Utikere TangiTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Kei ngā mana kei ngā reo tātou e noho tahi nei tēnā tātou katoa. Te Āti Awa me Toa Rangatira tēnei au ka mihi tēnā kōrua. Tihē mauri ora.[To the leaders to the spokespeople to those of us here today greetings. Te Āti Awa and Toa Rangatira greetings to you both. Greetings to all.]Mr Speaker firstly I wish to acknowledge and congratulate you on your election to the office you now hold. I look forward to the guidance and support that you will provide to me as a new member of this esteemed House. I also wish to acknowledge Rangitāne my local iwi in my electorate and specifically greet kaumātua Wiremu and Trieste Te Awe who are in the gallery this evening ngā mihi nui ki a korua. I am humbled to rise as the new member for Palmerston North a city that I am very proud to call my home. I want to thank the constituents of Palmy for putting their trust in me to represent them for at least the next three years.It's fair to say that at the start of this year it was not my expectation that I would be a member of Parliament. My campaign run was much shorter than others and I must apologise to my parliamentary colleagues in that I joined the campaign much later in the piece. But I wish to acknowledge their hard work and I congratulate them on their election as members of this House. My arrival here is due in no small part to a fantastically well-organised party campaign under the leadership of our Labour leader and Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and at a local level due to the sterling efforts of my Palmerston North - based team many of whom are in the gallery tonight. Candidates are often never easy to manage but particularly when you inherit a new one less than eight weeks before the scheduled general election. So to my campaign manager Lorna Johnson and the wider team my gratitude and thanks to you all for making it a flawless transition and for the electoral success that the team delivered. It is particularly special that tonight I get to deliver my maiden statement alongside other new members of Labour's Pasifika caucus. So to Barb Neru and Terisa faamalo fa'afetai lava. And of course my entry to Parliament has doubled Labour's Cook Island caucus. So to my Kuki Airani colleague the Hon Poto Williams kia orana. I also wish to acknowledge my Palmerston North colleague Teanau Tuiono on his successful election as the Green Party's first Pasifika member. Convention seems to dictate that I acknowledge the work of my predecessors and I certainly wish to do that. Over the last 40 years there have been four MPs for Palmerston North the Hon Joe Walding the Hon Trevor de Cleene the Hon Steve Maharey and the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway all from the New Zealand Labour Party. Prior to their entry to Parliament they all had a history of service to the electorate and a prerequisite that seems to have stood them in good stead for their connection to the local community and certainly a characteristic that I wish to continue. I want to acknowledge their collective service to the constituents of the city over that time. In particular I wish to acknowledge one predecessor who is present here today and that's the Hon Steve Maharey. Steve's 1999 campaign was my first so he is partially responsible for my involvement in politics. I am deeply honoured that his footsteps—but with my footprints—are ones that I wish to follow even if it is some time since he left this House. Like many others my life has been shaped by my upbringing and my experiences which are undoubtedly informed by the generations that come before us. In 1962 my 20-year-old Cook Island grandmother Vaevae Williams-Hewett left her village of Nikaupara in Aitutaki and at that time she also left her 19-month-old son my father with her parents. On 14 May 1962 she took this ticket to the Port of Rarotonga; there she boarded the SS Monterey to set sail for New Zealand in search of a better future for those to follow. In addition to this ticket she also took with her the hopes dreams and aspirations of her family. She arrived in this country worked hard by cooking and cleaning at the hospital and every week she would put some money aside to send back to her family in the islands. That was her routine. That was her cultural sacrifice. Some years later when my father was eight he travelled to New Zealand with his grandfather to join his parents. My father arrived and attended primary school in New Zealand where he spoke little to no English. Every time he opened his mouth to speak he was punished. This meant his first interaction with the New Zealand education system was deeply alienating something that he was not keen to develop or explore further. Instead he was keen to get out of school as soon as he could and he did. He left school with no formal qualifications but with a lot of experience. I'm the eldest of four children so as the first-born Cook Island custom dictated that my grandparents gifted me my name. My mother actually wanted to call me Joshua but instead my paternal grandparents named me Tangi. Throughout school I hated my name as I always had to explain why someone would want to name their child grief" or "funeral" rather than the Cook Island Māori translation of—wait for it—"beautiful". Now I have come a long way since then and now consider it an honour to carry the name that has been gifted to me. My parents Sue and Akaari from a very early age taught my siblings and I the significance of working hard to never judge a book by its cover and to value the importance of family. My mother demonstrates a passion for a sense of community and of supporting those who are more vulnerable than others particular traits that she inherited from my late grandfather Ted Thorner. My father demonstrates the trait of integrity. He taught me by his own actions that integrity is something you feel and experience rather than something you specifically define and see that you do what you say you will do and that you will treat others as you wish to be treated. These are particular traits that I hope to exemplify as I go about my duties as a member of this House. My parents also knew that education was too important to ignore so they encouraged their children to be more engaged with education and to do well something that my siblings and I will for ever be very grateful to them for. So thank you Mum and Dad. My introduction to the Labour Party is similar to that of many others. Twenty-five years ago my Uncle Tai Williams-Hewett took me along to what was my first Labour Party event at the Terrace End School hall as part of Steve's and former MP Jill White's campaign. I remember the inevitable Labour Party raffle at the door I remember my first Labour Electorate Committee meeting and I remember how inclusive the party was to this teenage boy and that was the start of my involvement with the party. The principles and values that attracted me to join our party more than 20 years ago are the same important ones that underpin the Labour Party today those of equal access and opportunity fairness social justice inclusiveness and kindness.I started my professional career in education as a secondary school teacher of history and social science at Freyberg High School. My relationship with Freyberg has come full circle. I started there as a student then as a teacher and finally as a trustee on the school board. In one particular year my siblings Rachel Luke and I occupied the roles of parent student and staff trustee respectively so my family is aware of the value of local communities being involved in the governance of local schools. Freyberg taught me much and it's special to have many of my Freyberg connections in the gallery tonight. My early years were also where I established lifelong friendships. My longest friendship stems from form 1 at Ross Intermediate so to Stacey and your partner Karl thank you for being here tonight. To Sheree Caleb Tanya and your partners my thanks for the ongoing support and encouragement you have shown to me over the years. These are the values observations experiences and the people that have guided me on my journey to New Zealand's House of Representatives.Justices of the peace (JPs) provide an incredible level of service. In my electorate the local association has had a focus on attracting younger candidates and those who are representative of a more modern demographic. While successful there is still much more work to be done. Of course members play an important role in the JP process and can assist by continuing to nominate candidates who are reflective of their local communities. Through my role as a judicial justice of the peace I have presided over bail and remand hearings for more than 10 years and as a visiting justice over internal prison disciplinary hearings for nearly five. My judicial experience has also expanded to include New Zealand's racing industry an industry worth at least $1.6 billion annually to New Zealand's economy where for more than 10 years I've sat on race day and non - race day hearing panels for the Judicial Control Authority (JCA). The JCA is an incredibly slick and professional operation on a relatively shoestring budget and has given me the opportunity to work alongside hard-working colleagues on race courses such as Wairoa Waterlea Waverley and Winton.It's through some of these roles and experiences that I've seen just how inflexible the criminal justice system can be particularly for our Māori Pasifika and new migrant communities. An ability to access the system is important but so too is the ability to be an active participant in proceedings to be aware of what is happening and to understand the process and the options available to those involved. Prior to my election to Parliament I was looking forward to taking up a commissioner role with the newly established Te Kāhui Tātari Ture the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The loss of one's freedom and liberty is one of the most—if not the most—severe consequences that the State can impose so there must be a sense of independence integrity and fairness in the system. But those judicial tenets of independence integrity and fairness must not purely exist; they must also be evident and active in the very police court and wider criminal justice processes that New Zealand has in place. The commission while still in its infancy is a potential safeguard within the jurisdiction and I look forward to seeing it over the next few years.My experience over the last 10 years as a city councillor and then a deputy mayor has been about public service and connections within my community and I acknowledge council colleagues here today. While my tenure in that role has now concluded I remain an advocate for the local council's mantra of Palmerston North being a place with small-city benefits and big-city ambition. The ability to overturn a local council's decision to introduce Māori wards is an unfortunate provision in local government legislation and I look forward to the Government looking at options for its removal.The local government sector faces many challenges. Amongst them is the ability of councils to meet the infrastructure needs of their community within a very tight fiscal envelope. I believe it is the role of the State to actively work in partnership with local government and other providers who have the best interests of the community at heart but I also believe that enterprise has an ethical and social conscience to think about where it can actively play a part in meeting the infrastructure needs of its local community. However these partnerships cannot be at any cost to or at the expense of local community wellbeing.We have all lived and we are still living through the most extraordinary period of our collective lives. COVID has tested every agency. In spite of this Palmerston North's strengths continue to lie in education and training logistics and distribution along with our historical defence connections. Its reputation for innovation science and technology marks it as a leader in research and development. It is a city that has a diversified private sector supported by a strong agribusiness and primary food - producing region along with a solid public sector. It is a city that is rich in cultural diversity a welcoming community with more than 130 different ethnicities who choose to call Palmy home. It simply is a wonderful place to represent and I look forward to advocating for my constituents and for my electorate as a member of the Labour caucus and in Government. I'm excited by the desire for this Government to be one for all New Zealanders and I am committed to working across the Parliament to achieve that.Before I conclude I want to acknowledge the person who is on this journey with me my partner Te Rei. Te Rei thank you for your love for your support and your unfiltered feedback and encouragement as we embark upon these next steps together.In conclusion I look forward to the challenges and I look forward to the journey but more importantly I look forward to working as part of a team to ensure that this Parliament is one that realises the opportunities the dreams and the aspirations that tīpuna like my grandmother had for those that wish to call Aotearoa New Zealand their home. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia orana koutou katoatoa.[Applause]Waiata"