Parmar Parmjeet: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 28 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:292. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National):Esteemed guests and colleagues friends and family I will start by offering my congratulations to the Prime Minister and the National team for securing a historic win and a well-deserved third term. May I also congratulate all new Ministers and MPs and you Mr Speaker on your re-election. It truly is an honour and a privilege to be part of this high-performing team and to serve my fellow New Zealanders.I would like to especially thank our leader the Rt Hon John Key for being a source of inspiration to me and many other New Zealanders. I would like to acknowledge the National Party leadership team especially the president Peter Goodfellow board members Alastair Bell and Malcolm Plimmer northern regional chair Andrew Hunt and former regional chair Alan Towers. Thank you to the Hon Paula Bennett the Hon Maurice Williamson Belinda Milnes and Ele Ludemann for their encouragement and support. To my campaign chair and team especially Diana Freeman Gavin Logan and Rita Van Pelt—thank you. A special thanks to our volunteers and the Young Nats—you all are amazing individuals. I am also thankful for the tremendous welcome I have received from the community.As my colleagues will agree none of this would have been possible without the support of my family. My husband Ravinder Parmar has given unwavering support. And thanks to our boys Jagmeet who turned 18 a week before the election and voted for the first time and Abhijeet who is 12 and very eager to become a teenager.Earlier this year I was chosen by the National Party as the candidate for the Mt Roskill electorate and I am extremely proud to have repaid its faith in me by winning the critical party vote in Mt Roskill. Now I am a list MP who has the privilege of looking after the Mt Roskill electorate. About 39 percent of the residents in Mt Roskill are of Asian ethnicity which is more than three times the national average of 11.8 percent. Just under half of the people in Mt Roskill in 2013 were born overseas and I am one of them. Mt Roskill reflects the growing diversity of our country and it is clear that the National Party reflects that diversity. Mt Roskill comprises small businesses professionals and hard-working people looking to get ahead in life. I can assure them that my values and those of the National Party align with their goals and aspirations.I was born in India one of four sisters to very hard-working parents. My father Sham Jaswal is now retired after proudly serving in the Indian Air Force for 38 years. As you would expect our home environment mirrored the morals virtues and also the discipline of the armed forces. Actually I am grateful to my dad for that. My mother Kuldeep Jaswal looked after the family and I spent my early years travelling with my parents from one air force base to another. Those early years of changing schools every 3 to 4 years and moving between different air force bases in different states of India helped me to learn about different cultures and lifestyles and also taught me how to make friends quickly. I remember it being a very busy time.Both of my parents worked hard to raise us and to provide for us. Like many of my colleagues education was extremely important in my family. I remember during my final years at school the exciting new field of biochemistry becoming a proper subject and a popular topic of discussion at school which attracted me to the study of biochemistry. I left school wanting to become a scientist to find cures for deadly diseases so I completed a BSc in chemistry and an MSc from the University of Poona India. During this time studying biochemistry I realised the importance of gene cloning strategies to identify the cause or causes of diseases and I decided to do my PhD in this field.But then as is traditional in my culture I married Ravinder in an arranged marriage and came to this amazing country to join him and start a new life with him in New Zealand. On arriving here in 1995 and settling into life in Auckland I wanted to continue my education at the University of Auckland. I was lucky enough to find Associate Professor Nigel Birch at the University of Auckland to supervise my PhD. He is one of New Zealand’s great scientists and he played an important role in making me a scientist. To be technical for a minute for my PhD I investigated a possible role for neuroserpin in neurite outgrowth by its over-expression and under-expression in two types of cell lines. Neuroserpin is a serine protease inhibitor predominantly expressed in neuronal cells during the late stages of neurogenesis and in the adult brain during synaptic plasticity. The result of my research suggested a new role for neuroserpin in neurite outgrowth in-vitro and my published papers highlighted the physiological importance of neuroserpin with emphasis on its role in neurite outgrowth neurite regeneration and maintenance in the nervous system. Simplified my work looked at whether it was possible to use it to re-establish connections in the brain. My postdoctoral work built on this research and then later I moved into research on retinitis pigmentosa—an inherited degenerative eye disease that causes progressive vision loss.By this time while working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Auckland I felt it was time to put my training into a more practical realm and I decided to move into the commercial sector. After spending some time in the scientific commercial sector I decided to use my skills to move into business and I joined my husband to start up natural health products manufacturing within our existing facility which was being run by Ravinder to make confectionery and chocolate products. My days in business were focused on product development improving efficiencies and productivity and providing the best possible environment for our staff.My time in my manufacturing business gave me an in-depth understanding of our local and international markets our food manufacturing sector and our regulations and how we compare with international markets and how our manufacturing in New Zealand is distinctive from other countries. Our local innovation keeps us one step ahead in the business world. We Kiwis are innovative people and full of ideas to start businesses. Although owning and running a business is stressful busy and often intense it is also rewarding. I am eager to work for our dynamic business owners so that their hard work pays off and their great responsibility is recognised.Like my family I have always believed in hard work. From Monday to Friday I was a scientist and then later a businesswoman and on the weekends I worked as a broadcaster for 16 years on an Indian radio station in Auckland plus of course there was my role on the Families Commission and the Film and Video Labelling Body of New Zealand. Somehow I managed to fit in raising our two boys and putting in more than a decade working in the community especially in the field of domestic violence. My values of strong caring families and communities personal responsibility and equal citizenship and opportunities mirror those of the National Party.During my time in this hallowed precinct I am eager to make a positive difference in a number of areas. Firstly in science and innovation and in particular the conversion of science to business. We are producing very highly skilled scientists and I do not want New Zealand to be just a breeding ground for good scientists; we need to provide opportunities for them to explore their scientific vision in our homeland to attract more interest and to retain that pride in good work. We need to supercharge the activation of the amazing research that is currently under way in New Zealand institutions and apply it to our businesses our industries and our products. I believe there are huge potential advantages just waiting for New Zealand to seize on.I am passionate about enabling and encouraging business. Small and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and 97 percent of New Zealand businesses are small businesses. If big corporates are doing well or otherwise we hear about it but small businesses often do not make the news even though they make up a significant part of our economy. They provide a career for those who value economic independence they supply components and services to large companies and they contribute to innovation and invention—something that all economies require. But behind every small business is a group of really hard-working people in different industry sectors and I think they need attention so they can keep making the contribution they are to our economy. I believe there is a lot more that needs to be done to help them thrive. I respect and admire the courage of all business people out there and those entrepreneurs who are starting up new companies.I believe in family values and in the need to mount a coordinated effort to stamp out domestic violence and to build resilience and respect in family relationships. For many years I have worked in this sector and have seen the impact of family violence on family members communities and in the long run on societies. We cannot afford to skirt round this issue if we want to increase the quality of life for New Zealand families. Plus it makes fiscal sense. Family violence has been estimated to cost the equivalent of the Canterbury earthquakes on our economy every year. Equally as important though is the significant negative impact that domestic violence has on children’s well-being—psychologically and socially. As an advocate for gender equality I also believe in merit. I am a proud member of a party and a caucus that do not believe in a quota system for women—I am here purely on merit and I would not have it any other way. I think many other Kiwi women feel this way. Equally although I am proud of my Indian heritage New Zealand is the only place I call home. I do not consider myself to be just an ethnic MP; I consider myself to be an MP who brings many perspectives and experiences along with my ethnicity which I will apply to the serious and important work of an MP in this House.With a multi-professional background as a scientist businesswoman community advocate broadcaster and mother and wife with strong family values I have come to the House determined to make a positive difference in the scientific world the business world and in our communities. I hope to use my professional background and my scientific background to simultaneously bring imagination and patience to my work here having learnt as a scientist that sometimes it takes multiple approaches to get an outcome. As a businesswoman I bring the energy drive and eagerness that are needed in a business person in order to see growth. As a community advocate who has worked in the heart-wrenching field of domestic violence I bring an appreciation of the effort and hardships of our communities.I am truly grateful for all of the experiences in my life which have given me the opportunity to evolve into the person I am today. Since becoming a New Zealander I have had 20 years of opportunities and I believe it is now my turn to give back. It is a privilege and an honour to be a member of a team that is working for New Zealand—the team led by the Rt Hon John Key. Thank you.