462 Address in Reply 15 Feb 2000 When we look at history and successive Governments we see that somebody has not been doing too good a job of recognising the risk to the Maori community. In trying to make a difference in the community we must move forward in a way that preserves the mana and tikanga of communities, and it should be done at their pace. I believe that the future for Maori is all about acknowledging who we are and determining where we want to go. We should encourage where Maori already excel and build on this-for example, kapa haka, waiata, and sports. It is important to understand that our people revel in tiikaro; that they do that with a gusto- firstly, because it costs nothing, and, secondly, it is about collectivity and enjoying each other's company in a quite natural way, as we have done in this country, as tangata whenua, for centuries. I do not just want to see more Maori doing things we are already good at; I want to see our rangatahi learning from our successes and taking due direction from governance and being allowed to get to where they want to get to-as rightly they should as the tangata whenua. Not every Maori will reap the same success as Michael Campbell, but we should be encouraging them all to swing that high. We have to set an example for the younger generation, and I accept that challenge as a new Maori member of Parliament. Let me go back a few years to the time when I was a schoolboy- a little fellow then! I vividly recall walking to school barefoot with my seven brothers and sisters. Every day, whatever the weather, we walked 5 kilometres to school and back. Although this may not have been unusual for Maori children at that time, there was a certain irony about this journey for me. Every day we would watch the empty school bus drive past us and our other whanau to collect the Piikeha kids who lived half a kilometre from the school and take them back to Tolaga Bay-members who know Tolaga Bay will agree it is a lovely place. This bus would pick them up, turn round, and drive back. As a child, the bureaucrats who made those decisions mattered little to me then. All I knew was that I had to walk and that the bus was leaving me and rest of my whanau behind. I used to dream of being picked up by the school bus, but as I grew older I and the others became more resilient. We went from wishing the bus would stop to thinking that if it did stop we would not hop on. I relate that story because it is often said to Maori that: "we've missed the bus", but in many cases Maori have not even had the opportunity to get on the bus. The irony in all of this is that now, as an Associate Minister of Education, responsible for school transport, I am not only riding in the bus but I am helping to drive the bus, along with my ministerial colleagues-Mr Samuels, Mr Mallard, and Mr Maharey. Rest assured, that as one of the drivers I am going to stop that bus and pick up a lot of Maoris on the journey forward. Waiata CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour-Waimakariri): Firstly, I want to congratulate the Rt Hon. Jonathan Hunt on his election as Speaker. I want also to pay tribute to the mover and the seconder of the Address in Reply, and to pay my respects to the Governor-General. I plead guilty to combing the hallowed files of Hansard for precedents of this, perhaps the most historically loaded speech a novice MP can make. It has been a daunting journey to make, and has often involved the humbling sensation of realising again just how superb some of our past politicians have been as orators. My search has strengthened the sense of connection with history that one gets when one joins the ranks of those inside Parliament. It is customary for retiring MPs to leave the Chamber with a few historical scars and bruises from the fascinatingly complex process that is politics in action. It is somewhat rarer for an entry-level MP to enter the House with the same interesting and scuffed set of baggage. Perhaps it is even rarer still for a novice to launch his parliamentary career with an apology. A few years ago, before the people of Waimakariri put their trust in me as their member of Parliament, some members on both sides of the House will know that I was a campaign manager within Labour. Cat herding, as we call it in the trade, can be sometimes a gruelling process for all involved. So all my present colleagues who may 15 Feb 2000 Address in Reply 463 have suffered at a certain time from my untender attention have my apologies; it will not happen again. To return to more conventional maiden matters, I was happy to see that in the past it has not been considered out of order to pay one's respects to the previous incumbent of one's seat. Both Mike and Yvonne Moore have played a hugely influential role in my life. I am honoured to follow on from Mike. I hope that in time I too can leave something like his legacy as a good MP in my electorate. In virtually every street I visited during the campaign, I would meet someone who told me how Mike had fixed some problem for him or her, without fanfare and without favour. He just got on and got things done. I think that is a superb legacy, and one that I hope to emulate eventually. I would also like to report that, from Geneva, Mike, who is secretly protective about his appearance, takes great exception to the clone comments that are bandied about from time to time in the media. He has correctly pointed out that I am short in stature and that he is not! Hopefully, that will be an end to the clone comments. In recent days we have heard maiden speeches that have forcefully reminded me that in this House we have a cross-section of gender, race, and experience that have led us further toward truly being a House of Representatives. I have been reminded yet again that my own life has been one of relative luxury in material and emotional terms. I grew up in a loving home with two parents who instilled in me the idea of taking part in family life, of discipline, and of the value of working hard to realise one's goals. In that context of saluting the value of family, I would like to thank my parents for their guidance, support, and strength over the years, and I would like to thank my partner, Florence, for her love and support, especially when times got particularly tough. I would also like to thank my campaign team and the people of Waimakariri, both those who worked with me and those who did not, for showing me the wisdom and utter clarity that the public possesses when it comes to understanding the issues. It is fashionable nowadays to blame policy failures on inept communication and a lack of comprehension. My own recent experience is that the problem really is that the public understand, with a harsh realism, what the problems are that beset our society. I spent a lot of time last year engaged in the strangest of political activities: listening to the people! Waimakariri could be fairly summed up as offering one of the best cross-sections of New Zealand conditions available on the political landscape. It is a mixture of urban and rural dwellers, big on mortgage-belt concerns, and with a strong family focus. It offers the voices of both the affluent and the struggling. It is an electorate where an optimist would be inclined to say that many of the problems were the luxury problems of growth. It is one of the fastest-growing areas in New Zealand in terms of housing and population. We even manage, for the south, to have major problems with traffic safety and congestion in places like Belfast, Papanui, and Redwood. In other parts of the electorate, we have the peculiar mix of problems one gets when dormitory townships such as Oxford have an increasing population but diminishing levels of services once seen as part of the rural birthright. Oxford is alive and has some affluence, but the banks have left town. Elsewhere we have issues that are universal to New Zealand. The Kaiapoi River, where I once rowed with the rowing team from St Bede's College, is plagued with a pollution problem that would make me very reluctant to drink the water as we did not so long ago. While I mention St Bede' s, I can sense somewhat restive stirring amongst a few members in the House-perhaps long-term fugitives from detention, or, in other cases, suddenly reminded of a lesson never delivered! It is noted that St Bede' s is now something of a factory for the production of MPs. There is in the House perhaps the faintest whiff of what Jackie Kennedy used to call the "Murphia" -the Irish Catholic affinity for politics at play. I would just like to point out that while our number is legion, I am honoured to be the first St Bede' s alumnus to be elected as the college's local member of Parliament.