Mallard Trevor; Halbert ShananSPEAKER: I call Shanan Halbert for his maiden statement. SHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Tupu te toi whanake te toi he toi ora te toi he toi i ahu mai i Hawaiki. Tō purutanga tō tauwhanga tō taumuri ki te mana atua. Ka puta ki te whai ao ka puta ki te ao mārama.Ki te pāpā e tangi tonu ana te ngākau ki a koe kua riro nei. Ko koe tēnei i mate i te wā o te pōtitanga. Ko te tohu Māori e kī ana—nāu ngā tatau o te ao Pāremata i huaki anei ahau tō tamaiti e tomo atu nei. Waiho ko taku kawe i ō akoranga me taku mahi i ngā mahi hei mihi māku ki a koe. Moe mai e Pā moe mai moe mai moe mai rā.Ka huri atu e te iwi. E ngā rangatira—te iti te rahi e tau nei—tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Grow the treasure develop the treasure it is a living treasure the treasure that stems from Hawaiki. The call to wait the call to summon the call to the ancestors. Let us emerge into the world of light the world of enlightenment.To my elder the heart still mourns your passing. You left us during the election. I say in our own uniquely Māori way—you opened the doors to Parliament and I your protégé have walked inside. Let the things that I achieve with the learnings you have imparted to be my acknowledgement of you. Rest in peace Pā rest in peace.I return to those in this room. To my distinguished colleagues and distinguished guests to the few and to the many greetings one and all.]Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I am proud to stand here as the new member of Parliament for Northcote. I'm here to be a strong local voice for my community. I want to share my future vision for Northcote but I want to start with my personal story. It's one of modern Aotearoa. While Auckland is my home now I grew up in Napier. My family didn't have much money but what they did have was a whole lot of love. My mum was the main breadwinner. She worked at the local fish and chip shop she picked fruit she worked at St Joseph's Māori Girls' College and for the past 20 years as a checkout operator at Napier Pak 'N Save. She worked tirelessly for her employers despite the long hours and demands of raising a family. She is my example of why we should all support our essential workers. She's here today. Thank you Mum.And my dad. He served with the New Zealand Defence Force in Malaya and then worked in seasonal jobs including at the freezing works in Whakatū. He learnt te reo Māori at the age of 35 and later trained as a teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga. This is where I found my love of education. A devout Catholic he brought me up to love unconditionally. He was generous. In October last year dad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. We were told it was most likely caused by an exposure to asbestos back in his freezing works days. Dad was my biggest supporter and I dedicated my 2020 campaign to him and in return he promised he'd fight the cancer to be with me until election day. I last spoke to dad the night before the election and I was able to tell him again I love you Dad". Mum called me the next morning with the sad news that he had passed away in the night but he had kept that promise.What I am reminded of in this month is that even with the honour of being elected as a member of Parliament one is still human. I am still a son and grief impacts us all. My dad played a positive role in my life and supportive fathers don't always get the recognition they deserve. Today I also acknowledge all of the dads and parents in the room as well as those that are looking down upon us.Dad was laid to rest in the Moawhango Valley amongst our tūpuna amongst Ngāti Whitikaupeka who are here today and I honour them. I honour those that have carved this space before me. I stand on their shoulders cloaked with their struggles and I will continue their work. Today I especially mention one of my tūpuna Hiraka Te Rango a gifted leader who was a part of the Kotahitanga movement to establish the first Māori Parliament in the 1890s. My iwi Ngāti Whitikaupeka are proud that 115 years later we are represented here too.I'd also honour Rudy Taylor who recently passed. Rudy was the chair of our Labour Māori Council. He believed in building relationships and bringing people together even in our most challenging of times.My parents taught me to work hard. Mum lined me up with a paper run at the age of 10 with the Daily Telegraph and at the age of 12 at the Continental Fish Supply in Napier. I joined the Labour Party because of the social values that my parents taught me: that everyone not just those at the top deserves a good education and a job afterwards; that everyone has a warm dry place to live and access to good healthcare when they need it. I am a beneficiary of growing up in Māori housing in the 1980s with my parents in our family home and years later buying my own home because of the KiwiSaver fund that enabled me to establish a deposit.With a Māori father and a Pākehā mum being Māori is an intrinsic part of who I am. I bring those values to this House: kotahitanga whanaungatanga manaakitanga—unity kinship kindness. These are also the Labour Party values and they are values that I believe will form strong vibrant communities in Northcote and in Aotearoa. In 2018 the Hon Kelvin Davis delivered this Labour Government's commitment to Crown Māori relations using the concept of a bridge te arawhiti. For the longest time Māori had to cross over that bridge just to talk to our counterparts on the other side just to justify their place and aspirations in modern New Zealand. But under this Government the Crown is required to meet us on that bridge—that we make steps to come together. That's the leadership that I bring to our community and I invite all of my constituents in Northcote to join me along that bridge to build an even richer culture and identity and an even more inclusive Northcote.But my election was never my journey alone; it was also testament to the relentless positive energy of our local Labour team led by our electorate chair Hilary Chidlow. To all of our supporters our donors and our volunteers all of my aroha to you and thank you. I want to acknowledge my partner Anthony who is a front-line doctor at Auckland Hospital. I thank him for his support and I thank him for the relentless drive and faith that he has had in me.Thank you also to other family that are here and friends and colleagues from Auckland University of Technology and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa—many of whom are here today. I also acknowledge a few of our local heroes in Northcote who lift me up and whose causes I will take forward: former Labour Northcote MP Ann Hartley who is with us today; former MP Marilyn Waring an icon of our rainbow community; John Marsland honoured this year for services to community; Bella Powell who is fighting for lifesaving drugs for herself and others living with cystic fibrosis; and Anil Nathoo who runs a three-generational family business and is still active in supporting our grass roots community. Like these local heroes I hope to be a strong and brave local voice and I will never take my seat in this House for granted.I ran for Parliament to lead our community to lead our causes and strengthen the role that central government plays in our daily lives. Northcote is the perfect example of what New Zealand's future looks like: diverse and multicultural urban and green a local economy tied to a larger market. My vision for Northcote is based on living on learning and on earning; a strong local community where we can live learn and earn without crossing the Harbour Bridge unless we choose to.There are five things that we need to make this vision real: first everyone living in Northcote needs better transport solutions. Each family and each day presents unique transport requirements so what we really need are multiple options. I am committed to progressing affordable and accessible buses ferries and rail. For some groups there is a need for free transport. We need a toll-free SkyPath. An additional harbour crossing is a long-term yet urgently urgently needed project too. These are needed for Northcote residents to get to the rest of Auckland but also for the rest of Auckland to visit our incredible hospitality our retail and our green spaces.Second: healthcare including mental health support. I know the issues and sometimes tragic stakes in this area all too well. We recently lost one of our talented young men at our local Northcote rugby club and New Zealand still has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. As an electorate MP I will champion better access to primary healthcare in our community in our schools and in our poorer areas—including mental health services and Whānau Ora. I will also respond to something that is very personal to me—meth addiction—that has had an impact on both my family and Northcote's community.Third: as Northcote's wealth and population grow we need to fight growing inequality. To achieve this we need to build strong neighbourhoods welcome people with diverse ethnicities and incomes and maintain our proud history of social and affordable housing. I will champion for North Shore communities who need Government support and services and I will build on my work as the chair of the Birkdale Beach Haven Community Project.Fourth: learning on the North Shore should be attractive and accessible. I've spent over 15 years working in the business of education supporting others into higher learning and ensuring that everyone has the same educational opportunities that I did. I am passionate about extending beyond our university provision on the shore and bringing more tertiary education options to Northcote including polytechnics wānanga and trades training.Finally: earning in Northcote is essential. I am a huge supporter of our local retail and small businesses which are a big employer locally. As we build back from COVID-19 I want our businesses to prosper to train apprentices create well-paying jobs across our electorate and build our local economy. Supporting local retail and small businesses is going to be a central focus of my time in Parliament. The last Government made huge progress to make Northcote a better place to live learn and earn: rebuilding Onepoto Primary School our only decile 1 in Northcote; a $60 million investment to improve facilities at Northcote College; SkyPath—there are too many examples to list. The last Government launched this work and it's now my job as the new local MP to see it through.The class of 2020 are proud to be a part of this progressive inclusive Labour Government led by Jacinda Ardern Kelvin Davis and Grant Robertson. We will continue to take action on the big generational challenges from inequality to climate change. We will be a Government for everyone and I will be a local MP for every constituent. My personal leadership style is about bringing everyone together and I have always felt a sense of urgency to seek new pathways new opportunities and to get things done—and my time in Parliament will be no different. No reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Applause]Waiata"