Georgina Beyer has a soft spot for the characters

06.03.2004
By JAMES GARDINER

Transsexual MP Georgina Beyer has always had shock value.

The former drug-taking stripper, thespian, nightclub queen, hooker and rape victim tells her life story as often as it takes - the prejudice, the abuse, and the pride of breaking barriers.

Ask her whom she admires in Parliament and prepare for another shock. Helen Clark, sure, Michael Cullen, okay - but Winston Peters, Richard Prebble, Sue Bradford and Rodney Hide?

Maybe it's just the radical in her. It is also an indicator of why the popular Labour MP decided this week to bow out of politics at next year's election after two terms in Parliament and five years in local government.

Ms Beyer, 46, the MP for Wairarapa, admits that those she admires often have the characteristics she feels she lacks.

"I don't like the way parliamentary life has a way of constricting you. The goldfish bowl kind of thing doesn't appeal to me greatly and certainly not from the perspective of being a politician all the time."

She came to national prominence in 1995 when she was elected Mayor of Carterton, having been on the council for two years.

Before that she also had found fame but limited fortune as an actor and nightclub performer, who changed her name from George to Georgina in her teens and had a sex-change operation about a decade later.

She "thoroughly enjoyed" council politics and felt she had a real grip on local government issues.

Not so Parliament.

"I've always questioned my abilities for further advancement in parliamentary life.

"I don't think I really have the ability to ever think about wanting to be a minister. And when I look at my colleagues who are, I think, gosh, you've got to have a particular kind of tenacious personality and fundamental strength to deal with the rigours at that level."

Ms Beyer packed her bags yesterday and headed overseas - something she could be doing a lot more of in her life after Parliament.

Parliament's law and order select committee is on an exchange visit to Australia, with Perth, Canberra and Sydney on the agenda over the next week.

As the world's first elected transsexual MP, she is regularly invited to speaking engagements - usually, but not exclusively, by gay, lesbian, transgender organisations or human rights groups. Outside Parliament she hopes to be able to accept a lot more of those invitations.

"I'd like to get back into the performing arts arena - film, television, that kind of thing. I've always liked that.

"I fell into local government because I was cocky enough to give anything a go. I wanted to see if a person like me, with my background, does have equal opportunity in this country and, of course, it's been spectacularly proved to be so."

She enjoyed the challenges, pushing boundaries. "I offered, I guess, an acceptable face of difference and my behaviour and conduct was generally accepted by people."

But she says she feels constrained, her personal views too often compromised by the discipline required of members of a political party and of representatives elected by their constituents.

An example: "I was not a great fan, as most people know, of the [anti] smoking legislation, but when I asked permission to cross the floor it was declined."

She rates Helen Clark as someone who "will go down in history as one of our best Prime Ministers".

She admires Speaker Jonathan Hunt, Act leader Richard Prebble and NZ First's Winston Peters for their longevity and stickability.

She sees another side of Mr Peters - a "gregarious and out-there, open person".

Mr Prebble: "While I hate his politics, I admire the person who has that kind of commitment."

Mr Hide she admires "for his absolute outrageousness at times".

No one, she says, has ever attacked her in Parliament because of her sexuality, but she does not enjoy some of the personal attacks that do occur.

On the National bench, old hands Tony Ryall and Lockwood Smith are rated for "the vein-popping kinds of speeches they're able to give".

Labour's Dr Cullen, Lianne Dalziel, Trevor Mallard and Annette King are also "great debaters".

Greens Sue Bradford and Sue Kedgley, she feels, have made strong contributions, possibly unexpectedly, and she admires Labour MP Tariana Turia's "quiet tenacity" and willingness to speak her mind.

Ms Beyer, a member of the Labour Maori caucus, is concerned about race issues.

"It's out there, it's on the table and I believe that the way Labour wants to go and Helen Clark has outlined will go some way to mending some of the hurt that's been inflicted by National's policies."

 

Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer says she felt more confident in local government politics. Picture / Mark Mitchell