Turei Metiria: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
[Sitting date: 21 December 2011. Volume:677;Page:69. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Hone for your acknowledgment; much appreciated. Kia ora. First of course are the Christmas best wishes and safe holidays to all of those who are here in Parliament all those people here who make doing our job as MPs possible. We get all the glory and all the privilege of being in this job but we are not the only ones here who make doing this job possible. From the Greens to all of our parliamentary staff here and across the country we say thank you. To the security people who keep us safe the catering staff who keep us fed and the travel office that keeps us moving thank you for all your work. To the porters who are here in the Chamber—who are almost universally ignored; it is their job to be invisible but they provide services to us and we could not do our job if they did not—we thank you for your work over the last year. You work long hours for not great pay and we thank you for that. To the select committee staff Hansard staff library staff the Clerk’s Office information technology staff buildings staff—and there will be lots whom I have forgotten—again we cannot operate and do our job representing the people of Aotearoa New Zealand without you and we thank you for all the work that you do. To the cleaners whom we know are appallingly paid here but who keep our workplace healthy and functional again we want to thank you. You too are a silent invisible workforce in this place and we appreciate the work that you do on behalf of the Greens and I think on behalf of all members.  
This has been a great year to be a Green. Thousands of hours of our work have delivered the best election result for the Green Party yet and we are only just getting started. You might remember 1996; we began our parliamentary time as just a few members within the Alliance. We have continued to grow as an independent principled political force that is now cemented as the third-largest political party in Aotearoa New Zealand. We thank all of our members our supporters and our voters who helped to get us here. We are in the process of creating a greener Aotearoa a richer New Zealand where everyone is cared for our environment thrives and our economy is resilient ready for the challenges of the 21st century—a modern progressive Aotearoa.  
My co-leader Russel Norman today began our Green parliamentary term reminding us of the common values that are shared by us all and reflected in the holiday period to come. I do not think it was expected by members that he would do such a thing. But those values are common: compassion justice sustainability love—love for our country love for our people a love that is honoured by our actions and not just by our words. I have to say that it was with great distress although no surprise to hear the Speech from the Throne today perpetuate this National Government’s attacks on beneficiaries and to hear the Prime Minister in his address today restate the myth that work is a path out of poverty. The truth is that it is not. For the two in every five children who live in poverty whose parents work work is not the pathway out of poverty. Work is the trap because work is not properly paid. There are not enough jobs in this country and those jobs are not paying enough for our families to survive. With the minimum wage so low and with the prospect of the youth wage being reintroduced there is simply no relief from this Government for our families who are struggling.  
Families who have found themselves without work deserve compassion and fair treatment particularly those who are caring for children and particularly women. This Government’s intention to effectively abolish the domestic purposes benefit a benefit used most by older women with children whose husbands have left them is a direct attack on women and their children. It is in my view the most misogynist Government policy we have seen in some decades. Forcing these women to relinquish their responsibility as mothers to work in miserable poorly paid inappropriate jobs and to leave their children in unsafe situations in poorly regulated low-quality childcare under the duress of poverty for fear of losing their benefit is misogyny in practice. This Government will leave children in unsafe situations. It will be the children who pay for this misogynist policy and their mothers will be blamed if anything goes wrong while National Ministers sit back and enjoy their luxury holidays. There is no luxury here for the families who will suffer under these policies. I am joined by my Green colleagues in condemning this misogyny and we commit to fighting alongside other Opposition members for New Zealand women and for their children against these vicious anti-women anti-children attacks.  
But it is not just in the Government welfare policy that we see this kind of—in my view—sexism play out. Women’s productivity remains ridiculously underrated and underpaid. That is a fact made very plain by my colleague Catherine Delahunty’s member’s bill and the weird antics of Alasdair Thompson—I do not know if you remember; it feels like a million years ago but it was not that long ago—who really set out the values there really clearly. We need only to reflect of course for an example. If you want an example we need only to reflect on the example of the woman who cleans John Key’s office. There is a woman in this building who cleans John Key’s office at night. He does not see her; he is busy doing his other things. She is in his office in the evening. She is cleaning his office and his kitchen. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No she’s in his office in the mornings actually. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: In the mornings? Early in the mornings she is cleaning his office and his kitchen. She is cleaning his toilet and kitchen so that he has somewhere safe and clean to eat from and somewhere safe and clean to poo in right? She gets $14.50 an hour for the cleaning of John Key’s office—the cleaning of his kitchen and the cleaning of his toilet. She cannot afford to buy proper Christmas presents that she wants to get for her grandchildren because she is so poorly paid. This is a Government that will happily keep the minimum wage at just $13-odd an hour. They are quite happy to keep her on $14.50. They think that is all she is worth but I know that the Green Party the Labour Party the Mana Party and the Maori Party all agree that this woman’s work is actually worth much more and that she deserves respect she deserves compassion she deserves justice and she deserves a proper wage for doing a proper job. But this Government—National John Key—does not care about that and that is a shame. I am really disappointed in that. We can see the misogyny not only in the welfare reforms but even in the failure to acknowledge that people should be paid a decent wage for a decent day’s work which is reflected in the sexism and misogyny of this Government.  
I acknowledge my party for the fact that we are the only caucus that has more women than men—eight women and seven men. [ 
Interruption 
] Six? Thank you. Maths is not my great thing. I think that is really good. That is about the Green Party embedding into our decision making the respect for women and the respect for women’s leadership at the highest levels. But it is no surprise that women are reluctant to become involved in the political process when even as we saw today when Winston Peters made in my view quite a sexist and racist comment that comment was not censured by the House. This House becomes a hostile place— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think there are two points of order. One is that it is out of order to accuse members of making racist comments and secondly this was a matter that was dealt with by way of a point of order and ruled on by the Deputy Speaker previously. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Speaking to the point of order yes the matter was ruled on by the Deputy Speaker. The Deputy Speaker said he would park the issue and we would continue with the debate. I think it is a matter of right that I am able to raise these issues in my speech as part of a debate without necessarily re-raising the issue of the point of order itself. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: We do not need to take up a lot of time on this. All I ask is for members to be a little thoughtful about what they say. As the Hon Trevor Mallard has pointed out to use the word “racism” or “racist” in this House we know is offensive to people. I know that the member did not accuse anyone of being racist but did refer to some comments as being racist. All I ask is for a little more care in the use of language. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. I would note that if it is impossible for members to even raise the issue in this House—to not even be able to use the words to try to discuss the issues in this House—then this place becomes a hostile place for those who may suffer from those attacks or from those comments or who take personal offence. If you cannot even say the words then that is a problem. This place is hostile to our communities. We have just come out of an election where thousands and thousands of people have voted for us to be here to represent their views and concerns. We in the Greens take that responsibility seriously. We are here to speak for our people so this Parliament must enable us to have the opportunity to have those debates in a real way and to make sure that this House properly reflects the needs of all New Zealanders and their concerns and that we can talk about those things in a robust way that does not shut down debate and certainly does not allow for the ongoing personal abuse of others whether in this House or outside. This is a problem that we have here. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member’s time has expired. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. Tena koutou katoa.