generations of Wellingtonians. I can't even believe that we are talking about something so important to our history as the capital city. I think Tamatha Paul is way off the mark here, and it would be a slight on our history to get rid of things we should be celebrating. We need as a city more of our history to celebrate rather than denigrate. And I say to our local MP, sit down, maybe meet with some Wellington leaders, people in businesses or our charities. Get an idea from them about the real issues. I can guarantee you none of them care about a few statues. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.