Copyright thespinoff
Act MP Laura McClure is very sorry for letting Simon Court talk about menstrual cups. Laura McClure already has a white wine in hand when we meet at Pint of Order, and doesn’t judge me for ordering a Steinlager – if anything, I remind her of the days when hangovers didn’t to hurt so bad. Here we are: two divas sitting in a dim corner, maximising our joint slay in such a way that her members’ bill we discussed all evening ends up being plucked out of the biscuit tin the next day. I mean, I can’t take full credit for helping her manifest this, but if any other MPs have members’ bills that they desperately want read in the House, you’re free to hit my line. That bill, which would criminalise the sharing and creation of pornographic deepfakes, has been first term MP’s big political baby and “top priority” for the past year. Since putting the bill in the ballot in May, she’s spoken with numerous advocates, school teachers, justice minister Paul Goldsmith and survivors of this abuse, and heard “stories that are really heartbreaking in a way that is empowering me more and more to do something about it”. The bill has sparked a rare alliance between Act and Te Pāti Māori, with Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke getting involved in McClure’s work. “At the moment, I’m trying to get some kind of justice for these victims or something in place, to see if we can curb the behaviour,” McClure says. “I know various MPs are getting sick of me using various means to lobby them, but it’s not going to go away, these issues. So they may as well get on board.” The world of online exploitation is a rabbit hole which can be pretty damn “intense and overwhelming, but I don’t allow it to get me down”. McClure is someone with a pretty strong maternal vibe, so decompressing looks like being able to be at home with the kids in Christchurch and taking time off work to support them on athletics day (“that was literally touching grass”). Otherwise, you might find her on the couch watching a bit of “trashy TV” like Love Island, as long as it’s devoid enough of real life problems that you can easily turn on, tune in and drop out. But the former business owner reckons her experience doing the “hard graft” and hustling through long days at work has set her up to handle this gig pretty nicely. “I look at people like Cam [Luxton] being 10 and 11 on the [Act Party] list, and we don’t have degrees, we have owned our own businesses, and kids in similar ages … and we’ve come into a space where a lot of people are lawyers, accountants, academics and professionals, and I feel like they forget the voice of the community,” McClure says. “I just wish more everyday people did this job.” THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A How much should a pint cost? The true Libertarian answer would be whatever the market decides, but if I’m honest, I love the good old days when you would go out for ladies’ night. In Christchurch there was The Bush, and Wellington had a bar called Zebo’s, and the drinks were $2. Do you have a karaoke go-to? My go-to would probably be Alanis Morissette, I quite like ‘Ironic’. I also grew up in the early 2000s when Singstar was a vibe, and I used to do ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, which isn’t really my kind of music, but it was good times. Bring Singstar back! Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa? Going for the place itself – the scenery –I’d probably say the Marlborough Hotel up north. There’s a beautiful beach, beautiful sunsets,and it’s great if you’ve got kids. But if I was true to my home city, we’ve got a local establishment where I live [Christchurch] called Moon Under Water. They have lots of craft beers and a really good community vibe, heaps of cyclists come off the mountain bike track and come in to grab a beer. They’re dog-friendly, kid-friendly, and just a great community asset. Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team? I’d probably have to say Cam [Luxton] from our team, not just because he’s a builder and a pretty face, but he is possibly one of the most well-read people that I know. This guy knows a lot about history, philosophy, you name it – all the pub quizzes I’ve been to with him, we’ve won. I would probably pick Chris Bishop for sports and music, and he’s got a good taste in music: we both love Metallica. Then I’d probably go for [the Greens’] Lawrence Xu-Nan. He’s got a PhD in Egyptology, but he’s also studied a lot of different things, and I feel like there’s no question that Lawrence wouldn’t be able to answer. Whether I agree with him or not, he’s a good time and such a nice guy. I’m just here for the pop culture vibes, and maybe a bit of history. Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with? Probably [Labour’s] Arena Williams. I don’t actually know her very well, we’re not in any select committees together, but my interactions with her are always good. We’ve got kids of similar ages, we’re both working parents, we’ve both got kind of got similar ideas about where we want to be in the future – just different ways of getting there. So I would love to sit down with her and pick her brain, whether it’s politics or just talking about her own life and how she balances it all. Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change? It would probably be Easter Trading, and not just because Cam had it [as his members’ bill]. It’s a genuine issue that I think we need to resolve, because it’s really outdated. A lot of bars are struggling right now with getting people through the doors of their brick and mortar, so it would help out a lot. I would also like to liberate a few laws around having less restrictions, because it’s really hard to do business in New Zealand. I get the concerns with off-licences, but with an on-licence, if you’ve done the market research and want to open a bar or restaurant and serve alcohol, you should be allowed to. Currently, because of limits like operating hours, it’s really restrictive [to run an on-licence]. I am concerned about alcohol harm, but a lot of it doesn’t happen in a supervised bar – most of that occurs in the home, and that’s where we should be targeting alcohol harm concerns, not those wanting to run a business. What qualities make a good drinking partner? You need to have good banter, and you need to be up for a dance. No man left behind is also my thing, not a person who’s like “oh, I’m going to toilet” and leaving me with some guy who’s hitting on me. A good drinking partner makes sure everyone is safe, and everybody’s getting home. Have you ever had a Schnapps election moment where you regretted your political instinct? It would probably be allowing Simon Court onto the social services and community select committee – but with the best intentions, because he was actually doing a good deed. One of the other committee members was having a rough time, and I said, look, Simon’s got some space, let’s sub him on for the afternoon. The thing about Simon, he’s quite black and white, and he had heard about menstrual cups and how great they were, and thought he was doing a good thing. But it just came across so wrong, and had I known how much comms risk potential Simon would be, I may have not let him do a good deed, and I certainly wouldn’t have let him have a question. Up next on One MP, One Pint: Greens MP Steve Abel. Read more OMPOP interviews here.
