Adjournment

Madam Speaker, before you declare the House adjourned until 14 February, I briefly wish you and all the staff—the Clerk’s Office, the Assistant Speakers, the Deputy Speaker, the Hansard staff, the messengers, the security staff, all our secretaries and other staff, the remainder of the staff who service this building, both Parliamentary Service and Ministerial Services—the very best wishes. I thank them for all the services they have performed for all of us throughout this year.

I particularly wish all my colleagues in Parliament a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and I remind them that this is the second-most important part of their lives. For the next few weeks they can enjoy the most important part of their lives, and the public prays that from approximately Christmas Eve, for another couple of weeks they do not hear from any of us.

I echo the comments made by the Leader of the House. I also extend thanks, on behalf of the National Party, to you, Madam Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers, to the Clerk of the House and all of his staff, messengers, security staff, drivers, members of the Parliamentary Library staff—the people throughout this complex who ensured that we operated effectively, and sometimes efficiently, over the year.

I also thank the staff of the National Party members of Parliament and those in my own leader’s office. We started this year with a caucus of only 27, which meant that our staff complement was severely strained. We end this year with a lot more members of Parliament, but we are not yet staffed up to that level of caucus numbers. The consequence, of course, is that the staff are under even more pressure now than they were at the beginning of the year. So I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I also wish them a happy, safe, and restful Christmas period so that we are ready to function effectively in the new year.

Although I endorse the comments of the Leader of the House, Dr Cullen, and, to a large degree, the leader of the National Party, we would like to offer our compliments to you, Madam Speaker, and to the Deputy Speaker and the Assistant Speakers, for the way you have administered things in this House on a very fair basis. We would like to compliment the Clerk, the Office of the Clerk and all its staff and also wish them well over the Christmas break. We compliment, also, the people who work in this complex: parliamentary staff, secretaries, messengers—who do a very important job and are often overlooked far too often—and thank them for their services and wish them a merry Christmas—not too merry, but an enjoyable Christmas—and to come back.

Finally, on behalf of my leader and my colleagues, who endorse all these sentiments, I wish everybody—all the MPs, in particular—a merry Christmas and a good New Year. May we all come back and remember one little thing: we are here to serve the people of New Zealand, whom we also wish a merry Christmas and a happy time. May we come back and do our job that much better.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. May I first say how appreciative we have been of you, the first woman Speaker of this House. You have done a magnificent job, often against very great odds. It is a pleasure to have the first woman Speaker in this House. We also extend our gratitude to all of the people—the invisible people, as it were—who make our lives possible and who toil away to enable us to carry out our functions in this House.

I would be less than honest if I did not say that this year has been—in the Queen’s words—an annus horribilis for the Green Party, with the loss of Rod Donald and, of course, with two other MPs also leaving us in the election. However, we have survived. We particularly welcome our colleagues from the Māori Party into this House. It has been wonderful to have this whole new party, a new dimension, in the House, with what that party has brought to it. We think it is wonderful. We note that the new leader of the Tory Party in England said that he was absolutely committed to ending the Punch and Judy show in Parliament there. It would be our dream that we too could put an end to the Punch and Judy show in this House, and that we could, in the new year, have more cooperative, more collaborative, less acrimonious debate in this House and in some of our select committees and so forth.

But in the spirit of Christmas, I would like to wish all of our colleagues the very best Christmas and New Year and hope that we all give our frayed nerves a rest and return much refreshed and in a more Zen state of mind in 2006.

On behalf of the Māori Party I would like to endorse the remarks of Dr Cullen, the Leader of the House; Dr Brash, the leader of the National Party; and other Opposition spokespeople. I welcome the new party, “the 2s”, who sit beside us! These sittings have been somewhat of a culture shock for three-quarters of the Māori Party, but we are adjusting OK. We have made a lot of friends, we are enjoying it, and we hope everyone has a good Christmas. Ngā manaakitanga o Te Runga Rawa ki a tātou katoa. May God bless us all. Kia ora.

On behalf of the ACT party and caucus, I thank Michael Cullen for his kind words, and I wish you, Madam Speaker, a very, very merry Christmas and—I think Dr Cullen will allow us to say it—a prosperous New Year, despite Mr Bollard’s concerns.

💬 Hon Dr Michael Cullen: A bit slower.

A sort of slow, prosperous New Year! For the ACT party, I thank all the people who work at Parliament, make it function, and make MPs’ lives possible. I especially thank the Clerk’s Office, which does a tremendous job for us. The messengers, security staff, and library staff do a tremendous job in helping us. I thank particularly the people at Bellamy’s, who serve us literally all hours of the day and night. I thank all the other people who work in Parliament and look after us MPs, oftentimes when we are grumpy.

I would like to wish a merry Christmas to all the ACT staff, and also former staff. I realise that might be somewhat redundant, given that Don Brash has wished all the National Party staff a merry Christmas, but we view those people as just on loan to the National Party and are looking forward to their coming back. I would like to wish the former ACT MPs a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

But, most important, I would like to use this opportunity to wish all New Zealanders a merry Christmas; a safe holiday period, which means driving carefully, within the law, on the roads; and a prosperous New Year.

Before I adjourn the House as the first weeks of the forty-eighth Parliament come to a close, I also wish to pay tribute to all the people who contribute to the efficient functioning of the House. Consistent with the brevity of the speeches just made, I shall keep my thanks short. May I, however, acknowledge the hard work of the Deputy Speaker and the Assistant Speakers, particularly during urgency, and the work of those whom no one else mentioned—the interpreters. They probably spend more time on end in this House than anyone else does. Also, it is important to acknowledge the work of the kaumātua and his wonderful wife, Rose, who work tirelessly for Parliament but are rarely acknowledged.

I also extend my thanks to the Clerk of the House, the Deputy Clerk, and all the members of the Clerk’s Office for their professionalism and the administrative skills they have demonstrated over the past year. I include in this thanks also the work of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and all his staff for drafting legislation, without which there would probably be no purpose for us being here.

It is also appropriate to thank the General Manager of the Parliamentary Service and all the members of staff of the Parliamentary Service for their professional administration in the servicing of Parliament in its myriad facets. I say a special thanks to the Serjeant-at-Arms and all those who work with him to uphold the traditions and propriety of the Chamber and to welcome the many visitors who come to the parliamentary galleries. They are an essential part of the running of Parliament.

I offer my sincere thanks too to those who have worked in support of the committees I have chaired. I also say a special thanks to the leaders of the parties of this House, their deputies, and the Leader of the House, the Hon Dr Michael Cullen, and the party whips. Without their skills and expertise the House would not run as efficiently as it does. Before I finally acknowledge the efforts of the members of Parliament, I also acknowledge the efforts of the members of the press gallery, who are part of us in one way or another.

Finally, then, I acknowledge all members of Parliament, who despite enormous workloads continue to serve their electorates. I especially acknowledge and welcome the new members of Parliament. I know, as one member has already said, it is a little strange, but coming back in the new year it grows on one. As members go to join their families and friends in the coming break I wish them all well until we meet again in February 2006.

The House adjourned at 4.20 p.m. (Thursday)