Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in this debate as I hope others have done with grave sadness and a sense that in fact we shouldn't be here debating a deeply personal tragic circumstance in the workplace of the person who with so much courage has in fact owned her actions many many times over. I send nothing but our absolute aroha from the entire Green Party caucus from myself and I know many many others out there in Aotearoa to Kiri—or Minister.It is sad that we are standing here and debating this issue but I want to hold that I have in fact been heartened by the fact that the vast majority of the reporting since yesterday—when we all woke up as a nation with some shock and sadness to the news of what had occurred in terms of the traffic incident and the resignation of a talented Minister in our Government—has in fact been different than it might have been a few years ago. There seems to be a greater understanding of workplace stress of mental health of the way that we talk about things like this in our communities and in fact the standards that we hold our leaders to when they stumble. So that actually made me feel a lot better.And then I saw some of the political commentary in terms of my colleagues in this House and I feel compelled to comment on that in that I think it has set us back and in that I think we have a responsibility as members of this House to show better moral leadership. I want to say that as the last speaker Paul Goldsmith was wrapping up his speech he started to talk over and over again about how confidence would be eroded out there in the public. But I actually want to say to members of the public because I know that many many are finding it challenging right now in a post-COVID environment in an environment where we've always had challenge in terms of accessing mental health care that actually no one will lose confidence in you if you stumble if you talk about your mental health challenges or crises openly that your workplace—unlike this one—will probably not make a public spectacle of you and that actually as leaders most of us in here would have chosen not to be standing up and debating something this personal and turning it into a challenge against your competence.I wish on behalf of the National Party that in the media we'd seen someone like Matt Doocey the spokesperson or Todd Muller a former leader—both of whom have spoken about their own experiences—front for that party rather than Chris Luxon or Paul Goldsmith who actually turned it into an issue of Ministers needing a psych report to come back to work if they experienced challenges. I want the public to know that if you come forward and say that you are struggling with your mental health in your place of work no one's going to institutionalise you and require you to come back with a psych report. When I went forward and talked openly about suffering from multiple sclerosis it was in part because members of that community kept telling me not to come forward because when they had talked about their chronic illness they'd realised that they weren't being promoted at work they weren't seen as being competent enough as other members of our disabilities community have since come forward and told me. So I felt like it was really important to talk about the way that I might need more support in the workplace as a multiple sclerosis sufferer but that I can still do it. Because maybe it's important to have people with chronic illness in this place and maybe it's important for this place to trust and respect us just as it's important that members in this House trust and respect those of us who happen to represent the vast majority of people out there in the world in Aotearoa who have at some point in their lives had mental health challenges. And I want to finish by commenting with maybe as much sadness and disappointment on the fact that David Seymour felt the need to call this debate at all and that he had to be stopped twice during his speech for politicising what should have been an urgent debate only about the matter in hand that it is shameful that in election year some members of this House still think that anything at all is up for debate. That's not what New Zealand wants. That is what calls the competence of us as politicians into question not the fact that Kiri Allan suffered from a mental health challenge that she lost a battle on that day because we know that she will rise again. We know that life is long and that it's OK to have challenges. What's not OK is to see a workmate see them stumble and see a personal profit. That's not the politics that the people out there deserve. So with that I want to send our aroha and support to a leader who we know will rise again and to all the future leaders who will stand who we will stand next to who we will lift up no matter what your challenges whether it's mental health whether it's chronic illness whether it's disability whether you happen to be a queer Māori young woman like Kiri—you'll be OK. Kia ora.