Maiden Statements

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe, e ngā mana, e ngā reo, rau rangatira mā, tēnā koutou. Ngā mihi ki ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, Te Ātiawa, Taranaki whānui, tēnā koutou. Ngā mihi hoki ki Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Te Pepa Whakaū o Aotearoa. Tēnā koutou katoa.

[Mr Deputy Speaker, I acknowledge you and the authorities, voices, and esteemed ones of a hundredfold. Salutations to you collectively. My acknowledgments to the mandated tribes of this region, Te Ātiawa and Taranaki extensively; greetings to you collectively. My acknowledgments also to the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand. Greetings to you all.]

This kōrero is about who I am, what I believe in, and what I would like to achieve in Parliament. I am very excited by this rather unexpected opportunity. I am proud to be a Green MP and am grateful to the 11 percent of New Zealanders who voted Green at the last election—I will represent you to the best of my ability. I will also represent the aspirations of all New Zealanders. We all have a stake in achieving a fairer, more inclusive, and more sustainable future.

I would like to pay tribute to Kevin Hague, whom I am replacing as a list MP. Kevin brought intellect and dignity to this House. I am looking forward to working with my capable Green Party colleagues, and especially our co-leaders Metiria Turei and James Shaw. Yesterday when I was being sworn in and pledged allegiance to Her Majesty, Metiria asked me whether I meant her. Yes, Metiria, I will honour and obey you.

I am grateful to those who have encouraged me in my journey to become an MP: Jeanette Fitzsimons, Russel Norman, and the late Rod Donald. I come from a line of missionaries, lawyers, and social justice advocates, dating back to the early days of European settlement in Aotearoa: Robert Maunsell, known as Te Manihera, first to translate the Old Testament into Te Reo; Henry Jacobs, the first Dean of the Christchurch Cathedral and founder of Christ’s College; and James Coates, private secretary to Governor Hobson and also Clerk of the first House of Parliament. As an MP 162 years later, I share their aspirations for our unique bicultural nation.

I am an Aucklander by birth. My political beliefs were forged in the late 1970s, which was a time of dissent. I supported campaigns against nuclear warships, the All Blacks’ tour to South Africa, and threats to our native forests, and I marched in support of Māori land rights. I was also attracted by the messages of the Values Party, the forerunner of the Green Party. It was, as Tony Brunt put it, a party to break out of the minimalist, materialistic debates of the old left and right parties.

I am an economist—although, with the reputation of economists these days, I am often reluctant to admit it. My studies focused on non-market impacts—or externalities, to use the economics jargon—for example, how polluters often do not pay for the cost of their pollution; instead, the costs fall on the environment and local people. I was also interested in the distribution of economic benefits and issues of inequality, so I joined the Volunteer Service Abroad to work in Samoa, supporting small-scale economic development. Three years in Samoa kindled a love for the Pacific that remains a touchstone. This is despite calls from the touchline, when I got the ball as full back, of “Fasi palagi”, which means: “Kill the white man.” My rugby coach was the author Albert Wendt, and my ideas on the importance of culturally appropriate forms of development were forged in Samoa.

I returned to New Zealand via an extended sailing journey to do kiwifruit orcharding near Tauranga and corporate work in Taranaki. A 2-year Master’s degree in management at Yale University, in the United States, then opened the door to exciting opportunities. I joined a thinktank that had a dual focus: strategy for leading international businesses and economic development plans for government. Initiatives included science and technology for Ontario, regional development for metropolitan New York, and a manufacturing strategy for Australia. I would like to see these smart approaches used to strengthen regional development in New Zealand and to add value to our low-wage, commodity-dependent economy.

I moved to the UK and joined WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and was invited on the British delegation to the momentous Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. That summit signed far-reaching agreements on sustainability, climate change, and biodiversity, but, ultimately, it was also a lost opportunity. George Bush Snr said that the American way of life was not up for negotiation, and there was no strong mechanism for implementation of those agreements. Even so, the following years in the UK were a fertile time for new initiatives. I worked with Jonathon Porritt and others to make sustainability a reality for local government, business, and communities, and with the late Robin Cook on an ethical foreign policy for the UK.

In the mid-1990s I was appointed executive director of the World Development Movement, and led research and advocacy that successfully challenged the exploitation of workers, marketing cigarettes to children, water privatisation, and environmental releases of GMOs. Some leading businesses were committed to take action on these problems, and I helped to develop collaborative initiatives such as the Forest Stewardship Council for timber and the Ethical Trading Initiative on labour rights. I also played a leading role in the emerging ethical investment community.

But there were threats from new international treaties. I chaired the UK campaign that contributed to the defeat of the OECD’s Multilateral Agreement on Investment—MAI—in 1998. It would have given new rights to foreign investors and restricted the rights of Governments to regulate in the public interest. These proposals were again defeated in the World Trade Organization. But, as they say, rust never sleeps. They have resurfaced in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement—the “TPPA”. Over the past year I have been coordinator of It’s Our Future, the campaign against the TPPA in Aotearoa, during a time when we organised one of the biggest marches in a generation, down Queen Street on 4 February this year. Polls show that a majority of New Zealanders oppose the TPPA. We need better alternatives to these unbalanced treaties. Small gains through tariff reductions should not be used as a Trojan horse to allow foreign investors to sue our Government. I look forward to working with other MPs, civil society, and academics to develop better trade and investment policies.

In 2003 I became executive director of Oxfam New Zealand. It was wonderful to return home after 20 years abroad and to work in the Pacific after many years. I am proud of my contribution to delivering practical solutions to people’s needs, including clean water, sanitation, education, and decent livelihoods across the Pacific. Oxfam played a leading role in highlighting the human impacts of climate change. I still recall a personal feeling of vulnerability when experiencing a tropical storm on a sandspit in Vanuatu. I co-chaired the Global Campaign for Climate Action, the TckTckTck campaign, and attended climate summits. After years of negotiation, at last we have the Paris Agreement, but it will not protect our Pacific neighbours unless it is followed by real action, not false solutions like carbon trading. As CEO of Oxfam, I joined with Trade Aid and the newly formed Fair Trade Association to mainstream fair trade, resulting in New Zealand’s becoming the fastest-growing market in the world. Our consumer power can transform the lives of impoverished farmers.

We can also act politically. A decade ago, Nelson Mandela launched the campaign to combat global poverty. I chaired the Make Poverty History Aotearoa campaign with the message that poverty is not inevitable. I have seen people in deep poverty claiming their rights and building better lives in the settlements of Soweto, Dalit villages in Bihar state, and Muslim minorities in Gansu province. More people need these opportunities. It is a travesty that around 800 million people live in extreme poverty in the 21st century. I commend the work of New Zealand NGOs and agencies in humanitarian crises. I have seen dedicated, capable people working in near-impossible situations, like providing food, water, and shelter to 460,000 people in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

In 2014 I stepped down from Oxfam to stand for the Green Party. Our campaign in Mt Roskill significantly increased the Green Party vote, thanks to the people of that diverse and vibrant electorate. After narrowly missing out on a seat in Parliament, I used my business and economics experience to develop a sustainability programme at the University of Auckland business school. The case for sustainable business is compelling, and innovative New Zealand companies large and small are creating exciting new opportunities.

So it is with this experience, from here and abroad, across different issues and sectors, that I come to this House. The golden thread through my career has been a passion for sustainability and social justice. It has led me to the Green Party and now into this House. I have achieved change from outside politics, and now I want to achieve change from within the political system. I feel a strong sense of urgency. We have to step up, urgently, to meet the major challenges facing our people and this planet. The impacts of climate change are occurring at a pace much faster than predicted by climate models. We face the prospect of a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale—extinction of biodiversity and natural disasters that threaten us all. Inequality has risen to unprecedented levels. The rich are getting even richer while a growing precariat struggles with low incomes and high housing costs. People are feeling alienated from politics and from the power structures that they see as unaccountable.

So what about us in New Zealand? Our Government has been tinkering at the edges, doing just enough to paper over the emerging crises, desperately trying to maintain the illusion that everything is fine—all headlines and no substance. The reality is that we are failing to protect our environment. Like most New Zealanders, I am passionate about our rich environmental heritage. It is the envy of the world, with forests rich in biodiversity, soaring mountains, fast-flowing rivers, sandy beaches, and diverse marine life. But we are squandering this inheritance, allowing irreversible damage in the name of economic growth at all costs. Our rivers are a disgrace, we are losing species at a rapid rate, and greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. As kaitiaki of our natural world, we are failing.

We are also leaving too many people behind. I was brought up to be proud of our egalitarian values and our role in pioneering progressive policies on gender equality, education, and healthcare, but I was shocked when returning to New Zealand after two decades abroad to find a divided society with high levels of inequality and serious deprivation. We are failing a generation of children—to pretend that we cannot measure the extent of their deprivation is no excuse—and we are failing to build an economy that delivers a decent standard of living for all New Zealanders. We have remained in a speculative, resource-exploiting bubble for too long. A fallacy has taken hold that economic growth is all the same, and so our system has lavishly rewarded the financiers, the traders, the unscrupulous, and those who are wealthy—failing our environment, failing our children, and failing to build a stronger economy. We can, and must, do better.

We could be living in towns and cities that have real transport options—frequent trains, light rail, and buses—not just more and more congested roads. As a cyclist, I have seen the huge increase in the number of people on bikes when there are safe cycleways. We could be providing affordable housing, not a patchwork response, as part of a Government commitment to ensure warm, dry, and affordable homes for all. We could be able to swim in our rivers and provide proper protection for our wild places. With the right choices, we can enjoy a better environment, a better quality of life, and a smart economy—win, win, win.

We could be coming together around a goal to end poverty and deprivation. This is a target that New Zealand has already signed up to as part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We need to make it a reality in New Zealand. An immediate priority is investment in primary healthcare and low-decile schools in order to end the social divide that results in poor health and poor educational outcomes, particularly for Māori and Pasifika children. We need decent work that pays a living wage, and support for community-driven initiatives that empower people and enable them to live productive lives. And we need to build on the successful model of universal benefits for the elderly, to provide proper social protection for all in society. These changes are possible. It is in all of our interests to end poverty, reduce inequality, and give our children a decent start in life—win, win, win.

Underlying these changes must be a smarter, modern economy. Economic sustainability starts with getting the prices right, taxing what we do not want—like pollution, property speculation, and finite resource use—rather than things we want more of, like productive work. It means support for the non-market benefits, like arts and culture, conservation, and caring for others. It means strengthening small businesses, which are the foundation of our economy, and ensuring that their competitors—the multinationals—compete fairly and actually pay taxes. Economic sustainability also means adding value to our commodity production. Food is core business for New Zealand. We can build a high-value food sector on the foundations of GM-free agriculture; regulation of hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics; strong animal welfare; and credible organic standards. Restoring our “clean, green” reputation can give our exporters a vital edge, attract tourists and investors, and make us all proud to be New Zealanders. Sustainable economics—win, win, win.

Achieving these solutions needs a fundamental change in Government policy, but it also needs better politics. I will take every opportunity to support changes to make this House more open, more accountable, and more effective in serving the people of New Zealand. We need to restore people’s trust in this Parliament and in its institutions. So my message to all of you in this House is that I come to work with you—collaboratively, where that is possible—for the good of our country. I am here to contribute to making positive change, not to play politics. I will speak out strongly, but with the aim of developing better solutions. And our focus must be on actions, not just on words. As the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst said: “The world will little note or long remember what we say here, but can never forget what we did here.”

So this is my kōrero. This is who I am, what I have done, the skills I bring, and the values I hold. These values will be my guide as I represent the people of New Zealand in this House.

Thank you to my family members and friends who are here with me today, especially to my wonderful wife, Ros, and my beautiful daughters, May and Frances. I just wish my parents had lived to be here today. To all those watching or reading this speech, please give me feedback as I work to turn these goals into practical policies. Hold me to account as your representative, but also help me on this journey. Change will come when people no longer accept the world as it but see the possibilities for a better future. I am here to help achieve the political changes that will take us forward together as a more sustainable, just, and inclusive nation. Nō reira rā, kia ora koutou ngā mema Pāremata huri noa i tēnei Whare, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

[So my thanks to you members of Parliament throughout this House, acknowledgments, salutations, and good tidings to you and to us all.]

[Applause]

Sitting suspended from 6.05 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.