Motions — New Zealand 2016 Olympic Team—Success

I seek leave to move a motion without notice congratulating the members of the 2016 New Zealand Olympic team.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.

I move, That this House congratulate the members of our record-breaking Olympic team on their outstanding performance in Rio. These inspiring New Zealanders did their country and themselves incredibly proud. They showed that there is no limit to what Kiwis can achieve when they set goals and work hard to attain them. Seeing New Zealanders not only excel but also carry themselves with such dignity and poise on the world stage reflects incredibly well on New Zealand, and is an inspiration to Kiwis young and old.

This Government believes that if you give New Zealanders an equal crack on the world stage, they are capable of anything. These athletes have shown just that—that you can grow up in a town of several hundred, in a country of 4.7 million at the bottom of the South Pacific, and you can be a world beater; that it is possible to outrun, out-throw, out-leap, out-shoot, out-paddle, out-row, and out-sail the best that the world has to offer, if you are prepared to put in the hard work to make it so; and that there are opportunities for young New Zealand athletes outside of rugby fields and cricket grounds, because Rio saw our Olympians top the podium of nine different sports, and the 18 medals won represent our best ever medal haul, far surpassing the 13 won at Seoul and London in 1988 and 2012 respectively. It also saw us ranked 14th among 205 competing nations in terms of total medals won.

We often say—because it is true—that New Zealand punches above its weight on the international stage, and it is something that Kiwis can, and do, take great pride in. Over the past 2 weeks we have witnessed the continued success of established stars like Mahe Drysdale, Lisa Carrington, and Val Adams, and we saw the emergence of new ones. Now young Kiwis can also look up to new heroes like Eliza McCartney, Luuka Jones, and Tom Walsh. They are just some of the New Zealanders representing us in Rio who set themselves the goal of being the best in the world, and who, through a mixture of hard work, ambition, talent, belief, and grit, can now say that they are.

Although it is the athletes out there performing, they do not do this on their own. They have received amazing support from their coaches, physios, managers, and the staff at High Performance Sport New Zealand—and, of course, from their families, who spent all of that time ferrying their children to sailing regattas, to early morning swim training, and to gruelling long-distance running practices, and who, I have no doubt, are immensely proud. As a parent, I know how much time that takes, but also how it feels to stand back and watch your children chase and achieve their dreams.

I would also like to praise the New Zealand Olympic Committee for its great work. A special mention must go to the chef de mission, Rob Waddell. There is something uniquely Kiwi about his reaction to arriving in Rio to find our athletes’ quarters not quite ready. Rather than kicking up a fuss or leaving the hard work up to someone else, he rolled up his sleeves, along with his team, and they put the finishing touches on themselves. This is another example of the humility and work ethic our athletes are so famous for.

I was also heartened to see Nikki Hamblin awarded the fair play award from the International Fair Play Committee. Nikki’s selfless act—stopping her race to help the injured runner who had also helped her up—captured the hearts of people around the world. She demonstrated not only the Olympic spirit but the sense of fair play that is so much a part of our national character.

All this means that the bar has been set high for our Paralympic athletes, who start their games in just over 2 weeks and who I am sure will continue to meet those standards. We wish them all the best, and they go with our full support.

Can I finish by again congratulating all the members of the 2016 Olympic team on their achievements, on their work ethic, and on the way they represented us. They should take immense pride in that. But while they will no doubt be savouring their success, for many the job is not done and they will already be turning their attention to Tokyo in 2020. On the back of their performances in Rio, I have no doubt that they will continue to excel. To the athletes: New Zealand is proud of you, inspired by you, and remains firmly behind you. Today we recognise and we celebrate what has been achieved, but tomorrow we will once again focus on what we can do to help you continue to succeed.

I rise to support the Prime Minister’s motion and to extend our congratulations to our Olympic team, who have done a superb job. They have done us very proud—18 medals: four gold, nine silver, and five bronze. That is the fourth-highest number of medals per capita, and, as the Prime Minister has just said, it is a demonstration that even in a small country like ours, with hard work, grit, and determination anything is possible.

It was very heart-warming to see Nikki Hamblin in the 5,000 metre women’s race being awarded the International Fair Play Committee award because, in the middle of her race, she stopped to help another injured athlete. She completed that race last, but, in fact, she also won: she won the hearts of millions around the world for her generous spirit. She said that she was proud to prove that you can be a competitor but you can be kind and responsive at the same time. We are a country that prides itself on fair play, and Nikki, in the true Olympic spirit, has done us very proud.

We saw the old hands, the experienced hands: Val Adams, Mahe Drysdale, Lisa Carrington, Blair Tuke, and Peter Burling. They excelled in their chosen fields. Nick Willis, of course, came through on the bronze and took a month off social media—how envious we all are of him for doing that—so that he could focus on his success. But one of the most encouraging things about these Olympics has been the number of new young New Zealanders who performed and who are now becoming household names: Jacko Gill, Tom Walsh, and, of course, the amazing Eliza McCartney. The success of these young Kiwis is a great sign of things to come, and we should be very hopeful for future Olympics.

I want to also acknowledge the work of Rob Waddell, not only in managing the team we had and the success that we achieved, but—I was so impressed that, on his arrival, after sorting out the issues that he had to with the team, he also took members of our Olympic team to the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. He showed that outreach to those who are less fortunate, which again, is in the true Kiwi spirit. On behalf of the Opposition and the Labour Party, I want to congratulate our Olympic team on their successes and the many successes still to come.

The Green Party wants to join other parties in expressing our admiration and our thanks to Rob Waddell and the fantastic Kiwi Olympic team—especially, of course, to the medal winners. Indeed, we want to express our admiration for and our saluting of everyone from that team. We know that sporting performances like those that we have seen, near the limits of what the human body is capable of, do not just happen; they are the result of many mornings in the dark and the cold and the wet—the loneliness of training. They are the result of self-sacrifice, determination, and hard work. We want to salute all of those members of the team for that. We in the Green Party could not help but notice that most of our medal winners were women, and we hope that this will be the prompt for properly funding women’s sport.

High Performance Sport set a target of 14 medals for Rio, so our record haul of 18 medals clearly surpasses that. That is a fantastic achievement. But for us, the real measure of the success of our Olympic performance will be whether, as a country, we have the wit and the wherewithal to ensure that those performances inspire more people to become more physically active more often.

It is hard to pick a favourite performance and, of course, invidious to try, but, I guess, for me, my favourite sporting performance of the games was Eliza McCartney. Who could deny that fantastic grin, sharing her excitement and her pleasure with the entire nation? But just as the Prime Minister and Andrew Little have mentioned, I guess my favourite moment of the entire games was the incident involving Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D’Agostino from the United States in the 5,000 metres event, because what those two women did was show us some values. They showed us that solidarity was more important than competition, even in the most competitive environment, and that most Kiwi of values: that when someone is in need, it is our nature to reach out a helping hand. Let that be a lesson to us in this House.

I would like to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to also add our congratulations to the New Zealand Olympic team, but not just to the sportspeople—men and women—who competed so feverishly on the international stage but to all the families, the supporters, the team members, the coaches, and the physios who backed this team up and actually enabled them to get there. In fact, every single taxpayer in this country can take pride in knowing that the hard-earned money that they have worked for has gone into supporting this very iconic event that happens every 4 years, to see such a fantastic result by this country. It is certainly a result that we have not felt in the past—receiving our highest ever medal tally of 18, which certainly surpasses the 14 medals that we were tipped to receive. We also note the four gold, the nine silver, and the five bronze medals.

Those people are heroes, but there were people who also missed out on the international stage, people who we thought were going to make it and did not. The fact that New Zealanders still stand in solidarity and support for those, the Black Sticks being one of them—twice in a row they missed out, only just, but we can absolutely attest to their hard work and their dedication to being there. Of course, we had high hopes for our equestrian team. As each of those bars dropped, one by one, we saw our medals drop away from us, but it was great to see that New Zealand stood by our people as they went through that.

I have to say that my favourite moment was to see, as many people saw, our Nikki Hamblin out there on the international stage stopping to take time to show her solidarity and true Olympic spirit. It has been picked up throughout the world; it resonates very, very strongly internationally. We may yet pick up another medal, of course—there is the Pierre de Coubertin medal, which she is potentially going to be put forward for. That has only ever been given out 17 times in the entire history of the Olympic Games, and if that medal is gained, then that certainly would be of huge value to New Zealand and our history within the games.

As I said, and as has been mentioned, we had 11 of the 18 medals achieved by females—the first time that has happened with New Zealand’s involvement in the Olympic Games. Also, to see a female majority competing in the Olympic team of around 200 people was great.

I would just like to finish, again, in supporting the House and congratulating our Olympic heroes and heroines, and also acknowledge the hard work that is still going on today with our Paralympians, who will be taking to that stage on the 7th of next month. A thought to think about as we go into new sporting events and, of course, the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, is the people who paid and enabled this event to take place and who put our sportspeople on the international stage so that we can swell with national pride. We should have given them the ability to watch these games of national significance live and free to air, as we once enjoyed in previous times gone by. We would like to see this House support that as it comes up in the future. It is affordable, and, I think, if you ask the people, and stay in touch with New Zealanders, there is a huge desire for it.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker, mō tētahi wāhi ki a au ki te tautoko i ngā mihi, i ngā kōrero ki te hunga i haere ki tāwāhi, mō te hunga i waimarie, te hunga kāre i waimarie, ā, i tū ki te mura o te ahi, ko ētahi i hinga, ko ētahi i eke, ka mihi rā ki a rātau katoa.

I a au e kōrero ana mō tēnei o ngā kaupapa, ka hoki ngā mahara ki a Amster Reedy. Koirā te tangata, Te Māori, i whakauru anō hoki i ngā tikanga o Te Ao Māori ki roto i tēnei o ngā tīma, i tēnei o ngā tira. Ko te korowai tērā, ko ngā pounamu tērā, ā, ko Amster tērā i hinga i ngā tau tata kua hipa ake, ka tangi ake ki a ia.

[Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity to endorse the acknowledgments and sentiments accorded to those who went offshore—those who were fortunate, those who were not, and those who stood to the fore in the field of competitiveness—some of whom fell by the wayside, some of whom made it. I commend them all.

As I speak about this matter, my thoughts go back to Amster Reedy. He was the individual, the Māori, who injected customary Māoridom practices into this team, this company of sportspeople. That was the cloak and the items of greenstone, and that was Amster, who passed away in recent years. I mourn him.]

I join with other speakers in acknowledging all those sportsmen and sportswomen who did us proud overseas, and I also acknowledge the contribution from one Amster Reedy, who pretty much set the scene in respect of kaupapa Māori with the New Zealand Olympic team in years gone by; he passed away not long ago.

This was not only a very successful Olympics for Aotearoa New Zealand—can I say that I am hugely proud of the part that Māori have played in this year’s games—it was hugely successful for Māori as well. Some of New Zealand’s leading musicians—Kirsten Te Rito and her husband, James Illingworth, created a song in Te Reo Māori to inspire our athletes, and not too many people know about that.

A quarter of our 200 athletes are Māori. The Australian Olympic team, for goodness’ sake, also included some Māori, but they are coming home soon—and they better get home. Māori visual artist Shane Hansen, of Ngāti Māhanga and Ngāti Hine, led the delegation in the New Zealand team’s uniform, in terms of the design of the uniform. Māori BMX sensation Sarah Walker, from Te Whakatōhea and Ōpōtiki, but who has previously been in Kawerau as well, has been elected to the International Olympic Committee—the IOC—so that is pretty important for us.

💬 Hon Simon Bridges: Tauranga girl. She’s a Tauranga girl, I think.

Oh, no, I do not think so. It is all us—Bay of Plenty. Lisa Carrington, two-time Olympic gold medallist, was flagbearer—a huge honour to be bestowed on an athlete, and, of course, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, I understand, tōna whakapapa. You will know from previous speeches that I am not one to blow the trumpet of Waiariki, but I have got to say that six of the athletes who won gold medals for New Zealand, for Aotearoa—three of them were born and trained in the Waiariki electorate: Mahe Drysdale from Tauranga, in rowing men’s single sculls; Lisa Carrington from Ōhope, in the canoeing women’s K1 200; and Peter Burling from Tauranga Moana, in sailing men’s 49ers. So in the Bay of Plenty and the Waiariki electorate—as I say, very humble—we both breed them and train them, and nine of the 15 Olympic medals that New Zealand received at this year’s Olympics came from Te Waiariki. I am just saying, that is the contribution that we bring to the country.

Can I ask us to spare a thought, aside from all of those other athletes, for one Portia Woodman. If there was ever a competition in that women’s rugby sevens, which I think many people were watching—just to see how she was so emotional in the outcome of that particular event. Because of her efforts, I think that she actually should hold herself proud of being an example of the Olympic spirit by going hard through all those games, but she says “to find at the final hurdle—not quite good enough.” So we wish her well, and hope that she comes through for the next games. Ka nui te mihi, kia ora tātou.

On behalf of the ACT Party, I would like to join with other leaders in support of the Prime Minister’s statement. It is difficult to overstate how well our tiny country won so big, and we should all be proud of the many fine attributes of New Zealand that were embodied in those achievements. In honour of those great Olympians, those who competed, and especially those who won medals, I am going to keep my speech, hopefully, shorter and faster than Lisa Carrington paddling 200 metres. Congratulations to our Olympians. Thank you.

Motion agreed to.