Moroney Sue: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 11 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15515. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is with a great sense of pride that I rise to speak for the first time actually in the adjournment debate in this House. I am proud to do that because I do it in my role as Labour’s chief whip. I am very very proud to be the chief whip of such a fine bunch of men and women who are deeply principled hard-working and absolutely ambitious for this country.What a year we have had. We have had everything thrown at us yet we have gone from strength to strength as a caucus and we finish off this year in great heart. It has been a big year for us and I think that one of the events that was very difficult for our caucus this year was to lose a wonderful colleague in the Hon Parekura Horomia. Parekura was a big man with a big heart and big mana and he made a big contribution to our caucus. Therefore he left a big hole. It was such a big hole that I think in fact as we are having our discussions our debates and our caucus meetings you can still imagine what Parekura would say in the various debates and issues that we talk about—such was his contribution and his impact on our caucus.After farewelling Parekura and reflecting on all that he meant all that he had done and the values that he held dear we went on to fight and win the by-election in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. I was very very thrilled to see Meka Whaitiri join our caucus as a result of that. Of course that was not any old by-election as if there is such a thing as any old by-election. They are all really interesting in their own right.Ikaroa-Rāwhiti is a Māori electorate. It is one of those monsters of electorates where there are various pockets of people living sometimes in areas of isolation. It was actually quite disturbing to see some of the poverty in that electorate when we fought that by-election. Of course going out and connecting with people in the by-election was a very exciting thing for us and a wonderful win for us. So that was the No. 1 by-election after having lost a dear colleague.Then we had to spend some time campaigning hard against asset sales against the Government selling some of our most valuable assets. We knew that New Zealanders in overwhelming numbers firmly do not believe in their assets being sold because sadly we have seen it all before. In the Labour Party we have learnt from those past errors and we now join with the New Zealand public in saying “No more.”—no more selling our State assets. So we worked hard to gather signatures in what I believe was the largest referendum of its kind in New Zealand. And the Labour caucus was an important part of that. We have been involved in that.Then we had a leadership contest. The Government members said it would be a disaster. They said we would rip ourselves apart. They said that Labour would regret having invited its membership to have a say over the leadership contest. Well I can tell them right now that Labour does not regret it for 1 minute. What the Government members do not understand is that this was a triumph of democratic participation. It was an absolute triumph. Thenaysayers do not understand how important it is to empower people by involving them in decision-making processes. But Labour knew that actually involving people would be a triumph of democratic participation.It is a triumph for David Cunliffe. He now has the strongest mandate of any New Zealand Labour leader as a result of that leadership contest. That is because Labour made a decision to actually go forward. It is a progressive party and I think New Zealanders have seen that this year. We have then gone on to fight and win comprehensively—I think we called it astonking great win and it was—in the Christchurch East by-election. I so look forward next year to seeingPoto Williams join us in this debating chamber.Hon Gerry Brownlee: You held a seat you’ve had for 90 years.SUE MORONEY: We doubled the party vote for Labour in Christchurch East and the National Party managed to halve the party vote that it got in Christchurch East during that by-election. So it has been a great win and the start of a great end to our year.In amongst all of that we have been doing what good Opposition parties do. We have been coming here and representing the views of New Zealanders we have been representing constituents and we have been debating the issues that matter to New Zealanders. We have been debating the issues that matter and we have introduced a number of bills this year on issues that matter to New Zealanders. I want to recall and congratulate my colleague Dr David Clark on winning support for despite opposition from the Government his Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill which gave all New Zealanders the ability to actually enjoy 11 full statutory holidays a year no matter what day of the week they fell on. Also in the spirit of the great Labour team that we are can I congratulate Grant Robertson on his drafting of that bill before it was pulled from the ballot. These are the issues that actually matter to New Zealanders. They make people’s lives better and they come from Labour.I also want to congratulate my colleague Louisa Wall on her win with the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill—the marriage equality bill as it came to be known. Well done Louisa. Again that is Labour making progress on issues that make a real difference to New Zealanders.We have also had debates on—oh gosh I am going to come to one of my own bills now—privacy. And do we not need that—the Government voted that bill down unfortunately. This one did not see past the light of day of its first reading. But Labour brought that debate to this debating chamber to ensure that the Privacy Commissioner could do her job with more tools. We have debated the Care of Children Law Reform Bill brought forward by Jacinda Ardern. We have debated keeping the dairy industry—Fonterra—safely in New Zealand hands with a very good bill brought forward by Damien O’Connor. We have debated and brought to the debate in this Chamber the Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill from Moana Mackey to ensure that we uphold our environmental standards. And we have debated redundancy payments for workers. And is it not a sad indictment on this Government that despite its track record on thousands of New Zealanders losing their jobs and their incomes it could not see its way fit to supporting Labour’s bill to ensure that workers had some redundancy pay if they lost their job through no fault of their own.Next year we are going to look forward to even more because bills introduced by Labour this year which we will get to debate in the new year include the Education (Food in Schools) Bill and the Electoral (Adjustment of Thresholds) Amendment Bill—I think Iain Lees-Galloway who is sitting beside me will be very pleased about that bill—which is going to make this place operate in a fairer way. It is going to ensure that we do not have the coat-tailing that currently happens through the electoral process.The Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill being brought forward by Phil Twyford will ensure that we have healthy homes and that rental homes in New Zealand meet minimum standards of heating and insulation. The Land Transport (Safer Alcohol Limits for Driving) Amendment Bill—the Government has picked this up in the Land Transport Amendment Bill. It thinks that Labour has done such a good job on this that it wants to pick up our idea and has turned it into a Government bill but we are watching. We have still got our bill sitting there on the Order Paper should the Government not live up to our expectations on it. We are going to be debating—because Labour willbring it to the debating chamber—the Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill and the Underground Coal Mining Safety Bill.So Labour has had a lot on its plate this year and we have taken it up with great gusto. We have ended the year in a stronger position than we started in and the strength will continue to go forward.Can I take my final minute to wish everyone in this complex a very merry Christmas. I want to start by thanking particularly our staff the Labour staff because we could not have done any of this without their support and their valuable and committed input to it. On behalf of the Labour Party I want to thank all of the staff who make this complex work—the messengers the security guards the library staff the cleaners the gardeners the caterers—all of the many people who make this place tick in the way that it does. Finally Mr Speaker can I wish you and the staff of the Office of the Clerk a very merry Christmas. We are very much looking forward to 2014. Bring it on.