Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Well thank you very much Mr Speaker. On the night of 1 August I sat in my office upstairs here in Parliament House in a complete state of shock and some sense of terror. It was the day on which Andrew Little had resigned as the leader of the Labour Party and Jacinda Ardern had been elected. I want to say as Jacinda Ardern the Prime Minister did earlier today what I think was one of the most courageous acts in politics that I have seen which was Andrew Little deciding to step aside as the leader. It was an extremely difficult decision for him one I know that he anguished over and I just want to reiterate what I've said before in public again that I regard that as one of the most selfless things I've seen and I know that Andrew is going to be a magnificent Cabinet Minister and will show leadership in a way that others haven't from that role in what he did then.It was also not all that long that night after Jacinda Ardern had given her first press conference in the Legislative Council Chamber which I think if anyone ever on any side of the House in politics wants to look at how you handle a pretty difficult situation Jacinda did a magnificent job that day. As the Prime Minister of New Zealand she has shown what many of us knew for a long time: this was a person of character of intelligence of humour and of deep empathy. To me they are the characteristics of what makes a great leader in politics and we are seeing that every single day. I as someone who has known her as a friend for many many years want to say that I am so proud of that and so proud that she is leading our country.When I was sitting in the office that night on 1 August I read an article by a journalist that said it was complete madness that the Labour Party had decided to change leaders seven weeks out from the election and it would not be possible for us to win the election from that position but maybe we might save the—Hon Member: You didn't.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: —I'll come to that—we might save the furniture. It got me thinking about a song that I knew which I like very much which was Tim Finn's song It Couldn't Be Done". I played it in the office and while I was sitting listening to it the Hon Chris Hipkins came into my office and I turned the sound up. There's a line in the song that says "They said it couldn't be done and we had no idea that it couldn't be done and we needed to find a like-minded someone who had no idea that it couldn't be done." Well the Labour Party was lucky to find two like-minded someones who didn't believe that it couldn't be done and that was the New Zealand First Party and the Green Party.I want to acknowledge both of those parties for joining in a coalition agreement that does not believe that we should be satisfied with the status quo and does not believe that it can't be done. In fact we believe the opposite. We believe that there is so much more that New Zealand can do and that we can do that together. We come from different traditions but we have a shared belief that this country is a great place and it can be better still. So I want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Winston Peters and all of the members of the New Zealand First caucus for the decision that they made to join in this Government and to the Green Party of Aotearoa for joining along in a confidence and supply agreement to make the big changes that we've already heard spoken about by the leaders of both New Zealand First and the Labour Party today.Someone on the other side interjected just before and said "You didn't win—you didn't win the election." There was in my mind the greatest civics education exercise of New Zealand's life on Facebook: the steak and cheese pie post. I will run through it briefly because I think it's important to get it on the record of Hansard and I'm a person who likes the odd steak and cheese pie—too many I know you think that Mr Speaker. But the steak and cheese pie theory goes a little bit like this: Bill goes to the shop and there's one pie left in the shop—steak and cheese—and it costs $5.00. Bill's got $4.40 so not quite enough to buy the pie. Then Jacinda walks into the shop and she's got $3.70. She looks around and there's Winston Peters and he's got 90c and he says "I'm going to add that to go towards $4.60." Then James Shaw arrives and he says "Well I've got 80c." and suddenly Jacinda's got enough money to buy the steak and cheese pie. Now Bill's still in the shop and he looks around and he sees David but David's only got 5c so he can't help.Hon Simon Bridges: He hasn't got that much.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That's true Simon Bridges. He hasn't even got 5c but that's right.Hon Phil Twyford: He's got no sense.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: He has no sense at all. So at that point Jacinda and Winston and James can buy the pie. That's MMP because you've got to work together and you've got to have friends.Hon Simon Bridges: Why did I know Grant Robertson would have a pie analogy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: And of course I am going to talk about pies Simon Bridges. What do you expect? So New Zealanders actually get MMP. They actually understand that it requires to have a majority of the seats in this House and I am extremely proud as a person who campaigned for MMP in the early 1990s to see a genuinely MMP Government that is working together and cooperating together.I want to wish everybody who works in this complex a very very merry Christmas. Every single part of the operation that makes Parliament work is incredible. There are selfless people who work overtime to make sure that we as politicians and MPs can do our jobs. I want to mention just one particular part of that organisation. It's not one I've always been favourable about and that is the people who work in Copperfields in the cafeteria. The people themselves are great; the food's not fantastic.Hon Simon Bridges: He's back on food again—he's back on food again.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That's right. Gerry's not here Simon. I have to do this. But I want to pay tribute because tomorrow the staff who work there on behalf of that particular caterer will no longer work there. I want to pay tribute to them. I want to mention Mohammed who will probably watch this speech on Facebook from Egypt and I want to wish him all the best for this time of year. But I want to acknowledge those people who when their job changes when their employer changes it's difficult and I want to say thank you to all of those people here.Finally I want to thank all of the partners spouses and significant others and families of MPs. They do it tough especially now those of us who've had the transition into Government recognise that it's even tougher for families when people become Ministers. They deserve all of our thanks and for the next few weeks I hope all of us get to spend time with those people tell them how much we love them and enjoy Christmas. Merry Christmas to one and all Mr Speaker."