Carter Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Carter Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1293] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 Salam alaikum Madam Assistant Speaker peace be upon you. I greet you in Arabic with a universal Islamic greeting because pride in New Zealand in an emerging New Zealand way of doing things as well as in an emerging New Zealand identity was something the Prime Minister spoke about in her speech. So I am proud to stand up in this House and greet you Madam Assistant Speaker with “salam alaikum” because the Muslim culture in our country along with a whole range of other cultures in New Zealand society is shaping a new New Zealand identity. New Zealand is dealing with the realities of being a globalised multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. 
The Prime Minister spoke of the emerging New Zealand identity and that is what I would like to speak about today. I am part of a Government that is proud to represent a nation of many languages many cultures and many ethnicities. This Government does not regard diversity as a threat; it regards it as an asset for our country. Indeed diversity through the increasingly diverse origins of so many New Zealanders is about building a strong economy. It is about bringing energy and investment into our country. More particularly it is about building a New Zealand where every New Zealander’s own unique heritage is respected whether that heritage comes from our traditional and original Polynesian settlers—the iwi who settled in this country some 800 years ago; whether it is the Anglo-Celtic origins of many of those early settlers who came from Britain Ireland and Scotland; whether it is the Chinese culture whose people first settled in our country during the gold rushes and who have come much more recently in a large wave since the 1990s; whether it is the culture of India; or whether it is the culture of the Middle East. Indeed the range of ethnicities in our country as many members of this House will be aware through their constituency work and attendance at functions is incredibly diverse. 
That is a good thing for New Zealanders and a good thing for the future well-being of our country because the world itself has an increasingly globalised market and a globalised labour force. So young New Zealanders of the future who are comfortable with different cultures are skilled in different languages and have an understanding of the cultures that shape those languages will be young people in a globalised world who are enriched better at seeking jobs—because they will understand the globalised market—and culturally much stronger and more I use the word again enriched. That is the way of the future; that is what our planet is evolving into. That is good for our society because there is an inevitability about it. 
National identity is not cultural homogeneity. It is people of different beliefs agreeing on common aims and aspirations; it is people focusing on their similarities not their differences. As Minister for Ethnic Affairs in this Government I am proud to be the Government’s voice and its handshake to the many ethnic communities in this country. I have spent 3 years in my role as Minister for Ethnic Affairs and I have to say that I feel very optimistic about the future of this country. I think that of all the migrant countries on earth—places like the United States Canada Australia and increasingly all of the European countries—New Zealand has perhaps the best chance of making it work here because the basic New Zealand ethos is the sense of giving people a fair go. I detect that in this country there is a willingness by the vast majority of New Zealanders to respect each other celebrate diversity be comfortable with difference and make a multi-ethnic and multicultural society work. 
Besides being Minister for Ethnic Affairs I am also privileged to be Minister of Conservation. The emerging New Zealand identity is not just about people of different ethnic and cultural origins it is also about people who are passionate about their natural environment. What is it that makes us special as New Zealanders? If we went around this Chamber around the people who are listening in the Speaker’s gallery today and indeed around the people who are listening to this debate on the radio and asked every one of them what is special about being a New Zealander I suspect that almost all of them would make some reference to our landscapes and to the special places of our country whether they are the seascapes the forests the mountains or our unique and vast marine environment. They would touch on that as part of the essence of what it means to be a New Zealander. 
They would also probably make reference to the unique species that live in both our terrestrial and marine environments. Why is it that New Zealanders love whales? The question is broader than that: why is it that New Zealanders love the native species that make up our unique natural environment? They love the species not just for their intrinsic value but also because they are about the definition of who we are as New Zealanders. As there is a growing sense of national identity—a sense of uniqueness about being a Kiwi a New Zealander—it is part of taking ownership of that natural environment and the species that are found there. 
So we as a Government have a special responsibility—one that we have embraced with gusto—to protect what is special about New Zealand and our New Zealand environment. Since 1999 when the Labour-led Government came into in office funding for the Department of Conservation for example has increased by 40 percent. We set up the biodiversity funding of $187 million to protect our unique New Zealand biodiversity. In addition the Nature Heritage Fund an organisation funded by central government has purchased quite a lot of unique physical sites on the coastline—and for exampleBirchwood Station in the high country of the South Island—to preserve them as open spaces for all New Zealanders to enjoy forever. That is part of a whole package by this Government which is about protection of the New Zealand identity the New Zealand landscape and the unique species that are found there. 
I take my responsibility as Minister of Conservation very strongly. I see myself as having a special burden if one likes but it is one that I am happy to carry. It is making sure that we lose no species at all and that we expend the resources which of course are taxpayers’ resources. It is a sacrifice for the community to give those resources to empower the Department of Conservation to do its biodiversity work and to purchase land for the public estate. It means that funds are taken from other priorities like health and education to do that but this Government really believes that we have a special responsibility about our identity as New Zealanders about future generations of New Zealanders and about being special for New Zealanders. [ 
Interruption 
] 
I hear an Opposition member commenting. He is a man who I believe if I recall correctly from the last election campaign has a special dislike of cats. I tell the member for Rakaia that I agree with him that cats in the wrong place are not good. They can be a real nuisance in the natural environment. 
That touches on pest management. I am pleased that the Prime Minister talked briefly in her speech about our responsibility to deal with biosecurity issues. I am pleased to say that in our work with United Future in particular as well as with the Green Party we are working on that issue to make sure that we do indeed empower ourselves with the ability to look after our unique natural environment. 
I see that I have only a couple of minutes left so I would like to touch very briefly on my final responsibility which is as Minister of Housing. Social housing is about how a community looks after itself. 
Simon Power 
: Social housing? It’s just housing. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I hear some chuckles from the other side of the Chamber. I have to say that the measure of a fair society is how it looks after those who are least able to look after themselves. Every developed country struggles with the issues of having social housing and of caring for people who through circumstances are not able to afford decent housing themselves. Accidents occur people lose partners people get sick—all sorts of things happen in any community. In a modern developed country how we look after those people—how we provide the safety net—is a measure of how caring and healthy a society is. European countries Australia Canada and others are well down this path. We are too. I am proud to say that we are a Government that introduced income-related rents for housing. We recognise that different people have different abilities to pay. We recognise that there will always be a need for social housing in any community. We are absolutely committed to every New Zealander having a decent home to live in because that is an investment not just for now but for the future. 
There has been a lot of comment in the media about Mr John Key—a man who it is said is after the top job in the National Party. He grew up in a State house. He is a good example of how every family in New Zealand given a chance can succeed.