Carter Kahurangi; Brownlee GerryKAHURANGI CARTER (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for your service to Ōtautahi Christchurch my home. Thank you for your continued service in this Chamber and I look forward to hearing more of the start of your early days in Parliament with Uncle John. Māku rā pea māku rā pea māku koe e awhi e i te ara ara tuku māku koe e awhi e. [Perhaps it will be me perhaps it will be me perhaps it will be me to help you on the path the path of growth I will help you.]Ko te kupu te kupu ko te Atua te Atua ko Ranginui ki runga ko Papatūānuku ki raro ka mate ai te tangata. Ka pō ka ao ka awatea mauri ora. He kōtiro au o te kōhanga reo. E te iwi e te whānau e te Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Tainui te waka. Ko Karioi te maunga. Ko Whāingaroa te moana. Ko Hoturoa te tangata. Tainui Āwhiro; ngunguru i te ao ngunguru i te pō. He hokinga mai ki Te Nehenehe-nui taku Rourou-iti-a-haere Te Tokanga-nui-a-noho Te Kūititanga-o-te-whakaaro ko Waikato Maniapoto te iwi. Ko Ngāti Rora ko Ngāti Uekaha e mihi nei e tangi nei mauri ora. [The word is Scripture God is God Ranginui above Papatūānuku below as humanity passes on. Night brightens and turns to dawn health and vitality. I am a girl of the kōhanga reo. To the people the family and the House thanks and greetings to you all. Tainui is my canoe. Karioi is my mountain. Whāingaroa is my ocean. Hoturoa is my ancestor. Tainui Āwhiro that roars by day and by night. The return to Te Nehenehe-nui my Rourou-iti-a-haere Te Tokanga-nui-a-noho Te Kūititanga-o-te-whakaaro Waikato Maniapoto is my tribe. Ngāti Rora and Ngāti Uekaha greets you and grieves with you health and vitality to all.]When I was a little girl living by the river there was one character who spoke to me. Now Disney doesn't always resonate with me but these words did: You think you own whatever land you land on the earth is just a dead thing you can claim. But I know every rock and tree and creature has a life has a spirit has a name. You think the only people who are people are the people who look and think like you but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger you'll learn things you never knew you never knew." The places I have lived in in our beautiful country have shaped the person I am today. My mother raised my siblings and I in a country town in the south Waikato called Te Kūiti. My mum raised my siblings and I in nature. We loved to eat from our garden. We would watch as a small white flower would turn into a green fruit and ripen to bright orange. We would savour the sweet segments and toss the peels under the tree to give nutrients to the soil to grow more of our favourite fruit—a perfect circular economy one given to us by nature and the "OG CEO" Papatūānuku. We lived on the Mangaokewa river and learnt from the awa that the only constant is change. My siblings and I would swim in the rapids and we learnt from our teacher our awa. Children don't swim in that river today due to pollution—teaching us another lesson which is that we must do everything we can to ensure that your children and my children and every generation after can swim in our awa living in harmony with nature. When I was a teenager we lived on Lake Pupuke a dormant volcano and our favourite swimming hole. We were lucky to live there: when Takapuna Beach was closed due to pollution we could just run and jump in the lake. My grandfather Fred planted native bush on the lake and added a new tree for each of his descendants symbolising their belonging and growth through the seasons of time. When our tamariki started school we moved to a small alpine village and farming community in the foothills of Koro Ruapehu called Ōhākune. Koro taught us about respecting nature. When the conditions weren't safe it didn't matter that my kids' school had scheduled a ski day. We knew to respect our koro and respect the conditions. When our children started high school we chose to raise them in Christchurch. We were warmly embraced by the Christchurch community. It is evident on any given day when I walk the streets of Christchurch that we are creating a place for people and planet to live in harmony. In Christchurch we really feel the seasons and we learn about change. Hot dry summers at Rāpaki Beach; falling leaves in autumn; cool sunny days in winter; and colourful flowers in the spring all remind us that change is our constant. To my indigenous people around the world from our mountains to our rivers and our seas I stand with you. Ki uta ki tai. [From inland to the sea.]I come from a long line of orators: dignified eloquent witty Māori. Watching my pāpā on the paepae elevating people with his kōrero I see my brother stepping up to take his place on the pae and I know our future is in safe hands with this young generation of rangatahi. We are a proud people and I am so proud to represent you. Sitting in this room does not take the efforts of one person. For every politician here we have a village sustaining us. To the people who make our coffee and tea just the way we like it to the drivers who get us here and home safely to the pilots who return us home and bring us to Wellington for a fresh week to our cleaners Uber Eats drivers the friends who support us the staff who give us their best the volunteers who continue to turn up for us—thank you. It is the honour of my life to serve you.We've already seen changes to New Zealand with this newly formed Government. The result is an unwinding and unpicking of years of progress with real impacts. What does this mean for New Zealand? Just within my whānau my sibling the nurse is impacted by overflowing waiting rooms in a critically underfunded healthcare system at the point of collapse. My siblings the engineers are impacted with New Zealand's $200 billion infrastructure deficit. Historical under-investment and climate change pressures call for a bold approach. My sibling the lawyer is impacted by a severely underfunded legal system impeding access to justice. My siblings the teachers my parents the small-business owners my nan the artist my rainbow community my haemophilia community and all those affected by disabilities my children the students my friends the immigrants my cousins the farmers are all impacted by the decisions we make in this Chamber. My hapū my iwi are impacted by decisions we make in this Chamber. All New Zealanders are impacted by decisions we make in this Chamber.If we think of New Zealand as a boat a waka—where are we going? How do we work well together to paddle the waka most effectively for every New Zealander? Because the truth is that we are all in the same waka each other's waka. Growing up I played a lot of sport. Politics is a competitive sport. Athletes pursuing peak performance focus on training rest fuel hydration and stress management. Every famous person has an origin story. Every superhero has an origin story. Every villain has one too. Every origin story has circumstances and choices. The choices we make are constrained by our circumstances. In my origin story I didn't only make good decisions but I had lots of good decisions and choices available to me. How is New Zealand doing as a country when students are living below the poverty line? When the brightest minds for our future are having to make the choice between eating or heating how is New Zealand doing as country? If we treated these bright minds like competitive athletes focusing on the best conditions for their peak performance how then is New Zealand doing as a country?The opportunities I was granted by attending one of Auckland's top-performing schools in a well-resourced community meant the choices available to me were good choices. If these opportunities were available to all New Zealanders how then would New Zealand be doing as a country? I stand here and I look up and I see my people: tangata whenua tangata Tiriti our rainbow community our disabled community our artists my housing community my Para Kore people my siblings my chosen family. To Darcy for raising the most precious thing in the world to us—our children. To my Mum if my greatest achievement in this room is showing you that you belong here and that you are represented here this is our moment. In the words of my tupuna Rewi Maniapoto "Ka whawhai tonu matau"—we will fight on for ever and ever and ever. Ha ki roto ha ki waho. Breathe in breathe out. We did it! I am so honoured for the trust that you have placed in me. I stand here and I pledge my devotion to being worthy of your hope worthy of this seat and my ambition is to represent all New Zealanders every day.I would like to congratulate everyone in this room and all your supporters volunteers and whānau for your efforts for your sacrifices and everything it has taken to get you here. I see our place as custodians kaitiaki of these seats in this Chamber. We are here to perform and preserve for the generations to come. How can the waka of New Zealand move forward? How can we innovate and use historic lessons to move us beyond the same solutions we've tried before? As pioneers of many outstanding innovations New Zealand has the ability to shape a better future for all Aotearoa. Like an athlete wanting to exceed their personal best let's work together to exceed our collective best because Papatūānuku deserves it. Our rangatahi deserve it. Participative Governments lead democratically. Having empowered and participative citizens gives the people in this Chamber access to move perspectives to help give us a wide range of options to solve New Zealand's biggest challenges. You have so much more power in a society than two ticks every three years. I urge every New Zealander to stay informed and stay involved in the decisions made in this Chamber. Follow your local MP on social media and see what they're up to see how they are serving your community. Does their vision align with yours? The power lies with you the people.We live in a country of plenty. It's important in this current political climate that we unify and steer our waka to ensure we leave a legacy of abundance for future generations through the tides of time. Tai pō tai ao tai awatea. Mauri ora. [Night tides day tides the tides of dawn. Health and vitality (to all).][Applause hongi harirū]WaiataSPEAKER: All good. All right we have another speech to go and I now call upon to make his maiden speech to the House Scott Willis."