Maiden Statements

Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Tainui te waka. Ko Waikato te awa. Ko Ngāti Maniapoto te iwi. Ko Ngāti Huiao te hapū. Ko Kakepuku te maunga. Ko Te Kauae te marae. Ko Michael Bidois tōku pāpā; nō Hangatiki tōku pāpā. Ko Leah Harding-Bennett tōku māmā; nō Hokianga tōku māmā. Ko Dan Bidois ahau. Nō reira, tēnā koutou katoa.

[Greetings to all. Tainui is my canoe. Waikato is my river. Ngāti Maniapoto is my tribe. Ngāti Huiao is my kinship group. Kakepuku is my mountain. Te Kauae is my marae. My father is Michael Bidois; he hails from Hangatiki. Leah Harding-Bennett is my mother; she is from Hokianga. I am Dan Bidois. Therefore, greetings to all.]

Today, I rise in the House for the first time to speak on behalf of the people of Northcote. I’m here as the result of a by-election that was held on 9 June, after the departure of the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman, a man who held this seat for 13 years, with nine of those as a Cabinet Minister. On behalf of the people of Northcote, I wish to thank Jonathan for his service to the Northcote electorate. I wish to thank the people of Northcote for their support and confidence in me. It’s truly an honour to be your representative in this House.

To the National Party—in particular, party president, Peter Goodfellow; leader, Simon Bridges; Paula Bennett; Alastair Bell, Andrew Hunt, David Patterson, the Young Nats; the delegates that chose me as their candidate; all of the volunteers and staff who helped out on our campaign; and to the Northcote electorate executive—thank you for your dedication, for your support, and for your encouragement. I am indebted to you all. To the departing member of the Northcote electorate executive, Gavin Cook, thank you for your service to our party over the 40-plus years that you have been in the position, and to your wise counsel offered to me in the past few months. To my family—Mum, Dad, Wayne, Fleur, Chontelle, and Rob—thank you for your ongoing support for my often crazy and unconventional endeavours.

Northcote is the hidden gem of Auckland and an area that I could not be more proud to represent, with its diversity, collective aspirations, entrepreneurial spirit, and strong sense of community and identity. What began as a place with only a handful of settlers in the early 1800s developed into a fast-growing, ambitious, and compact electorate, especially after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959. Today, the tight-knit communities of Birkenhead, Glenfield, Beach Haven, Birkdale, Chatswood, Hillcrest, and Northcote continue to thrive.

The proximity of Northcote to downtown Auckland attracts many young professionals and aspirational families to the electorate. It is a diverse electorate in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic groups, professions, and generations. And yet despite this diversity, the people of Northcote share some common threads; they are hard-working, entrepreneurial, and family-orientated.

Like many other parts of Auckland, Northcote has its fair share of challenges. With the scale and pace of growth on the North Shore over the past 20 years and in the foreseeable future, investment in key infrastructure such as public transport, schools, healthcare services, car parks, and sporting grounds have yet to match this growth. Congestion is a big problem for many in my area, and the apex of this congestion is Onewa Road, the main arterial route to the CBD. I’m committed to ensuring that Northcote gets its fair share of investment to manage these challenges and to being vocal on all matters, local and national, which impact the people of Northcote.

I come from a place far removed from this House, both literally and figuratively. At nine months old, I was lucky enough to be adopted into a humble, working-class family. My parents are small-business owners. My dad drives trucks and my mum is a saleswoman. They didn’t grow up with much, yet they made a better life for themselves through hard work, personal responsibility, and private enterprise.

Two women shaped my life views in particular: my late grandmother, Millicent, and my mother, Leah. Millicent grew up poor in Hokianga and was widowed at 35 with two young daughters after her husband, Bill Harding, died from an injury that he sustained during World War II. A devout Catholic, she never remarried or dated and instead dedicated the next 60 years of her life to raising her two children and to helping to raise my siblings and I.

My interest in politics stems from my grandmother Millie. She was a staunch National Party supporter ever since her local MP, Sir Robert Muldoon, helped her into a State house in Glen Innes in the 1960s. Surviving on only a modest widow’s pension, having access to a State house meant that she could dedicate herself full time to raising her two children and, later on, to helping to raise my sisters and I. She was a person of deep contrasts—for example, even though she was a National supporter, she did have a soft spot for Winston. I guess none of us are perfect. And even though she was poor, Māori, and doing it rough as a widowed mum, she believed in personal responsibility and freedom of choice. She believed in a hand up, not a hand out. Her values became my values, and I know that she would be most proud to see her grandson serve in the House today.

The other woman was my mother, Leah, who attended boarding school in the electorate that I now represent. My mother faced her fair share of challenges ever since she adopted me, from taking care of a sick baby, later dealing with a troubled and misbehaving kid, watching her son battle cancer, struggling with a separation, and raising three children. I’m inspired by the grit and determination my mum displayed to rise above her challenges and provide for her family. And she worked hard, at one stage holding down eight different jobs in order to make ends meet. My mother’s story is indicative of the promise of living in New Zealand: that anyone can get ahead and make a better life for themselves and their family if they work hard and they have the determination to follow through.

Despite this loving family, I was far from a role model growing up. I spent most of my high school years either in detention, chasing girls, or getting into mischief. I was probably on the pathway to prison if it weren’t for an intervention my high school principal made, which changed my life for ever. My high school principal convinced a local butcher next to my high school to take me on as a butcher’s apprentice. Through this job, I developed discipline, customer service skills, discovered the joys of earning a pay cheque, and later discovered my passion for economics. After completing a butcher’s apprenticeship, I was mentored by a senior leader of Woolworths to go to university and ended up with three degrees in economics, marketing, and commerce from the university, before later completing a fourth degree in public policy at Harvard University.

That a high school dropout can later graduate with a Master’s degree from Harvard University speaks to the promise of growing up in a free and equitable country like New Zealand, where any kid, no matter where they come from, whatever their skin colour, or what school they attend can succeed if they have the determination, the aspiration, and the work ethic to do so. New Zealand is one of the few places where this story is even possible, and it’s this aspect of our society which I seek to uphold and strengthen.

An upwardly mobile society based on merit and equal opportunity is the endeavour that brings me into this House today—where every Kiwi kid has the opportunity to reach their potential and fulfil their God-given talents; where every Kiwi kid receives a great start in life through education and gets ahead through private enterprise.

Like all of you, I’m here today because I want to improve the lives of New Zealanders and improve the social, economic, and environmental future of this great nation. But New Zealand’s future success first and foremost depends on creating a vibrant, dynamic, and knowledge-based economy, for it is only through a strong economy that we’re afforded the opportunity to strengthen our environment and address our social issues.

I’ve always believed in the power of free and competitive enterprise to transform lives and lift all of our communities to a better place in life. It certainly worked for me, from working for $6 an hour as a butcher’s apprentice, then as a strategy consultant with Deloitte, then as an economist at the OECD, and most recently as a senior executive for Foodstuffs. It’s also worked for my family, from seeing my parents work their guts out to get ahead and from seeing my older sister’s struggle from pay cheque to pay cheque. Through my life and through the life of my family, I’ve witnessed the engines of economic growth in our society and its ability to reward hard work, incentivise people, and, ultimately, improve lives.

Yes, saving rates, interest rates, unemployment rates, real GDP growth rates, and bond yields are all important measures of economic progress at the macro level. But, more importantly, a strong economy is about individuals: the young kid who’s employed and earning money instead of roaming the streets looking for trouble; the father who takes pride in the fact that he is providing for his family and ends each day with a sense of accomplishment; the disabled person who feels included in society and that they are contributing to something larger than themselves; and the single mother who feels empowered, free, and independent, and is able to provide for her children.

I am proud to be a member of the National Party: a party that backs Kiwi businesses and strives for a strong economy first and foremost, where everyone can get ahead and improve their lot in life; a party that favours free, competitive enterprise, where Government sets the rules of play and then just gets out of the way.

My time overseas, living and working in America, France, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Malaysia, gave me an immense appreciation for having grown up in this country. It made me proud to call myself a New Zealander, and it also gave me the opportunity to reflect on some of the great challenges that our nation faces in the coming years: climate change; rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence; a population that’s getting older and living longer; a shifting centre of geopolitical and economic power from the West to the East; and accelerating globalisation that’s calling into question the role of the nation State. Responding effectively to these challenges and opportunities will determine whether our great nation endures or declines. This is going to be a monumental task, but I relish the opportunity to play a small part of this effort.

I’m positive that New Zealand can and will rise to the challenges we face to prosper well into the next century, provided we take a long-term perspective to policy development and effectively capitalise on our natural advantages as a nation. We are small enough to be nimble and agile in our policy responses. We are not straddled by the chains of history; we are young and forward-looking as a nation. We dare to dream big and we are not afraid of rolling up our sleeves and mucking in.

I’m immensely proud to call myself a New Zealander and to call this place home. I’m proud to represent the people of Northcote in this House in what is the best part of Auckland to live in and raise a family. And I’m proud to be a member of a party that unashamedly backs Kiwi businesses and entrepreneurs to show us the better pathway to a better life.

There’s a Māori proverb that says that a person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, while a person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon. The horizon I see for New Zealand is positive, full of economic opportunities for our kids and their kids, and prosperous. It’s my purpose in this House to ensure that the people of Northcote are included in this horizon and that our nation’s actions reflect these aspirations.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

[Applause]

Waiata

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