Allan KiritapuHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Conservation): Madam Assistant Speaker he tino hōnore ki te mihi ki a koe mō tō tūranga hōu mō tēnei Pāremata. Anei he mihi maioha ki a koe mō tō kaiwhakahaere o tēnei Whare. Nō reira kei a koe e te mema o Waitaki ānei he mihi ki a koe. Otirā ki ngā mema hōu o te Whare nei tino harikoa te ngākau ki te kite i a koutou kua haramai ki te whakapūawai ngā hiahia o tō koutou whānau o tō koutou iwi o tō koutou hapori katoa. Heoi anō māku e tautoko te kōrero o ngā mema ki mua—nau mai haramai whakatau mai. Horo mai ō whakaaro ō ringa ki te whiu atu whai atu tautoko atu tō tātou nei whānau. Nō reira ki a koutou. Nau mai haramai whakatau mai.[Madam Assistant Speaker it is an honour to congratulate you on your new position in this Parliament. This is my heartfelt congratulations to you for your running the House. Well done to you the MP for Waitaki congratulations. To the new members of this House I am very happy to see all of you who have made it here to fulfil the wishes of your family your tribe and your community. I support what previous speakers have said—welcome welcome welcome. Bring with you your ideas and your hard work to throw forth to pursue and to support our families. So to you all—welcome welcome welcome.]I am so excited. I don't know if you can start this way but I don't care. It's my first speech of the 53rd Parliament and I am so excited to be here in this House. It is such an incredible honour to be able to take your place in this Whare. For me it is my first time on my feet as the member of Parliament for the mighty mighty mighty East Coast. I must say I couldn't be more delighted than to hold that title. I want to thank the constituents of that pito o te ao—that place that is my home—for putting their faith their trust and their confidence in me. I look across this House and indeed during question time today and again the new members that have joined us—they impress me incredibly the walks that they come from whether they be from that side or this side of the House. But I am so excited about the lives that they have lived before coming into this place. I am so excited about the contributions that you will add to this House. I have done nothing but skite about the new talent that in particular has been added to this side of the House and I must say that I still feel giddy although it feels like the election was a long time ago now. For us on this side of the House we lost a couple of people that were really near and dear to us. I want to acknowledge the whānau of my good friend Rudy Taylor and in particular the new member here Shanan Halbert who will give his maiden speech today—the new member for Northcote. He was an incredible mentor to my good friend but indeed he was a mentor and colleague to all of us. I want to acknowledge his wife Kaye Taylor and all of their whānau up there in the Hokianga. I too want to acknowledge the passing of the mother of my good friend Tane Phillips the day of the election—actually it was just the morning after the election. Tane Phillips is the Māori vice-president for our party. He is a constituent in my electorate from the mighty place of Kawerau and his family are all members of my Labour electorate committee. But his mother's passing was indeed a shock for all of us so I want to throw my thoughts to him as well and again to the passing of the father of our good mate here Shanan: Winston Halbert who passed the day of I think the election. So my friend—who will commence his journey in this House in a couple of moments' time—just know that he has left a huge impression on all of us and I know that he will guide you as you commence your journey here. Hoi anō here we are in this 53rd Parliament and as the Prime Minister gave her speech the other day there was a clear mandate that has been given to this House and that is not something that this side of the House takes lightly. The voters of Aotearoa New Zealand they have voted for stability. They have voted for certainty. They have voted for cohesion. They have voted for a team with a plan. We went to the electorate with a very clear plan about how we would rebuild as a nation from that which has been the last year of COVID19. Madam Speaker you heard that there were three very clear objectives for this Government as we come into the 53rd Parliament: first to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 and that will be an ongoing journey for all of us. Now as I cast my mind out to my colleagues living across the world right now they will be saying to me Kiritapu you do not understand what it is that you have in Aotearoa New Zealand. You are walking the streets you are playing sports you are breaking bread—you are in communion with your community." That is something we have vowed: to do our valiant best to take care of our community and keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19. Secondly the Prime Minister gave a very clear indication that our priority was on accelerating our economic recovery. That is something that we went to the electorate on. In the mighty East Coast my colleague the Hon Meka Whaitiri and I—we stomped up and down our electorate in the mighty East Coast looking at where this Government has invested in our future generations so that we can accelerate our economic recovery. I want to turn to that in a moment because it's something I'm very passionate about: Jobs for Nature in my portfolio as Minister of Conservation. So I'll come back to that in a second. Thirdly there was a very clear directive that we have that is about laying the foundations for our future. Now there's one thing that I think we got a really clear direction from and that came through the Speech from the Throne. This Government is not about doing business as usual (BAU). We're not here to do BAU because it's always easy and it's been done and it's been done; we have been given a clear mandate to make radical change for our communities that need it the most. With such incredible turbulence and change that COVID-19 has brought so too in turn must we all pivot. Now I want to speak specifically about what we are doing in particularly the portfolio of conservation. I want to acknowledge my good friends the Green Party—Te Roopu Kākāriki o Aotearoa. I want to acknowledge my good friend the Hon Eugenie Sage who put her hand to the till alongside my colleague the Hon David Parker and supported again by the Minister of Finance. They have invested $1.3 billion in the Jobs for Nature programme and I see that as fulfilling two key components in one our economic recovery and two investing in our future and I want to walk briefly through that. We have been given an opportunity with this particular fund to create what I see as a new generation of environmental warriors that we can clad and support. I guess we all know climate change is on our doorstep. Papatūānuku is demanding something different from us right now. It is demanding that we change the way that we have lived in days gone by. We've committed to those things like no more extraction of fossil fuels offshore and we're committing to climate targets but in turn we have an opportunity with this fund in Jobs for Nature to create a whole generation that is passionate and that we clad with the skills the abilities and the technical expertise to come into a new career and new future that is based around the sustainability of our taiao and I am incredibly excited by that. Just last week I had the opportunity of supporting the aspirations of Te Āti Awa ki Whakarongotai just north of here in and around Ōtaki. The mana whenua—and my good friend the new member of Parliament for what's it called? Barbara Edmonds: Mana. Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: Mana. I'm sure she'll be very proud that this is in her patch as well. But what we are doing is we are taking that investment from that Jobs for Nature fund. We are working on the partnership alongside the stewards of the whenua working alongside those that have expertise in the area and we are building up and we are investing in the future generations that can come by creating jobs—by becoming kaitiaki to those places that they call home. I mentioned just prior that alongside my good colleague the Hon Meka Whaitiri just recently—oh look and we're almost at an end. I want to quickly end on Titirangi Maunga the incredible work that has been done there stewarded by Charlotte Gibson but investing in 17 young people to be kaitiaki of Titirangi. This is an exciting time. Tēnā koe."