Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
[Sitting date: 21 December 2011. Volume:677;Page:65. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
December 4 5 6 11 12 13 18 19 and 20. 
What a year we have had. Can I start by thanking our Speaker for presiding over this House throughout 2011. I thank the Clerk’s Office the Hansard Office the Parliamentary Counsel Office security staff and messengers all the House staff VIP drivers Bellamy’s staff the Diplomatic Protection Squad Parliamentary Service Ministerial Services the cleaners who work here through the nights and the groundspeople who make our Parliament grounds look so good and keep them accessible for the public to enjoy. I wish them all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year and as the Minister of Police can I tell them to drive safely lock up their valuables and keep themselves and their families safe.  
Can I also add my congratulations to the Speaker on his re-election and to you Mr Roy as Deputy Speaker and the two Assistant Speakers. We all look forward to another good year of management of this House.  
It has been an extremely eventful year that has had its challenges. There is no doubt that some of the challenges this country has faced have been unprecedented but we have also seen wonderful success. Our thoughts are with the people of Christchurch. They have had two severe earthquakes—in February a disastrous one and then one in June—but of course they live with the thousands of aftershocks that occur on almost a daily basis. At this time the House’s thoughts are with them as most of those families continue to battle to get some sort of normality back into their lives.  
Our thoughts also go to those families from the Pike River mine disaster who will face a second Christmas without their boys home and all those who have suffered this year through the elements both in my area the Bay of Plenty where we have seen unprecedented rainfall causing enormous slips and damage to life and property and just recently the Nelson floods. I also want to mention the  
Rena  
and the disaster that that wreaked on the beaches of the Bay of Plenty. But the extraordinary resilience of New Zealanders has to stand alongside that from Christchurch to the example of the  
Rena 
 where we saw thousands of New Zealanders who were so concerned about what was happening to their local beaches that they volunteered for the clean-up in a way that has not been seen anywhere around the world. That sort of action makes you proud to be a New Zealander.  
But I guess if there was ever a time that we all felt really proud to be a New Zealander it was during the Rugby World Cup—not just when we won it although that sure was a magic moment but during the whole time of the Rugby World Cup when New Zealanders opened their hearts and communities to the rest of the world. Some of those extraordinary small gestures that were made to our visitors by New Zealanders made us proud to be part of this great country.  
Then we come of course to the wonderful end to this year with the re-election of a John Key - led National Government. That was the best news for us. We also want to pay tribute to our support parties: ACT United Future and of course our colleagues in the Maori Party. Again what a wonderful country we live in. We have a safe and organised democracy and we even got to make a choice about the system of voting we want to have in an orderly and sensible manner. If you contrast that with some of the sacrifices that some people around the world in countries like Libya and Egypt have had to make—the ultimate sacrifice in some cases—to actually be able to play a part in deciding who governs their countries it is beyond me why we still have so many people who make the choice not to vote. At a time like this so many people decided not to vote.  
However I extend our congratulations to all those MPs who are returning. It is great to see so many familiar faces surviving the election process and a welcome to all of those 26 I believe new MPs who are taking places in this extraordinary debating chamber for the very first time. I want to pay tribute to a man on the Opposition benches—Phil Goff. He has a fine parliamentary record. Being the leader of an Opposition party is probably one of the toughest jobs in Parliament. It probably runs a close second to being a National Minister of Education; it is up there. He ran a fine campaign as the Leader of the Opposition.  
To the new leadership of the Labour Party David Shearer and Grant Robertson I say welcome and congratulations. I think you are going to have to do a bit better in the House than you did today because even some of your own members went to sleep. However we will see next year because 2012 will undoubtedly bring many new challenges. Today’s world is a very challenging place for a small trading nation like New Zealand tucked down at the bottom of the world but this National-led Government has laid out its plans to change our fortunes and build a bright future for New Zealand in today’s Speech from the Throne. We have a fantastic leader in John Key and a wonderful front bench who will take this country forward.  
I want to close by thanking the people of the East Coast electorate the city of Gisborne and the communities on the East Coast who will be the first to see the 2012 year—the towns of Whakatane and Opotiki and the communities of Edgecumbe and Matata who will face 2012 fighting against that creeping disaster that is called  
Pseudomonas syringae  
pv.  
Actinidiae 
. It is not going to be an easy year for 
that part of my electorate. But I want to thank them all very much for the privilege of representing them again here in Parliament. I look forward to continuing that throughout 2012.