Huo RaymondRAYMOND HUO (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for calling me by my name. Raymond is of course my English name. My Chinese name is 建 强—J-i-a-n-q-i-a-n-g. I learnt a long time ago from you guys that trying to get it pronounced correctly could be painful. I can't Anglicise my last name my family name 霍—H-u-o. Many people get it confused and call me Mr Hyo" "Mr Hao" "Mr Who" and French people may certainly call me "Mr 'Uo" because "h" is silent in French. Let me borrow the wisdom of the American-Chinese comedian Dr Joe Wong: "If my last name does get pronounced 'Who' that may well be my campaign slogan—'Who cares'." Unlike the usual valedictory speeches about achievements etc. I'd like first of all to reflect on what I have not achieved. I used to be Labour's spokesperson for building and construction and I had a good debate with the Government Minister about the building law review. I even accused him of taking a piecemeal approach. I chanted along with the sector that "CCC" is not a "CCC" and a code compliance certificate should not be replaced with consent completion certificate without having other quality-assurance measures in place. As recently as last week I found out that if the clauses concerning CCC had not been implemented although the initial time line for this change was later in 2012. Perhaps what we insisted on then was right but I couldn't convince the Minister could I? I sponsored at least four member's bills. None of them were drawn from the ballot. Hon Ruth Dyson: Seek leave. RAYMOND HUO: Thank you the Hon Ruth Dyson. The bill on export education was designed to give the New Zealand Qualifications Authority more powers to tighten rules about the lower end of the private training establishments having international or national titles in their business names. In China Japan Korea and other Asian countries such names are only reserved for reputable institutes matching their national or international status. It's important for us to protect our international education industry which contributes about $6 billion every year to our local economy and it is our fifth-largest export industry. I have full confidence that post-COVID-19 we will be doing better at competing against Australia the UK and the US. The latest one is still in the ballot and it's about the rather unusual dual system in our insolvency law. Personal insolvency is called bankruptcy while corporate insolvency is called liquidation. The anomaly of that is that individual specialists can be appointed to liquidate a company but only official assignees who are salaried public officials can be appointed to manage bankruptcy. The Law Commission issued a paper in 2001 calling it a statutory monopoly. Currently about 34 official assignees employed by the Government administered less than 1500 cases a year operating on a budget of $17 million. Proposed changes under my bill would help save taxpayers' money and would promote business efficacy and efficiency. I thank the National Business Review for its report on "Aussie-style change proposes privatising bankruptcy practice" and I thank my former law partner Kalev Crossland and the Office of the Clerk especially Linda McIver and researcher Tessa Vincent for their input into this complex issue. On the bright side though in 2010 as Labour's spokesperson for ethnic communities I initiated the idea of New Zealand Chinese Language Week Charitable Trust and I spent more than three years talking to relevant stakeholders nationwide gaining consensus and support. In 2014 at the annual conference of the New Zealand China Friendship Society I launched the language week jointly with David Bromwich Pat English and the Chinese Ambassador Wang Lutong. The New Zealand Chinese Language Week is a Kiwi-driven initiative designed to increase the awareness of Chinese culture and language. The first of its kind in any Western country it has become a popular event in our national calendar. I want to acknowledge Jo Coughlan the chair and thank her for her confidence in me and for her contribution in promoting Chinese-language learning in New Zealand. According to an earlier survey by the New Zealand China Council for every $1 million of global economic activity there are 63 school students learning French 31 Spanish 17 German and 10 Japanese but only two are studying Chinese and China has become our largest trading partner. I also want to acknowledge Professor Neil Quigley Ambassador Tony Browne Professor Paul Spoonley Sarah Thomson and all the other past and present trustees. I want to thank you Mr Speaker for allowing me and joining me to mark the occasion with a prayer in Chinese in Parliament. As a list MP I've given the job my all and I've enjoyed my role in particular as the chair of the very busy Justice Committee. As a lawyer turned MP I feel privileged to get involved in the reforms of some of the most important laws in New Zealand such as the Trusts Bill the Privacy Bill and other bills such as the Criminal Records (Expungement of Convictions for Historical Homosexual Offences) Bill. I acknowledge the Hon Amy Adams for the very bill she introduced as the Minister of Justice under the previous National Government. I had the privilege of having her as my deputy chair but following her departure things got bumpy. There is a book called Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxford and Cambridge Questions. On page 73 there is a question: "Smith sees Jones walking towards a cliff. Smith knows Jones is blind but doesn't like him so allows him to walk off the edge. Is this murder?" Our initial reaction is that Smith's deliberate silence is shocking—he must be guilty. He's not—if we reframe the story that the reason Smith doesn't like Jones is because Jones is a murderer who likes to kill for pleasure. Then Smith begins to look more like a hero than a villain. Of course if it is Smith who is the murderer and Jones the saint trying to stop him it all looks very different again. The point from the story is that we must have real not circumstantial evidence to judge someone and why we must be extremely careful not to imagine motivations. Applying the story to what happened to the Justice Committee last year should that good professor have not been critical of China but full of praise for China would that have affected the way we voted procedurally? The answer is no because the submissions had been closed some six months ago and the rules should not be bent or overtaken by other political factors. To be fair to that National member if he moved a motion to reopen the submissions to invite the professor in and I voted against it then feel free to hold me to account. He didn't do that. Instead he leaked a story to the media and the rest is history. Surely allegations were made that I—along with almost all active Chinese community leaders—was featured in that professor's paper. One of the reasons why I was featured was because I translated Labour's 2017 campaign slogan "Let's do this" into "撸 起 袖 子 加 油 干". It is a combination of two well-known Chinese phrases meaning "Roll up your sleeves" and "Work hard". The only problem is that it happened to be used by China's President at some stage. Therefore I was accused of promoting their agenda—how bizarre. The story did not stop here. According to a New Zealand Herald report dated 20 September 2017 the professor also suggested a creative interpretation of the phrases implying that it had undertones of sexual innuendo.Much has been said about the importance of the good relationship between New Zealand and China but this is not to deny real differences in our values and political systems. That's why we need a quality and independent debate about our differences challenges and any issues concerning foreign interference. The Chinese community is supporting it. But if we allow the sweeping generalisation to sink to that level the value of the debate if any would be diminished and opportunities to look at real issues would be lost. One such issue concerns the local Chinese-language media in New Zealand and I have long been calling on them to adapt more to New Zealand standards and values to fulfil their role. The Chinese media plays a very important role as a significant number of Chinese migrants rely on translated information to understand what's going on in our society. Under our Privacy Act news media is largely exempted from the privacy principles to enable them to undertake news activities subject to certain conditions. I'd be surprised if any of the Chinese media entities meets the criteria for the exemption. Other allegations made against them include self-censorship journalism of opinion and partisanship and those factors would make the Chinese-language media in New Zealand susceptible to external influences including foreign interference. At some stage the two regulatory bodies—the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the New Zealand Media Council—may consider establishing a separate arm for ethnic media. Civics education and regular induction programmes for new migrants are also long overdue. But that has nothing to do with scaremongering or conspiracy theories. I support what Professor Paul Clark said in the New Zealand Herald that "we need to work across borders not put up walls". The anti-China narrative is an easy story to tell but as Stephen Jacobi cautioned it may however "unintentionally tap into a prejudice against Chinese people which has raised its head several times in our history including in the form of a poll tax once applied to Chinese immigrants". Many Kiwi-Chinese people have made New Zealand their whānau. They're not even interested in geopolitics. So please leave them alone. To protect them from the sweeping generalisation I have deliberately skipped all the Chinese names—as you can tell from the gallery none of them were invited. But I do want to thank them thank my family thank my team and thank the Chinese community and especially those business leaders who over the last four terms have given—using their own words—their party votes to Labour "against their conscience". I owe my presence here to many people whom I consider to be my friends and mentors. To name names may unfairly omit others but I do want to acknowledge Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson. Our health and economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are greatly successful. New Zealand is one of the safest countries in the world thanks to the team of 5 million.I'm a proud Kiwi-Chinese. Sometimes "Made in China" or "Originated from China" may not be that scary. Instead it can be benefiting productive and healthy—just look at kiwifruit. Kia kaha. Thank you 谢 谢 ! And goodbye 再 见 ![Applause]"