Kirkpatrick DanaDANA KIRKPATRICK (National—East Coast): E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rangatira tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou kua huihui mai nei kia ora koutou katoa.[To the pre-eminent to the representatives to the esteemed leaders greetings. Greetings to you who have assembled here hello to all of you.]Mr Speaker I stand before you today humbled and privileged to be the MP for East Coast and to represent a region so vast in size and demographics and challenges and opportunities with some of the greatest people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Congratulations on your appointment and thank you for your commitment to the House. May I also please acknowledge Prime Minister Christopher Luxon the Hon Nicola Willis and the National leadership team for their support and commitment. Leadership is the central pivot of an organisation and I am firmly of the view that our leaders will guide this country to a better place and leave a legacy that we can all be proud of.Can I acknowledge all of those who have made the journey today. None of this would have been possible without you without the support you've given me throughout my life my career and the pathway that brought us all to this place today. I'm grateful for all that you have done for me. Mum thank you for your support holding the fort when I'm not at home and picking up the pieces. Your energy knows no bounds and I am extremely grateful. Andrew Tracy Riley and Jake—thank you for all that you've done. Harold Jo Debs Kaye aunts uncles cousins friends and former colleagues—thank you for being here today. It is humbling that there are people who represent all the different parts of my life journey.I would like to acknowledge the Hon Tony Ryall who is not here today but was a huge support during my campaign. The Hon Anne Tolley and Ian McKelvie and former National Party President Judy Kirk for their encouragement and support. To those who could not make it but are making their first foray into the gripping world of Parliament TV—thank you for joining us. Today I am also very proud to have representatives from my Haronga and Ruru whānau of Te Aitangaa-Māhaki here. Collectively the whānau here today covers Mangatu Incorporation Wī Pere Trust Te Aitanga a Mahaki Trust Te Runanga o Turanganui a Kiwa Toitū Tairāwhiti Housing and last but not least our community from Te Karaka who were impacted by the severe weather events nearly 12 months ago almost to the day.Lastly to all of the volunteers and party faithfuls across the East Coast electorate I have no words for the tireless dedication you gave to the cause the belief you had in me and the singular focus you had on changing the Government—thank you one and all. I can't thank you enough.It is also great to have my children Anna and Sam in the gallery. You have supported me through career changes and the journey that became Politics 101" and then the MP for East Coast. Thank you for your patience your support and for keeping things real. When I told them I was standing for election they said "Well Mum you've got a loud voice and pretty much an opinion on everything so you may as well have a go". Lastly to my colleagues: Katie Nimon who shares part of the southern Gisborne area with me in an extraordinary electorate boundary and MPs for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Waiariki Rawiri Waititi. I'd also like to thank Minister Todd McClay for his help throughout the campaign. Our electorate and its regions have significant challenges and it will take all of us in order to make a difference and have better outcomes for all.I am staunchly East Coast born and raised in Gisborne Tūranganui-a-Kiwa in a small village called Pātūtahi in the valley known as Ngātapa. It is a place I proudly call home and always will. My upbringing was quintessential rural New Zealand. My parents worked hard on the family farm that had been settled by my great-grandfather David Kirkpatrick in 1891 passed to his son David and then to my father David. You don't get a prize for guessing names in my family!The first David Kirkpatrick was an astute Scotsman—a leading stud breeder and farmer. His son—my grandfather—was a World War I veteran serving in the Wellington Mounted Rifles in Egypt from 1917 to 1919. On his return from Egypt he too became a successful farmer. He married Kathleen Mary Walker and subsequently five children were added to the family. At the age of 15 Dad developed osteomyelitis in his ankle and left school to recover and start his farming life. He and Mum took over the family farm and Dad cemented his reputation as an award-winning farmer a man of considerable integrity and fairness a leader our mentor. He represented New Zealand in sport and he had a twinkle in his eye. He was the most hard-working competitive person I have ever met. Dad's advice always was: be a good person be fair humble and a good sport. If you're going to do something for God's sake do it properly and give it 110 percent. On my Mum's side of the family we are descended from an English immigrant family—the Gaukrodgers—and the distinguished Ruru and Haronga families who are proudly Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki. Charlie Gaukrodger was an exceptional farmer in the very back blocks of Whatatutu with his beautiful wife Katerina Ruru known as Kath. Remote difficult high-country farming with five children. They rode their horses to school in rain hail or snow. Kath made all their clothes wove their school kete and taught them to fend for themselves. I am privileged to have grown up in such an awesome family—hard workers on all sides with a steely determination and staunch integrity. Our family instilled in us a strong work ethic a healthy competitive spirit and the ability to walk alongside people from all walks of life as we encountered new and different experiences.After a wonderful schooling at Patutahi Primary School I went away to St Matthew's College in Masterton. Despite best efforts I somehow managed to carefully avoid committing myself too heavily to the academic endeavours expressed in the school motto "Ad Astra per Aspera". But I made some lifelong friends some of them sitting up there today. I am now hoping that my efforts as a late achiever will make up for my diminished attention sometime in the 1980s. I just got a text today from my former school principal John Taylor wishing me well. I'm pretty sure he didn't see this coming in 1987.My career took me from broadcasting school through a 10-year career in journalism into local government. Later I ran my own PR communications and fundraising business for 10 years where we focused on local and central government projects and raised a lot of money for charities. Then thanks to a late return to university I developed a new focus and sought my first general manager role.This was at Eastwoodhill—the National Arboretum of New Zealand—a globally recognised collection of northern hemisphere trees and shrubs—many on the International Union of Conservation of Nature endangered list. It was founded by an eccentric World War II veteran a nudist no less who wore one gumboot so he could use the spade to plant his trees. The environmental opportunity for Eastwoodhill to be a global safe haven for the world's endangered tree species is relevant to this day. Borne out of a fear of nuclear holocaust it remains an untapped opportunity for New Zealand.I then moved on to Equestrian Sport New Zealand where I was eventually the CEO in a challenging high performance sport environment with 10000 extremely vocal members. We worked on transformational projects concussion protocols drug and alcohol testing complaints procedures and the like. I worked alongside a great team at High Performance Sport New Zealand in developing a strategic blueprint for change for elite sport.There is much to do in sport but I feel really strongly about the inspiration and the aspiration it provides Kiwis at home and abroad. Whether it is sport at the high level or at the grassroots—a local rugby club—it plays an enormous part in weaving communities together; teaching discipline focus and social skills; and providing opportunities for anyone to succeed no matter the background shape size or ethnicity. So how come politics? It was during the pandemic that I quite literally found my political voice and discovered I had begun to shout at the television. During 2020 and 2021 I found myself shouting in frustration more and more at the television as Government policy and regulation stripped the life out of all of us and in 2022 it dawned on me: shouting at the television wasn't working and never would and if I was to make a difference I'd have to get elected.I really wanted to do work that contributed to a positive innovative fair and united country. A country where my children wanted to grow up and bring up their families and a country where we honoured our service people where we have the most inspirational teachers a health system that is functional and where everyone has opportunities to be educated and to get ahead. So here we are: a privilege a new chapter and one of the most important jobs in the world.The East Coast electorate is enormous and varied. It stretches 13000 kilometres from Pōtaka to Pātūtahi Manutuke to Minginui Murupara and Maketū. Five district councils two regional councils many strong and proud iwi two hospitals an endless number of wonderful towns and villages and many hundreds of kilometres of roads—many of them broken. We are home to some of the world's most productive horticultural and agricultural land and New Zealand's best orchardists and farmers. We are proudly 50 percent Māori. We have wonderful ethnic groups and we are rural communities isolated self-sufficient and the hardest of workers.There are inequities in access to services for Māori and non-Māori in our electorate—particularly those living in isolated rural communities that have gone backwards in the past six years. As a country it is time we stopped hiffing money around without fixing the core issues. It's time we stopped marginalising the very people who do the work in this country who grow the food we eat provide the jobs industries goods and services—the taxpayers who pay the wages of every person in this Chamber today. The National Party's focus on reducing the cost of living and getting our economy back on track is at the core of this country's recovery. It is simply the most important task before us.I'm proud to be part of a Government that has identified policy and legislation that supports our businesses and rural sectors understands that local solutions deliver for Māori and non-Māori ensures basic needs are met and delivers a thriving successful economy. An economy where we celebrate food producing qualities where we're not afraid to be forward-thinking innovative and clever; where we value our environment and collectively work to improve it in a sensible and sustainable way. A country where we understand and support the incredible role that electorates like the East Coast play in the economic and social tapestry of New Zealand and one where we do not mistake activity for achievement.Without labouring the point I'm not sure if I mentioned the roads. State Highway 2 and State Highway 35 are barely a goat track in some places. And I applaud the commitment of the Prime Minister the Minister for recovery and the Minister of Transport for travelling Napier to Wairoa and Gisborne by car to understand its real state. I want to reassure the people who live in the eastern part of our electorate that we know how important and significant safe and reliable roading infrastructure is to our region's future. It supports our productive sectors our tourism it keeps us in food and supplies for our industries and it is the link for our families and communities for wellbeing and access to specialist services. Without a pragmatic connected approach to transportation networks our resilience our economic viability and our very existence is compromised.Notwithstanding that there's much to do in the region for cyclone recovery and the land use inquiry. There is no doubt that forestry contributes much to the economic and social outcomes of the region on many levels. But there's also no doubt among any of the players that the operating environment and the options for land use have changed considerably and a new environmentally conscious focus is required. The approach taken after Cyclone Bola in 1988 has not been the gift we had envisaged. It's time to collaborate rethink this and develop a better way forward. There is so much to do in our region. There have been significant investments into areas in the East Coast such as Ōpōtiki Kawerau and Whakatāne and the possibilities for innovation and sustainable sector development are exciting. We must support businesses to grow and find the way to make significant change to the social parameters in places like these to break the inter-generational issues that will hold them back.As I said so much to do including for mental health for education for housing and policing. But above all for whatever tenure I have in this House and as the MP for the East Coast I want us to work together. As a country we have come a long way but we have a long way to go. We must find a way to work together where we can respect each other's views debate with maturity understand the journey we have all been on and the contributions we have made along the way. As the leaders of Aotearoa New Zealand it is time to show up. It's time to collectively understand the concept of kotahitanga and that we are so much better in unity. We have to lead the way in treating people better having mature conversations and working in partnership. After all division will break us all in the end.I am proud to be part of a Government that provides for all New Zealanders that uses practical common sense that looks after taxpayer dollars a Government that understands the benefit of infrastructure over ideology and one that will fix the roads.Finally I thought I'd leave you with a story from the election campaign. Someone wrote a song about me. It was about the new East Coast MP Danica Patrick—you know the one? The millionaire racing car driver and supermodel. Just in case you're confused I'm not Danica Patrick—not a millionaire don't own a racing car and clearly not a supermodel and no never a whippet actually for those of you who know.But I am Dana Kirkpatrick—mother volunteer community person businesswoman hard worker mental health advocate. Someone who fundamentally believes in authenticity fairness and respect. I will work hard listen even harder and do my very best for the people of the East Coast electorate because at the end of the day it's they who will hold me accountable. I'll do my best to make my supporters proud and my children pleased that their mum stood up for what she believed in: that hard work pays off and you can't make a difference by sitting back and shouting at the television. Thank you East Coast for giving me this privilege. Mr Speaker thank you for indulging me. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Applause]Waiata"