Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Minister for Women): Tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. Following my colleague Chlöe Swarbrick I wanted to talk about my reflections on this the beginning of my ninth year as a representative in this House. I thought back to my maiden speech and I recalled that one of the major factors that led to me putting my name forward to stand for Parliament and to come to this place was an absolute belief that democracy is possible and that this place should be a place that solves problems on behalf of all of our citizens and residents here in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is entirely possible that we can have constructive meaningful debate that reflects the many shared values and differing interests of all the people who live in this country.Like many other countries in the world and as my colleague has pointed out there is perhaps a sense that people are losing faith in their representatives and in the ability of democracy to solve the biggest challenges that we are facing. The reality is that here in Aotearoa New Zealand like other places there are barriers to achieving a better future; there are barriers to achieving equality and that fundamental right that I think we would all agree all humans have to a warm healthy affordable home; to clean water; to sustainably produced healthy nutritious food; to a future that is not going to be marred by climate chaos that is increasing.We could have transport systems that enable us to get around our communities in ways that don't rely on fossil fuels that don't take up so much land that don't result in congestion and that lead to happier healthier communities. We know this is possible. We've seen it happen in many many other places. Even here in Aotearoa where we've invested in great public transport people use it; where we have safe separated cycleways people use it; where we have had in the past investment in State homes it has made a difference and we have reduced homelessness.And of course this Government has taken steps to address some of these challenges but the truth is that we need to go further and faster. The major barriers that I see to us achieving this incredible vision which I think almost all New Zealanders would agree with are twofold. One is a kind of belief that things are this way because they have to be this way and they couldn't possibly be different. I see that we're constantly defending the status quo and that there's a bit of a fear of change.But the second barrier is much more insidious and that is that the people who profit from the injustice and the pollution that we have in the status quo are putting money into campaigns to protect their privilege. The thing that helps them most is not just the money and the power that they exert; it's actually that they perpetuate this belief that things cannot be changed that these people here in this House are not here to represent the ordinary person that they don't have the ability to participate in this system of governance to make decisions collectively for all of us and decisions that will benefit all of us. I believe there's an alternative. I do. I believe that we can change in a way that is going to lead to a multitude of benefits and we can have much more constructive and productive dialogue in this place. The reality is that this preference towards the status quo and the people who profit from it is damaging nature it's stealing the future of young people with climate change and it is leading to an increasingly divided population. Here in Aotearoa and overseas we can see this happening because people have been marginalised and excluded they don't have enough to make ends meet they can't respond to the problems that we are facing. [Interruption] SPEAKER: That was my fault. I hit the—take about a minute.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Thank you Mr Speaker. So how do we do this? How do we fix this? Well firstly we need people to get involved. If you believe that things can be better if you believe in protecting nature if you believe in a fair and equal society get involved in this political system. We need your voice we need your vote and we need you to be involved.Secondly we need to work together to solve our collective problems. We have to recognise that those politicians who promise more of what we've always had and who will deliberately set out with attack ads that mislead and breed fear and division in our population must be ignored. They must lose in the political fight that we're going to have for the election. We need to say that is not what we want. Don't give in to fear. We are a community who can work together to solve our problems. Don't believe those who will tell you that it's farmers versus urbanites that it's younger people versus older people or that it's the rich versus the poor. The reality is that too few people benefit from our current system and together we can change it.