Address in Reply

Mr Speaker, I’m rising for the first time to be able to speak for 10 minutes in the House again. It is such a privilege. I also have the first opportunity this year to congratulate you on your new role. The Speakership is a very immensely complex role, and I can imagine the need for such experience and knowledge and patience and, actually, a lot of good humour to keep so many amazing members of Parliament ticking along in this House.

I also stand to preface my contribution with the fact that, while I am not so new, I remain a new member of this House. I feel like I’m starting all over again, still with the jitters, when coming up to speak and getting ready.

So I wanted to just look back briefly on the fact that I became a member in the middle of the 52nd Parliament. I was the first Filipino ever to be sitting as a member of Parliament, which was not just a great, great honour for myself but a recognition of the very many thousands of Filipinos who have come to make New Zealand their home. It was also brought about by the fact that large numbers of migrants from the Philippines were coming into New Zealand and occupying roles of significance in the dairy industry, in healthcare, in construction, and in so many areas where workers and professionals were needed. This contribution was recognised and valued. The reason that I am here is because of that value given to this community, and it’s such a privilege to be here myself.

Then I come to the fact that I have now become an elected member of Parliament and, after three years of absence, I find myself here again and able to speak, which is such a privilege. It’s an amazing privilege. So now, I’m back as a member, elected on the backs of the hard work of the very multicultural community that New Lynn is—hearing the voices and understanding what people were largely concerned about. That brings me to this Address in Reply debate, where—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): I’m pleased we’ve got there eventually. Maiden speeches will follow, but I would appreciate you spending the rest of your time now on the Address in Reply, and welcome back.

PAULO GARCIA: Thank you so much, Mr Speaker. So, having been in the community over the past weeks after the start of this Parliament last year, I have had the opportunity to speak to communities, both in New Lynn and elsewhere, and New Zealanders have just become weary and worried on many levels. I rise to say to the public who are able to listen and hear the debates in this Chamber that work is being done to alleviate and to address the matters that concern you. It’s just very important to bear in mind that what we are all experiencing at this time is the result of quite some time of deterioration, and so at this stage there is work being done.

In the law and order space we had many discussions in the community about how people are concerned about people walking out of Countdowns and New Worlds with unpaid items and not being stopped. There is the lack of resourcing for our police to police low-level situations in communities, where people are not helped along or taken away from the situations—the trouble for community members that they are causing, such as bad behaviour, or drunkenness in public spaces.

Police have found that this kind of behaviour, while intimidating and sometimes even threatening to the communities, is not able to be addressed for lack of resourcing, and our Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell—who has just spoken in this House—has confirmed that there are efforts to resource the police on many levels. Resourcing is being done on many levels, from workforce strengthening to giving them the ability to do their work better to be able to deal with the challenges that they are currently facing.

On top of that list of challenges is, really, that the gang numbers have exploded. I would like to ask that people be mindful and that when you are going around and out and about, you are able to see that the number of patched bikers on the roads has greatly reduced, and we are headed towards increased legislation that will ban—completely ban—patches and insignia in public places. While this may be a strong tool for gangs, it is also a strong tool for the intimidation of the communities, and this just needs to stop. The police will be given powers to issue dispersal notices when gangs gather in public spaces.

The Government will also strengthen New Zealand’s democracy. The object of resourcing the police is extensive. It is aspirational and ambitious because we need to get New Zealand back to the place that we all want to call our home, and to not be afraid when we are leaving our houses and are out and about in public.

Also, it is important to note that this situation we find ourselves in is also due to a heightened cost of living and an economy that has been struggling over recent years. There are measures that are to be put in place for the economy to get stronger, including having the Reserve Bank being focused. The Reserve Bank’s dual mandate, which has not worked, will be amended to make sure that its focus is on price stability alone, and on helping the situation with everyone out there who is struggling with day-to-day living and the cost of living—of buying food, and getting around and continuing to live.

So help is coming. These things, they do take a little bit of time, and I ask people who are out there to be patient and give things time for change. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take the opportunity to speak in this Address in Reply debate. It is the first opportunity I have had to speak in this House since the general election. I want to acknowledge and congratulate all the new members to this House, here in Parliament, and in particular I’d like to acknowledge James Meager and congratulate him on winning the electorate of Rangitata. I wish him all the best. It is an absolute honour and privilege to serve the people of Rangitata, and one I know that he will take very seriously.

Mr Speaker, I also want to acknowledge you and all the other presiding officers and congratulate you all on your positions. It seems a bit strange to be doing this, this late in the piece, given that the election was nearly four months ago, but, as I say, it is the first opportunity I’ve had to speak in the House since we came back after the election. I’m incredibly grateful to be back here in this House, with and as part of the Labour team, a team that is going to be an extremely strong, united Opposition that will hold this Government to account every opportunity that we get.

I’ll now turn my contribution to the Speech from the Throne that we heard from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon—

Tim van de Molen: Great speech.

Hon JO LUXTON: Yeah, well, that’s debatable. So I went into the Chamber to listen to the speech. I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt—you know, I’m open to new ideas and different ways of thinking—but I was highly disappointed. There was no vision, there were no transformative ideas; actually, there were no ideas—no new ideas. It was nothing but a speech that was punitive to certain communities and people in New Zealand and it was all about repealing legislation, and I wonder if that is because they have no ideas of their own. All they do or have been doing is repealing legislation that was put in place by the previous Government for the sake of repealing it, with nothing and no ideas to replace it.

So I’m all up for having a change and repealing legislation if there is something that is worthwhile and that it is being replaced with, but we are not seeing any of that, and New Zealanders are not seeing any of that either. In fact, I imagine, and I’m quite certain, there’ll be people out there in New Zealand who are having a bit of buyer’s remorse right now.

During the campaign period, Christopher Luxon said that they would have a laser-sharp focus on the cost of living crisis and on improving the lives of everyday New Zealanders. What we heard in the Speech from the Throne outlines the way in which they plan to do it, and I just want to cover off some of those things that they raised as a way of supporting Kiwis. The first one I want to talk about is repealing the world-first smoke-free legislation. I am unsure how that will help improve the lives of everyday New Zealanders, but we do know that that legislation is being repealed in order to be able to afford the tax cuts that we do know will benefit the rich and the high-income earners. So, yes, I guess they’ll be better off, at the expense of New Zealanders and their health.

Hon Kelvin Davis: Looking after their mates.

Hon JO LUXTON: Yep, for their rich mates. I want to talk about the fact that they will bring back the 90-day trials for every business—every business. As a business owner myself, I exclude that clause from any employment agreement I have because, actually, I trust in my staff and the relationship that I have with my staff. We can have conversations and I can support them through what is called a probation period, I suppose, as well. You can work together, and communication is the key to ensure that you are the right fit together for the business. So I just completely disagree with bringing in the 90-day trials, because that doesn’t help everyday Kiwis with the cost of living—not that I can see.

They got rid of the fair pay agreement legislation—legislation that would simply set baselines and pay and conditions for Kiwis. They’ve repealed that, so how does that help everyday Kiwis with the cost of living? I sat on the select committee that heard submissions from New Zealanders—these everyday Kiwis that this Government professes to want to support with the cost of living crisis. I sat there and I listened to one submission that will always, always stick in my mind: a big burly bus driver brought to tears—brought to tears—in front of the select committee when he told the stories of his working conditions and said that he was having to work several shifts. He hardly ever saw his family, but that is what he had to do in order to make ends meet. And what do we see from this Government? One of the first things that they do is repeal that legislation—the legislation that would quite simply support the everyday Kiwis that they purport to support.

They want to repeal the affordable water reforms—we’ve heard that. When Labour was in Government, we had a plan to fix all the issues that we’re seeing in our water infrastructure, but this incoming Government is simply going to repeal it. We’re not too sure what they’re going to replace it with, but what this Government needs to do is stand up and be honest with New Zealanders about how much its plan will cost them when it comes to councils having to increase rates for ratepayers in order to be able to fix their water infrastructure. I am not sure how that will help everyday New Zealanders with the cost of living.

I want to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart, and that is my sister Teresa, who has Down syndrome. I listened to the Speech from the Throne because I have hopes and aspirations and dreams for Teresa, so I was interested to see what the Government’s aspirations, hopes, and dreams were for people like Teresa—people with disabilities. What did we hear? Crickets—absolutely nothing.

This Government has no hopes, no dreams, and no aspirations for people with disabilities. In fact, we learn that Whaikaha now has to look for 7.5 percent cuts. We heard the Minister of Finance today say that it wasn’t going to affect delivery of services, but that Minister of Finance had also earlier indicated those agencies that would be required to seek cuts, and Whaikaha wasn’t one of them. Whaikaha wasn’t one of them, so how can we believe her when she says things like that?

Hon Member: Broken promise.

Hon JO LUXTON: Yeah, broken promises—completely—from this incoming Government. They talk a lot, as I’ve mentioned, about supporting everyday Kiwis, with a laser-sharp focus on the cost of living crisis, and yet when Labour was in Government, Labour did many things to support people with the cost of living. We increased the minimum wage every year, we brought in fair pay agreement legislation, and we abolished prescription fees. We did many things like that that would help and did help everyday Kiwis with the cost of living crisis. In fact, we were going to introduce 20 free hours’ early childhood education for two-year-olds, which meant for many families that both parents could both be out working, if that is what they chose to do. It would have saved, on average, $133 per week for families in order to go back to work, however that might be—whether or not it was both parents—to be able to bring in additional income to support them.

I want to talk about this Government and the issues around Māori and te reo Māori. When Labour was in Government, we did many things. We introduced the first Matariki public holiday, we increased funding for Whānau Ora by 145 percent, and we introduced New Zealand histories in schools—an opportunity that too many of our previous generations have missed out on, and with me being one of them. So I have hope and I have aspirations for my grandchildren—

Hon Kelvin Davis: They don’t.

Hon JO LUXTON: —that’s right, that’s right—but they are dashed by this Government, which now wants to get rid of te reo Māori language from all Government agencies. What is that telling this next generation of children, who so proudly learn about our history in schools and who so proudly participate in their kapa haka? What is this that we are telling them? That we don’t value them and that we don’t value their language. This Government is shameful.

Just say sorry—that’s exactly what the country wants to hear from this Opposition. Just say sorry for what you’ve done to our country. They’ve crashed the economy, law and order is spiralling out of control, our kids are not even going to school, and that’s the legacy of that last Government.

The first majority Government since the start of MMP, and what will they be known for? Abject incompetence—the failure to deliver. They were a Government of misinformation. They were a Government of disinformation. They were a Government that was a failed socialist experiment, because there’s only one trick in Labour’s playbook, and that’s to centralise. The health reforms, the polytech reforms, water reforms, three waters—because, under their book, Labour knows best and Wellington knows best.

I tell you what the public did at the end of last year: they voted for change. They wanted change because they had had enough, and what I won’t stand for now is listening to all these Opposition MPs who have found in themselves a voice. They’re a lion in Opposition, but a lamb in Government. They sat here day after day last term—zip, zilch, de nada. They didn’t say a word on behalf of their electorates when they were ramming through reforms that New Zealanders didn’t want, and we warned them. We warned them that they would die on the hill with things like three waters, and that’s why, when they look around here today, less of their colleagues are back, because they sat here like lemmings and didn’t represent their electorates.

It’s summed up by one Labour MP who got booted out, and when he got vox popped out the front of Parliament, his response was “Oh, my lifestyle’s gone from champagne socialism to lemonade.”, and that’s exactly what was happening: champagne socialism, while everyone out of the beltway of Wellington was hurting. That’s why now we are left in a predicament where this country is facing years of deficits.

But they will be for ever known as the Government of three waters. They’ll be known as the Government of health reforms in the middle of a pandemic that took a wrecking ball to DHBs. Their own Heather Simpson report said to go from 20 to about six to eight, but they went from 20 to zero in the middle of a pandemic, and Kiwis are paying the price now because they’re stuck on waiting lists because of that Government’s focus on growing the bureaucracy.

Think about the lawlessness we’ve experienced in New Zealand: ram raid after ram raid after ram raid. That Government had its head in the sand, and that’s why it’s very clear that the New Zealand public voted for change.

We’re unashamed that we will repeal what that last Government brought in, because it took the country backwards. This coalition Government will take the country forward. We won’t have all the misinformation like with three waters of the misleading advertising campaigns of people turning taps on and green water coming out. When they promised local government that they could opt in, but Official Information Act documents revealed it was an all-in from the very start, they misled New Zealanders, and they should not be returned back to the Treasury benches for a very long time.

It was outlaid very clearly in the Speech from the Throne that we need to grow New Zealand’s economy. We’ve got years of deficits ahead of us. We need to unblock what that last Labour Government did in order to allow New Zealanders to grow and flourish.

Can I also acknowledge the very hard-working people of Waimakariri, who returned me in the last election for my fourth term. People in the electorate of Waimakariri—when you look at the history of it since 1996, they’ve elected Labour and National MPs. They reward hard work, and my commitment today to them is I will continue to work hard for them, as I did in my first term, and now I will in my fourth term.

Can I thank my family for supporting me to be here today, as well as my campaign team and the many people who have supported me over the last nine years, including one gentleman, Roger Bridge, who’s up here in the gallery listening today.

I want to acknowledge my ministerial colleagues as well, who will make a big difference in this country. Why will they make a big difference? Because our Minister of Health is a GP, our Minister of Police was a bravery award - winning police officer, our tertiary education Minister, Penny Simmonds, ran a polytech, a tertiary education institution. The difference is that on this side of the House, we know what we’re doing.

We don’t come here with big, grand slogans that fail to deliver, and nothing worse in their failure to deliver was around mental health. Remember the $1.9 billion, and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission came out in its first report and said that despite the $1.9 billion, there was no material improvement? It’s very clear when talking to officials that announcements were being made that even the officials knew could not be delivered. It was all about grandstands, it was all about headlines—putting out the latest slogan of transformation. But what they really did was raise expectations for some very vulnerable New Zealanders, and they failed to deliver.

I’m very privileged to be New Zealand’s first Minister for Mental Health, and, as the Prime Minister outlined in the Speech from the Throne, we will get money out of Wellington to the front line. Like our announcement of $6 million for Gumboot Friday. We don’t believe the bureaucracy of Wellington knows best; the front-line community NGOs know best. They know what makes a difference. They’re already delivering, and we will get money to their front line.

Another reason why Labour failed to deliver in mental health was they never understood the issues. It was just all spray and walk away—$100 million here, $100 million there. The reality is, you can announce money, but if you don’t have the workforce to deliver it, no services are going to open. If they’d really done their job and started a pipeline of workforce six years ago, we wouldn’t have a mental health workforce crisis today. The biggest barrier to timely mental health and addiction support in New Zealand is the lack of mental health workforce, and, as we heard the Prime Minister announce in the Speech from the Throne, our commitment is to train more psychiatrists and more psychologists. We’ll work through every discipline to ensure that we open up that pipeline to ensure there’s workers in our mental health services, as well as people with lived experience in the peer support teams that we can roll out, who will make a real difference.

We need to focus on increasing access to timely support. We’ve done a great job in New Zealand encouraging a conversation. We’ve broken down some of the stigma for those who want to come forward. Now they trust us, they take a great leap of faith, and when they do come forward, quite often that timely support is not there. So that’s why we’ve got to focus on getting more money out of Wellington to increase access. We’ve got to reduce the workforce vacancies to ensure that when services are funded, there are people there to deliver them.

But of course, most importantly, it’s not only about treating mental illness; at the same time, we need to promote mental wellbeing. We need to focus a lot more on prevention and early intervention, and that is what this Government will do, because what we will do is actually deliver on our promises.

The time for big slogans is over. It’s about delivery, and that is the difference with this new coalition Government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, that was a vibrant speech from the previous MP, who’s clearly had quite a lot of coffee today, given the subject material and the passion with which that that was delivered.

I wanted to—with this being a debate—take the opportunity to respond to a few of the points that the Hon Matt Doocey made in his contribution just now. There was a lot of slogans there and a lot of kind of retreading the election campaign from last year—and that’s fine. That’s kind of to be expected, it’s the theatre of the House, and so on. But I do think it is kind of dangerous for the country when we govern by slogans and we don’t look at the facts and the data that sits behind some of those stories.

The Hon Matt Doocey has paid a lot of attention in his parliamentary career to the health system and, in particular, the mental health system, and I commend him for that work. One of the things that he referenced in his speech was around the previous Government’s moves in relation to, essentially, creating a New Zealand health service out of the DHB system, rather than to go with Heather Simpson’s recommendations of reducing it to a smaller number of kind of regional health authorities. Now, the Government did not make that choice to go further than the Simpson report because of some kind of socialist centralising instinct; the Government went further than the Simpson report because the experience of trying to get information and to coordinate a pandemic response through the DHBs proved to be so hard, so challenging, and so nigh-on impossible, it became clear that we were only going to get a nationwide response with a nationwide health service. That is why that decision was taken.

So I just want to encourage Mr Doocey to take a bit of time and maybe go back through some of the Cabinet papers that were around at the time the next time he’s got the temptation to stand up and expound in the House about the evils of socialism, because, actually, if you just spend all of your Government’s time checking out what the previous Government did because that sounds like a good slogan, then you’re not going to leave the country in a better place. That is one of the things that worries me: at the moment, as far as I can tell, the new Government’s agenda is basically a Government of revenge to get rid of everything that the previous Government did.

Sure, you can argue the toss on some of the initiatives of the previous Government—fine. But, surely, having a long-term, stable policy environment and having arguments on the detail around the edges is way better than, every three or six or nine years, completely throwing out all of the work that the previous Government has done, because do you know what’s going to happen next time? Next time these guys get on to that side of the House, they’re just going to do exactly the same thing in response, and all of those grand plans that you’ve got that you’re going to spend the next three or six or nine years developing, they’re just going to get in and reverse them in the first three months, because that’s, apparently, what new Governments do because that’s the standard that’s been set by this Government.

I want to, in particular, draw attention to another thing that the Hon Matt Doocey said, which was around three waters. That, frankly, is an area where the National Party repeatedly got up and said that New Zealanders were concerned. New Zealanders were concerned because the National Party ran a campaign against it. National and the ACT Party campaigned against it, and, fine, you can do that—you know, everybody does that in this House. But let’s not pretend that a political campaign by a political party is the same thing, and I’ve yet to discern a clear plan from this Government for what the replacement for three waters is for the more than $100 billion worth of asset replacement that has to happen in this country when it comes to the three waters infrastructure. Let’s not forget that the reason why that programme was such a high priority for the previous Government was that people died in Havelock North as a result of poor water infrastructure.

People actually died as a result of that—that’s why it was a priority—and the two key principles that drove that programme were one of balance sheet separation, and amalgamation to the point that it would be able to attract the level of investment required in order to be able to deal with those massive challenges. If the first thing that you do is take six years’ worth of work—all of that work by public servants, all of the work that was done by professionals to get that system up and running—and you throw it out and you seem, as yet, to have no plan to replace that programme with anything else other than to say, “Well, we’re just going to return it to communities, but also we’re not going to provide any additional funding to it because this Government’s not about providing additional funding.”—OK; again, you can argue the toss on that—how on earth do you square the circle of saying that you’re going to fix the problem, but not by using balance sheet separation and not by using any kind of amalgamation to get scale for outside investment? You’re not going to do that, right? So it’s absolutely incoherent. Like I said, it’s Government by slogan, and it deeply worries me.

I also want to draw attention to a discrepancy that I perceive between what the Government campaigned on—or what the National Party, at least, campaigned on—prior to taking office, and what it is saying now that it is in Government. I remember the slogan—again, Government by slogan—being deployed over and over and over again during the course of the election campaign, that theirs would be a Government that was relentlessly focused on the cost of living to New Zealanders. Relentlessly focused—so relentlessly focused on the cost of living that I have yet to hear a cost of living initiative from this Government.

In fact, the one thing that I think we can discern from the media since the Government got elected is that the highest priority of this Government is revisiting the Treaty of Waitangi. That is the one thing that this Government is currently known for—right?—and that is a long way away from a cost of living measure. Whatever your point and whatever your arguments are about that, the idea that you want to rewrite the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi—frankly, that is not going to do anything for people who are struggling to make ends meet, put a roof over their head, keep the power on, and put food on the table.

Hon Member: The Government’s cutting the waste.

Hon JAMES SHAW: Now, one thing that I would like to—I love this kind of intervention: “The Government is cutting the waste.” Really? Cutting the waste? Can you tell me what is more wasteful than supporting a Government bill to select committee, getting the Parliamentary Counsel Office to draft it, getting advice from officials—which, so far, appears to be pretty negative about it—taking it through Cabinet, spending the Minister’s time on it, pouring thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Government time and resource into developing a bill, and then killing it the moment it makes it out of select committee? What is more wasteful than that? How does that reduce the cost of living to New Zealanders—I ask that.

Be very careful about your interventions. Maybe rely less on the kind of slogans that you campaigned on in the election campaign, and try and turn yourself to the facts and the data that your own coalition agreements say that you will use as the basis of your Government. But facts and data have so far been absolutely absent in any decision that I have seen coming out of this Government.

Now, because this is the debating chamber and because it’s politics, I’m now going to reverse myself to acknowledge that there’s one area—and I do want to acknowledge the Government on this because I believe in being constructive and giving credit where it’s due. Whilst the Government has, essentially, poured all of its efforts in the first four months or so of its tenure into getting rid of everything that the previous Government did, there is one area where I do want to acknowledge that this Government—and the National Party, in particular—have held the line, and that is around the zero-carbon framework for this country. I want to draw attention to this in particular because the acid test for that piece of legislation—and I want to acknowledge the efforts of the former National Party leader and climate change spokesperson at the time, Todd Muller, who worked on this with me whilst we were in Government. The acid test for that particular piece of legislation was that it had to endure changes of Government over multiple decades, and that is why a number of compromises were made in that piece of legislation, including things I, frankly, was not happy with and don’t support. But, ultimately, they were necessary in order to ensure that it could endure.

I think that is critically important in terms of our overall climate change response, and I thank all parties who were in the House who supported it on third reading, which was everyone in the House at the time. But I do want to suggest that, actually, there are other areas of governance where we should try and find common ground and try and work together so that we can create some enduring solutions, because the kind of activity that we’ve seen from this Government over the course of the first four months is going in the opposite direction.

Manu tiria,

manu werohia

Ki te poho o Te Rāka

Ka tau rērere

Ka tau mai i te ruhi

E tau e koia

Koia, koia

Ko tara-rauriki

Kī mai i Māui

Ehara i te Whitu,

Me te Waru e

E tau, e koia.

Koia!

[Bird of the planting time

bird of the ground-breaking time

upon the chest of Māui’s father

Landing after a long flight

Landing here exhausted,

it will land at our kūmara-digging time.

Dig, dig!

The first kūmara shoots

From Māui are already filling out,

But don’t plant them in November

Or in December

Settle down and dig.

Dig!]

I begin with that waiata, that whakataukī, which has been repeated through the generations of Ngāi Tahu since time immemorial. It is a part of the history we as Ngāi Tahu uri tell ourselves and tell to our children, and today my colleague Rino Tirikatene joins the history of Ngāi Tahu in those things which make us who we are. The Tirikatenes represent three generations of proud Labour MPs who have served this Parliament with dignity, with honour, and with loyalty to their values and to their people.

I want to speak more about my colleague Rino. He’s been really important to me. He’s someone that I’ve held in the highest regard while he served here on the caucus benches with me, and I’ll miss him very much.

Before I talk to my other colleagues—and I’m getting some ribbing from my colleague here, Kelvin Davis, about not speaking about him—let me first turn to the topic of this debate. Around the House, we have heard since question time those criticisms from this side of the House about what this Government is planning to do and what vision we see, but I want to take us back to 2018.

On this day in 2018, I was a young mum. I had a three-month-old baby at the time, and we’d just bought our first house in west Auckland. I was watching the news, and it was the day that the Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern had introduced in this House the legislation that she had talked so much about in her parliamentary career and that she had always wanted to bring to this House, about child poverty reduction, and for me, as a young mum, I saw that piece of legislation as a moment that articulated everything that Labour stood for, for me.

I got involved in Young Labour as a teenager because my family had always been involved in Labour. My dad had been a Labour member since he was at teachers college at Ardmore. This was a moment where Labour was putting forward a vision for a New Zealand that put children first and that centred the needs of the child, and not just those children whose parents could ensure that they could get to school and not just those children who had a good start in life. This was about an Act to hold successive Governments to account, to ensure that everyone in this Parliament had a set of principles and a set of goals that would hold us to ensuring that child poverty was reduced.

Compare that to today, when we’re looking at a Government programme that is full of repeal, that—as the Hon James Shaw has said—is a revenge Government, and that walks back the progress that we have made that was often bipartisan. Around this House, we came to agreements on those big-picture things like the future of our country when faced with the threat of climate change. We are looking now at a Government with no vision, and it is not speaking to those people like me, with a young baby in their arms, looking for something that we could be proud of in the New Zealand that will be our home for many decades to come.

It is a Government of broken promises. Those broken promises are very usefully detailed in the media at the moment. There’s a really useful RNZ story—and I’d recommend that everyone go and have a look at it—about the cuts that are proposed for the different Government departments, and those weren’t necessarily the Government departments that were discussed as needing to look for cuts in the election campaign. So it’s useful for all New Zealanders to know just what we’re looking at here, and those aren’t necessarily just back-office cuts. They’re the cuts to things like public services that people rely upon, and it makes you wonder, when looking at that list and the departments that are up to find a 6.5 or 7.5 percent cut, what kind of services we can expect to be able to rely upon in the future—things that make us pay more for the everyday lives that we already lead.

You have to wonder whether things that have made a huge difference in the lives of the South Aucklanders that I represent in Manurewa are going to stay—things like the school donations programme, which means that parents in Manurewa don’t have to pay the donations that were actually compulsory payments to our public schools. You know, I believe it’s right that everyone should be able to attend their public school, regardless of whether they can pay a donation or not, and so that’s why the Labour Government introduced that programme.

You’ve got to wonder whether those things are safe and sacrosanct, given that all Public Service departments are being asked to find these cuts. Things like the maintenance of those walking tracks that the Department of Conservation maintains for all New Zealanders to be able to use over the summer—you know, I walked one of those over the summer, and I’m sure many in this House did. We’ve got to make sure that those things keep on being maintained in our regions so that people in the cities can get out and enjoy our natural environment and have a connection to those spaces.

It’s important, then, to look at those broken promises in the context of what New Zealanders can expect as leadership from our politicians, and again here I speak to those 10,000 people who came and made the pilgrimage to Tūrangawaewae when asked by the Kīngitanga to come and have a kōrero about the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Do you know what struck me then? It wasn’t the sheer number of people who came along to Tūrangawaewae—because it was absolutely overwhelming—but it was the number of young people who came just to listen, just to participate in the youth forum, just to swim in the waters of the Waikato, and just to talk with each other about why they were here and why they had come and what they were studying at school, or where they had come from and what small town. It was an atmosphere of young people expecting leadership not only from elected members but from their iwi leaders and from their local politicians—from the people who seek to make decisions that matter for their lives.

So all the politicians there—and I congratulate everyone who made the time to come along—heard the strong message from rangatahi, which was “Be a part of the ongoing conversation. Listen to us.” We do not need to relitigate the principles of the Treaty, because we have been having that debate for many, many years. For successive generations, we have been defining, as tangata Tiriti, as Māori, what it means for young people to live in a country where the Treaty is a founding document. What we need is a vision for the future from our elected representatives to move forward and define something that not only honours those principles of the Treaty but also realises the dream of the Treaty to protect our taonga, to protect our natural environment, and to have a climate where people can breathe and live in our country. Those are the promises of the Treaty that our rangatahi want elected members to fulfil, and that is the burden we take on our shoulders when we seek election to represent them.

I want, as well, to speak about the contrast between being in a forum like that and having the vision of these young New Zealanders resting so weightily on my shoulders, and then hearing from what is a shambolic and divided approach to the Treaty of Waitangi from this coalition Government. We hear some members calling for unity and other members acting divisively. You cannot have both of those alongside each other—those two things cannot be true.

So it makes me look to those leaders who I admire the most. I got into politics, as I said, when I was a teenager, but it was because of people like Nanaia Mahuta, who I saw carving the way for young wahine Māori in a forum that was often hostile turf. She led on affordable water, and it cost her personally. She was trying to do a set of reforms that we all know in our heart of hearts need to happen. Someone needs to pay for the pipes. The councils can’t pay for the pipes; we should probably pay for the pipes. She paid for it personally, because she had to wear the misinformation, the vitriol, and the personal attacks that come with being out in the public eye because you are a wahine Māori. She did that, and I’m proud of her. We haven’t yet had a chance to mihi to her in here, and I hope that we do.

Another leader in our party is Kelvin Davis. He will give me a growling after this, but when I speak of the history that we tell ourselves growing up in Te Ao Māori about our leaders, about our elected representatives, we will tell his story. I am so proud of Rino Tirikatene and his grandfather and his aunt who have served in this Parliament too, but Kelvin also stands on the shoulders of his tupuna Karaitiana Takamoana, who was a representative of Eastern Māori in 1871. Kelvin has a proud history of leading within his community and within his school. He is someone who is approachable, who is kind, and who always has time for his people and for those colleagues like me, who annoyingly make speeches about him in the House and ask him a bunch of questions.

I’m so proud of the work we’ve done in this House to unite and to bring about a kotahitanga that we can continue to progress and continue to realise under the Treaty of Waitangi and its promises. I will continue to work for that, and I hope everyone in this House can too.

I now call, to make her maiden statement to the House, Rima Nakhle.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Ahiahi mārie, good afternoon, masa el kheir. Friends, family, neighbours in Takanini, country men and women, lend me your ears. Lend me your ears, as we take a journey across many oceans, time frames, memories, and faces. Lend me your ears, as we delve into the realm of the here and now, what brought me here, and what’s taking me into tomorrow.

But first, Mr Speaker, I would love to wish you and all gathered here today, in person or beyond these ceremonial walls, a happy New Year. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for accepting this immensely important responsibility of being our Speaker. In the past, Speakers faced the real risk of execution if the monarch disapproved of a Speaker’s message. But rest assured, Mr Speaker, I’m pretty sure that King Charles III will be more reasonable to someone as praiseworthy as you.

Allow me to acknowledge our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon. Prime Minister, so many Kiwis gave a great sigh of relief once you were announced PM, because of your unshakable determination to take New Zealand and her children forward and upward. Thank you, my favourite.

Now, to my genesis, because ancestry is important to who I am. I am a New Zealander, born in Australia to parents who were born in Lebanon. One of five children, my blood traces back to an ancient civilisation known as the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were seafaring traders who invented the alphabet, a significant contribution to humanity.

Skip forward a few thousand years to Lebanon. A fifth the size of New Zealand, Lebanon gave me my parents, John Hanna Fahd Rahme and Dalida Watfa Habib Rahme. I’m the daughter of a welder and a florist, and my parents hail from a small village in the mountains of Lebanon named Ainata al Arz.

When Mum speaks of her childhood, it’s with mostly fondness, but there’s an underpinning of pain. From her depictions I know, even though she doesn’t think in these terms, that Mum grew up in poverty. Mum’s childhood was hard but loving, and as I go through life, I see very clearly that the blow of poverty and hardship is somewhat softened when there is an abundance of love in the home.

In 1973, Dad and Mum got married in Lebanon and migrated to Sydney, Australia—a foreign land with a foreign language. But my parents always taught us to be appreciative and to love their adopted country.

I share these pieces of my genesis because to me, one’s ancestry is not just an interesting dinner party topic. It is a deep source of intergenerational knowledge from which we can each draw tremendous strength.

With all the ups and downs of childhood, I recall feeling mostly loved and safe. But there was a specific time of hardship for my family, and I remember boxes of food being delivered to our home by a woman dressed in a navy suit and a navy hat, who I now realise was a Salvation Army volunteer. But my parents worked hard to get through this difficult time. They opened up their florist business decades ago, and us kids grew up helping Mum in the shop after school, whenever was needed: weekends, school holidays, and late into the night. This helped me see, from a young age, that money does not appear by magic but through hard work.

My father deeply laments the fact that he can’t read and write, and always emphasised the importance of education. I was schooled at St Charbel’s College, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic school, where my love for my heritage was cultivated and I was enriched by my Maronite faith. Dad, bayee, thank you for teaching me the importance of education.

I was always drawn towards advocacy, which led me to complete a degree in law. I would like to acknowledge my friends in the gallery who perform this old craft so dutifully, including Lady Donna Hall, Felix Geiringer, Dan Hughes, Richard, and Johno.

Towards the end of my studies, I met the personification of perfection: Roger Nakhle. We entered marriage 12 years ago, and I am so profoundly grateful for the privilege of being able to call Aotearoa my home since 2012.

Like myself, Roger is the son of Lebanese migrants. My father-in-law, Elias Nakhle, came to New Zealand in the late 1960s with very little, and started working tirelessly. He and my mum-in-law, Henriette Nakhle, raised three boys and built a good life for their children while helping many others along the way. Mrs Nakhle’s efforts have been recognised with both a QSM and a New Zealand Order of Merit for her services. I would like to thank my beautiful parents-in-law for all their love and support.

To my brother-in-law David: you are one of the most intelligent people I know. I love you dearly, and I wish you and the soon-to-be Dr Drae the best.

I’m often asked: why politics? By nature, as I said, I’ve always gravitated towards advocacy, towards service. The way that our society functions and how I can help improve the lives of my neighbours in Takanini, and all over New Zealand, through advocacy and service—this energises me every day.

I can’t hide the fact that there are some issues which stir passion quite quickly within me, and it’s those moments that make me question: why? Why do I feel so strongly about personal responsibility? Perhaps it’s because of Mum’s attitude—that despite the material hardship she experienced as a youth, Mum says she never had the inclination to steal from or manipulate others to better her circumstances. Mum chose to go without rather than to steal.

Why is law and order so important to me? Because people just want to feel safe—it’s as simple as that. When order becomes disorder, grandparents stop going out for grocery shopping, parents don’t let their kids walk home from school, and dairy owners have to serve people from within cages. Our police should always be given the powers and resources they need to do the job they do best: keeping us safe.

Punishments should fit the crime, but we need to intervene early to prevent youth from entering a life of crime. I believe strongly in social investment. Social investment in our youth to help build their mental resilience and protect them from the lure of gangs; social investment to combat youth crime, where positive mentors teach our troubled youth self-discipline.

Social investment in housing: when I worked at Te Mahia Community Village, a transitional housing facility in Takanini, I saw the significant drop in antisocial behaviour when social wraparound services are partnered with housing providers. Thank you, Sharon Wilson-Davis and Phil Davis, for STRIVE Community Trust, which does great work in this area. And to the staff at Te Mahia Community Village—Maxine, Oceania, Saras, and the rest of the team—thank you for the amazing work you do, caring for our people and showing what is possible.

We often hear that education is the key to breaking the cycles of poverty, unemployment, and crime, but I ask the House: why is education the common denominator? To me, it’s because if our people cannot read and write to begin with, they risk being shut out from society and the world. To improve the future of our nation, it’s imperative that we place a high value on education. While I strongly commend the traditional school systems, I also place merit in alternative school programmes and alternative education programmes and charter schools, because not every child learns the same way. The outcomes achieved by programmes such as Mātātoa are admirable. Thank you, Frank Haimona, Matua Kingi, and all the team, for your dedication.

Our youth are our future, but our seniors have played a major role in building our beautiful country. I believe we must respect and take care of our seniors, as a matter of duty.

Freedom of speech is an essential component of a functioning democracy. My view is that as long as this right is exercised in a respectful manner, nobody should ever be vilified for having a different opinion.

I am the MP for one of the newest electorates in the country—Takanini—and the outstanding result in last year’s election tells me that most of my neighbours have put their faith in the National Party and in me. I will work tirelessly for our electorate and our country. To our volunteers, who dedicated so much time and energy into our campaign—including our Young Nats and not-so-young Nats—many of whom are seated in the gallery today, I am filled with deep gratitude for all of you. Dr Neru Leavasa, thank you for the service you gave our electorate as the former MP. You are a good man with a good heart.

To my Takanini National Party committee, thank you for all the hours you continue to give in setting the foundations for our new electorate, and for your friendship. Katrina Stent, thank you for setting the wheels in motion back in 2015 with that one question. Daniel Newman, my local councillor in Manurewa-Papakura and my friend, your guidance over the years is deeply appreciated. Much love to you and Lizzie. Marcus and Danielle Kearns, thank you for the fervent love you have for our country.

Takanini is enriched, with over 50 percent of its residents born overseas. I would like to acknowledge all our migrant communities for helping build and grow New Zealand. A few special mentions for the phenomenal work of some of our ethnic community organisations such as the Hindu Foundation, New Zealand Sikh Games, and Takanini Gurdwara that all have representatives here today.

And as we gather here in this debating chamber, which is also a war memorial, I pay homage to our ANZAC men and women, and the brave Māori Battalions, many of whom gave their lives to help liberate foreign lands, one of them being Lebanon. Lest we forget. The horrible truth is that Roger and I have had bloodshed in both our families because of war in the Middle East. For there to be peace—a lasting peace—I believe parties will need to swallow a bitter pill and make some concessions not for themselves but for their future generations.

Hospitality and togetherness is a very important part of my Lebanese culture, and I also found this in the Māori culture. When I met Anne Kendall, now deputy chair of the New Zealand Māori Council, and Tony Kake, CEO of Papakura Marae, I was touched by the constantly warm welcome I received at the marae. My beautiful Anne, you have shown me what it is to serve one’s community faithfully and without judgment. Tony, your dedication to our people knows no bounds, and South Auckland is indebted to you. Tarsh Kemp, now my colleague in the House, thank you for the work you led at Manurewa Marae.

I love our Māori people, our Māori culture, and our Māori language. In politics, messages get muddied when spins are attached to them. But I want to make something very clear to my Māori brothers and sisters: if I felt that the National Party was racist, I would not be part of the National Party. If I felt that the National Party was anti-Māori, I would not be part of the National Party.

Lebanon experienced hundreds of years of occupation and persecution. The Ottoman Empire tried to wipe out the Arabic language in Lebanon. It was the efforts of the Maronite monks that kept the language alive, so I understand the importance of preserving one’s language and culture. I would like to acknowledge Kīngi Tūheitia and thank him for the manaakitanga he always bestows to all who enter the grounds of Tūrangawaewae Marae, as I did recently.

To my nieces and nephews, Rima, Silia, Pio, Zara, Tony, Isaac and John, you are my heartstrings. To my brothers-in-law, Archer, Cyril and George, thank you for treating my sisters with deep love and respect. Nagewa, Jenny, Tanya, and Tony, my beloved siblings, you are cushions on which my heart rests and my mind finds sanctuary. Mum, Oummi, thank you for always making me feel safe in the fortress, al ha, of your love.

Roger, my wisdom, when I was ready to give up, you said the words my soul needed to hear. You ran the campaign the way you wanted, and in Takanini, I’m proud that we achieved the highest swing of the country. I don’t know what good I’ve done in this world to be eternally blessed with you, but what I do know is that I am in constant awe of you. Prime Minister, colleagues, Takanini, New Zealand, I’m at your service. Now let’s get Mill Road done, and let’s get our country back on track. I had to put that in.

Haka

Waiata

I think we now have people moving out of the gallery for new people to come in. If that could occur as quickly and smoothly as possible, that would be much appreciated.

E ngā iwi, e ngā mana, e ngā reo, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

[To the peoples, the preeminent ones, to the representatives, greetings and thanks to you all.]

I arrived as an MP in October, exactly 25 years after I started at Parliament in the National Party’s research unit and then on to the leader’s office. Two big changes I’ve noticed around this place: I have yet to see a drinks trolley being wheeled down a corridor, and MPs can no longer smoke in their parliamentary offices. Today, Parliament is positively healthier, more inclusive, more representative, more supportive, and more family friendly. I congratulate you, Mr Speaker, from transitioning from junior whip to senior Cabinet Minister and now father of the House. I know that you will work hard to ensure Parliament continues to reflect today’s norms while upholding the many traditions that not only make Parliament special but effective.

My motivation for being here comes from the opportunity to be part of a team relentlessly focused on unleashing New Zealand’s potential, and regaining—and, in fact, building on—what we had when we were at our best. Our country is unique here in the south-west of the Pacific Ocean. We are truly ourselves and, what’s more, we don’t have to be like the rest. In fact, let’s not turn into one big monolithic suburb, with all the problems of a big country and a big city. Let’s keep being New Zealand and let’s get back our revered way of life. Let’s grow New Zealand both economically and socially, but let’s stay distinctly ourselves. We know how to be a truly great country. We know the ingredients required, and together we will do it again. Our forebears worked too hard for us not to.

With the best of intentions, this House has tried many things over the years. The public, however, has now demanded we correct New Zealand’s path, and, on this side, we’re up for the task. We have a good majority and strong mandate, with 68 MPs in Government and 55 in Opposition. Change is what most Kiwis want and so it’s change that we must deliver. So I come to this House in support of correcting and creating a New Zealand where our children and their children want to stay and where we are once again one of the most enticing nations on earth for those lucky enough to live and move to.

I would not be here without a lot of people doing the work—the hard mahi. I wholeheartedly thank the electorate committee, electorate chair, my campaign committee, and the many party volunteers who made sure Auckland’s Upper Harbour electorate returned blue. Our local victory belongs to them. I was merely tasked with delivering a sensible speech on election night—one job!

Can I also thank my wonderful partner and my three children, as well as my parents and my two brothers and their families.

In the olden days, three sons meant one on the farm, one in the army, and one in the church. You can only guess where my two older brothers had me! They were good days growing up in rural South Taranaki, near Hāwera, on a West Coast leased sheep farm with local iwi Ngāti Ruanui our landlord. The Brewers were among the early settlers, arriving in Auckland in 1855, with my great-great-great-grandparents buried under the Grafton Bridge. My Scottish first name is a nod to my mother’s side of the family, some of whom landed in Waipū, Northland, in 1858, having first tried Nova Scotia.

I want to thank the many colleagues and friends who supported and encouraged me when I founded community newspaper Inside Otago in 1996, when I worked in Parliament, in the Auckland city mayoral office, as head of the Newmarket Business Association, as an Auckland councillor, and, more recently, as the owner of a public relations consultancy.

The north-west of Auckland has been home for nearly a decade, and, after buying a house, we moved into the heart of the Upper Harbour electorate just last week. Created in 2014, the Upper Harbour electorate stretches from Massey in the west to Wairau Valley in the east, and the likes of Royal Heights, West Harbour, Hobsonville Point, Greenhithe, Bayview, Unsworth Heights, and part of Glenfield in between. It’s one of the youngest electorates in New Zealand, and one of most diverse, with an estimated 40 percent - plus of pan-Asian descent. Upper Harbour is rich with Chinese Kiwis, Korean Kiwis, Indian Kiwis, and Filipino Kiwis. As the new MP, I will work hard to represent everyone, and to be accessible and visible. The pressures of population growth and housing intensification mean we need to do more when it comes to transport infrastructure and services. I will be Upper Harbour’s No. 1 advocate.

With that, I am delighted the Minister of Transport views the construction of the Northwest Rapid Transit corridor—a dedicated busway alongside State Highway 16—as a priority project to help ease Auckland’s congestion. Bring it on! And bring on our new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport.

National’s larger Auckland caucus is strong in its commitment to deliver for New Zealand’s largest city and commercial capital, and Aucklanders are up for it. In fact, Aucklanders were up for it over 20 years ago, with an overwhelming number of them happy to pay a toll or for congestion if they meant quicker travel times. That was when the city was just over 1 million people, and by the end of this decade, Auckland will likely be home to 2 million.

Aucklanders strongly voted for change in the 2022 local government elections and again in the 2023 general election, and that is what must now be delivered. Again, I am here because I have long wanted to be part of such change. It’s great we are getting serious about public-private partnerships (PPPs). That is long overdue, and I believe PPPs should go beyond transport infrastructure.

An example of the possibilities is Auckland’s Spark Arena. As New Zealand’s first major public-private partnership, it was constructed nearly 20 years ago for $94 million, which Auckland City ratepayers partly contributed, but it has since been owned and managed privately. The arrangement is dubbed a BOOT——Build, Own, Operate, Transfer. In the 2040s, 100 percent ownership of Spark Arena will be transferred to Auckland Council. The next generation of ratepayers will, effectively, get Spark Arena in mint condition for free. How good is that! Let’s use the balance sheets of the private sector as we continue to build our country’s infrastructure and public amenities. In many cases, it’s the only way we will do it.

New Zealand is at its greatest when we maximise the power of our communities. We used to be known as a can-do country. Remember? Sadly, we haven’t heard that term for a while. The foundation of the National Party is built on the values of ambition and success; with lower taxes, reward for hard work, and equal opportunity for all at its core. As a member for 28 years, I am proud to be part of a party where strong families and caring communities is a key value and where our philosophy is to empower community organisations, not to compete with them.

Since the COVID-19 lockdowns, many Kiwis have struggled to fully reintegrate both socially and at work, while many of our kids who turned on their iPads have not since turned them off. As parents we all hear ourselves too often say how we used to play much more outdoors, but there are simple things we can do. Sport Waitākere tells me that across West Auckland this summer, at least 17 school pools remain closed—all while temperatures rise to 30 degrees. How crazy is that? It has just got too hard for many school boards with liability and operational costs. Being can-do is actually essential, because being can’t-do is costing us and the next generation much, much more.

I want to acknowledge the thousands affected by the Auckland floods and the cyclone a year ago. In Wairau Valley, we lost lives. In Tōtara Vale, the second storey of some homes were flooded, and at the bottom of Massey, many homes remain abandoned. As representatives and as communities, we must continue to support these people as the pain and loss continues. The buy-outs in Auckland have begun, but many residents remain in limbo, and many impacted simply don’t qualify for assistance. They cannot be forgotten.

Education is a major determinant in people’s lives. We all know the turn-around job is big, but we’ve had a world-class State education system before and we can do it again. No one can argue the worsening statistics of the past 30 years, but we must not accept them. I am proud to be part of a Government that’s unashamedly about standards, a knowledge-based curriculum, and delivering excellence for our children—a Government that will finally tackle the crippling and unacceptable attendance and truancy rates. With me, I have a “Good Attendance Certificate”. It certifies that despite having to ride miles to school every day on her pony in often cold and wet central Taranaki, my eight-year-old grandmother was “present every time the school was open during the period of 12 months ending December the 31st, 1913”. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.

Fast forward to when I was growing up, my parents had a yale key that was permanently in the front door, so you could just turn the key and walk in. When we went away, or as we slept inside, that key always remained in our front door. Also back then, you never lost your car keys, because they were permanently in the ignition! We’ve enjoyed safe communities in my lifetime, and New Zealand can be one of the safest countries again. However, things need to change, and they will. Kiwis have had enough. They want a Government focused on law and order, and that is another reason I am here.

New Zealand is a country of small businesses, and if they weren’t cleaned out during COVID, many have folded since. Not only is National the party of limited government and personal responsibility but another key value is competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement. The farmers, the tradies, the retailers, the moteliers, the cafe owners, and the many others working dawn till dusk in small businesses have kept our country going in recent years and now deserve a break. We value local businesses, and National will always fight for them.

Good news: strong economic performance and lifting productivity have returned as key motivators for the Beehive. Our Prime Minister knows that without economic growth, we simply won’t have the resources to protect our environment and rebuild our healthcare and education systems, let alone retain our best and our brightest, and attract skills and investment.

New Zealand has always been committed to supporting those who find themselves out of work. Tragically, with labour shortages at record highs, a great opportunity was missed in the past few years to get more Kiwis off a main benefit and into a job. Fortunately, getting people who can back into work is once again a key focus. In fact, the very people the previous Government purported to represent were, sadly, the ones who have suffered the greatest. Those hit the hardest by the cost of living crisis are Kiwis on the pension, those Kiwis on the factory floor, those Kiwis trying to make ends meet—it’s Māori, it’s Pasifika—they’ve been absolutely walloped.

In the first few weeks of the 54th Parliament, we then had to endure the Opposition parties’ claim that we are the party for millionaires and even billionaires. I only wish that they had been out campaigning and waving on Glenfield Road with some of us last year. The toots of support were not coming from the rich; they were coming from working New Zealand. Thousands of lifetime Labour voters went for National for the first time ever in October. They felt betrayed, abandoned, and let down. They’re now relying on us to deliver for them and their families.

Out and about this summer break has shown many of us that this Government and its policy programme have great support across rural and urban New Zealand. The 1.5 million Kiwis who voted for this coalition Government like what they see, and now just want us to get on with it. Kiwis voted for change and unapologetically that is what they will get. Over the coming months, and years, we will dig deep to deliver the New Zealand our children and grandchildren deserve—the greatest country on earth and a place where hard work is rewarded. We’ve done it before, and New Zealand can do it again. Ngā mihi nui. Thanks so much.

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā rangatira, tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou kua huihui mai nei, kia ora koutou katoa.

[To the pre-eminent, to the representatives, to the esteemed leaders, greetings. Greetings to you who have assembled here, hello to all of you.]

Mr Speaker, I stand before you today humbled and privileged to be the MP for East Coast, and to represent a region so vast in size and demographics, and challenges and opportunities, with some of the greatest people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Congratulations on your appointment, and thank you for your commitment to the House. May I also please acknowledge Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, the Hon Nicola Willis, and the National leadership team for their support and commitment. Leadership is the central pivot of an organisation, and I am firmly of the view that our leaders will guide this country to a better place, and leave a legacy that we can all be proud of.

Can I acknowledge all of those who have made the journey today. None of this would have been possible without you, without the support you’ve given me throughout my life, my career, and the pathway that brought us all to this place today. I’m grateful for all that you have done for me. Mum, thank you for your support, holding the fort when I’m not at home and picking up the pieces. Your energy knows no bounds, and I am extremely grateful. Andrew, Tracy, Riley, and Jake—thank you for all that you’ve done. Harold, Jo, Debs, Kaye, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and former colleagues—thank you for being here today. It is humbling that there are people who represent all the different parts of my life journey.

I would like to acknowledge the Hon Tony Ryall, who is not here today but was a huge support during my campaign. The Hon Anne Tolley and Ian McKelvie and former National Party President Judy Kirk for their encouragement and support. To those who could not make it but are making their first foray into the gripping world of Parliament TV—thank you for joining us.

Today, I am also very proud to have representatives from my Haronga and Ruru whānau of Te Aitangaa-Māhaki here. Collectively, the whānau here today covers Mangatu Incorporation, Wī Pere Trust, Te Aitanga a Mahaki Trust, Te Runanga o Turanganui a Kiwa, Toitū Tairāwhiti Housing, and last but not least, our community from Te Karaka who were impacted by the severe weather events nearly 12 months ago, almost to the day.

Lastly, to all of the volunteers and party faithfuls across the East Coast electorate, I have no words for the tireless dedication you gave to the cause, the belief you had in me, and the singular focus you had on changing the Government—thank you one and all. I can’t thank you enough.

It is also great to have my children Anna and Sam in the gallery. You have supported me through career changes and the journey that became “Politics 101” and then the MP for East Coast. Thank you for your patience, your support, and for keeping things real. When I told them I was standing for election, they said, “Well Mum, you’ve got a loud voice and pretty much an opinion on everything so you may as well have a go”.

Lastly, to my colleagues: Katie Nimon, who shares part of the southern Gisborne area with me in an extraordinary electorate boundary, and MPs for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, and Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi. I’d also like to thank Minister Todd McClay for his help throughout the campaign. Our electorate and its regions have significant challenges, and it will take all of us in order to make a difference and have better outcomes for all.

I am staunchly East Coast, born and raised in Gisborne, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, in a small village called Pātūtahi in the valley known as Ngātapa. It is a place I proudly call home and always will. My upbringing was quintessential rural New Zealand. My parents worked hard on the family farm that had been settled by my great-grandfather David Kirkpatrick in 1891, passed to his son David, and then to my father, David. You don’t get a prize for guessing names in my family!

The first David Kirkpatrick was an astute Scotsman—a leading stud breeder and farmer. His son—my grandfather—was a World War I veteran serving in the Wellington Mounted Rifles in Egypt from 1917 to 1919. On his return from Egypt, he too became a successful farmer. He married Kathleen Mary Walker and subsequently five children were added to the family.

At the age of 15, Dad developed osteomyelitis in his ankle, and left school to recover and start his farming life. He and Mum took over the family farm, and Dad cemented his reputation as an award-winning farmer, a man of considerable integrity and fairness, a leader, our mentor. He represented New Zealand in sport, and he had a twinkle in his eye. He was the most hard-working, competitive person I have ever met. Dad’s advice always was: be a good person, be fair, humble, and a good sport. If you’re going to do something, for God’s sake, do it properly and give it 110 percent.

On my Mum’s side of the family we are descended from an English immigrant family—the Gaukrodgers—and the distinguished Ruru and Haronga families who are proudly Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki. Charlie Gaukrodger was an exceptional farmer in the very back blocks of Whatatutu with his beautiful wife Katerina Ruru, known as Kath. Remote, difficult, high-country farming with five children. They rode their horses to school in rain, hail, or snow. Kath made all their clothes, wove their school kete, and taught them to fend for themselves.

I am privileged to have grown up in such an awesome family—hard workers on all sides, with a steely determination and staunch integrity. Our family instilled in us a strong work ethic, a healthy competitive spirit, and the ability to walk alongside people from all walks of life as we encountered new and different experiences.

After a wonderful schooling at Patutahi Primary School, I went away to St Matthew’s College in Masterton. Despite best efforts, I somehow managed to carefully avoid committing myself too heavily to the academic endeavours expressed in the school motto, “Ad Astra per Aspera”. But I made some lifelong friends, some of them sitting up there today. I am now hoping that my efforts as a late achiever will make up for my diminished attention sometime in the 1980s. I just got a text today from my former school principal, John Taylor, wishing me well. I’m pretty sure he didn’t see this coming in 1987.

My career took me from broadcasting school through a 10-year career in journalism, into local government. Later, I ran my own PR, communications, and fundraising business for 10 years, where we focused on local and central government projects and raised a lot of money for charities. Then, thanks to a late return to university, I developed a new focus and sought my first general manager role.

This was at Eastwoodhill—the National Arboretum of New Zealand—a globally recognised collection of northern hemisphere trees and shrubs—many on the International Union of Conservation of Nature endangered list. It was founded by an eccentric World War II veteran, a nudist, no less, who wore one gumboot so he could use the spade to plant his trees. The environmental opportunity for Eastwoodhill to be a global safe haven for the world’s endangered tree species is relevant to this day. Borne out of a fear of nuclear holocaust, it remains an untapped opportunity for New Zealand.

I then moved on to Equestrian Sport New Zealand, where I was eventually the CEO in a challenging, high performance sport environment, with 10,000 extremely vocal members. We worked on transformational projects, concussion protocols, drug and alcohol testing, complaints procedures, and the like. I worked alongside a great team at High Performance Sport New Zealand in developing a strategic blueprint for change for elite sport.

There is much to do in sport, but I feel really strongly about the inspiration and the aspiration it provides Kiwis at home and abroad. Whether it is sport at the high level or at the grassroots—a local rugby club—it plays an enormous part in weaving communities together; teaching discipline, focus, and social skills; and providing opportunities for anyone to succeed, no matter the background, shape, size, or ethnicity.

So how come politics? It was during the pandemic that I quite literally found my political voice, and discovered I had begun to shout at the television. During 2020 and 2021, I found myself shouting in frustration more and more at the television, as Government policy and regulation stripped the life out of all of us, and in 2022, it dawned on me: shouting at the television wasn’t working and never would, and if I was to make a difference, I’d have to get elected.

I really wanted to do work that contributed to a positive, innovative, fair, and united country. A country where my children wanted to grow up and bring up their families, and a country where we honoured our service people, where we have the most inspirational teachers, a health system that is functional, and where everyone has opportunities to be educated and to get ahead. So here we are: a privilege, a new chapter, and one of the most important jobs in the world.

The East Coast electorate is enormous and varied. It stretches 13,000 kilometres from Pōtaka to Pātūtahi, Manutuke to Minginui, Murupara and Maketū. Five district councils, two regional councils, many strong and proud iwi, two hospitals, an endless number of wonderful towns and villages, and many hundreds of kilometres of roads—many of them broken. We are home to some of the world’s most productive horticultural and agricultural land and New Zealand’s best orchardists and farmers. We are proudly 50 percent Māori. We have wonderful ethnic groups, and we are rural communities, isolated, self-sufficient, and the hardest of workers.

There are inequities in access to services for Māori and non-Māori in our electorate—particularly those living in isolated rural communities that have gone backwards in the past six years. As a country, it is time we stopped hiffing money around without fixing the core issues. It’s time we stopped marginalising the very people who do the work in this country, who grow the food we eat, provide the jobs, industries, goods, and services—the taxpayers who pay the wages of every person in this Chamber today. The National Party’s focus on reducing the cost of living and getting our economy back on track is at the core of this country’s recovery. It is simply the most important task before us.

I’m proud to be part of a Government that has identified policy and legislation that supports our businesses and rural sectors, understands that local solutions deliver for Māori and non-Māori, ensures basic needs are met, and delivers a thriving, successful economy. An economy where we celebrate food producing qualities, where we’re not afraid to be forward-thinking, innovative, and clever; where we value our environment and collectively work to improve it in a sensible and sustainable way. A country where we understand and support the incredible role that electorates like the East Coast play in the economic and social tapestry of New Zealand, and one where we do not mistake activity for achievement.

Without labouring the point, I’m not sure if I mentioned the roads. State Highway 2 and State Highway 35 are barely a goat track in some places. And I applaud the commitment of the Prime Minister, the Minister for recovery, and the Minister of Transport for travelling Napier to Wairoa and Gisborne by car to understand its real state. I want to reassure the people who live in the eastern part of our electorate that we know how important and significant safe and reliable roading infrastructure is to our region’s future. It supports our productive sectors, our tourism, it keeps us in food and supplies for our industries, and it is the link for our families and communities, for wellbeing and access to specialist services. Without a pragmatic, connected approach to transportation networks, our resilience, our economic viability, and our very existence is compromised.

Notwithstanding that, there’s much to do in the region for cyclone recovery and the land use inquiry. There is no doubt that forestry contributes much to the economic and social outcomes of the region on many levels. But there’s also no doubt among any of the players that the operating environment and the options for land use have changed considerably, and a new environmentally conscious focus is required. The approach taken after Cyclone Bola in 1988 has not been the gift we had envisaged. It’s time to collaborate, rethink this, and develop a better way forward.

There is so much to do in our region. There have been significant investments into areas in the East Coast such as Ōpōtiki, Kawerau, and Whakatāne, and the possibilities for innovation and sustainable sector development are exciting. We must support businesses to grow and find the way to make significant change to the social parameters in places like these to break the inter-generational issues that will hold them back.

As I said, so much to do, including for mental health, for education, for housing, and policing. But, above all, for whatever tenure I have in this House and as the MP for the East Coast, I want us to work together. As a country, we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. We must find a way to work together, where we can respect each other’s views, debate with maturity, understand the journey we have all been on and the contributions we have made along the way. As the leaders of Aotearoa New Zealand, it is time to show up. It’s time to collectively understand the concept of kotahitanga and that we are so much better in unity. We have to lead the way in treating people better, having mature conversations, and working in partnership. After all, division will break us all in the end.

I am proud to be part of a Government that provides for all New Zealanders, that uses practical common sense, that looks after taxpayer dollars, a Government that understands the benefit of infrastructure over ideology, and one that will fix the roads.

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with a story from the election campaign. Someone wrote a song about me. It was about the new East Coast MP, Danica Patrick—you know the one? The millionaire, racing car driver, and supermodel. Just in case you’re confused, I’m not Danica Patrick—not a millionaire, don’t own a racing car, and clearly not a supermodel, and no, never a whippet, actually, for those of you who know.

But I am Dana Kirkpatrick—mother, volunteer, community person, businesswoman, hard worker, mental health advocate. Someone who fundamentally believes in authenticity, fairness, and respect. I will work hard, listen even harder, and do my very best for the people of the East Coast electorate, because at the end of the day, it’s they who will hold me accountable. I’ll do my best to make my supporters proud and my children pleased that their mum stood up for what she believed in: that hard work pays off and you can’t make a difference by sitting back and shouting at the television. Thank you, East Coast, for giving me this privilege.

Mr Speaker, thank you for indulging me. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Waiata—“Haramai a Paoa”

Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Ruapehu te maunga, ko Whanganui te awa, nō Whanganui ahau. Ko Carl Bates taku ingoa. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

[Greetings to all of you. Ruapehu is my mountain, Whanganui is my river, I am from Whanganui. Carl Bates is my name. Greetings and thanks to all of you.]

Greetings, Mr Speaker, and congratulations on your election. Congratulations to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, to our Cabinet, and to coalition partners. Greetings to my fellow MPs across the House.

I grew up with seven of my eight great-grandparents and all my grandparents, including my Nana June and Grandma Shirley, who are in the gallery today, and my Grandad Barry watching from home. I was blessed to learn a lot from their stories of hardship, hard work, and success. In particular, I recall their adage: “Waste not, want not.”

As I enter this House and consider what I want our legacy here to be, I want it to be more meaningful than merely burdening our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren with our debt. Unfortunately, over the last six years, non - COVID-related spending and borrowing increased at unprecedented rates. This has flowed on to higher inflation and higher interest rates, both hurting New Zealanders daily.

I have created companies to achieve outcomes. I believe successful enterprises exist to deliver on a particular promise, to employ people, to pay taxes, and to solve problems—and we need more of them. Creating a company, though, doesn’t come without risk, nor are they always as successful as entrepreneurs would like their own to be. Every dollar these businesses pay to the Government in tax should be treated with the respect and appreciation for the blood, the sweat, and the tears that went into generating it. As should those taxes paid by farmers, teachers, nurses, shift workers, and, indeed, everybody else. As we look to the future, it is imperative that this House is more responsible with New Zealanders’ money. This House must make choices between what the role of Government is and what it is not. We cannot, and should not, try and attempt to solve every problem—and nor should we.

The story we tell our grandchildren of this post-COVID period must be one of recovery: setting New Zealand up for success and providing a platform for them to achieve anything. It must be the story of how this Government got New Zealand back on track: reduced the burden of the State and made us more productive. I commend the Cabinet’s decision to cancel the Interislander replacement contract. It sent a clear message to all those who consider the Government to be a bottomless ATM that this coalition Government will deliver value for taxpayers’ money. Prime Minister, I look forward to your leadership through this critical period in resetting New Zealand’s economic and social story. I am here to be part of making that happen.

New Year’s Eve 2020 saw my wife, Candice, and I sitting in managed isolation and quarantine. We reflected on the year that was and the economic headwinds New Zealand would face. Six months later, I told our team that our business was for sale. Then, with no idea how this journey would end, as I do, I went all in on returning National to the Treasury benches. That New Year’s Eve, Candice and I also celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Since we swiped right, you have constantly supported me and challenged me. Your mum, Sheila-ann, would be so proud of the amazing mum you are to Angus and Logan. You will be an awesome guide to them as they navigate this unique journey. I love you and I know how much you have sacrificed for us to be here.

Mum, you have been my biggest promoter and my harshest critic—to the extent you could probably get a job in the press gallery! Seriously though, thank you for always being on the other end of the phone, no matter the time zone, and for pushing me to be my best.

Dad, you are an inspiration. Your positive attitude and constant smile, despite everything since your stroke in 2010, is a reminder to us all that life is what you make it.

Thank you to electorate chair Andy Jarden, campaign chair Linde Judd, and the entire and phenomenal Whanganui electorate team for all you did to enable us to win in October. You all kept saying “yes”, and I will never be able to thank you enough for the countless hours you volunteered.

Mr Speaker, 1996 is both the year you were first elected to this august place and the year—as a mere 12-year-old—I started the Whanganui Young Nationals branch with Luke Byers. We vigorously campaigned for the Hon Peter Gresham, who, along with then electorate chair Neil Walker, schooled us in politics. That year, the Hon Chester Borrows and I began our friendship. Chester provided significant support and guidance during my selection, even as his final illness robbed him of a long retirement. I acknowledge Chester as the MP for Whanganui for 12 years, and I thank he and Ella for their service to our region.

The Whanganui electorate is a microcosm of New Zealand: full of potential and blessed with natural assets and innovative people; businesses that service us locally and make us proud globally; organisations and volunteers that ensure we support each other; and, much like New Zealand as a whole, a rural sector that is the backbone of our economy.

The wonderful Whanganui electorate begins at the Whangaehu River and travels through Whanganui, up State Highway 4—which I know we’ll fix—and past Kakatahi. To many people’s surprise, it also runs up State Highway 3 to encompass Hāwera, around Mount Taranaki, and ceases as you enter Ōpunake on the west and encompasses Stratford to the east.

Many ask what binds these places together. Well, at primary school, we learnt of a Māori legend that tells of our deep connection. Long ago, Taranaki maunga and Tongariro maunga fought for the attention of Pihanga. After Tongariro proved successful in capturing her love, Taranaki fled the central plateau, heading for the sea. He left a scar on the land behind him, formed our beautiful South Taranaki coastline, and settled to provide a majestic presence over the region. Two tears then came down from the Sky Father, one forming the Whanganui awa in the path Taranaki had left behind. The people of the Whanganui electorate are connected by our shared history, our economic drivers, and our collective desire to achieve more for the Whanganui, South Taranaki, and Stratford districts.

I believe the role of a member of Parliament is to be a facilitator between one’s electorate and local and central government. I look forward to working even more with my local and regional councils for the benefit of our region for years to come.

Along with many opportunities, our districts also have many critical issues. Today, I will refer to three. Firstly, returning our polytechnic to local control through the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga. I am excited for the potential that this reset holds for our region.

Secondly, I recall being taught at Scouts to “take only photos and leave only footprints”. I am excited, therefore, by National’s commitment to increase renewable energy. For South Taranaki, this could mean the development of offshore wind farms, and I look forward to having input into the creation of a regulatory framework that will enable this.

Thirdly, much is said of rural and provincial connectivity. We are not just crying “wolf”. In Pātea on Friday, I visited a brand new business that struggled for connection to simply take payment. Properly addressing this issue will increase and improve education, business, and employment where it is most desperately required. It’s because of issues like this that I come here determined to be the best advocate for our region.

Born, raised, and educated in Whanganui, during secondary school and into uni, I worked at McDonald’s—a skill set shared by other outstanding members in this House. At 18, while studying at Massey University, I was appointed as an independent director of a specialised aged-care facility. A critical moment in life that determined my career for the next 20 years. At 20, I was elected as a Universal College of Learning council member, and also appointed to Arena Manawatu’s board. At 22, Quality Health New Zealand appointed me acting chief executive to turn it around and that’s what I did.

Following that, and over the next 16 years, I built a professional services firm along with my mum, Raewyn. Sirdar’s focus was guiding boards and growing business, both across the African continent—where I was based for much of that time—and around the world. This provided opportunities for me to serve as a director and chairman of a range of small and large companies—including in the primary industries and animal health, food safety, and manufacturing, retail, and education. Real-world skills I bring into this House.

Candice tells me, though, that my life and my career is not one that can be easily explained in an elevator pitch—but here goes: I have been an employer and an employee; a landlord and tenant; driver of a diesel vehicle and, at the same time, simultaneously, a diligent recycler; a Queen’s Scout and a child of God. I love cooking and red wine, am a chartered accountant—the better of the two professions—and have authored two books. I was named young business person of the year at the 2016 Wellington Regional Business Excellence awards—and got a letter from the wonderful list MP who acted as the local MP at the time, Minister Chris Bishop—and in 2022, I became one of the youngest Chartered Fellows of the Institute of Directors here in New Zealand.

I believe in lifelong learning. I believe that while our failures do not define us, how we learn from them does. I also believe in hard work and reward for achievement—core National Party values. Door-knocking and calling over 9,000 people during the campaign, I met people like the mum on sole parent support in central Whanganui who was feeling the cost of living crisis hit her every time she went to the supermarket; like the superannuitant in Aramoho who cried on her doorstep at the wasteful spending of “our money” at the same time she was struggling to pay her own monthly bills; like the farmer in Stratford who wanted a Government that has farmers’ backs; and like the business person in Hāwera who simply wanted confidence to employ his next apprentice. My promise is to work hard for them and to work hard for every constituent in the Whanganui electorate. I am humbled by, and full of gratitude for, this opportunity to represent them.

Finally, my late grandfather Ken “the Magic Man” Bates once said to me that his goal in life was to ensure his children did better than he did. With some sleight of hand, ultimately my goal in this House is to ensure that I can tell my grandchildren that our great nation has the First World healthcare, education, and social services that we deserve, because we built a productive First World economy that enabled us to pay for it. Thank you.

Waiata—“Te Aroha”

Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your election to office. I’m looking forward to learning from you in the next three years. Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, kia ora, talofa, mālō e lelei, namaste, salaam, 你好, 大家好, and good evening.

The Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” I speak to you today as the first ever National Party member of Parliament for Mt Roskill, and only the second Chinese electorate MP in NZ history. This is also the first time a National MP has won this seat since its creation. I am conscious of and respect the history we made.

I will start by thanking all the people who supported me in making our campaign for Mt Roskill a success. I thank the National Party for the honour and privilege of being its representative. I thank our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, for his leadership and passion in serving our country. His example of service is what New Zealand needs, and I am privileged to be part of his team to bring our country back on track. To our president, Sylvia Wood; deputy leader, Nicola Willis; and our campaign manager, Christopher Bishop, I say thank you for an excellent campaign. I also acknowledge all the current and former MPs who took time away from their obligations to help us in Mt Roskill. I especially acknowledge my big sister Melissa Lee, and Paul Goldsmith. They both encouraged me to stand as a candidate, took me under their wings, and never stopped providing the assistance, support, and accountability I needed. I also acknowledge all the candidates, for all the friendship and support during the campaign.

There is no doubt that I had the best campaign team in the country. A special thankyou to my campaign managers, Shu Chen and Deane Jessep. They ran an exceptional campaign; unlike anything Mt Roskill has ever seen.

Thank you to all the National Party board members; our regional chair, Ward Kamo; and my committee chair, Diana Burslem; my supporters; my volunteers, and the Young Nats—many of whom are right now sitting in the public gallery, and many of them watching on the television in their homes.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge my opponent Michael Wood. He ran a clean and respectful campaign, and I am proud to succeed him in serving the people of Mt Roskill as an electorate MP in Parliament.

I would like to say a few words to my Asian and Pasifika communities. It is truly a blessing to receive support from different ethnic groups. I feel blessed to be accepted by you, and will raise your voice in Parliament. To my Chinese community, I know many of you have voted for the first time to support me, even if you live outside my electorate—I know a few have actually texted me and sent me a message saying they can’t find my name on the voting paper, but thank you. 感謝大家一直以來的支持, 我會繼續努力為大家服務,將您的聲音和需求帶進議會. 感謝大家的支持, 這次的勝利不屬於我一個人，它屬於在座的所有人.我們一起創造歷史, 未來我們還需要繼續努力, 為大家服務.

I thank my family: my mum and my dad, Teresa Mak and David Cheung; my brother, Dr Antonio Cheung; Rita Tsai; and my in-laws, Chi Ming, Brianna, Joanna, and Victoria Lai, for their ongoing support.

Finally, it is well known that behind a successful man, there is often a special woman. I’m lucky I have not only one but two: my wife, Fiona, and my little daughter, Renée Cheung. I thank my wife for everything she has done for me. She is my number one supporter, my better half, and my prayer warrior. Fiona had to balance her time on campaigning with her role in local government and taking care of family. Thank you.

Mr Speaker, today, I want to share with you who I am and what I wish to achieve as the representative of Mt Roskill and the people of New Zealand. I am who I am because of my family and the values I have been taught. I was born in Hong Kong. My parents are hard-working, middle-class people. For them, family has always come first. They always want the best for us. I remember when I was young, my dad was away from home much of the time, self-sacrificing to provide for us. My mother gave up her career to look after my brother and me to ensure we have a firm foundation of education and stay away from troubles. They will explore every opportunity for us to succeed. 謝謝你們對我的栽培和付出, 我希望今天的我能讓你們感到驕傲.

Here are three things I learnt from my parents. Number one: the value of education. Education is the key to a better future. When you invest in it, it can break many cycles and shape lives for the better. Leaving very little for themselves, my parents supported my brother and me to New Zealand to seek for better education. Both of us now have a doctorate degree in biomedical sciences. With investment and sacrifice, every New Zealander can reach the same educational heights, should they wish.

Number two: finance management. My parents prioritised their spending, and placed our education as their top priority, even over their own needs and leisure. They never spend more than they can afford. This example has taught me to manage my own money well, just like how we should do in our Government: we need to stop wasteful spending and invest our money wisely.

Third: integrity and kindness. Since we were young, they taught us to give to those in need, even though we were not wealthy. From serving as a boy scout to engaging in volunteer work as I grew older, my parents showed me the importance of serving people with a genuine heart.

This is why I’m here today. After the election, I have heard and seen many saying, “Why is it that Carlos won? Who is he? Is it because of his high educational achievements or perhaps his business experience or maybe his support from the ethnic community?” Though those things are true, it is much simpler to me: I have a heart for service, and, with humility, I display it for all to see and follow if they want.

Over the years, I’ve served in various community groups and have worked with different ethnic and religious backgrounds. It breaks my heart to see families and children in poverty. People receiving benefits have not seen their lives improved; they are still struggling. Many of our younger generations are more afraid to dream big than at any time in New Zealand’s history. That made me realise the policy is not heading in the right direction. We need to break the poverty cycle. We need a new approach. We need to teach people how to fish rather than giving them a fish. This is why I decided to stand as a member of Parliament. It is time for me to do more for my community, to serve them in the one place where we can make the big changes needed. I have seen our grassroots struggles, and now I want to make a bigger and larger difference for the people of Mt Roskill.

We MPs are also here to create inspiration and establish better policies for our nation. As someone who achieved a doctorate, I know that education is critical for firm foundations in life. Our education system should prepare our children for the future and to be globally competitive. This is why our policy of one hour of reading, writing, and mathematics each day is so important; it sets a good foundation for our Kiwi kids.

Education, though, isn’t just about knowledge; it has a fundamental role in creating good mental health and fortitude. We must ensure our children are mentally prepared for the outside world. They need to learn the fortitude to dream big. Yes, we understand the real world is full of challenges and failures. We must teach them to pick themselves up and carry on. Our kids need to learn how to react, how to be resilient when criticism comes their way. We want our next generation to be fully equipped.

Our health system is also failing us. The service needs real change. It should prioritise patient needs, not their race. The previous Government focused on metadata and ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion but never on the root cause of the problems or the real patient outcomes that mattered. Going to the hospital for treatment is usually the last resort for a patient. Our healthcare system should be focused on both treatment and prevention. I’m proud that our Government is willing to invest in our health system by operating a third medical school. We will increase the numbers of healthcare professionals and improve outcomes. We want to build a healthcare system that people can rely on.

To the people of Mt Roskill, I am humbly honoured to be their MP. Mt Roskill is a special place for me. It is my family home. Mt Roskill is a unique electorate. It is one of the most culturally diverse in New Zealand, consisting of over 100 ethnicities, well over 150 languages spoken, and many different religions practised. Nearly half of the Mt Roskill electorate is from the Asian ethnic group, which is one of the highest percentages of any general electorate and over three times the national average. Over half of the population were born overseas, the fourth-highest share in New Zealand. I got to meet so many residents during and after my campaign. I heard their voices, listened to their concerns, and shared their fears.

In the past 12 months, Mt Roskill has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, with supermarkets being ram-raided, dairy owners attacked, and many robberies. Just last Saturday, while I was practicing this very speech, another sad and unnecessary stabbing happened at one of our local supermarkets. I visited to check on the staff, but, like them, I felt helpless. This is not the Mt Roskill I know, and this is not the Mt Roskill we want. Solutions to these problems must be prioritised right here in Parliament by all of us fellow MPs. None of us can do it alone. We must come together, work together, and make change. We need to be tougher on crime, especially violent crime. People who commit crimes must face real consequences, and, yes, when released back into the community, they also need to be capable of being productive and law-abiding. The police and the justice system must have the support and resources they need to achieve this. Everyone must feel safe living in Mt Roskill.

The economy in Mt Roskill can be better. We need to strengthen it by providing more opportunities for our people to succeed. We need to support our local businesses more and, in return, create more good jobs for our people. Everyone should seize every opportunity to be successful, but first we must make sure they have them. We want to see a thriving Mt Roskill where there are vibrant markets and thriving business hubs.

Housing intensification is also another important issue in our electorate, especially after the floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. It has been one year now, and many people still cannot move back into their own homes. Many houses are empty and unsafe to live in. Infrastructure must be in place for our growing population. We cannot afford to get this wrong. It requires strong leadership from both local and central government politicians, and I’m committed to working hard on this. People in Mt Roskill must have a place to call home for the long term.

Mr Speaker, if you will indulge me, I would like to direct a few words to the next generation in Mt Roskill. Youth of Mt Roskill, you are very talented and gifted, full of energy, and have great potential. You are the future of our country. Dream big and dare to fail. Believe in yourself. Do not be afraid of failures; overcoming them will make you a stronger person, and this is the path to success. Your Government can equip you through education, safety, and opportunity, but it is up to you to seize the day, so back yourself, work hard, and maximise your skills to achieve your highest potential.

I commit myself to serving all New Zealanders, both those born here and those who have chosen to make this beautiful and bountiful country their home. I offer my deepest sacrifice and will give tirelessly in service. I only ask that all other Kiwis try their best to do the same.

I would like to conclude as I began, with a verse from the Bible: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.” Amen.

SPEAKER: We have one more maiden speech to go. We are past the time, but the House has, by way of Business Committee, made that indulgence. Could I please ask people to clear the galleries as quickly as possible so that the next lot of audience can take their seats. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. First off, I want to congratulate you on your election to the Speaker’s role. I believe your sense of fair play, respect for democracy, and humour is appreciated by all in this House. All these attributes are essential to the essence of how politics should be played in New Zealand. I wish to congratulate the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, on winning the election and leading this Government. Congratulations also to Deputy Prime Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters, and New Zealand First, as well as to the Hon David Seymour and ACT. I look forward to playing my part in our coalition Government.

I want to acknowledge colleagues from right across the House with whom I’ve had an association prior to entering politics, Damien O’Connor and Jo Luxton, both of whom I believe share National Party values but have been held hostage by the Labour Party for so long that they suffer from Stockholm syndrome! To the Hon Mark Patterson and the Hon Andrew Hoggard, I have enormous respect for you both and I look forward to working with you as part of this Government. A special mention to my colleague and the fine representative of the Wairarapa, Mike Butterick, who I’ve previously worked alongside in Federated Farmers. I also want to acknowledge the numerous new MPs who have a direct link to the primary industries, the driver of our economy, which I believe has been underrepresented in this House for decades.

I’m here in this place due to the hard work and support of many people. I want to take a minute or two to thank them. To my predecessor, Jacqui Dean, who served the Waitaki electorate since its re-establishment in 2008, thank you for giving such a large portion of your life to the people of our electorate. I wish you well in your endeavours outside of Parliament. As you know, a campaign requires a campaign team and I was fortunate to have a group of friends and family who stepped up to help: Vanessa Porter, Mary Strachan, Nicky Coleman, Jane-Ann McIlraith, and our campaign chair—and my brother—David. I couldn’t have had a better group of people to share the highs and lows, joys and frustrations of an election campaign with. It would be remiss of me if I didn’t make a special mention of Murray Elliot, an Oamaru legend who was generous with his time and put so much work into my campaign. To the numerous others who put up hoardings, delivered leaflets, organised meetings, or gave me encouragement, thank you.

We are a nation of immigrants. Our arrival to this beautiful country started 800 years ago and continues to this day. My great-grandfather William Anderson arrived from Scotland in 1875 and eventually settled in Southburn, South Canterbury, and bought the original block that has been farmed by our family for over 130 years. His wife, my great-grandmother, was a Ryan, whose family emigrated from Ireland in 1886. My paternal grandmother’s family were fascinating people: a mix of French and English who settled in Akaroa. My French ancestors, the Libeaus and Brochieres, arrived in 1840. My English great-great-grandfather Stephen Hunt arrived in 1858 after serving in the Crimean War. The Hunts of Banks Peninsula were a family of 27 children.

Hon Member: Whoa!

MILES ANDERSON: That’s right, 27 children—no telly in those days!—who spread throughout New Zealand and took their love of cards and horse racing wherever they went.

My mother’s family, the Coughlans, arrived in Dunedin in the 1880s and were publicans there for two generations before moving to Winchester in South Canterbury in the 1940s to take up farming. The farm my mother grew up on is still farmed by my cousins today. My grandmother Kit Coughlan was a Lynch. The Lynches and Coughlans are well-known names in New Zealand sport. Both had All Blacks in their ranks and my grandfather Maurice Coughlan was a national wrestling referee, whilst his brother used to provide the radio commentary. Mum’s family would often talk about Lofty Blomfield and his famous “Octopus Clamp”. The extended Coughlan and Anderson families have been a large influence in my life and I’m lucky to have come from such family-oriented people.

My parents, Jim and Mary, are here today and I am in their debt for so much. I am one of 11 children—only one channel, and black and white, I suppose!—and their values have served us well throughout our lives. Mum and Dad worked hard, often going without to provide us with a good home, a good education, and the skills to become productive members of society. Mum and Dad didn’t regard our family situation as remarkable; certainly there were challenges raising a large family, but they regarded parenting as a responsibility that requires sacrifice and total commitment.

Coming from a large family means you have more fun, more arguments, more joy, and more tragedy to cope with. I think it made us all more resilient and independent. To my brothers and sisters, I want to say I couldn’t have picked better siblings to have fought with and laughed with and shared tough times with.

I grew up on the property that, as mentioned earlier, my great-grandfather settled. My primary schooling was at Southburn School and I went to St Kevin’s College in Oamaru for my secondary education. I’m grateful to have been taught by so many talented individuals. St Kevin’s was, and still is, a terrific school.

After leaving school in 1986, I moved to Christchurch and worked in what was known as the commercial affairs division of the Justice Department. We dealt with the regulatory functions of company law and bankruptcies and receiverships. It was during this period that New Zealand was experiencing the greatest change in decades, with Rogernomics and deregulation in full flight. I believe that the pace of change was unnecessarily brutal, and this brutality was masked by the bull run that the share market was experiencing at the time. When the crash came in October 1987, the commercial affairs division was dealing with the tidal wave of human misery that came with it.

The lesson I learnt was that financial regulation needs to be updated regularly to incorporate new products and financial instruments. There are too many unscrupulous people who are more than happy to take advantage of loopholes at the expense of “Joe Public”. As I was interested in farming, in 1988 I headed off to Massey University in Palmerston North, initially dabbling with veterinary science but eventually pursuing an agriculture degree. I finished in 1991 with a Bachelor of Agriculture degree and an overworked liver. The employment environment at the time was fairly grim, so I took a job labouring in a seed-dressing plant 10 kilometres from home.

It was during this time that a group of local farmers were investigating the possibility of using modern ultrasound technology on farm animals to improve production. I was approached to see if I was interested in being involved, and the next thing I knew I was running a pioneering business. Today, pregnancy scanning is a common farm practice; back then, no one was doing it and due to difficult economics, farmers weren’t spending money. However, it was inevitable that the use of the technology on-farm in New Zealand would happen regardless, because it was being incorporated into farm management in the UK.

Following the first season, I headed off to the UK for six months, where I worked for an established contractor in Shropshire in exchange for further training. It was whilst I was in London that I met the woman who was to become my wife, Kim. Starting with next to nothing, we built a couple of businesses in New Zealand and Australia, raised a family, bought a farm, built a house, and have been each other’s champion and critic. Through good times and bad, we’ve managed to muddle our way through life with a good dose of humour mixed in. Kim, I couldn’t have done it without you. Words can’t express what you mean to me, and I love you dearly. Also, happy birthday. With marriage comes extended family, and I couldn’t have asked for better people. Kim’s family, the Wrights, are the best in-laws a man could ask for.

Kim and I are also the proud parents of three adult children: Rose and Cara, who are here today, and our son, Joseph, who is currently working in Ireland. Of all the things that Kim and I have ever done or will ever do, you are our greatest achievement.

In 2004, we took over the family farm, and in 2013, we sold our business. After 21 seasons and scanning 4.5 million sheep, it was time to hang up the tools. Then began a long association with Federated Farmers, which culminated in becoming the national chair of the Meat & Wool Industry Group, and a board member. Federated Farmers is an incredible organisation that does an enormous amount of policy and advocacy at a local, regional, and national level that goes unnoticed by many in the rural sector. Being on the board gave me a good introduction to crisis management because of the myriad of unplanned disasters that occur in any given year, whether they are climatic, bureaucratic, or biological.

When my term ended in 2020, I was drawn into politics, mainly because I feel farming has been given a raw deal by decision makers who, for the most part, don’t understand the first thing about the rural sector. Farming sentiment is the worst I have ever seen. Farmers are leaving the industry due to unworkable regulations. These are costing enormous amounts of money, eroding property rights, and are ridiculously time-consuming. It is the family farms that have been affected the most—generally a husband and wife team who work long hours for not a lot because they love the land, the environment, and have an intimate understanding of their property. To see farmers unfairly targeted by decision makers and NGOs is disgraceful. It has come to a point where a number of my farming colleagues won’t admit they are farmers when socialising in urban settings because of the amount of vitriol they receive from people whose information has come from unbalanced media and NGOs pushing a narrative that is far from truthful. The simple fact is that it’s hard to be green when you’re in the red.

I come to this House as the representative for the Waitaki electorate, an incredible part of New Zealand containing a diverse geography that is unmatched anywhere else in this country. From the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean, the landscape has been shaped by the last ice age, where retreating ice sheets have left behind an indelible footprint—lakes and rivers, basins and valleys which provide the electorate and New Zealand income from agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, forestry, mining, electricity generation, and tourism, to name just a few.

It is the water that literally powers our electorate, both in its liquid and frozen states. In researching this speech, I went through the maiden statements of my predecessors. It is not surprising to note that each of them has urged that we use this resource to grow our economy and provide opportunities for following generations. I too urge that we utilise the water, create more storage for the primary sector and industry, and generate more hydroelectric power.

It is somewhat unsettling to note that the last major project of national significance—and not one that benefitted commuters in either Wellington or Auckland—was the Clyde Dam. The dam was completed 30 years ago, and since then, we have collectively hidden behind a curtain of regulation when opportunity has knocked at our door. We have gone from a nation that undertook projects like the Waitaki hydro scheme to a nation that kowtows to activist pressure groups and gives up.

Finally, I want to talk about free speech and democracy. New Zealand has a proud history of championing free speech and democracy. I believe that tradition has been subverted in recent years. It seems that any opinion that isn’t supported by activists and/or so-called progressives is deemed extremist. Why is it that supposed liberals are so illiberal when it comes to hearing opposing views? As I stated earlier in this speech, a sense of fair play and respect for another’s point of view is the hallmark of democracy in New Zealand. We must not lose this bedrock principle of our democratic society in a rush to either extreme wokeness or due to intolerance. We should all be able to agree to disagree in a mature and tolerant manner, and that includes in this House.

I begin my political journey as an unapologetic advocate for the people of Waitaki. I will play my part in free, fair, and frank debate in an effort to carry on the traditions and stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before me. I want to do them proud. Thank you.

Sitting suspended from 6.24 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Good evening, members. The House is resumed for the Address in Reply debate.

I move, That this debate be now adjourned.

Debate interrupted.