Motions — All Whites—Draw with Italy at Football World Cup

I seek leave to move a motion without notice congratulating the All Whites.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course being followed? There is no objection.

I move, That the House congratulate the All Whites on their stunning result in drawing one-all with Italy at the Football World Cup in South Africa. The All Whites showed all the courage, ability, and character that we know they possess to achieve New Zealand’s best result yet in world football. They ran themselves to a standstill in what was a nail-biting and tremendously exciting game. They can take great pride in their result, and I am sure that all New Zealanders will join with me in saying how proud we are of them. The Prime Minister was in Nelspruit, South Africa, for the game and personally congratulated coach Ricki Herbert, captain Ryan Nelsen, and the team. Sport is very important to New Zealand and New Zealanders. With sport we can celebrate passion, skill, hard work, dedication, team building, and success—all attributes demonstrated so well by the All Whites.

On behalf of the Government, I wish the All Whites all the best for their game against Paraguay. I know they will play their hearts out for us, and I believe they have the ability and determination to win and make it through to the next round. More than 4 million Kiwis will be cheering them on all the way.

On behalf of the New Zealand Labour Party I join with the Government in supporting this motion and join with Kiwis all over the world in congratulating Ricki Herbert and the magnificent All Whites. It was an amazing result yesterday, and it caused the world to sit up and take notice of a superbly performing New Zealand sports team.

But Monday was just the latest stage in a momentous journey by the All Whites. I had the privilege last year of being at Westpac Stadium to see the All Whites beat Bahrain to win a place in the World Cup. That, at the time, felt like a victory—a victory that saw the All Whites going to the Football World Cup for the first time in 28 years. But then they just kept on performing. There was the win in the warm-up round against Serbia; there was the draw with Slovakia; and, of course, on Monday there was that fantastic one-all draw against Italy—the world champions, the fifth-ranked side in the world, and a team packed with stars from European clubs all over the Continent.

It was a fantastic result, and it was great to see the European media, who had been disparaging about New Zealand chances, having to eat their words and describe the fantastic performance of the All Whites as it was. We know we are doing well in the world when even the Aussies try to bask in the reflected glory and praise the Australasian success in the World Cup.

There is no doubt that New Zealand started as the underdog in this competition. People said we could never do it. But with character, with commitment, with determination, and with courage the All Whites have done us proud. To Ricki Herbert—who, I have to say, is from my and David Shearer’s old school of Papatoetoe High School; all of us want to bask in that reflected glory—to Ryan Nelsen, the captain, who has done just an absolutely brilliant job; to Mark Paston, who was outstanding as goalkeeper; and to all the team we say: “Well done, lads.” The dream is still alive, and everyone in this Chamber wishes you well for a victory over Paraguay on Friday.

It is a pleasure to once again stand in this House to speak about the ongoing revelation that is the All Whites’ 2010 World Cup campaign. This is one of those “dare to dream” moments, which is coming true before our eyes. New Zealand, lest we need to pinch ourselves to believe it, is on the verge of qualifying for the second round of the World Cup finals. FIFA’s 2-minute online highlights package of yesterday’s match against Italy makes us look like footballing giants. There we are, on the world’s biggest sporting stage, scoring effortlessly and early against the world champions, and then defending our goal like heroes from an old war movie. I might add that in this international Olympic week there was also on display some talent in another Olympic sport, that of diving.

💬 Hon Trevor Mallard: On the field?

I am speaking, of course, of Mark Paston’s outstanding exhibition in goal!

Sport is often used as a metaphor for life itself, and our sports teams often exemplify the values and character that we aspire to as a nation: success through teamwork, the innovation and resourcefulness of a goal-scoring attack, or the gritty determination of the dogged defence that we saw yesterday. To be honest, the last 20 minutes of our game against Italy gave me glimpses of the kind of spirit that our soldiers must have experienced in places as far-flung as the beaches of Gallipoli or the foothills of Crete. Italy could come up with nothing to break the impermeable defence, ably led by “Captain Courageous” Ryan Nelsen. Our goalie, Mark Paston, played the game of his life, frustrating some of the highest-paid strikers in the world, and with Killen, Wood, Smeltz, and Fallon up front, making the most of any chances they had on goal, Italy started to look like they were lucky to come away from the match with a point.

The All Whites’ holding the current world champions of football to a one-all draw over 94 minutes left me both breathless and sleepless. It is the kind of thing that does not happen in the real world. While our children are rushing out into the streets and fields with soccer balls and dreams, I thought of that other sporting metaphor, of the rank outsider who, written off by everyone else, none the less dares to dream. The Mighty Ducks, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, the Jamaican bobsled team, and now the All Whites all speak of the triumph of hope and belief over size and history.

Even here, at the far ends of the Earth, it is possible to stand up for what may be, rather than be defeated by what always has been. We have a history of that in New Zealand, whether it is votes for women, our belief in the equality of all, our passionate commitment to saving our natural environment, our opposition to apartheid, or our implacable commitment to keeping our country nuclear-free, we have been prepared to stand up for what we believe as a small nation, even when faced with apparently overwhelming odds or opposition from the world’s superpowers. The All Whites’ story is the feel-good hit of the year. In the words of the Guardian: “today is all about New Zealand, who have infused this World Cup with the sort of innocent, everyman charm that was seemingly lost to top-level football.” Congratulations to the All Whites on playing their finest hour of football yet. Can we beat Paraguay?

💬 Hon Members: Yes, we can!

Yes, we can. My head says no, but my heart says of course we can.

What a game! What a match! Every now and then Kiwis show the world that we can, as a people, punch way above our weight. What the All Whites have done for us is to remind us that we can set big goals, we can take on the world, and we can beat them. What the All Whites did in beating the current FIFA World Cup holders was absolutely a miracle. I say “beating” them because I want to record in Parliament that, as far as the ACT Party goes, it was 1-0 to the All Whites, and we have every reason to believe that we will beat Paraguay too.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker, tēnā tātou katoa te Whare nei. He hōnore māku ki te tū ki te mihi atu ki tō tātou Tīma Mā i tēnei rangi. He whakatauakī tā te iwi Māori mō tēnei momo tākaro: “Kātahi te tākaro ātaahua!”. I tēnei wiki i kite mātou i tēnei, te ātaahua o te mahi o tō tātou tīma, arā, ko te All Whites. Nā reira, tino tū whakahīhī tātou, ka tū tātou i te āhua rāngatira i te mahi kua mahia e rātou i roto i tēnei momo tākaro, mai i te wā o te kēmu i a Bahrain i tērā Nōema. I wikitōria rātou kia haere katoa te tīma ki Awherika ki te Tonga mō tēnei kapu koura. Nā reira, he mihi tēnei ki a rātou, ā, me te kī he mihi nui ki tērā tamaiti o Ngāti Porou, a Rory Fallon i tērā mahi i te kēmu, kia taea e te tīma ki te haere ki Awherika. Nā, ka tū mai tētahi Māori i Awherika ki te Tonga, arā, a Winston Wīremu Reid nāna te koura i a Slovakia. Nā reira, he hōnore tēnei kia mihi atu ki te tīma katoa, ngā mea i tae katoa ki reira kia kawe ai te mana o Aotearoa i reira, kia pukumahi rātou ki te kēmu i reira.

I tērā marama, mai i tōna kāinga i Denmark, ka puta te kōrero mai a Winston Reid mō tōna hiahia kia hoki mai ki Aotearoa, kia uru atu ki roto i te Tīma Mā, tō tātou tīma o Aotearoa nei. Ko tōna take, kia haere ki Awherika ki te Tonga mō Aotearoa tuatahi, tuarua, kia tū ia hai tauira mō ngā tamariki Māori, kia uru atu rātou ki roto i te kēmu whutupaora.

Nā reira ka tautoko au i ngā kōrero i tēnei rangi ki tō tātou tīma All Whites i roto i ā ratou mahi. Nā reira, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Greetings to you, Mr Speaker, and to us all in this House. It is an honour for me to rise and acknowledge our All Whites team today. Māoridom has a saying for this kind of play: “What a beauty of a match!”. We witnessed the brilliance of our team, the All Whites, this week. We stand proud at the way they went about this challenge, from the time they played Bahrain last November. They won, and that enabled the whole team to go to South Africa for this gold cup. So this is an acknowledgment to them and to Rory Fallon, the Ngāti Porou lad whose efforts in that match made it possible for the team to go. Then up steps a Māori, Winston Wīremu Reid, in South Africa with his goal against Slovakia. So it is a privilege to congratulate the whole team, all of the ones who went there to carry New Zealand’s might. They worked hard there in the match.

From his home in Denmark last month emerged a statement that Winston Reid wanted to return to New Zealand to qualify for the All Whites, our team here in New Zealand. His purpose, in the first instance, was to go to South Africa as a representative of New Zealand, and, secondly, to be a role model for Māori children to become involved in the game of soccer.

I endorse the tributes today to our All Whites team and their efforts. Greetings to us all.]

This last midwinter week in New Zealand must be the most extraordinary in our sporting history. It began with us daring to hope for a good result against Slovakia, and we were blown away when the All Whites, unheralded and unfancied, came away with a draw in that match. Then our attention turned to the match with Italy. Could that feat possibly be repeated? It was repeated, with honour and credit all around. Now we look to the third leg of the treble: Paraguay on Friday.

This country is absorbed and transfixed at the moment by the success of the All Whites. It is great to see. It is a huge uplift in our national spirit. But those of us who have watched the All Whites over the last year—from the occasion at Westpac Stadium when the team qualified against Bahrain, and its contributing team the Wellington Phoenix playing here throughout last season—knew a couple of things. The first was that something big was building, and the second was that success is not achieved without hard effort, hard work, and a massive level of support from those people who back the team. That is what we have seen with the Wellington Phoenix, we have seen with the All Whites in their qualifying matches, and now—the vuvuzelas notwithstanding—we are seeing in South Africa. It is a huge tribute to the team that it has inspired this level of support. It is a massive lift of confidence for our country; it is a wonderful carnival atmosphere. Let us hope that we can ride it all the way through the Paraguay match on Friday and on into the next round.

When New Zealanders get to that point when our backs are against the wall, when we are obsessed with being derided as part-time amateurs, they are our greatest moments of success, and I believe that this team has only started down that road. Good luck to the team on Friday and for what lies beyond.

Mr Speaker—

It is a tradition that the party leaders normally speak in these debates.

There is also a tradition that if people want—

The House has heard the debate in good humour and I do not think we should depart from the normal practice for something that is—[Interruption] The member should resume his seat for the moment. To me, it is unfortunate to end it like this. If I call the honourable member, then any other member of the House can seek a call, which I do not think is in the spirit of the debate at all. I ask the member to just reflect on that over the next moment.

Motion agreed to.