Maiden Speech - Grant Robertson

Patrick Leyland | 14th December 2008 | 2:51 pm

E Te Pika tena koe, ki nga mema o tenei whare tena koutou katoa

Tenei e mihi ana ki ngaa tangata whenua o te Whanganui-a-Tara, koutou no Taranaki whanui, no te Ati Awa tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Mr Speaker

I want to first acknowledge and congratulate you on your election to the position of Speaker, and I want to pay my respects to the mana whenua of this place.

I feel an enormous sense of privilege, gratitude and history to stand here today in the House.   

Mr Speaker, in 1954 and 1957 my grandfather Bob Wilkie ran as the Labour Candidate in the Wairarapa. A somewhat thankless task at the time.  His advertisement in that long lamented journal, the Featherston Chronicle just before the 1957 election reads in part (and I quote)

“I believe it is the responsibility of all in prosperity to care for those in adversity; that the welfare of the nation in the future depends on the children of today, and every  assistance financial and otherwise should be given to those who have undertaken the responsibilities of parenthood”

While times may have changed, the core values of social justice, community and family that lie at the heart of my grandfather’s words and the Labour Party’s existence, remain as important as ever.  I hope that Bob, who is in the gallery today, is proud that his grandson has made it to this place. And happy 89th birthday for tomorrow.

These values of social justice are what drew me to the Labour Party- a party of principle and vision.  I believe that the fifth Labour Government took giant strides in the journey towards social justice. History will judge programmes like Kiwisaver, Working for Families, 20 hours Free Early Childhood Education as landmarks of our economic and social progress. I felt privileged to work with and for Helen Clark and Michael Cullen- true campaigners for social justice and people who have dedicated their adult lives to the betterment of their fellow New Zealanders.   

Mr Speaker, I stand here today as, I hope not unluckily, the 13th representative for the Wellington Central electorate since it was named as such in 1905. I am humbled by those who have gone before me. My predecessors have included people of remarkable talent and vision, such as Peter Fraser, whose legacy in the area of education I will return to shortly. Frank Kitts and Dan Riddiford; men who played significant roles in the shaping of this great city outside of this House as well. And Fran Wilde, who showed enormous courage and fortitude in sponsoring the Homosexual Law Reform Act. Fran of course left this Parliament to play a key role in the development of this absolutely, positively wonderful city, and continues to serve the region today.

My immediate predecessor, the Hon Marian Hobbs was a tireless advocate for Wellington and for Labour values. She is principled, passionate and honest. I could not have had a better teacher when it comes to representing the diverse communities that make up this electorate.  I can not promise as Marian did to call everyone ‘darling’, ‘dearest’ or ‘thingy’, but I do give my commitment that I am first and foremost the MP for Wellington Central, and that I will stand up for all Wellingtonians, and for the city and its beautiful environment.

I want to acknowledge in the House two other cast members from the campaign that we called Survivor: Wellington Central.  Hon Heather Roy and Sue Kedgley are both articulate and principled advocates for the causes they believe in, and were genuinely warm and friendly in what was from time to time, a somewhat difficult campaign. I venture to suggest not many other campaigns dealt with water pistols and exploding taser guns.  But that is Wellington Central for you. I look forward to working with them and other MPs from the Wellington region to advance the well-being of our constituents.  

I also want to acknowledge those who have broken ground in this Parliament. In particular I want to salute my colleagues Chris Carter and Maryan Street. In his maiden speech 15 years ago Chris Carter said that he hoped his presence in the House would make it easier for other gays and lesbians to aspire to political or community office.  For my part, I can say that it has.

I am proud and comfortable with who I am. Being gay is part of who I am, just as is being a former diplomat, a fan of the mighty Ranfurly Shield holding Wellington Lions or New Zealand music and literature.  My political view is defined by my sexuality only in as much as it has given me an insight into how people can be marginalised or discriminated against, and how much I abhor that.  I am lucky that I have largely grown up in a generation that is not fixated on issues such as sexual orientation.   I am not- and neither should others be.

I am here today on the strength of support from friends and family. In particular I want to acknowledge the support and love of my partner Alf.  We are living proof that it pays not to stereotype- we met playing rugby. I was the No 8 and he was the halfback. A great combination.  I also have had the pleasure of sharing in his two children growing up over the last ten years, and being part of his wider whänau. Taku aroha i a koe.

I also take this opportunity to acknowledge other new and returning members across this House.  For all the differences that we may have over the direction of this country and the policies that we need to get there, I know that you are here to do your best for New Zealand, and you have worked hard to be here, and I salute you for that.  

My ability to make it through the campaign and win Wellington Central was down to the hard work and sacrifice of several hundred people, some of whom are here today.  I want to once again thank all those who helped.   

My campaign team in many ways mirrors the people of Wellington Central- argumentative, informed, creative, energetic and young.  And yes, we also had a few public servants involved in the campaign. Public servants have a right to participate in the political process, and I look forward to the new government upholding its campaign promises to support and respect public servants. Can I suggest a good place to start might be to stop referring to hard working public servants as useless bureaucrats? I have been a public servant in this town and I know that almost without exception public servants give their total commitment to the government of the day, whoever that is.   

Wellington, is of course so much more than, as Don McGlashan put it, ‘the suits and the briefcases along Lambton Quay’.  It is our most sustainable city.  More people walk to work or take public transport than anywhere else in New Zealand.  We need to do more to encourage that through better integrated, more reliable public transport services.   

Wellington Central is also home to the wonderful Karori Sanctuary which I encourage all members to visit, and other fantastic outdoor recreation facilities.  A significant part of this is the Town Belt, a tremendous legacy to the city that surrounds the inner suburbs in green space.  There are some questions around the legal status of the Town Belt and from time to time land has been taken from the Town Belt for other purposes.  In consultation with the Wellington City Council and interested parties I plan to sponsor legislation in this House to ensure that the Town Belt remains in, and as appropriate is returned to, public ownership.

Along with the outdoor activities, Wellington’s vibrancy is built around the creative sector. It is hard not to be swept along by the rich creative energy in this city.  As Lauris Edmond has put it, This is the city of action, the world headquarters of the verb”

I believe one of the great legacies of the fifth Labour Government is the growing sense of pride and identity expressed through our arts and culture.  This is more obvious in Wellington perhaps than anywhere else. Our creative industries are not only the centre of social life and tourism and also part of the growing businesses of the city.  The future of the Wellington economy, as with the rest of New Zealand relies on those who can establish sustainable businesses that leverage off our natural advantages and capatalise on innovation.  In Wellington, the self-styled Silicon Welly, a group of businesses led by young entrepreneurs is leading the way in the development of software and information technology solutions that are being picked up around the globe.

There are of course many people in Wellington Central whose lives are a world away from selling software on the world stage.  Substandard housing is a problem.  Too many homes in this city are poorly insulated and overcrowded. This makes them unhealthy, and energy inefficient.   I believe we must as a country make a key priority the quality of our housing stock, and indeed the provision of adequate social housing for those New Zealanders who are unable to pay their own way.   

Wellington is also a place where many migrants and refugees begin their lives.  We are a nation of migrants, that benefits so much from each wave of migration to our country.  Yet, I believe we do not do enough to support and welcome our newest New Zealanders.  The bursting pride I saw from the graduates at the MClass English Language course last week here in Wellington needs to be matched by a strong commitment to support and work with them as they find their feet.  

Mr Speaker, I arrived in Wellington 14 years ago, looking to find my feet.  I had grown up largely in Dunedin in the cloak of a Presbyterian family where my parents, who are here today, raised my two brothers and I to believe that we are all created equal, to treat others as we wished to be treated and to work hard for our goals.  They gave us love and support, and allowed us to dream but be practical with it.  I thank them for that.

I was interested in politics from an early age- not, however as early as my colleague Darren Hughes, whose first words as a baby I understand  were “Mr Speaker”.  

My political consciousness grew around some key events. I swelled with pride and too many sausage rolls from the school canteen when I saw David Lange on television at the Oxford Union Debate.  Not only could an overweight guy with glasses succeed, but New Zealand could stand up to world powers hell-bent on destroying each other, and the rest of us in the process.  I was proud then of our independent stance on the world stage, and I was proud to play my part in that in later years working at MFAT and representing New Zealand at the UN in New York.

Through the late 1980s and into the 1990s I became distressed at the direction I saw government take.  The unfettered market knows best, laissez faire, user pays philosophy did untold damage to my community.

At the supermarket where I worked to pay my way through school and university, the Employment Contracts Act arrived in 1991.  I experienced first hand our penal rates disappear, our conditions lost and the value of our wages sink.  I have never forgotten the impact of that law on working New Zealanders, and I have worked ever since to support the rights of workers.

At university I became heavily involved in the fight against user pays in education, and ended up as the Student President at Otago, and in turn here in Wellington for NZUSA. I learned a great deal as a student politician. I learned to organise, to campaign and what it meant to stand up for what I believed in.  After one particularly rowdy, but peaceful, protest I was accused by a policeman of being the biggest quasi terrorist in Dunedin. I told him I was trying to lose weight.   

But above all I learned that it is education that will make the difference to people achieving their potential in life. Peter Fraser and Clarence Beeby laid out the vision for the state’s role in education in 1939  “ the government’s objective broadly expressed, is that every person, whatever his level of academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country has a right, as a citizen, to a free education of the kind for which he is best fitted and to the fullest extent of his powers’.

While much has changed in the intervening years, Fraser and Beeby’s vision is the one that I come to Parliament determined to develop and make real for the 21st century.

We have a great education system in New Zealand, staffed by dedicated professionals. We must build on that to ensure that it provides the basis for our strong, inclusive society going forward. There is not enough time today to talk about all the areas where this needs to happen but I want to make mention of one in particular.

The current arrangements for the funding of special needs education need an urgent and serious review. While successive governments have put more money into this area, I know of parents that are still going through extreme stress to get the resources that they are entitled to, and in some cases those resources are not sufficient. The Education Act says that every child in New Zealand has a right to an education.  We have a responsibility to make that real.

Mr Speaker, my vision for making real the ideals of social justice I spoke of earlier is a vision for a modern, inclusive New Zealand, where we equip our people with the skills and knowledge to succeed in an ever globalising world. A New Zealand where we celebrate and promote diversity, and where we truly are our brother and sister’s keepers, and ensure that every one of us can achieve our potential.

The solutions and ways to achieve this will not all be found in Wellington or in government.  My generation of politicians must be open to a range of potential solutions.  They will be found in our communities and families, on marae and in workplaces. It is the job of government and of politicians in general to bring those together and to provide leadership and support.

I want to help build a modern, inclusive New Zealand where we do not accept children growing up in poverty.  I believe that we should set goals to eliminate poverty in New Zealand, and work out the programme of re-distribution that will see incomes and spirits lift together.  

A modern, inclusive New Zealand also needs to be one that looks after our environment.  The health of our natural environment is critical not only to our way of life, but also our economy.  If we want people to stay in New Zealand we need clean water to swim in, clean air to breathe.  If we want carbon conscious consumers across the world to buy our goods or tourists spoiled for choice to choose to come here, then we need to be able to show that our 100% Pure clean green image is a reality. In many cases it is not, and this needs to be a priority.

An modern, inclusive New Zealand will be one where we do not build more jails, but where we work with and across communities to ensure that people do not end up in prison in the first place.

A modern, inclusive New Zealand needs to ensure that we acknowledge the place and role of Maori in New Zealand as tangata whenua, and the Treaty of Waitangi.  I would like to promote one small step in that regard. I believe that Te Reo Maori should be taught in all schools, for all pupils up until at least age 14.  Learning a language is one of the keys to understanding a culture, and in this case that is our own culture. This is one small step that we could take to building a more harmonious society.

A modern inclusive New Zealand will harness the best of being a Pacific nation. The emerging Pacifica communities in New Zealand need to be supported and developed. That community also has an important role to play in New Zealand’s role as a peacemaker and conflict resolver, in the Pacific region.   

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, quite simply the reason I entered the political arena is because of my belief in social justice.  My desire is to play a part in making my community, my city, my country and the world a fairer and more equal place.  It is that equality that will drive aspiration, opportunity and success for all.   In my time in this Parliament it is my commitment that I will work to build an ever better, fairer New Zealand where we seek to ensure that achieving your potential is not just the preserve of the privileged but  possible for all.  

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.

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