Mackey Janet: Valedictory Statements 
Mackey Janet: Valedictory Statements 
[Volume:627;Page:22187] 
JANET MACKEY (Labour—East Coast) 
: 
 Nearly 12 years ago the people of Gisborne elected me to represent them in this Parliament. I woke up the next morning and thought: “Janet what on earth have you done? You’ve conned them all; you’ve persuaded them you know how to be an MP.” Shortly afterwards I gave my maiden speech. I still felt like an impostor because I just did not feel as I thought an MP should feel. I was very proud to have a seat in this House but I was sure my tenure would be brief as a result of the good people of Gisborne coming to their senses. 
Today I rise to give my valedictory speech after 12 years of representing not only the people of Gisborne and the East Coast but also those of Wairoa Maraekakaho Crownthorpe Ohope Opotiki Taneatua Whakatane Ruatoria and a hundred other small communities. And I have to admit today that every 3 years I have woken up on the morning after the election and thought: “Janet what on earth have you done?”. 
My first months in Parliament were an absolute nightmare. Richard Prebble may have had trouble finding furniture; I had trouble finding my office. I have no sense of direction—for those who do not know me well—and coming from Gisborne I found this place an absolute labyrinth. It was no better in the electorate. On several occasions I have had to phone colleagues from neighbouring electorates to rescue me from God knows where in the middle of Hawke’s Bay. Thank you Rick Barker. I was invited several years ago to Crownthorpe School a delightful small school whose location I am still not 100 percent sure of. I accepted the invitation. I left Wellington early on Friday morning and found the school four Fridays later. The next week driving to Wellington from Gisborne I apparently took a wrong turn somewhere around Taihape and I drove past Crownthorpe School seven times. 
Parliament in 1993 was full of formidable and daunting people. The first time I went to get into a lift in the Beehive David Lange Jonathan Hunt and Koro Wetere preceded me. These are not big lifts. I got in the doors tried to close and the buzzer sounded to say that we were terminally overloaded. David Lange suggested that it would be very helpful if I got out. 
Last week Richard Prebble acknowledged David in his valedictory speech and I want to do the same. I had the unique experience for a lowly back-bencher of sitting beside David on the back benches shortly before his retirement. He was a wonderful bench mate in so far as he kept me amused for the whole of question time with his interjections. I wish I had written them down. I remember congratulating David on the birth of his daughter Edith. I said: “Why have you called her Edith? Is it after Edith Piaf ‘The Little Sparrow’?”. He said in that wonderful voice of his: “No it’s Edith Lange the little kereru”. I hope Edith does not hear this. He was also extremely irritating in that if I left my cryptic crossword unattended for more than a minute he would complete it by the time I got back leaving me feeling utterly inadequate. Shortly before he left Parliament I was able to seize the moment. David went out. He left his cryptic crossword on the desk with two clues still unanswered. I summoned up every ounce of intellectual energy I possessed and I finished those two outstanding clues. I was surprised that David did not immediately pick that I was the intellectual giant who had finished his crossword but after a while he did look at me and give me a couple of grunts. Over the years I have decided to interpret that as extremely high praise. 
But there was also the David Lange who proved to me that he was generous to a fault. Shortly before nominations for the Gisborne seat were called in 1992 I rang David with the news that the local law society which had bankrupted my ex-husband was now pursuing me for my house. David’s immediate response was to pay the law society and annul the bankruptcy. I declined his offer but I have never forgotten it. He continued to assist me with advice as I met the local law society in the District Court and then in the High Court. Shortly before the election I received notice that the law society was pursuing me to the Court of Appeal. I was of course unable to defend myself in that court and I could not afford a lawyer. David’s advice was: “Stall them Janet.” and I did. Three weeks after I was elected to this Parliament the society withdrew that application. I wish David and his family well. 
When I arrived in Parliament I was a single parent. If Muriel Newman were here I am sure I would be able to hear her grinding her teeth and I am sure that Larry Baldock is sending a quick one up for my poor fatherless household. I stood for the seat under first past the post and although the electorate was large by first-past-the-post standards I could still get home for dinner most nights when I was in the electorate. That is no longer the case under MMP. Looking back I wonder where I ever found both the nerve to stand and the energy to do the job. I had a big and marginal electorate that required not only hours of work but also hours of driving. I had small children living at home with a housekeeper during the week and on the weekends I was both mum and dad. 
I take this opportunity to thank my children Moana Erin and Turei for the good humour with which they have accepted—and in one case imitated—my choice of career. They have always supported me in my work. They have propped me up at times when I was flagging. What amazes me is that they have all turned out to be such nice people. They have grown up while I have been in this Parliament. Turei is off to Cuba after this election—and anyone who knows Turei will not be surprised by that. Erin is now a wonderfully competent chef working in Wellington and Moana will be the best MP the East Coast electorate has ever had. Can I say that that is just fine by me because I still intend to claim the credit. 
In 1993 I was a wee bit of an outsider. I was a single parent and I lost my job when I announced that I was standing for Parliament. So for a total of 8 months the children and I were very grateful for the domestic purposes benefit. It did mean however that I had no choice but to come first on the night and winning the seat on election night with a majority of 1900 votes was my second proudest moment. My proudest was being the first general seat Labour MP ever to win the East Coast booths and I thank Ngati Porou and the people of the East Coast communities for the unflagging support they have given me and the children for 12 years. That night my campaign manager thought that winning the first booth returned was the most momentous thing and he has called me “the member for St Mary’s Hall” ever since. Thank you Bevan for your valuable contribution which has lent much to the past 12 years. 
In 1996 I was really guaranteed a hiding to nothing. Under MMP the seat had expanded to take in every farmer from Hawke’s Bay to Opotiki. I was predicted to lose on the night by approximately 5000 votes. At 1 a.m. on election night the vote finally came in. My mum who had stayed in Auckland because she could not bear to watch me lose rang when the final vote was announced. “Oh Jan” she said “you’ve won.” Mothers say things occasionally that are very obvious. Then she said: “You know dear you were such a difficult wee girl but I think you’re going to turn out all right.” I had won two elections I was 42 years old and my mother was Irish. Mum died just weeks before Moana entered Parliament. I wish she could be here this evening; she would be so relieved that I am finally going to get a proper job albeit as a publican. 
I have tried over the years to deliver a good service across a vast electorate. I have four offices and there have been years when I have paid for extra offices myself. I pay tribute to all the staff who have struggled on less than shoestring budgets in my electorate offices to provide a great service to my constituents. To Peta in Whakatane to Lynda and formerly Di and Renee in Opotiki to Sue in Gisborne and Maxine and Lee who preceded her to Sonya Denise and Nigel in Wairoa: thank you all. 
Under MMP my electorate has continued to grow like Topsy. It now includes the whole of Whakatane Ohope Opotiki the entire East Coast and south towards Hawke’s Bay. One of the great mysteries of the workings of the Parliamentary Service is the determination that rural MPs who drive 60000 kilometres a year should receive 19c a kilometre for providing and using their own vehicle to do their job yet an urban MP who drives less than 5000 kilometres a year for some reason receives 96c a kilometre. I have always hoped that somebody would be able to explain to me before I go why this should be so but nobody has as yet. Nothing will change the fact that it has cost me a considerable proportion of my income to provide my own vehicle and drive it but I hope that my raising the issue here this afternoon may lead to a change for other rural MPs and for those who follow me. It seems to be a failure of Parliament’s administration that it just does not recognise that rural seats in New Zealand can be enormous yet a cornerstone of our political system is that all people should have access to their elected representative. 
Over the years I have developed a very rewarding relationship with the farming communities I inherited under MMP. I remember the first time a farmer contacted me. It was about 6 o’clock in the morning—as they do. The voice on the end of the phone said: “I suppose you’re not even out of bed yet even though half the day’s gone.” That was my introduction to telephone calls from farmers. They always ring me at 6 o’clock in the morning and I always return the call at 10.30 at night. Most of the contact I have had from farmers has not been about access issues or the Kyoto Protocol. It has always been about the school bus about the health system or about the risk of losing the second classroom in their two-classroom school building—and it is hard to believe that the Ministry of Education would leave any school in New Zealand with one room but it used to. Farmers have an extraordinary sense of responsibility to their communities and I have learnt to admire them and respect them. In fact when I talk to farmers I always get great pleasure from discussing with them the parallels and the similarities between farmers and the Labour Party. At the end of the day we are both paralysed unless we form a collective. I look forward to continuing my relationship with the farming community in the electorate albeit through a slightly different channel. 
I have done a number of things in my time here some big some small all of which have given me great satisfaction. In 1999 I chaired the review of firearms legislation and as a committee we travelled the country hearing 6000 submissions from firearms owners. I think I am probably the only select committee chair to have ever been roundly told off for calling a public meeting during the roar. I decided that the further south we headed the more sensible were the attitudes and arguments against gun registration although I have to say that the elderly gentleman in Dunedin who confided to us that he had built a cannon and was keeping it in his basement caused us all a wee bit of a worry. But I was pleased that my caucus accepted as did others the committee’s unexpected recommendation and another costly and inevitably ineffective bureaucracy was avoided. 
Writing a rural education policy recognising the unique challenges faced by my little schools was for me immensely satisfying. For so many years in New Zealand we have had a policy of one-size-fits-all whether it be for small rural schools or for their larger urban cousins. Singling out the issues that made life difficult and often impossible for small one and two teacher schools was very satisfying and I thank all the wee schools in my electorate which were so much a part of the development of that policy and so supportive of it. 
Finally persuading a Minister of Transport to allow the New Zealand Coastguard to claim back the road-user charge it paid on petrol and use it in saving lives for us on the water has made a real difference to a voluntary organisation that has to fund-raise for the hundreds and thousands of dollars it costs it to provide us with a vital service. Thank you Mark Gosche. 
Perhaps the thing that makes me most proud is looking out of my window and seeing new life in the provinces. Six years ago people were moving out of Gisborne in droves. Today they are breaking down the doors to get in. Six years of attention to and investment in the provinces has given us a new lease on life new growth new jobs new businesses new faces in the street and new children in the classrooms. I want to acknowledge the work this Government has done and also the work Jim Anderton has done in helping us to bring about an enormous regional revival. 
There are so many thanks owed. To my children to whom I owe so much and to Robb who is such a doer. If a hoarding needs to go up you do not make a note of it; you go out the door and you put it up. Thank you Robb for everything. He makes sure I eat he makes sure I rest and he makes sure I take time to have fun. Thanks too to my sister Lynore and Graeme. After working for my entire parliamentary career for Mark Gosche and Richard Northey they have now moved to Taneatua where they can work for Moana. To my friends and party folk in the electorate—there are too many of you to name. But to Pat and to Norman I have to say a special thanks. We have been working on campaigns together since the 1980s and you are the only two people I know who can make the worst part of election campaigns fun. 
To Status Taxis drivers my Wellington social life—you have provided me with a level of service at times that has gone way beyond the call of duty. I am going to miss travelling with you enormously. To lobbyists who approached me in my first year in Parliament—one of them on my first day in Parliament—and who today I am pleased to say are my friends. To Mark Unsworth who arrived in my office with a carton of Cocoa Pops for my son in 1993 and to Tony O’Brien from Sky known in Gisborne as “the man from Sky”. We have had a lot of fun over the years and I look forward to continuing our friendships. 
To the security staff and the messengers and in particular to Gray’s mum who has baked me date and lemon slice for years—thank you. To the people who have worked in my office including in 1993 the amazing Raewyn who I employed after she worked for Hamish MacIntyre. To this day I have no idea how Raewyn ever persuaded me to go with her to Cuba Mall where we ended up in Roger’s Tattoo Parlour but I still bear the scars. I will never forget Raewyn sitting there observing the damage being done and she said to me: “Hamish MacIntyre used to take me to prayer meetings.” To Adrienne who worked in my office and who in true Kiwi tradition 5 years’ later ended up employing my daughter in her restaurant thank you; and to Wendy my current parliamentary secretary. 
To the people who have made my coffee cooked my food and cleaned my parliamentary office I say thank you but in particular I want to thank our amazing select committee clerks. I do want to say here in their support that the new idea that our committees should lose all historical knowledge from one Parliament to the next because of a new rule that will force them to work on a different committee every 3 years would have to be one of the daftest ideas I have ever heard of. I hope that those who return after the election will support the select committee staff in making sure it does not happen. 
To colleagues and friends from all parties I wish you well in the next Parliament whatever its make-up and it is with a little sadness that I leave you all to run the country on your own. But I would ask you to remember that this is the seat of democracy. Democracy is something we talk so much about but I was taught that democracy requires tolerance towards different political beliefs. A little more tolerance and a little less personal attack in this Chamber may elevate Parliament and its members in the eyes and in the hearts of the people we work for. 
But my biggest thanks goes to the people of the East Coast electorate who have shown so much confidence in me and have been so extraordinarily kind to me and my children. When I was first elected I wrote in a column that I was sorry that I had not mowed my lawns but that they would be mowed and property values would go back up. Erin and Turei rang me from home and said: “Please don’t do that again mum. There are six men out front mowing your lawns.” Somebody continued to mow my lawns for a very long time. To this day I am not certain who it was but I have my suspicions. One summer I set about painting my large two-storey house. A constant stream of men in overalls came through the front gate telling me I could not possibly paint it myself. I came home one weekend to find it had been done. I have been hugged in the supermarket by complete strangers and then asked to wait there while they got their mother who was in the next aisle because she would like to hug me too. But best of all they voted for me and without them none of this would have happened. 
It has been a privilege to serve the people of the East Coast in this Parliament. It has been the best of times and the worst of times and if I had the chance to go back and do it again with a little tweaking yes I would. It has been an honour and a joy. Thank you all. Ka kite ano.