Valedictory Statement

E muamua ona ou ta le vai afei ma ou fa‘atulou i le paia lasilasi ua fa‘atasi mai. Tulou ou ponao‘o Samoa i le afio o Tupu ma E‘e. Tulou ou Faleupolu. Tulou auauna a le Atua. Ou te fa‘atalofa atu i le Paia ma le Mamalu o le aso. E ngā iwi o te motu, te tangata whenua. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Taloha ni. Malo e lelei. Fakalofa lahi atu. Ni sa bula vinaka. Mauri. Kia orana koutou katoa.

Talofa lava, Mr Speaker, and warm Pacific greetings to all my parliamentary colleagues, honoured guests, members of the diplomatic corps, and Pacific Island communities, friends, and family. Tonight will be the last time that I stand to speak in the New Zealand House of Representatives. Thank you all for coming to listen to my final remarks.

In February 2000 I started my maiden speech to Parliament by honouring three women: my leader, my mentor, and my mother. I vividly remember my mother sitting in the Speaker’s gallery during my maiden statement. Mum was in a wheelchair, supported by bottled oxygen. She had been released from hospital for the evening, following major heart surgery. She was determined to be with me that night. My mother remained my most loyal supporter, until she passed away in December. Her courage, strength, and determination have been my greatest inspiration. Tonight I honour her.

My parents, Ta‘atofa Kenneth Poutoa Laban and Emi Asi Tunupopo Patu, came to New Zealand in 1954 as Pacific Island immigrants. My brother Ken and I were born in Wellington. Like many Pacific Islanders, my parents left their homes, families, and country to come to New Zealand and provide their children with education and opportunity. Theirs was the immigrants’ dream—a dream that is shared by all who have come to this land. My parents wanted our family to be part of this nation, to participate as equals in this society, and they took great pleasure in seeing their children and grandchildren realise their dreams.

I was honoured to be the first Pacific Island woman elected to this Parliament, and later to become a Minister of the Crown. I have often shared our family’s story when I have spoken at citizenship ceremonies in Porirua City and up the Kapiti coast. It gives great hope and encouragement to new immigrants to know that their children can aspire to high public office, and I look forward to another child of immigrants being elected as the next MP for Mana.

I entered Parliament in November 1999 as a Labour list member—the last cab off the rank. That was a nervous time. Parekura Horomia had just scraped in, by 500 votes, on election night. If Derek Fox’s recount had been successful, Parekura would have lost his seat. He would have got in off the list, and I would have missed out. However, Parekura has always come to the party. He increased his election night majority, and I was in. Kia ora, brother; thanks.

Sonya Davies asked me to stand for Parliament in her Pencarrow seat when she retired. I was not ready then; lucky for you, Trevor. At that time I was also unhappy with the direction and policies of the Labour Party. I was ready a decade later.

The event that led me to enter Parliament was the closure of Kempsons factory in Wainuiōmata. I had received a telephone call on Friday morning from an uncle who worked at Kempsons. He was distressed and he asked me to come to the factory. What I saw was a group of workers, many of them Pacific Islanders, who had just been told not to come to work on Monday. They had all been given notice—no redundancy, no holiday pay, nothing. Many of the men were in tears. They were bewildered and confused. Some had worked for Kempsons for 20 or more years, and they had been hard-working and loyal. They had expected that they would be looked after, but when the business was sold offshore, the Wainuiōmata plant was closed down. The Employment Contracts Act offered the workers no protection.

The Kempsons factory closure and the impact of the unfair employment contracts legislation on workers in my community was my motivation for entering Parliament. So it was with great satisfaction, and one of my highlights in the House, that I moved the closure motion that led to the axing of the Employment Contracts Act and the enactment of the Employment Relations Act. What followed was a long period of peaceful industrial relations, based on good-faith bargaining and greater fairness and equity in the workplaces of New Zealand. It is sad to see that the wheel has turned and that punitive industrial legislation has been enacted, and more is before the House.

Parliament is one of the few places in this country where the great issues of the day can be debated and important legislation can be passed. However, too often it is the trivial matters of Parliament that grab the headlines or sound bites. I have really enjoyed debates that are about values and beliefs. In my view good legislation should be based on sound values and clearly stated beliefs.

Sometimes bad politics can stop good law. I was particularly disappointed when a member’s bill that I had brought to the House was defeated. The bill would have given the families of people suffering from mental illness greater input into treatment and care options. This was good law. I had gained wide cross-party support in the House, but the bill was defeated at the last minute because of political imperatives. That upset me. But it is important to keep things in perspective in Parliament.

When I entered Parliament I said that I would pursue a permanent interest in advocating and promoting the interests of women, Pacific people, Māori, the elderly, ethnic minorities, and all New Zealanders who are struggling to live a life of dignity. I have always kept those interests in mind.

It has been said that a test of a people is how it behaves towards the old. The care of the elderly and frail in our society has been a matter of increasing concern for me. I want all elderly to live out their last years with respect and dignity.

Reports from the Health and Disability Commissioner into home-based care of the elderly and the Auditor-General’s report into the effectiveness of arrangements to monitor the quality and safety of rest homes in New Zealand have found significant problems, and there have been a number of reports in the media of disturbing failures in rest-home care. I asked for the Health Committee to undertake an inquiry into the quality of rest homes and home-based care services. Three times my request was turned down, so Labour, with the support of the Greens, joined forces with Grey Power to investigate the quality of our country’s rest homes and home-based support services.

In the last few months Sue Kedgley and I have travelled the country, meeting with thousands of elderly people, and their families and carers, listening to their concerns. It was very touching when listening to many elderly people tell their stories. One couple in Christchurch, both in their 90s, told us of how they looked after each other in their own home. They were disappointed that their home care had been cut from 3 hours to 1½ hours a week. They said they could manage to shower each other, but they did need some help to keep the house clean.

Elderly New Zealanders do not ask for much. We need to ensure that they have the support they need to live independently. One of my last tasks in Parliament was to sign off the report into aged care; it will be released on Friday. The report has a range of important recommendations, and is a call to action to ensure that every elderly person in New Zealand is treated with dignity and respect. I look forward to the recommendations of this report gaining support from all sides of the House.

The defining conflict in the 20th century was the conflict between communism and capitalism. The defining conflict of the 21st century may well be the conflict between the Islamic world and the West—between Islam and Christianity. Interfaith dialogue is an important way of building relationships across the boundaries of civilisations and working to reduce the level of suspicion and fear between religious faiths. Our experience at home in New Zealand and in our own region leads us to believe that, at the global level, it is possible to build a world that respects and accommodates difference and promotes development, peace, and security.

Phil Goff made me Opposition spokesperson on interfaith issues, which demonstrated Labour’s commitment to promoting and acknowledging the importance of interfaith dialogue. The Labour Party is often referred to as a “broad church”, and our members have a range of views on interfaith dialogue. The St Bede’s College old boy Clayton Cosgrove told me that he had regular interfaith dialogue with the local Catholic priest in his Waimakariri electorate.

We are all products of our culture, history, and heritage. Our commonalities are far stronger than our differences. In New Zealand the issues of Muslims are similar to those faced by those people of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and other faiths. One thing that is important to all humanity, to people of all faiths, is finding a way to limit harmful extremism and intolerance. New Zealand is a small nation, but we have been leaders on issues of international importance: votes for women, nuclear-free legislation, and the stand against apartheid. New Zealand and New Zealanders are at their best when we stand against injustice. We need to make a stand to protect the rights of all religious groups in our society.

In my maiden speech I said that our nation needs a new politics of honesty, hope, and healing; a politics that brings our communities and nation together so that all New Zealanders can fully participate and live a life of dignity. At times during the last decade I have seen glimpses of the hope and healing that good politics can bring, but last week we all saw the division and indignity that came when the New Zealand identity of the Governor-General—another child of immigrants—was questioned.

What do we need to do to ensure that all New Zealanders can fully participate and live a life of dignity? Looking to our own cultures and faiths is a useful point of departure. I start from the proposition that New Zealand is a Pacific nation. Whatever our origins, we have all travelled through the Pacific to arrive in this land.

New Zealand society is increasingly multicultural. Difference and pluralism is becoming central to our New Zealand identity. The New Zealand I was born into in the 1950s was a homogenous, monolingual, monocultural, bland, colourless society. The New Zealand of the 21st century is a heterogeneous, multilingual, multicultural, vivid, and colourful society. We have some very important choices facing us as a society and as a nation. We can choose to celebrate difference, diversity, and pluralism, and deal with the excitement and tension that go with that choice, or we can try to ignore difference and diversity, and say that we are all the same.

As a woman of the Pacific and a proud New Zealander, I will advocate for celebrating difference, diversity, pluralism, and inclusion every time, because they are the keys to retaining our cultural and spiritual values. As a Samoan, I know that my community is based on families and extended families—aiga and aigapotopoto. Our community, in turn, is based on the Samoan values of alofa, fa‘aaloalo, and agaga—love, respect, reciprocity, and spirituality. These values are demonstrated through tautua, or service—service to family, service to church, service to community, and service to our nation. These values have guided me in my time in Parliament.

All New Zealanders have similar stories, including Sir Anand Satyanand and Paul Henry. Through telling our stories and through listening to the stories of other New Zealanders, we get to understand each other and to celebrate the richness and increasing diversity of our multicultural nation.

That diversity is to be found in the Mana electorate, which has the cultural mix that all New Zealand will have in 50 years’ time. It has been a great honour to serve the people of Porirua City and the Kapiti coast as their member of Parliament since 2002. Jobs, health, housing, education, income support, transport, and immigration have been the major issues that occupied me and my electorate staff in Porirua City and up the Kapiti coast. The Mana electorate office has been the place of last resort for many constituents.

It has often been said that all politics are local. The people of Mana have grounded me. Their realities have informed my work in Parliament. In October 2007 the Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill, which I sponsored, was passed into law. It was simple legislation that dealt with management issues relating to the Pāuatahanui burial ground, to ensure that it is looked after in perpetuity. The bill had the support of the local iwi; Ngāti Toa; the Stace family, who had gifted the land; and the Pāuatahanui citizens who have cared for the many heritage roses in the grounds, which date back over 150 years, when the first cuttings were brought there by early settlers. Sometimes a small success can be quite profound. It is very satisfying to walk amongst the roses in a graveyard on a summer’s day in Pāuatahanui and know that this Parliament gave unanimous support to protect that historic site for ever.

We have had many other successes in Mana over the last few years: the rebuild of Porirua College; the Porirua housing renewal scheme; the Kapiti Health Centre; 24-hour accident and emergency services at Kenepuru Hospital; the purchase of Porirua and Waitangirua farms for the conservation estate; the Mackays Crossing overbridge; the median barrier strip on Centennial Highway; progress on the Transmission Gully route; improved early childhood education services, particularly for Pacific children; business growth; and reduced unemployment. Sadly, the tide has turned, and we are seeing some of the gains of the last decade fading, but surely the tide will turn again.

Over the last few days and weeks I have been quietly ticking tasks off my to-do list as I exit Parliament. A big tick was the selection of a Labour candidate to replace me in Mana. Kris Fa’afoi won a very hard contest from four quality candidates for the forthcoming by-election. Kris is a young man with much to offer the people of Mana. I wish you good luck, Kris.

As I leave Parliament I will not be looking back. I did my best for more than a decade; now it is the time to move on. My new role of assistant vice-chancellor (Pasifika) at Victoria University is an exciting opportunity to promote Victoria as the university of choice for Pacific students and staff in New Zealand and the Pacific region. I am very excited and am looking forward to starting work at Victoria University in November.

During my time in Parliament I have made many friends and have worked with many wonderful people on all sides of the House. My colleagues’ support for me—all of you—during the good times and the difficult times has been a great source of comfort and encouragement, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I acknowledge with love and thanks the unseen workers of Parliament: the staff of the Clerk’s Office and the Speaker’s office, the Parliamentary Service, caterers, cooks, cleaners, ushers, security, the VIP drivers, the report writers, the Hansard staff, and all those who work in Parliament.

I offer a special thankyou to my loyal parliamentary and electorate staff: Tauiliili Nari, Shane, John, Debs, Edward, Moana, and also to Fillipo, Jeremy, and my former ministerial staff. You have all served me wonderfully well.

To Phil Goff, Annette King, and Andrew Little, the leaders and president of the New Zealand Labour Party, thank you so much for your support. Thank you to my colleagues in the Labour caucus. A special thanks to my “little brother” Darren, for looking after me and negotiating this time for me to say goodbye. Warm thanks to the Mana Labour electorate committee and to all the Labour Party members, union affiliates, and supporters for your loyalty and hard work.

I have kept my family out of the public gaze and political arena—apart from my brother Ken, who can be seen regularly on Sky Sport. My greatest support has come from my family. Fa‘afetai tele lava to the family in Samoa and New Zealand. Finally, the love of my life, my husband, Peter—a Cantabrian—alofa atu.

Peter has chosen the song to conclude my speech: “Le manu tangi e”, a Samoan farewell and lament. It was composed by my uncle Siaki Laban and will be sung by my niece Marlena Devoe.

Fa’afetai tele lava mo lou alofa, ma lou agalelei. Tofa soifua!

Samoan song

Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.