Appointments — Deputy Speaker

I seek leave to move a motion without notice on the appointment of a Deputy Speaker.

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

I move, That this House appoint Gregory Eamon O’Connor as Deputy Speaker.

Mr Speaker, following your election as Speaker yesterday, there is a vacancy in the office of the Deputy Speaker and I am delighted to nominate Greg O’Connor as your successor in that role. Greg O’Connor has been the member for Ōhāriu since 2017. In those five years, in addition to being a diligent electorate MP, he’s been the chairperson of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee, deputy chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee, a member of the Justice Committee and the Social Services and Community Committee, chairperson of the Parliamentary Service Commission’s Health and Safety Committee, and co-chairperson of the New Zealand - South and South East Asia Parliamentary Friendship Group. In these roles, he’s shown a willingness to work with members from all parties to achieve the best results possible.

He came to Parliament with a more varied experience in life than many of us. He has a distinguished and exceptional record of service to New Zealand as a member of the New Zealand Police, rising to the rank of senior sergeant. His police service included a lengthy period being deployed deep undercover. He described in his maiden speech the effect of, and I quote, “[being] armed with a new identity—a black leather jacket, a beard, long hair, and earrings”, and he was responsible for putting some of New Zealand’s most serious offenders behind bars. But he also developed an understanding of why they had adopted a life outside the law in the first place. In his maiden speech, he said, and I quote, “You can’t get back on to the straight and narrow if you never knew what straight and narrow looked like in the first place.” Hold that thought, Mr Speaker! He served for 21 years as the President of the New Zealand Police Association, a role for which he was a highly effective advocate for our police.

He also brings with him the experience of being a parent of Mike, a son with high and complex needs, and of being a survivor of advanced bowel cancer. Any of us who choose to challenge him in the role that the House is about to appoint him to might do well to think about what he has done and seen in his life and then reassess their opinion of how intimidating he thinks we might be.

Greg O’Connor will be an outstanding Deputy Speaker. He is popular and respected across the House and I have no hesitation in commending his appointment.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Mr Speaker, thank you. Can I start by congratulating you, sir, on your appointment yesterday to the august office of Speaker, and we look forward to working with you. The National Party in Opposition is very pleased to support the nomination of Greg O’Connor as Deputy Speaker. The Leader of the House has outlined the range of committees and roles that he’s served on, but he left out two very important roles: member of the parliamentary rugby team—with which Mr O’Connor has played since he became an MP, the MP for Ōhāriu, since 2017—but also a member of the parliamentary cricket team. And a very valuable member of that cricket team he is indeed. So those cross-party extracurricular activities, I think, will make sure that he does a good job as the Speaker, because he’s familiar with MPs from both sides of the proverbial aisle—

💬 Barbara Kuriger: He knows how to keep the score.

That’s right. My colleague Barbara Kuriger says, “He knows how to keep the score.”, and that may well prove useful when it comes to deputising for you, sir, if he indeed gets that opportunity as the Deputy Speaker.

The other thing I would add is that Mr O’Connor will bring to this role diligence, civility, but also experience, and the Leader of the House has outlined the range of life experiences that Mr O’Connor has brought to Parliament—someone who came to Parliament a little bit later in life than others in this Chamber, but who has brought to the House deep life experience, both in a professional sense but also in a personal sense as well. And those skills will be very useful in the role as Deputy Speaker, so we are very pleased to support the nomination of the Leader of the House.

E te Māngai o te Whare—it’s such an honour to say that to you, Mr Speaker, for the first time proper in this House. The Greens would also like to welcome and mihi the new Deputy Speaker about to be put into that role, Greg O’Connor. I was thinking too, as my colleagues have just shared, about the transferable skills that Mr O’Connor brings to that role, highlighting, as we all have, the four decades as a police officer, which I am hoping will have also given him the de-escalation skills that will be necessary to manage this unruly lot in here. Those are definitely going to come in handy.

I wanted to acknowledge Mr O’Connor’s family and community. These are always proud days, and I always like to remember what it means for the people who are beside, behind, and with us in this House, as well. So I think of them and their pride, and I welcome that.

I also saw throughout Mr O’Connor’s political career that empathy and commitment to education and values that is similar to the Green Party’s, not the least of which Mr O’Connor shared in his maiden speech in Parliament in 2017. He spoke of the empathy for people—and it was during his time with the undercover police that others have spoken about—who haven’t always been able to make the best choices in life. I quote: “Our efforts to protect victims by diverting and steering people away from crime must involve realistic alternatives as well as punishment. You can’t get back on to the straight and narrow if you never knew what straight and narrow looked like in the first place.” We in the Green Party welcome this insight and experience to the role of Deputy Speaker, which I think will make a great complement to your role, Mr Speaker. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a privilege to stand before you for the first time as Speaker of the House, and the MP addressing you. Congratulations.

I stand on behalf of the ACT Party in support of the Leader of the House wishing to appoint Mr Greg O’Connor as Deputy Speaker. I, too, went through a bit of your past there, Greg, and I’ve got admit, the number of official positions that you have held in here is quite impressive, including being a chair and the huge number of select committees that you have sat on.

I also note your background, too, as not only as a police senior sergeant officer, but also your work in the Police Association—and that as an undercover police agent, too, which I know would have been particularly hard, especially coming out the other side.

That work that you do as a parent, which quite often goes unnoticed because many of us are parents but we have to slog our way through that—that gives us a lot of experience in itself, including the work that you’ve had to do with your son and the agencies, both those from Government and those from the community, that you’ve worked with to be able to get access to some of the services that you and your family have needed. On top of that, there’s your own health issues that you’ve had to deal with and you’ve beaten and come out the other side of, and the work that you have done advocating in the health space has been very important as well.

Greg, I recall interviewing you when I was with the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners trying to show the licensed firearm owners that there is a human side to Mr Greg O’Connor. I really appreciated you taking that opportunity. Of course, not all of the licensed firearm owners saw you exactly as I did back then, but what I did appreciate was that you actually took the opportunity. You took the opportunity to speak to a group of people who are not that happy with some of the things that you were saying, but you allowed them to see a little bit of insight about yourself. I think that actually goes to show the character of a person who needs to sit in that Chair is someone with so much experience. And with that, your life experience that you bring to this role is lived experiences, and that is exactly what we need to sit in the Chair as a Deputy to our new Speaker. ACT believes that this will be beneficial to this House. In saying that, we support your appointment to that role.

Motion agreed to.