Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. So I've heard that these things are supposed to be funny but the problem is that I'm not. Ha ha! It doesn't bode well for my backup dream career of stand-up comedian but I hadn't thought that this was something that was incredibly well known until this morning I discovered that there was cross-party consensus on the issue at my Education and Workforce Committee where Marja Lubeck offered to have a secret signal in order to ask my colleagues to laugh at my jokes. But I think that I will leave the puns and humour to the Minister for Dad Jokes" and co-leader of the Green Party the Hon James Shaw.It is a pleasure to rise to speak at this adjournment debate and it is actually a genuine pleasure to be in the highly privileged position of doing this job. I want to thank voters for turning out and voting for a change of Government. I want to thank everyone and anyone who's had anything to do with putting the Greens in the position of a Government support partner and from the bottom of my heart I want to thank the staff who work behind the scenes to make this place function who work tirelessly to feed us to organise us to help us in here look good: the cleaners the clerks the cooks the librarians security staff buildings IT and the parliamentary tour guides. And I want to shout out as well to the Chamber officers who have been carefully carting around the babies who now call this House home in and out of the place at a compassionate and considered arm's length. We in the Green Party recognise the mahi of all who work in this House to make it function and we are stoked that it will be recognised with a living wage.I learnt very quickly that becoming a politician is much like becoming an adult. As a kid you look at adults and you think that they know the meaning of life that they have a clue. Then you grow up and you realise that nobody really knows what the heck is going on. I found that becoming a politician is much like that. We're all simply doing the best that we can with the resources available to us with both the baggage and the insight that our life experience gives us that we bring to this place.It's exactly five weeks since I spoke in this House for the first time giving my maiden speech. In that time I have inherited a weighty handful of portfolios debated several times had my name minted on a little name placard for select committees and aged what I feel is about a decade. I've come to notice that there are a few things that make my party and my colleagues pretty special. Being in the Green Party it's frequent to catch oneself doing notoriously Green Party things. Just last week a few members of caucus were in the Hon Julie Anne Genter's office over the dinner break. We found ourselves eating carrots and hummus and vegan bliss balls—leftovers from the Minister's meeting with officials that obviously we could not let go to waste.Chris Bishop: Oh righty-o. What sort of luxury's this? Largesse already?CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Just as Julie Anne Genter wheeled out a brand-new prized possession.Chris Bishop: What's Julie Anne doing?CHLÖE SWARBRICK: It was of course—I'll let you know Chris Bishop—a Shakti acupuncture mat which we all promptly tried and tested. Another evening after the House had risen myself and one Kiritapu Allan found our way to a particular fast food outlet one of the only things obviously open about 10.30 p.m. on a Tuesday. Where upon my meek order for a side of fries all by themselves Kiri laughed and discovered whilst eating her Big Mac that I was a seemingly very on-brand vegetarian—those East Coasters Mr Speaker I'll tell you. Ha! Then during a poorly timed politics 101 radio segment with my colleague from the National Party Hamish Walker the country overheard the upcoming stops going through my bus's loudspeaker offering me the opportunity to extol the virtues and values of a well-resourced well-connected public transport system. I've learnt some EAs manage correspondence organise diaries and book travel arrangements. But at noon yesterday mine could be found in the Bowen House bathrooms meticulously repotting my plants. I could go on.All of this is the colour and the happiness and the pretty darned unique moments that my friends and whānau in the Greens and in this Parliament give. These kinds of things I think are what the spirit of the holidays should be: sharing our humanity and our flaws building our communities and having a laugh. It's not the big stuff or the hard stuff but that transformational change. Ending poverty serious action on climate change and cleaning up our rivers is now not only on the agenda but being legislated planned for and worked towards under the instruction of this great new Government."