Maiden Statements

Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ko Mōtatau taku maunga, ko Ramarama taku awa, ko Ngātokimatawhaorua taku waka, ko Manukōriki taku whare tupuna, ko Hine Āmaru taku tupuna, ko Ngāti Hine taku hapū, ko Ngāpuhi taku iwi. Nō Te Hōterini ahau, ko Ria Bond taku ingoa.

[Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mōtatau is my mountain, Ramarama is my river, Ngātokimatawhaorua is my canoe, Manukōriki is my ancestral house, Hine Āmaru is my ancestor, Ngāti Hine is my subtribe, and Ngāpuhi is my tribe. I am from Te Hōterini, and my name is Ria Bond.]

I am both honoured and humbled to finally stand in this House today to deliver my maiden speech. Firstly, I wish to congratulate the New Zealand First Party and our leader, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, on his landslide victory and winning the Northland seat. The party ran a flawless campaign with a simple message: send them a message. I believe that message has been delivered. We now have 12 MPs in the House. I am proud to work with such a strong, balanced team that has high energy levels, experience, and talent in each of our fields of previous employment backgrounds that we each bring forward.

I wish to share with you my journey that I have travelled to be here. I was 3 years old when I was first removed from my family and put into a foster home. I think, on count from memory, I spent five times in my childhood life in a foster home. That experience for me as a child was traumatic. That experience for me as a child, without it being explained what was happening by the social services, was something that I wish no other child should ever have to go through. Although the world was shocked by the movie Once Were Warriors, I was living it. From out of that rose strength and rose courage. It gave me character. At times it caused me tears. But I have to say that it also gave me stubbornness. You see, from that I built a dream, and that dream was to one day stand in this House as a member of Parliament and look at how we can protect the children of the future. That is something that is very dear to me, having grown up in the life that I grew through.

I love my parents. I understand and forgave them that they did not have the skills needed to be prepared as parents. Since they have had their mokopunas they have grown. I am very proud of the love that they share for us now.

So the message that I want to share with other children is that if you have a dream, then you go after that dream. You do not let anybody stand in your way. You grab it with both hands and you surround yourself with people who can help you to achieve your dream. They can be your teachers or your role models in the industries that you may wish to belong to in the future. So I am very proud that today that dream has come true for me.

I truly recognise as I stand here in this House that those of us who move within it are not more important than the people we are here to represent—that is, the people of Aotearoa. If I ever find that I abandon this belief, then I will have the graciousness to leave.

I am half Māori and half Scottish. I have grown up equally in both worlds. My father is Hoterene Ariki Hoterene, son of one whom we used to call Grandad, my grandmother being Matekino Hereora. In our family, when you are born on the land you received the name “Hoterene”. If you are not, then you receive the name “Shortland”.

My grandparents were farmers. Our land, Mataparua, has been in our whānau for hundreds of years in the valley of Mōtatau. My uncles and aunties have all worked hard on the family farm, as Grandad was a recruiter for the army, and over the years my nana was often left at home to look after the farm. Over the years, I am told, my grandfather was a proud, hard-working man, who worked his children hard. I spent many holidays up on the farm. There was no electricity and no running water. You were taught to be self-sufficient. I am no stranger to hard work.

Mōtatau was rather unique, as over the years we have had eight whānau members stand as candidates, and six have entered this House as members of Parliament. This in itself is truly unique. I am very fortunate to have had some whānau who were great leaders, who inspired me throughout my life to make a difference. As I stand here today I am surrounded by my whānau: Pita Paraone and Peeni Henare. My hope is that our children will one day aspire to follow in our footsteps.

My Scottish ancestors travelled over on the boat from Scotland to Southland in 1834. My mother, Margaret Browne, daughter to Leslie M’Creath and Iris M’Creath, was a stay-at-home mother in my early years. My mother’s family were also hard workers and believed firmly in earning their wages by manual hard work. When I was younger I used to travel on the Southerner from Christchurch to Invercargill to visit my relations. That service is still missed by the Southland public today.

I was born and bred in Palmerston North. I have four siblings. I am the youngest daughter. I attended Highbury Primary School. My teacher at the time, Miss O’Connor, recognised something in me back then and bet a year of her wages that one day I would be a lawyer or a politician. Well, here I am. I hope you are still here, Miss O’Connor, to see that your prediction has come true.

We moved to Christchurch to the suburb of Papanui. I attended Casebrook Intermediate School. It was at this age that I found myself getting into a little bit of trouble. I hung with the cool crowd, was in a popular group, and made some poor decisions. At the age of 14 we packed up and moved to Invercargill, where my grandfather Leslie M’Creath, a fourth-generation Southlander, gloated that he was a great-grandson of Thomas Crapper, who invented the flush toilet.

I attended Southland Girls High School. Non scholae sed vitae discimus—not for school but for life we are learning. This motto is as relevant to me today as it was all those years ago. This school softened my hardened exterior, ironed out the kinks, gave me a fantastic education, and taught me how to be a lady. I found role models within the school who helped me change my ways and outlook on life for the better.

My father did not believe hairdressing to be a career option for me. Instead, he had designs to put me in the navy, as our whānau were from the forces. So for 3 years I hid the fact that I was studying hairdressing while at school, at the Southern Institute of Technology. It was not until I was 20 years old and the cake at my engagement party had a pair of scissors on it that it dawned on Dad that I had not listened to him. Hairdressing has been my chosen profession. It has been the profession that has helped me grow. It has been the profession that has taught me many of life’s skills that money just cannot buy. I am really proud that I am a hairdresser and I am proud that other young hairdressers look up to me for inspiration so that if they have a dream, they too know that they can be very successful in achieving it. I have some inspirational females in the hairdressing industry who helped me form my pathway on my journey to reaching here in the House.

My interest in politics started at the age of 7. I used to sit on the floor of my family home listening to the radiogram, to the booming voice of Sir Robert Muldoon with his infectious laugh and, to most children, a pretty scary-sounding voice, but not to me. I never knew what the problems were at the age of 7; all I knew was that I liked his strength and his character from his voice and from watching him on the news. I wish to acknowledge my Invercargill electorate committee: Robyn, Marilyn, Lindsay Taylor, Eleanor Lawrence, Sharon Heads, Shirley Stenton, Stephen Luscombe, Susan Liddy, and New Zealand First Vice-President Marie Daldry—your absolute support and commitment to me over the last 5 years have gone beyond my expectations. I will never forget it.

I am a single mother with two children, Johnathan and Maddison. I work hard so my children can see that no matter how old you are in life, if you set your mind to achieve a goal, you can achieve it. I wish to thank my children’s father, Daniel Bond, for the support he has given me for 21 years. I will always remember you for that, and I hope to continue to receive your support for the next 20 or so years. I am proud to be a New Zealand First list MP for Invercargill, where I will be devoting myself to advancing the concerns of Southlanders, from our elderly to our young, helping to improve the lives of Southlanders and also ensuring that there are opportunities of employment, growth in business, and growth in resources. Opportunities for Southland will be looked at seriously by working closely in harmony with our council, stakeholders, and businesses so that Invercargill is not forgotten about here in Wellington.

It is life lessons that I have learnt from, the things that I have seen growing up that I wish no child would ever have to witness. For what did once shock the world in Once Were Warriors made me understand that from bad comes good. Family violence is not acceptable. It is not meant to become the norm in some families. It has been because of these lessons that I stand here today as a survivor of family violence and proud that I have reached my dream to become a member of Parliament for New Zealand First. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Waiata

Sitting suspended from 5.59 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.