McClay Todd: Maiden Statements 
McClay Todd: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:197] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 Mr Speaker I begin my maiden speech today by offering congratulations on your election as Speaker of this great institution. I also congratulate my new colleagues the Deputy Speaker Lindsay Tisch and Assistant Speakers Eric Roy and Rick Barker. 
I pay tribute to our Prime Minister John Key in the way that he has led the country since the election on 8 November. Many many people in my electorate of Rotorua have told me that this is the type of leadership they voted for and the change they want. I also paint a glowing tribute to the National Party president Judy Kirk. Judy is an exceptional person and many of us were helped to be here today by her hard work and dedication. 
I praise the central North Island chair of the National Party Jo Stewart and thank her for standing on the side of the road with me waving placards during our campaign. In the streets of London as on the sports fields of Munster New Zealand has a reputation for reward for hard work. I thank my campaign team for their hard work over the past year: my electoral chairman Ian Patchell who is here today; my campaign chairman councillor Mike McVicker; my finance agent Don McFarlane; Ian McLean for his great wisdom and guidance; and the many many others who were responsible for our success in Rotorua this year. I also acknowledge the people who have travelled from Rotorua to be here today and thank Neil for the unfettered access to his fridge during the campaign. 
I make special mention of a very special person—my father-in-law Ron Wattam. Ron and my mother-in-law Margaret live in Cromwell and they came to stay with us in Rotorua for a week about 6 months ago and they are still there. Ron worked from early in the morning until late in the evening removing great moustaches from my hoardings. I say to the Prime Minister that the people of Whakarewarewa believe that I look better with a moustache than he does. I report that bakeries in other electorates should not bother entering the national pie contest next year because I can vouch for the pies made in Maketu. I know this for a fact because I consumed nearly 500 of them during my campaign this year. 
I pay tribute to the Hon Steve Chadwick across the House—a worthy opponent who dealt with the issues on the campaign trail and fought a clean campaign. Mrs Chadwick has great affection for Rotorua; I am grateful that she has offered for us to work together over the next 3 years to advance the interests of the people of Rotorua and I accept this offer. 
If I had forgotten it I was certainly reminded during this year’s campaign that my family is the most important thing to me in this world. My ambition as a member of Parliament the things I want to do for my community and the reason I want more violent criminals and drug dealers locked away for longer are all because I have an overwhelming desire to protect my family and offer my family opportunity. On issues of conscience in this House I will be guided by what I want for my four small children and by whether they will grow up to be proud of their father based upon his decisions and how he voted. 
My wife Nadene and I have been have been blessed with four outstanding children: Joshua who is 10; Samuel who is 8; Caelen who is 6; and my daughter the perfect one Ana-Kiera who is 4. Joshua Sam and Caelen attend Lynmore School in Rotorua and have told me how excited they were to see their dad on TV today. I must for a moment speak of the great love and understanding of a truly exceptional and long-suffering woman—that is my wife Nadene. Nadene and I have been married for 14 years this year and the last 14 years have been a joy—well at least for me! And never could I have imagined that I might complement somebody so well. Without Nadene’s support understanding and perseverance as a wife and as a mother my life would have been much more ordinary. 
It is important to remember one’s origins. I am proud to say to this House that I was born in Rotorua as was my mother before me and I am the son of a school principal with a lifelong commitment to improving children’s lives. When I was born my parents lived in Reporoa and my father drove a school bus each morning before teaching children how to read and write. The school bus in Reporoa is no longer driven by a teacher and sadly early next year it may no longer be based in the district—and this is not right. I thank my parents Roger and Dawn for sharing this day with me. I had a great childhood and against frequent demands for retribution from my siblings do not ever remember my father raising his hand against me in anger. My two brothers Tim and Steven are extremely hard-working successful New Zealanders. They are good fathers and they are great brothers. 
I grew up in Taupo and attended Tauhara College there and Wesley College in Pukekohe. I am sure that the honourable Minister Paula Bennett would agree that my school in Taupo was better than her school in Taupo! In my younger years I had many jobs. I cleaned cars I cut firewood in the bush and I worked for Carter Holt in its sawmill. But mainly I was like many young New Zealanders: I loved fishing I enjoyed hunting and I played rugby with a passion. I had little interest in politics and I am not sure that education was as important to me as it should have been. 
My journey to this Chamber as for many of us was not without detours. I have spent much of my adult life outside of New Zealand. I have worked in one of the world’s largest bureaucracies in and around the European institutions in Belgium. At that time few if any New Zealanders had worked in the European Parliament politically. As a result I am no fan of bureaucracy and to quote a former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors: “I firmly believe that governments should do less but what they do they must do better.” 
I have owned a business where on a daily basis we balanced the demands of finding and keeping good staff with the need to remain competitive and productive. I have great sympathy for every New Zealander who will fight to survive in the coming months and years as the world’s economy struggles to change. I do not subscribe to the view that employers are bad people yet I accept that employees must be afforded rights. 
I have experience of diplomacy. In 2000 I travelled to Cotonou in Benin to attend the signing of a development and trade agreement between Europe and the countries of Africa the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. There I met the Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands and the Premier of Niue. Over months these two countries decided to establish diplomatic representation to the European Union in Brussels. I was honoured to be asked to represent those two beautiful countries as their ambassador to Europe. I declare an interest: in 2005 I was awarded honorary Cook Islands nationality by the Government and people of the Cook Islands. I am proud to stand here today and say to the people of New Zealand that I am a Cook Islander and I send greetings to my friends in Rarotonga: kia orana. 
After many years in Europe my wife and I were faced with an important decision—a decision that would decide the very people our children would grow to become. Our choice was between living a life different from that of our childhoods or embracing the very things that make New Zealanders unique. It was not a choice between a life in Brussels where it always rains and a life in Wellington where it never does. During my campaign I met a man in Rotorua while I was door-knocking who wanted to talk to me about how to keep young people out of trouble and I was impressed by this man. He had been a gang member for much of his life; he had served time in prison. He said that he had never voted because he just did not care but when he last came out of prison he decided to change. He wanted to change because of love for his family and he wanted a different life for his children. He left the gang he got a job and he now works with the community. His children will have a brighter future and in future when I am faced with decisions that affect New Zealanders I will think of this man. 
I want for a moment to reflect upon the country that we live in. Many years ago New Zealand society was based upon the structure of the family. Neighbours knew each other and they liked each other. Rural communities were strong and perhaps life was simpler. When a school needed a new swimming pool—and schools used to have swimming pools—or a small community needed a hall funds were raised to buy timber and cement and people came together to build these things. Today funds are raised for resource consent and for development levies and many of our children no longer know how to catch a fish or climb a tree. 
The Rotorua electorate is an exceptional place and it is reflective of much of New Zealand from our beautiful lakes—and we have many in Rotorua—to Mount Tarawera and Ngongotaha and to the trees of the central North Island. Indeed Nick Smith and I were known to hug such trees during the early part of our campaign this year on the foreshore of Lake Tikitapu. We have great beaches at Maketu and Pukehina and some of the best saltwater and freshwater fishing in this country. 
My electorate is truly a place of vast opportunity. We are rich in culture and Maoridom is strong in this region. I believe Maori culture to be my culture because I was born in this country. Kawerau and Murupara are communities where the people are proud and where they have achieved together. Kawerau is the smallest council district in New Zealand and we should learn from its commitment and emulate its successes in other parts of this land. 
I lay claim to the following claims on behalf of the people of the Rotorua electorate. Rotorua is the tourism capital of New Zealand. Next year the Bay of Plenty will celebrate the upgrading of the Rotorua airport to international standard. This airport will be a gateway to the Bay and will provide benefit to the many towns and cities in our region. Visitors come to Rotorua expecting the very best service. They want memorable and unique experiences and they want to eat and drink and go shopping. In parts of our country this is possible but in Rotorua over Easter it is not. If we are serious about tourism in this country if we are to embrace the benefits of increased visitor numbers then we need to change. The message that we send from this tourism capital is “Don’t come to Rotorua over Easter; it is closed.” We need to change this message to fully embrace the future. 
The Rotorua electorate is also the forestry capital of New Zealand. Engineering trucking and transport innovation all play a vital role in our local economy. I believe that forestry has importance to our future; the way to meet our international environmental commitment is to plant more trees and then to process those trees in this country—to add value to them here. We must send a clear signal to the forestry industry that as a Parliament we offer support. I am fully committed to working with the forestry sector and to all those whose livelihoods are dependent upon it for the future of my electorate. 
Following boundary changes my electorate is also the kiwifruit capital of New Zealand. Our kiwifruit are impressive. They are large they are sought after by international markets and some of them are even shaved. The kiwifruit sector like others has suffered over recent years but the development of infrastructure in the Bay of Plenty and an unrelenting focus on productivity will help the kiwifruit farmers of Te Matai Road. I will work closely with them to ensure that their industry is managed as they wish it to be. 
During her maiden speech yesterday my colleague Melissa Lee spoke of the horrific death of little Nia Glassie in Rotorua. It would be easier to speak of only the good things about my home and to ignore the problems as if they had not happened but that is not my way. It concerns me that the very people who should love and cherish our young the most—Nia’s parents and grandparents—treated her life so cheaply. The action of those found to be responsible for Nia’s death was evil and I know of no other way to describe it. Justice for Nia Glassie will be done only when horrific child abuse in all parts of New Zealand stops. Today I challenge all communities of New Zealand to care more for our children. It is a privilege to be a parent; it is not a right. It will take more than reports and inquiries to stop this cycle of violence—child abusers do not read our reports—it will take consequence and personal responsibility. It will take each of us as a community to stand up and say that violence of any type is not acceptable. 
Two weeks ago I met a small boy who attends Otamarakau School on the edge of my electorate in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. He asked me what my job was and I explained that the job of an MP was to represent and to be a loud clear voice on behalf of the people of his electorate. I also said that more than anything I believe the job of a member of Parliament is to listen not just to talk and quoting a Greek philosopher said: “This should be easy as I have two ears and only one mouth. I will be able to listen twice as much as I talk.” This small boy studied me. He looked at me and he said: “Sir I think you will be a great MP. I can see two of your ears.” 
To be a member of this House is a privilege and I pledge to remember this each and every day I am here. It is an opportunity to work hard to help others and to make New Zealand and my home Rotorua better. The day that I forget this privilege will be the day that it is time for me to leave this place. Tena koe Mr Speaker and I thank the House.