Motions — All Whites—Draw with Italy at Football World Cup 
Motions — All Whites—Draw with Italy at Football World Cup 
[Volume:664;Page:11863] 
Tuesday 22 June 2010 
Mr Speaker 
 took the Chair at 2 p.m. 
Prayers 
. 
Motions 
All Whites—Draw with Italy at Football World Cup 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 I seek leave to move a motion without notice congratulating the All Whites. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is there any objection to that course being followed? There is no objection. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I move  
That the House congratulate the All Whites on their stunning result in drawing one-all with Italy at the Football World Cup in South Africa 
. The All Whites showed all the courage ability and character that we know they possess to achieve New Zealand’s best result yet in world football. They ran themselves to a standstill in what was a nail-biting and tremendously exciting game. They can take great pride in their result and I am sure that all New Zealanders will join with me in saying how proud we are of them. The Prime Minister was in Nelspruit South Africa for the game and personally congratulated coach Ricki Herbert captain Ryan Nelsen and the team. Sport is very important to New Zealand and New Zealanders. With sport we can celebrate passion skill hard work dedication team building and success—all attributes demonstrated so well by the All Whites. 
On behalf of the Government I wish the All Whites all the best for their game against Paraguay. I know they will play their hearts out for us and I believe they have the ability and determination to win and make it through to the next round. More than 4 million Kiwis will be cheering them on all the way. 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 On behalf of the New Zealand Labour Party I join with the Government in supporting this motion and join with Kiwis all over the world in congratulating Ricki Herbert and the magnificent All Whites. It was an amazing result yesterday and it caused the world to sit up and take notice of a superbly performing New Zealand sports team. 
But Monday was just the latest stage in a momentous journey by the All Whites. I had the privilege last year of being at Westpac Stadium to see the All Whites beat Bahrain to win a place in the World Cup. That at the time felt like a victory—a victory that saw the All Whites going to the Football World Cup for the first time in 28 years. But then they just kept on performing. There was the win in the warm-up round against Serbia; there was the draw with Slovakia; and of course on Monday there was that fantastic one-all draw against Italy—the world champions the fifth-ranked side in the world and a team packed with stars from European clubs all over the Continent. 
It was a fantastic result and it was great to see the European media who had been disparaging about New Zealand chances having to eat their words and describe the fantastic performance of the All Whites as it was. We know we are doing well in the world when even the Aussies try to bask in the reflected glory and praise the Australasian success in the World Cup. 
There is no doubt that New Zealand started as the underdog in this competition. People said we could never do it. But with character with commitment with determination and with courage the All Whites have done us proud. To Ricki Herbert—who I have to say is from my and David Shearer’s old school of Papatoetoe High School; all of us want to bask in that reflected glory—to Ryan Nelsen the captain who has done just an absolutely brilliant job; to Mark Paston who was outstanding as goalkeeper; and to all the team we say: “Well done lads.” The dream is still alive and everyone in this Chamber wishes you well for a victory over Paraguay on Friday. 
KEVIN HAGUE (Green) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to once again stand in this House to speak about the ongoing revelation that is the All Whites’ 2010 World Cup campaign. This is one of those “dare to dream” moments which is coming true before our eyes. New Zealand lest we need to pinch ourselves to believe it is on the verge of qualifying for the second round of the World Cup finals. FIFA’s 2-minute online highlights package of yesterday’s match against Italy makes us look like footballing giants. There we are on the world’s biggest sporting stage scoring effortlessly and early against the world champions and then defending our goal like heroes from an old war movie. I might add that in this international Olympic week there was also on display some talent in another Olympic sport that of diving. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: On the field? 
KEVIN HAGUE 
: I am speaking of course of Mark Paston’s outstanding exhibition in goal! 
Sport is often used as a metaphor for life itself and our sports teams often exemplify the values and character that we aspire to as a nation: success through teamwork the innovation and resourcefulness of a goal-scoring attack or the gritty determination of the dogged defence that we saw yesterday. To be honest the last 20 minutes of our game against Italy gave me glimpses of the kind of spirit that our soldiers must have experienced in places as far-flung as the beaches of Gallipoli or the foothills of Crete. Italy could come up with nothing to break the impermeable defence ably led by “Captain Courageous” Ryan Nelsen. Our goalie Mark Paston played the game of his life frustrating some of the highest-paid strikers in the world and with Killen Wood Smeltz and Fallon up front making the most of any chances they had on goal Italy started to look like they were lucky to come away from the match with a point. 
The All Whites’ holding the current world champions of football to a one-all draw over 94 minutes left me both breathless and sleepless. It is the kind of thing that does not happen in the real world. While our children are rushing out into the streets and fields with soccer balls and dreams I thought of that other sporting metaphor of the rank outsider who written off by everyone else none the less dares to dream. The Mighty Ducks Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards the Jamaican bobsled team and now the All Whites all speak of the triumph of hope and belief over size and history. 
Even here at the far ends of the Earth it is possible to stand up for what may be rather than be defeated by what always has been. We have a history of that in New Zealand whether it is votes for women our belief in the equality of all our passionate commitment to saving our natural environment our opposition to apartheid or our implacable commitment to keeping our country nuclear-free we have been prepared to stand up for what we believe as a small nation even when faced with apparently overwhelming odds or opposition from the world’s superpowers. The All Whites’ story is the feel-good hit of the year. In the words of the  
Guardian 
: “today is all about New Zealand who have infused this World Cup with the sort of innocent everyman charm that was seemingly lost to top-level football.” Congratulations to the All Whites on playing their finest hour of football yet. Can we beat Paraguay? 
Hon Members 
: Yes we can! 
KEVIN HAGUE 
: Yes we can. My head says no but my heart says of course we can. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 What a game! What a match! Every now and then Kiwis show the world that we can as a people punch way above our weight. What the All Whites have done for us is to remind us that we can set big goals we can take on the world and we can beat them. What the All Whites did in beating the current FIFA World Cup holders was absolutely a miracle. I say “beating” them because I want to record in Parliament that as far as the ACT Party goes it was 1-0 to the All Whites and we have every reason to believe that we will beat Paraguay too. 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker tena tatou katoa te Whare nei. He honore maku ki te tu ki te mihi atu ki to tatou Tima Ma i tenei rangi. He whakatauaki ta te iwi Maori mo tenei momo takaro: “Katahi te takaro ataahua!”. I tenei wiki i kite matou i tenei te ataahua o te mahi o to tatou tima ara ko te All Whites. Na reira tino tu whakahihi tatou ka tu tatou i te ahua rangatira i te mahi kua mahia e ratou i roto i tenei momo takaro mai i te wa o te kemu i a Bahrain i tera Noema. I wikitoria ratou kia haere katoa te tima ki Awherika ki te Tonga mo tenei kapu koura. Na reira he mihi tenei ki a ratou a me te ki he mihi nui ki tera tamaiti o Ngati Porou a Rory Fallon i tera mahi i te kemu kia taea e te tima ki te haere ki Awherika. Na ka tu mai tetahi Maori i Awherika ki te Tonga ara a Winston Wiremu Reid nana te koura i a Slovakia. Na reira he honore tenei kia mihi atu ki te tima katoa nga mea i tae katoa ki reira kia kawe ai te mana o Aotearoa i reira kia pukumahi ratou ki te kemu i reira.  
I tera marama mai i tona kainga i Denmark ka puta te korero mai a Winston Reid mo tona hiahia kia hoki mai ki Aotearoa kia uru atu ki roto i te Tima Ma to tatou tima o Aotearoa nei. Ko tona take kia haere ki Awherika ki te Tonga mo Aotearoa tuatahi tuarua kia tu ia hai tauira mo nga tamariki Maori kia uru atu ratou ki roto i te kemu whutupaora.  
Na reira ka tautoko au i nga korero i tenei rangi ki to tatou tima All Whites i roto i a ratou mahi. Na reira tena tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Speaker and to us all in this House. It is an honour for me to rise and acknowledge our All Whites team today. Maoridom has a saying for this kind of play: “What a beauty of a match!”. We witnessed the brilliance of our team the All Whites this week. We stand proud at the way they went about this challenge from the time they played Bahrain last November. They won and that enabled the whole team to go to South Africa for this gold cup. So this is an acknowledgment to them and to Rory Fallon the Ngati Porou lad whose efforts in that match made it possible for the team to go. Then up steps a Maori Winston Wiremu Reid in South Africa with his goal against Slovakia. So it is a privilege to congratulate the whole team all of the ones who went there to carry New Zealand’s might. They worked hard there in the match.  
From his home in Denmark last month emerged a statement that Winston Reid wanted to return to New Zealand to qualify for the All Whites our team here in New Zealand. His purpose in the first instance was to go to South Africa as a representative of New Zealand and secondly to be a role model for Maori children to become involved in the game of soccer.  
I endorse the tributes today to our All Whites team and their efforts. Greetings to us all. 
]  
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 This last midwinter week in New Zealand must be the most extraordinary in our sporting history. It began with us daring to hope for a good result against Slovakia and we were blown away when the All Whites unheralded and unfancied came away with a draw in that match. Then our attention turned to the match with Italy. Could that feat possibly be repeated? It was repeated with honour and credit all around. Now we look to the third leg of the treble: Paraguay on Friday. 
This country is absorbed and transfixed at the moment by the success of the All Whites. It is great to see. It is a huge uplift in our national spirit. But those of us who have watched the All Whites over the last year—from the occasion at Westpac Stadium when the team qualified against Bahrain and its contributing team the Wellington Phoenix playing here throughout last season—knew a couple of things. The first was that something big was building and the second was that success is not achieved without hard effort hard work and a massive level of support from those people who back the team. That is what we have seen with the Wellington Phoenix we have seen with the All Whites in their qualifying matches and now—the vuvuzelas notwithstanding—we are seeing in South Africa. It is a huge tribute to the team that it has inspired this level of support. It is a massive lift of confidence for our country; it is a wonderful carnival atmosphere. Let us hope that we can ride it all the way through the Paraguay match on Friday and on into the next round. 
When New Zealanders get to that point when our backs are against the wall when we are obsessed with being derided as part-time amateurs they are our greatest moments of success and I believe that this team has only started down that road. Good luck to the team on Friday and for what lies beyond. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is a tradition that the party leaders normally speak in these debates. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 There is also a tradition that if people want— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The House has heard the debate in good humour and I do not think we should depart from the normal practice for something that is—[ 
Interruption 
] The member should resume his seat for the moment. To me it is unfortunate to end it like this. If I call the honourable member then any other member of the House can seek a call which I do not think is in the spirit of the debate at all. I ask the member to just reflect on that over the next moment. 
Motion agreed to.