Maiden Statement

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Warm greetings to all my parliamentary colleagues and to my family and friends here today. I stand here as a proud southern woman, a feminist, a socialist, and a trade unionist, committed to Labour principles and values, to Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a covenant between two peoples, to the causes I believe in, and to a New Zealand that is strong, fair-minded, inclusive, and proud of itself and its place in the world.

I give a warm acknowledgment to Margaret Wilson. Her appointment was an inspired one. She is doing an outstanding job, and Labour women are proud of her. With reference to her maiden speech, I support the need for a more appropriate gender-neutral term for this occasion, and suggest that “inaugural speech” would better suit the privilege of introduction to office.

I would also like to acknowledge the previous Speaker, the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt, whom I am replacing as a Labour list MP. He was a Speaker who exercised order, judgment, and fairness. It was good to hear Jonathan Hunt include in his valedictory speech themes close to my own heart: a commitment to the importance of education, the increased representation of women, the success that MMP has made of delivering diversity into the House and turning the Chamber into a closer representation of New Zealand society, and the important need for participation in democracy—at least to the extent of every voter needing to uplift a ballot paper so that our hard-won democratic freedoms do not become a political chimera.

I stand here today as the 87th woman MP of this Parliament since the election of Elizabeth McCombs in 1933, and the 40th of those women to be sworn in for Labour. I pay special tribute to all my current Labour women colleagues. Our teamwork, commitment, and involvement at every level of decision making is vital. We are not in competition with men, but we need to ensure that the diversity of women’s experience is represented authentically and taken full account of.

I make particular mention of my early role model, mentor, and friend—like me, a proud Labour women’s vice-president—the inimitable Sonja Davies; of Margaret Shields, who helped found the Society for Research on Women and who spoke in her inaugural speech of weaving more social strands into the fabric of Parliament; of Ann Hercus, the Minister who set up the Ministry of Women’s Affairs; of the current Minister of Women’s Affairs, Ruth Dyson, who is driving the ground-breaking action plan for New Zealand women; and, of course, of Helen Clark, our first elected woman Prime Minister whose record of hard work, vision, wisdom, and sheer sangfroid was as evident in her first days as a back-bencher as it is now that she is the outstanding Prime Minister who delivers.

I also pay tribute to those women colleagues and friends who formed the Labour Women’s Council during my 10 years, and with whom I have worked on such issues as pay equity, paid parental leave, childcare provision, and women’s health and employment. They are too numerous to mention, with one notable and special exception in Carol Gosche, who was council chair almost up to the time of her stroke. She is a woman of principle, integrity, sheer grit, and determination, and a valued friend, leader, and fellow planner. Kia kaha, Carol, for your inspiration.

Although there have been major advances for women, and New Zealand has led many of those, if we look beyond the few top positions we see that the picture is not yet one of equality. We are 51 percent of the population but still do not have even 40 percent of the representation and voice. We earn only 84 percent of men’s average wage, and that percentage is worse for Māori and Pacific women. We are still concentrated in the low-paid “pink ghettos” of employment, and we are still the main carers; the solo parents vulnerable to vicious labelling and witch hunts by the Opposition, and we are the main victims of domestic violence and users of refuges. Fortunately, the Labour Government has made significant progress to address these issues—to advance pay equity, to offer more choices in employment and better work-life balance prospects, and to advance the New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy. The Action Plan for New Zealand Women has goals, milestones, and checking mechanisms in the areas of economic sustainability, work-life balance, and well-being. It is my hope and commitment as an MP to advance work in these areas.

Two of my other passions are education and housing. Although I have never been a teacher, I come into Parliament with very current flaxroot knowledge of the education sector at all levels, through my prior profession as a tertiary librarian and researcher, and also through my work for NZEI Te Riu Roa in representing teachers and support staff. Quality teaching is vital, but without the support of teacher-aides, librarians, technicians, and administrative staff, educational institutions would grind to a halt. I therefore have a particular commitment as an MP to work on issues for those often-overlooked workers. Equally, I have a deep commitment to the early childhood sector. This Government has a long-term early childhood education plan that sets out to lift quality standards and to provide better home-based childcare and after-school care. I have worked from the start with that plan and as an MP want to see it completely delivered on.

As the only one of eight siblings to have a degree, and as one who worked for many years to put myself through university, I am a passionate believer in the public-good aspect of our tertiary education system and in the opportunity for quality education to be accessible to all. I am particularly pleased that this Government kept its promise to write off interest during study, stabilise fees, and increase access to allowances, and that recent reports have shown that student debt and loan-repayment times are down. But there is still a way to go, and during my tenure as MP I hope to work with colleagues on further positive action on tertiary education issues.

Housing the people has been a core Labour commitment from the earliest years. Labour Governments have always been the house builders of this nation, because we believe that every New Zealander has the right to a decent, quality home. Many earlier inaugural speeches have mentioned housing as being a key part of Labour and social justice principles. I am enormously proud that this Government restored income-related State house rentals, stopped State house sales, and has started to build again, and that we have introduced pilots to halt falling rates of homeownership and are working to encourage savings towards future homeownership. If we are judged on what we leave behind, decent housing will be a fine legacy.

I now turn to my family. To my husband, David Melmoth: your love and support has been a treasure in my life. I fought one election without you; we married during the next—having chosen the date first—and you have been a rock, particularly through difficult times since. Thank you from my heart. I acknowledge my parents, Janet McMeeking and Walter Athol Soper, neither of whom are here but who are proud of their daughter in spirit. Indeed, if Wattie were here, he would be 105 years old—a bit much to ask, even of him. I thank them for the values that have made me Labour and union, all my life. It was not hard, with a solid working-class background and an early introduction to political action, to accept that principles like social justice, equity, fairness, opportunity, and security were not just words but realities to be passionate about and to work a lifetime to achieve. There is an obligation to support each other and to ensure just distribution and the sharing of benefits. As Bill Fraser, former Labour Minister, St Kilda MP, and good friend said in his inaugural speech, “… true interdependence has much more to offer.”—certainly more than any individualistic, dog-eat-dog, far-right philosophy either of Bill’s era or of today.

Janet, a mother of the 1950s and 1960s, would have described herself as “not working after marriage”. All women work. Like so many, my mother did most of hers in the home, plus essential volunteer work. That work was not particularly valued then, and we are trying to get the balance right now. Like so many women today, my mother would have liked the opportunity of choice about her life. Sadly, her heart attack at 42, stroke at 50, and 8 years of disability closed down her life. It also led to my early interest and commitment in the health and disability sector. The services and rehabilitation that were not available to my mother in the 1970s would be available today, as would family support and counselling. She would not now be placed in an open geriatric ward that her children hated to visit. The change in health philosophy that concentrates on a wellness rather than a sickness model, health promotion and preventive measures, primary health organisations able to offer reduced fees and better public health programmes, and an increasing awareness that the disabled have rights and needs, and can contribute, were all necessary advances that came too late for my mother. I took an elected health board role to work for people like her, and I am dedicated as an MP to continue working for the best possible public health services for all.

Wattie was born in 1900, worked prior to the Great War with Chinese gold miners in the Nevis valley, and was a truck driver and union president. He was one of the few Westerners invited to China in 1957; a man of integrity, purpose, and pride. He introduced me as a child, not only to a world wider than the borders of Invercargill where other respected cultures existed but also to a world where committed people like himself, Pat Welsh, Mick and June Sullivan, a young Bill Anderson, and a younger Ken Douglas fought hard but fair for workers’ rights and voices, for decent employment conditions, and for fair wages. My earliest recollections are of waiting for his plane to taxi in from yet another Drivers Federation meeting. I joined my first union in 1972 and have been actively involved ever since.

Like me, Wattie would have been disgusted by the vicious employment contracts era. He would have rejoiced at Labour’s Employment Relations Act returning fair bargaining, and at the changes delivered since to ensure better conditions for workers overall. He would have been proud of a Labour Government that has delivered unemployment as low as 3.6 percent, the Working for Families package, and the Modern Apprenticeships scheme. He would also be proud to see that New Zealand is a respected international citizen—still nuclear-free and with a trade relationship with the powerhouse of Asia, which he always predicted.

For the last 10½ years of Wattie’s life I was his caregiver, while also working in a full-time paid job. That is the source of my special interest in carer issues. I particularly recognise the special strains of the work, the decent pay and conditions required, and the part that families play in caregiving. It is also a source of my particular interest in the superannuation debate, including my pride that it was a Labour Government that restored the superannuation floor, that set up the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, and that will progressively remove the pernicious asset-testing regime.

I also mention two of my brothers in particular: Owen, the eldest—now gone but with some of his family here today—and Dougal, the youngest, who, but for his opposition to the Springbok tour, would have been Labour MP for Invercargill in 1981. Both are strong, principled Southland men and both are contributors to me standing here today. I thank them both. I will do them proud.

I am a list MP with no geographical boundaries and a nationwide constituency, but I am obviously a proud Mainlander. Invercargill is the city of my birth, upbringing, and domicile. Along with the wider provinces of Clutha-Southland, where I have stood for Parliament, it has done exceptionally well under 5½ years of a Labour Government, and will continue to do so under the next. It is a province full of Sopers and their whānau and is a producer of other good things, like the Bluff oysters I have ordered for tonight, timber, dairy products, meat, wool, aluminium, and excellent rugby players, including Ack Soper, All Black.

Any members, particularly those who live north of the Bombay Hills, who have not visited the region should do so. We have good but much-maligned weather—like Wellington, really. We have an economy that has led New Zealand in growth statistics. We have a business incubator, a zero-fees tertiary institution, Stewart Island, Fiordland, the Catlins, and the Hump Ridge track. We have the John Money art collection in Gore, Riverton—the Riviera of the south—a unique marae, expanding tourism, and exciting opportunities in the creative industries. We have the Southern Sting and the world-class Stadium Southland. The mono-cultural province that I grew up in now has over 70 ethnic groups. I know that every MP thinks that his or her place is special, but I think the deep south is one of the best-kept secrets in New Zealand.

Lastly, I want to mention some very special people: the old miners of Ōhai and Nightcaps who in 1993 went seemingly way beyond their comfort zone by asking a young woman with feminist ideals, who was a supporter of homosexual law reform, to stand for them in the seat of Wallace. They are true stalwarts of the Labour Party. Jimmy, Cal, Jack, Harry, Barry and all the others asked me to stand because we shared the same values, the same ideals, and the same belief in fairness, social justice, and equity, and in Labour’s ability to deliver. I carry those values still. They believed in me and I am here now. I will not let them down.

I received this apt Māori proverb with a parting gift from fellow workers.

Whāia e koe,

Te iti kahurangi,

Ki te tuohu koe,

Me he maunga teitei.

“Seek the treasure you value most dearly. If you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.” Kia ora tātou katoa.