Brownlee Gerry; Xu-Nan LawrenceMAIDEN STATEMENTSSPEAKER: Members following the maiden statement the House will suspend for the dinner break. To make his maiden statement to the House I now call on Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan.Dr LAWRENCE XU-NAN (Green): [Singing]没有花香 没有树高我是一棵无人知道的小草从不寂寞 从不烦恼你看我的伙伴遍及天涯海角春风啊春风你把我吹绿阳光啊阳光你把我照耀河流啊山川你哺育了我大地啊母亲把我紧紧拥抱Tākiri ake ngā haeata o te rāKa pā ki te whenuaKi te rāwhitiKa ao ka ao ka awateaKa haukū a PapatūānukuKa ngāueue te whenuaKo Ranginui e tū iho neiKo Papatūānuku e takoto ake neiTūturu whakamaua kia tīna tīnaHaumi e hui e tāike e[The rays of the sun break the dawnThey touch the earthTo the eastThe dawn brightens into dayThe earth is humidThe land tremblesRanginui is abovePapatūānuku lies belowBind these words and make them realIt coalesces it assembles it is bound]It is an honour for me to open my speech in my native language Mandarin Chinese and the first language of Aotearoa te reo Māori. I was born in Tianjin China a city of only 14 million people. My home city is well known for breakfast food or just food in general. We are a people that love to eat and our dialect is often used for comedy. Hearing anyone using Tianjin dialect brings me fond memories of growing up. I think there is nothing that says you're in Tianjin when you hear someone in the marketplace who says 姐姐做吗呢? I arrived in Aotearoa in 1997 bringing with me my maternal grandparents. My mum was already here. She was a solo mum. My parents divorced when I was young so life wasn't the easiest. Like many Asian migrants our skills and qualifications were not recognised upon arrival. You either have to jump through hoops to obtain certification at great cost and time or change your job often to what has been dubbed low-skilled" work. But do you know what? Those "low-skilled" migrants got us through the pandemic.I remember clearly one time that I wanted to eat watermelons and Mum got some. She didn't eat any herself telling me that she didn't like watermelon. It wasn't until years later that I found out that Mum loves watermelon—there just wasn't enough for two.I grew up in East Auckland and after high school I attended the University of Auckland. Now I'm going to admit something that not many people other than my closest friends up in the gallery know about which is that I disliked politics immensely while I was at uni. In fact I didn't vote in three elections that I was eligible to vote in. I thought that academia was beyond the reach of politics but that illusion was crushed by the drastic decrease in university funding particularly in the arts and humanities in the early 2010s.So to all of the politically engaged rangatahi who might be watching do not let politicians patronise you by saying that you're just a little excited. No you know the value of standing up for your rights of making yourselves heard and I am in awe of each and every one of you particularly the Young Greens.I would also like to thank the late Professor Matthew Trundle for the many discussions after our departmental seminars and after a few libations to Dionysus. He taught me the Athenian history behind democracy and freedom of speech. Democracy combines the Greek root demos "people" and kratos "power". "People power"—that's what democracy is all about. We don't get to say that we are democratic by asking the nation to tick a couple of boxes every three years; it is something that we as parliamentarians have to prove every day something our people demand of us every day and something we should empower the people to do every single day.As an educator I was responsible for compliance and quality assurance. In the Three Kingdoms period of the 3rd century CE China the leader of Shu Liu Bei Liu Xuande once said "夫济大事必以人为本"—for one to accomplish great things people must be the foundation. This was the principle that I held with my work. The goal of regulations and policies was to ensure that the people—in this case my students—were looked after and that they are provided with the best opportunities and support to flourish.My doctoral thesis looked at how ancient Egyptians told epic stories. In an age where we are so focused on having everything down on paper pen on paper provides safety but it also confines our words to a moment in time. Oral stories play an important part in our lives. Stories passed down from generation to generation they live on through us. They shape our whakapapa and hononga. The significance of arts and humanities cannot be underestimated in our society. We speak of balance like yin and yang but we have now reduced humanity to numbers and statistics rather than remembering that they are individuals with their own struggles their own hopes and aspirations.There are many stories that I would like to share stories of the long and enduring friendships between Chinese people and tangata whenua. He waka eke noa—同舟共济. As the Te Tiriti party which is what the Green Party's known for and tangata Tiriti we uphold He Whakaputanga me Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will continue to tell the stories such as Chew Chong and the Taranaki black gold—hakekakeka or wood-ear fungus—the market gardens of Manukau Harbour and the cooperation between hard-working Chinese farmers like Joe and Fay Gock and Pūkaki marae and the early miners of Otago and their sharing of traditional Chinese medicine and rongoā in spite of racism. So as a migrant if a country cannot even respect or honour their own indigenous people and taonga what chances do we have to have our culture and heritage accurately recognised?Another realisation when you have undertaken something like a doctorate is that you have to wrestle with the idea that you know very little about anything because wisdom and knowledge are infinite. The Maxims of Ptahhotep dated to the 5th dynasty from Egypt which is roughly around 2300 BCE contain some cautionary tales around this. One of my favourite lines is this:jr wxA iwty sDm=f nn jr n=f xt nbtmA=f rx m xmAxt m mntir=f xbdt nbtr Tsst im=f ra nbwhich roughly translates to: "As for the fool who does not listen nothing can be accomplished by him. He sees knowledge as ignorance the beneficial as the harmful. He makes every mistake so he's accused by the people each day." See people from 4000 years ago were already championing evidence-based thinking. Meanwhile some in this very room may say that they're here for the people but when the decisions that this Government makes deliberately through malice or inadvertently through ignorance have left so many of our people behind—Māori Pasifika migrants disabled communities solo parents seniors rainbow our prison whānau and those with families in Gaza—who are the people they're referring to?Our older brother Fa'anānā Efeso Collins said in his maiden speech "'E le tu fa'amauga se tagata'—'No one stands alone no one succeeds alone' and for [him] no one suffers alone." Aotearoa has not even begun to hear our stories what our communities can bring and the millennia of history wisdom and ancestors we bring with us. It is time to take back our voices our momentum our people power and if it means that we are no longer referred to as the model minority you know what I am OK with that. To the many amazing people in the Green Party it has been an honour and privilege to work with and alongside you over the years. You gave me my first role in a grassroots organisation when I had no idea what a karakia was nor the consensus decision-making process. And look at me now: I can list pretty much every single acronym the party uses. To quote a certain critically acclaimed MMORPG which stands for massive multiplayer online role-playing game the playable character was told to "hear feel think"—all great qualities I have learnt from my various roles within the party. I want to thank those of you on Kaunihera: Miriam Alika Vicky Wiremu Charlotte; the co-leaders Marama and Chloe; and also my co-partner in crime Alyssce. Thank you for all the good times in our meetings—and you know I genuinely mean that. To all of our volunteers in branches provinces and networks thank you for everything you do for the party every day. To Team Auckland: Linda Linda Claire Chris Byronny Simon Lisa Ron as well as Miriam and Sarah thank you for standing by me all these years as I figure myself out. You've truly and now terrifyingly seen me at my best and worst.To my brother Matt I love you more than you can imagine and I will continue to express that love in the most Chinese way possible through excessive worry and nagging. To my mum thank you for everything you do for us and for being the most unapologetic feisty and stubborn person I know. Michelle Yeoh and Constance Wu's got nothing on you. Finally to my partner Kadek thank you for your kindness your wisdom your presence. Thanks to you I have now levelled up on my foraging skills and unlocked some serious plant identification achievements.To conclude my statement I would like to go back to the song I sang at the beginning. The song goes like this:Ain't scented like a flowerAin't tall like a treeI'm just a blade of grass that nobody knowsBut I ain't ever lonelyI ain't ever worriedLook my companions are all around the globeSpring wind o spring windYou make me greenerSunshine o sunshineYou shine your light on meRivers o valleysYou have nourished meGreat earth o motherYou embrace me tightly.This is a song that I grew up with; it was the last song that my paternal grandmother sang to me. I share it with all of you as a reminder—a reminder of the relationship we have with each other and the relationship we have with our environment. A reminder to every single person that you are the protagonist the hero of your own epic story and you're never alone. And a reminder of our thriving Green grassroots movement and that we will for ever and always be committed to our people and planet. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. [Applause]Waiata – "Ko Te Tiriti"Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."