Motions — Emirates Team New Zealand—America’s Cup Victory

I seek leave to move a motion without notice in recognition of Emirates Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup in Bermuda.

💬 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 Emirates Team New Zealand on winning and reclaiming the America’s Cup in Bermuda this morning, and acknowledge the outstanding performance of chief executive Grant Dalton, skipper and sailing team director Glenn Ashby, helmsman Peter Burling, and the nearly 100 other team members on and off the water. What a truly fantastic performance we have witnessed over the last few weeks. Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders have braved 5 a.m. starts, living and breathing every race, every start, every gybe, and every tack. At times, the young leadership, in the form of Peter Burling, looked more composed than we were.

Team New Zealand’s commanding 7-1 victory over Oracle this morning not only reinforces the importance of the long and deep sailing tradition in New Zealand; it shows how sporting success unites us as a country and promotes Brand New Zealand on the world stage. One of Team New Zealand members’ strengths is that they display that great national trait, Kiwi ingenuity. They are world leaders in sailing innovation and technology, if we ever doubted it. They are constantly finding new boundaries, like the cyclors, in their relentless pursuit of excellence. They have also shown they can overcome adversity, picking themselves up after the disappointment of San Francisco and coming back better than ever. The Auld Mug will now return to New Zealand and to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, where it sat proudly after victories in 1995 and 2000.

To Grant Dalton, the man who took on the challenge after the last devastating campaign, we salute you for your dedication and drive. To skipper Glenn Ashby, your leadership of a young team has been outstanding. To young helmsman Peter Burling, what an inspiration you are and what a future you have, following in the steps of other yachting greats in New Zealand.

The America’s Cup is one of the most difficult trophies in sport to win, and today it is New Zealand’s again, so congratulations, again, to the team. We are immensely proud of you. Your calmness under pressure, flawless sailing, brilliant teamwork, tactical mastery, and innovative genius has returned yachting’s greatest prize to New Zealand. Congratulations from all New Zealand.

I rise to add my congratulations on behalf of the Labour Party to the sentiments expressed by the Prime Minister for the outstanding achievement of Emirates Team New Zealand this morning, our time. This genuinely was a day when we would all rather be on the harbour.

It was a fantastic performance by Peter Burling and his team on the water. Let us not forget, also, the passion and determination of Grant Dalton, who held that syndicate together between the regattas, and also Sir Stephen Tindall, who stepped in to make sure that Grant Dalton had the resources to hold it together and so that we had a challenge ready to go for this year. I wrote to Grant Dalton last week to wish him all the best for the remaining races. He wrote back to me and said: “We still have a steep hill to climb.” So he will be very pleased that they have knocked that bastard off.

The race and the result this morning confirm that we are a nation of sailors. And you look at the work of Peter Burling and his incredible level-headedness and the great humility that he showed—in fact, both Jimmy Spithill and Peter Burling demonstrated the wisdom of Rudyard Kipling’s words about greeting triumph and disaster as the imposter that it is. This is also a time to reflect on the leadership of great sailors like Sir Peter Blake, who has been very much the author of our passion in this particular race.

Of course, it was not just about the talent of the sailors on the water. It is also about the technology too, and you look at the New Zealand boat builders and the component builders here who have contributed so much—Southern Spars, for example, which I had the privilege of visiting last year. We have become world leaders in boat design—the boats that actually participated in those races, with their foils, with the Xbox-style controllers. That has given heart to generations of young people playing games at homes now, that they might have a future in something other than sitting in front of a TV in their parents’ front living room. So that might give hope as well. And even the broadcast technology for it that we watched, that made it so watchable and easy to follow what was happening. That stems from innovation from New Zealand, with the great work of Ian Taylor and his Animation Research Ltd.

We have much to be proud of in this race and the achievement that was made on behalf of this great nation this morning, and I extend my congratulations to the team—all of them; the 98 people involved in that syndicate—and look forward to hosting the race here in 4 years’ time.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker, thank you. The Green Party is very pleased to support the motion and congratulate Emirates Team New Zealand. Its members have well and truly erased the heartache and despair of San Francisco 4 years ago. Their strength, their skill, and their resilience is astonishing. They overcame that heart-stopping bow-plant and capsize a fortnight ago to win the series. We congratulate Peter Burling on his extraordinary sailing and match-racing skills. His calm and grace on the water and his humility have resonated and inspired many.

I confess that I am not a great sports fan, but the chance to watch these boats fly, powered by the wind, water, and human muscle has certainly got me up early. This morning on Radio New Zealand Ian Taylor quoted Ernest Rutherford as saying: “We didn’t have the money, so we had to think.” That is the ethos behind Team New Zealand and one that we can celebrate more as the ethos of our country.

There is huge innovation in the boat and the way it was sailed and flown. We congratulate the lead designer, Dan Bernasconi, and everyone who helped design, engineer, and build this flying machine. And winning the America’s Cup should drive further innovation and export success in New Zealand’s boatbuilding industry and our developing aeronautical industry. That is something we can all be proud of.

I acknowledge Grant Dalton and his determination to bring the cup back to New Zealand. He has stayed on the rollercoaster and he has engaged supportive funders like Sir Stephen Tindall and Matteo de Nora. Grant Dalton and skipper Glenn Ashby have fostered extraordinary talent, enabling Team New Zealand to, in Peter Burling’s words, go to Bermuda and get the job done.

Aotearoa has world-leading sailors like Barbara Kendall, Jo Aleh, and Polly Powrie. With the America’s Cup being, reportedly, the world’s oldest international sports trophy, a women’s division in the competition is long overdue. It would be wonderful if cup organisers, Team New Zealand sponsors like Emirates and Nespresso, and Luna Rossa changed the rules, including perhaps the boat design rules, so that women can routinely compete in the America’s Cup. Our best women sailors should have the opportunity to be out there on the Waitematā.

Team New Zealand, you have done us proud—he waka eke noa, kia ora [a boat that has made it to the top, well done].

New Zealand First joins with the rest of New Zealand in saluting and congratulating Team New Zealand on their stunning success. Team New Zealand’s 2017 campaign for the America’s Cup had a Cinderella beginning, which lasted for 3 years, until the team arrived in Bermuda. Team New Zealand exemplified New Zealand’s can-do attitude, with a commitment to excellence and a combination of team genius and a brilliant helmsman in Pete Burling and fine management. They were all a credit, both on and off the water. This team exemplified all three: athleticism joined with science and technology. It was smarter, faster, and yet delightfully laid-back—Kiwi.

We want to also acknowledge the importance of Ian Taylor’s Animation Research Ltd for making this a spectacle that we could all understand and see the dimensions of.

I also want to repeat my personal thanks to Team New Zealand for hosting me at its Auckland headquarters and on the waters of the Waitematā in a sneak preview of its boat, Aotearoa, in preparation, shortly before it was packed up and freighted to Bermuda. It will always be a privileged memory.

Whilst we are at it, let us congratulate our own women’s rugby sevens team and Tyla Nathan-Wong on their brilliant success in winning the world series in sevens.

Ever since the Endeavour was flying full pip down the East Coast of the North Island, and the little double-hulled waka of the Māori came out to meet them, went around them twice, and took off into the sunset—the double-hulled waka has been an innovation from all time. Right now, I am going to hold back on giving a bill to Team New Zealand for intellectual property, because we like innovation, we like to share, and we like to see New Zealanders having success on the world stage. So the Māori Party would like to join in congratulating Team New Zealand on a stirring campaign to once again make the America’s Cup “Aotearoa’s Cup”. We are so proud of this team.

Peter Burling has been spoken of as “feeling the water”, “feeling the current”, and “understanding the wind” like no other. He was raised on the water on a boat bought for him when he was just a child. We will not describe it how they have described it, but it obviously did him well because he, like those Polynesian navigators before him, has learned to transverse the waters by feeling the currents. He can be called—and I think he is dubbed this from this moment on—Aotearoa’s answer to Moana and Māui.

We do want to congratulate all the families that have supported these sailors, all the crew and the shore crew, and all of those who were on the boat, and recognise that innovation—what have they called them? Cyclors—more like cyclones. That is what I say—more like cyclones. Thirty years ago it was the “plastic fantastic”, and now we are ruling the world again with our innovation, which started thousands of years ago with the waka hourua. When all of those jetsetters come down here in about 4 years’ time and sail around our waters on their superyachts, will it not be great to stand up as a nation and say that we look after not only our sailors and our visitors but also our vulnerable children. Kia ora.

The ACT Party would like to join with New Zealand in congratulating Team New Zealand on this outstanding victory. Indeed, the America’s Cup has been a symbol of modern New Zealand. My first memories of sport in my life were the “plastic fantastic”, the farce of the catamaran, Dennis Conner walking out on Paul Holmes, and the court cases in New York. Who cannot remember Il Moro Challenge and the bowsprit controversy of 1992, before we finally, in red socks, brought the cup to its rightful home in 1995; the successful defence in the year 2000 on the waterfront; and the bitter loss to some traitorous former New Zealanders in 2003, before the wilderness years in Valencia; and the bitter, bitter, bitter disappointment that we suffered in 2013, when Steven Joyce went out on the water and it led to us losing time after time with enormous frustration.

In modern New Zealand we have all lived through the America’s Cup, but is it not wonderful to see a technologically advanced syndicate, a multinational syndicate, a syndicate that shows New Zealand leading the world and part of the world, and taking it to the best in the world and bringing the cup home.

What an example set by Peter Burling, and the character of a guy who has so much humility, who does his talking out on the water, and who performs at the best. We want, on behalf of the ACT Party, to congratulate Team New Zealand on this stunning success in this stunning showcase of a modern New Zealand. Thank you.

I too join with others in congratulating Emirates Team New Zealand on its success in the 35th America’s Cup, sailed in Bermuda. New Zealand first competed in the America’s Cup in 1986-87. In the 10 America’s Cup contests since that time, we have been the challenger or the defender on seven of those 10 occasions, and today was the 50th time that Team New Zealand, or a New Zealand team, has sailed in an America’s Cup final race. What an appropriate occasion that was to achieve what has perhaps been the most stunning victory of all. Yes, Team New Zealand over the years has been the innovator, right from the days of KZ-7 through to today, but the level of innovation, the level of technological supremacy, I think has surpassed everyone’s expectations.

How could it be that this little country at the end of the world can consistently put together technology, teams, and people who go into these contests and do so extremely well? I think sometimes in these situations we make the mistake of failing to appreciate the unique contribution that being New Zealanders makes to these types of events. These New Zealanders are extraordinary people, but they are extraordinary because they are New Zealanders, not in spite of that fact. It is the same sort of thing that sees Peter Beck and his team on the verge of launching rockets into space. It is that sense of spark, that innovation, and that devil-may-care attitude that says we can actually beat the odds here, be it NASA on the one hand or the might of Oracle and American money on the other.

Today is a huge triumph. It is built on the success of previous occasions, and I think it augurs extremely well both for the America’s Cup in New Zealand but also for sailing as a whole, and also for the support and enthusiasm of the next generation of young New Zealanders. My warmest congratulations to Emirates Team New Zealand and to everyone who has been part of it from the management down to the sailors, to the funders, and to the sheer legion of enthusiastic supporters up and down the country who have backed them every step of the way. When they return home in 10 days’ time and the victory parades start to take place, I have no doubt that they will match 1995 for their enthusiasm and their popular support. The America’s Cup will capture the public imagination in just the same way as it did then, and it will, in turn, inspire the up-and-coming New Zealand sailors, the Peter Burlings of the future, to even greater achievements on their behalf. Congratulations, Team New Zealand. Our thoughts are with you now, and our encouragement continues as the next stage of the journey begins.

Motion agreed to.