SpeechHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Mr Speaker we certainly couldn't start this without my favourite sister being seated in the front of the gallery. Oh no that way [Points to the gallery] No—anyway I've got so many of them just putting it out there. I was sitting in the hairdresser's chair—I don't know if anybody noticed but I was sitting in the hairdresser's chair—at about 11 o'clock this morning after having bunked off my Speaker duties. I wanted to make myself presentable for this important speech—you know 18 years; maybe I have made a contribution. You know it's really important—I just wanted to give it something and my hair was going to do that. So the hairdresser was back-combing me and he looked at me and he said Were you really on Play School?" And I thought to myself "OK there are some things you just cannot leave behind!"When I entered Parliament in 2005 I did that to serve my community of Otago; my province. So I came in as the member of Otago. As electorate boundaries changed I became the MP for what is now known as Waitaki which is twice as big and one of the big five blue electorates in the New Zealand Parliament. You know I've always smiled as other MPs in this House talk of "getting around" their electorate. For me getting around has meant traversing Central Otago the Upper Clutha and Wānaka the Waitaki Valley the Mackenzie Country East Otago North Otago Waitaki District itself and South Canterbury. That's nearly 10000 kilometres of roads in total and obviously there's an enormous amount of driving involved in getting around the traps. You know I can drive for eight hours a day or more in a recess week and I can do that for a few days in a row. So if my productivity was measured in meetings and engagements and constituency work it would be a major fail in the business environment—and this news I haven't shared with my leader. The real challenge though starts in the business involved in travelling to Wellington. So first question: where to fly from? It could be Dunedin Airport or it could be Queenstown. It could be Timaru Airport or Christchurch Airport. So on Monday of a House sitting week I work my way from my home base in Ōāmaru to say well Queenstown Airport stopping along the way in Ōmārama Tarras maybe Cromwell for appointments. Then I fly to Wellington—job done. The next challenge at the end of a sitting week is to decide where to fly back to and that depends on where in the electorate I need to be on Friday. So the next question is: will my car be at the right airport? Where is my car? And that is the question—quite seriously—that is asked very often.So for 18 years people have turned to me for help and advice. And while I am the wife of a well-known Ōāmaru lawyer I do decline to give legal advice. No I'm not magically a lawyer just by virtue of being married to one and no I won't casually ask Bill what he thinks about a constituent's issue. Some people have asked me to do that.I have the most wonderful team: Charlene Alice Rachael Charlotte Makona and Sarah. Most of them have been with me for many years and they really know their stuff. Their roles include looking after constituents managing my diary and being my eyes and ears around our many communities. And a large part of their work is organising getting me to where I need to be and back again. Although there was this one time back in 2007 when I was trying to find my way to a tiny remote rural school in the Maniototo in Central Otago. This was way before smartphones and Google Maps. I used an AA road map and it did not go well. So when the maps are folded they are this big right? But once you open them to try and find where you're going to be you're dealing with something that is like literally this big; it's really hard to do while you're driving. So I set off through Ranfurly past Gimmerburn and on to a really tiny remote school somewhere—somewhere—somewhere near Patearoa. Well of course I got lost. Actually I had absolutely no idea where I was and the stupid map of course was no help at all. I did have some signal that is a miracle in and of itself so I called the mothership my Ōāmaru office. All I could say was: "I'm lost". Pathetic yeah I know. To her credit Char—hi Char—may well have been rolling her eyes but her tone was very helpful. Long story short I didn't know where I was she had no hope of knowing where I was but that was the day she ordered me one of those newfangled satnavs. So I was sorted—except for the time when we set off this time all of us in the car for again the Maniototo. The highlight of the trip this time was to be a visit to the new Lammermoor whiskey distillery literally—literally—many miles from anywhere. Not only did we get very lost but we took a very wrong turn and ended up travelling on what best can be described as a goat track. It was so rutted it was becoming impossible to literally drive any further and can I just say that there wasn't much happy chatter in the car just at that point in time. So we ended up having to reverse back quite a long distance probably about a kilometre it felt or more before there was even enough room for us to safely turn the car around. And we were so late; we were very very late. But when we finally arrived our gracious hosts plastered smiles on their faces welcomed us into the distillery and gave us a nice dram of whiskey and happiness was restored.The Waitaki electorate is a special part of the country and one that I have advocated for and championed every step of the way. Over the years there have been issues that I have felt very strongly about and have campaigned tirelessly for. I think of maternity services in Wānaka and Central Otago—I have fought for years for the maternity facilities that this fast-growing region desperately needs and it's not the region that needs the maternity services it's the mums and the babies and the dads and the families. So I expressed cautious optimism when it was finally announced last year that a birthing facility had been secured and would be open in January of this year after it needed a short amount of renovation. Sadly my scepticism was justified as this important facility for our mums and babies has still not opened its doors and will not likely do so until next year. How many more babies will need to be birthed on the floor of the midwife's office or on the side of the road on the way to Dunedin Hospital? I just think it is a failure. I'll stay on health; recently many of you will have seen the headlines around Oamaru Hospital and the repeated closing of its emergency department during the night hours due to a locum doctor shortage. Just to give you a little bit of background on that when Healthcare Otago withdrew from health services in 1998 Waitaki District Health Services rose from the ashes. It is a company owned by the local community through the council. Waitaki Health Services took over the provision of health services for us and ever since then successive mayors including Mayor Gary Kercher council and Oamaru Hospital themselves have had to fight endless endless battles to get adequate funding. I just feel throughout that time that Oamaru Hospital has been very much the poor cousin to other health facilities elsewhere. You know recent closures of the emergency department are heartbreaking—heartbreaking. Hospital management have tried everything. It's particularly galling for the Ōāmaru community to have to compete with Te Whatu Ora for locums. How can that be?Part of the problem has been immigration policy. This has meant that the doctors and the nurses that we need have gone elsewhere these last couple of years. The region I have been very proud to represent has been held back by immigration settings which I don't believe in any way meet the needs of our local community and our local economy. Aged care hospitality agriculture horticulture—they've all suffered from lack of workers. Just while I'm at it we now have a proposed housing and commercial development just out of Cromwell being opposed by Waka Kotahi because it would mean that people would be too reliant on private vehicles. What? We have no public transport!It's not like Mayor Tim Cadogan and his council haven't tried. Any Government—and I mean any Government—needs to understand what life is like in places like Central Otago where there is a chronic and severe shortage of housing for workers. With 3 to 4 percent growth year on year we just need to plan for that and we need to make it possible because if we don't allow these projects to proceed if we don't allow for more housing affordable new housing New Zealand will never be able to thrive in the regions. And I'm here for the regions.So I want to acknowledge the mayors and deputies here today. Look I've so appreciated your willingness to work with me on matters that have been large and small across many years. It has been most helpful.Well just to brighten things up I want to acknowledge the members of the Kurow community who staged not one not two but three separate events to celebrate the opening of the new Kurow bridges. Full credit to them—they knew how to lobby me they knew how to lobby our Government and they sure as heck know how to party. Shout-out again to the council and all of those who worked so hard in the establishment of the UNESCO Waitaki Whitestone Global Geopark. That is a significant significant thing to happen for New Zealand and Australasia. It is the first in our part of the world. Again you're it—you're it you guys up there.Meanwhile back in Parliament early on in my career I tried and failed twice to get Easter trading reform through the House with two members' bills. I had more success with increasing the fines for the smuggling of native species and failed again with another member's bill which aimed again to protect native species. I've sat on many select committees over 18 years chairing four of them and I've really enjoyed the collegial and challenging nature of the work.Occasionally though there is some high drama in select committees—actually it can be a lot of fun select committees. We were in Christchurch with the Environment Committee some years ago hearing submissions on Resource Management Act reform. The room was absolutely packed and submitters and supporters were making some very strong points and the passion really just began to build. The chair was Nicky Wagner and she kept things well under control but ultimately things did get a bit too fiery so as chair Nicky did all she could do and she stood suspended the meeting and cleared the room so that everybody could cool off. Look I just want to thank you because I will never forget the professional way that the clerk of the committee faced the crowd. She wasn't a big lady but she faced the crowd and she calmly with authority cleared the room so that we could all go "That was intense." and then start again.I asked for the job of an Assistant Speaker and I've relished the role. My family in the gallery including four of my five siblings may well say that the role allows me to indulge my bossy tendencies but I couldn't possibly comment. Members may think that when I'm gazing into the middle distance with sort of an unfocused stare while they're speaking that there's not much going on in my head. Well I can assure you there is. There's a fast and furious internal conversation going on and it goes something like this: "Are they speaking to the bill? No they're not speaking to the bill. I just wish they would speak to the bill—how much time have they got left to go? OK they mentioned the bill; that's OK. They're not straying too far from Standing Orders. Oh good grief—they've still got two minutes. Never mind. Well OK so who's speaking next? I'm going to have to remember their name—oh my dear Lord! I call…" Anyway on it goes. It is a blast.You know what though? I don't always get it right and members certainly let me know when they disagree with my rulings—thanks very much. But more recently as some of the newer members have found their confidence and found their feet we've had some really good quality debate in this House and I think that democracy is being well served. I do have a plea: in the debate in the heat of the moment let's just play the ball—let's just play the ball.While I'm here I want to thank again the Office of the Clerk—endless source of support and advice. We'd be hopeless without the support of our officials so thank you all very much.A cross-party group of us have been considering the Debbie Francis report into bullying and harassment here in Parliament. We've made progress but there is more work to be done. While we've established the parliamentary commissioner for MP standards I believe that more clarity is needed in the expectations of what is good behaviour for all of us who work on the parliamentary precinct and who have signed up to the code of conduct. This is work for the next Parliament but you know it's a bit like what Patrick Gower said recently: he found himself at times forgetting that MPs were human—I really think that's something for all of us to think about.And my family all of you: I'm beyond thrilled that you're here and my friends. Bill you have been a most patient and supportive husband. Thank you. One of the best things about you though is that you intuitively know whether it's a "put the jug on" kind of welcome when I come home or a "Oh God I better quickly knock the top off a nice bottle of pinot gris" kind of a welcome. I mean the guy is just perfect. My adult children have shared me with constituents with the National Party and the wider public for the best part of 20 years. To Mick Steffy and Aiden: I'm so proud of you all.When I first stood for Parliament 18 years ago Otago was held by Labour and I was told by National Party whip Simon Power to "just win or else". Well I did win and I've won five more times after that but I have to say that last election in 2020 oh my God it got a bit dodgy at times. I've done all that with the support of family friends and amazing volunteers and supporters. I'd like to thank you all but I'd like to particularly mention Ele and Grant Ludemann who have given so much of themselves to the National Party and to causes dear to their hearts. To my littlest sister Ra who is so loyal and so politically very astute. For 18 years she has supplied me with gifts of barley sugars and muesli bars to keep me happy and safe in the car on long trips.Serving as a Minister in the Bill English Government was an honour and a privilege and I'm very proud of what our Government achieved in those nine years as we navigated New Zealand through the global financial crisis and built the economy the strong economy that New Zealand needed. Over the years I've held many roles across different portfolio areas and have been absolutely blessed with fantastic support staff in Wellington. Some of you are here today: Gareth Olivia Paige Charlotte Makona: I want to thank you.With the election only a few weeks away I want to wish all the best to the Christopher Luxon - led National Party. Christopher you are a fantastic leader and you have a very talented team full of energy focus and talent—and soon you will have a caucus full to the brim with new talent which is good because there's going to be plenty for you to do. It's a true privilege to have been a member of Parliament in the National Party and in this place and to have made my contribution. I want to acknowledge Madam President Sylvia Wood and wish Miles Anderson all the best as he aims to take the seat.Recently I was asked for advice on what the new crop of MPs should do when they're elected. My answer and I didn't even give it too much thought was—well it was simple: work hard read your papers put your phone down and remember why you are here and that's it. Man it's been tough sometimes but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you.[Applause]Sitting suspended from 6.20 p.m. to 7 p.m."