Joyce Steven: Maiden Statements 
Joyce Steven: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:186] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (National) 
: 
 Firstly I would like to congratulate my local MP Lockwood Smith on his election to the role of Speaker. 
Could I start by saying a fond greeting to Jeremy Greenbrook-Held of Oriental Bay. In the letters to the editor in the  
Dominion Post  
on 24 November under the heading “Just who is this man Joyce?” Mr Greenbrook-Held lamented that I had made it into my role without giving a single interview. This will come as a surprise to a number of journalists who had interviewed me prior to that time but I will nevertheless attempt to fill some gaps for Mr Greenbrook-Held today. 
I live north of Auckland but I am a Naki boy—born and raised in New Plymouth. It is a wonderful part of the world and I love to go back to visit the mountain the parks and the wild west coast. However I have to say I am a fan of pretty much all of this country; I am actually a bit of a greenie just not the type who sits over on that side of the House. 
As it is for all of us my family came here from lands far away. My father’s family are Irish Catholics. My great-grandfather Eugene Joyce arrived as a young man on the  
Invercargill 
 in 1879. He married Ellen and they settled in Taranaki where they had seven children. One of them was my grandfather Len a bee-keeper who lived with his wife Eileen in Eltham which is where my father grew up. 
On my mother’s side my great-grandmother Granny Hooper was a Cockney. She migrated with her family in 1878 landing in Nelson after 4 months at sea. She must have liked it here because she lived to 101 and I can vaguely remember her 100th birthday party held when I was about 5. My mother was born in Kaponga. Her father was a lawyer turned insurance salesman and a lay preacher in the Anglican Church. Their family were staunch Anglicans my father’s family were staunch Catholics and that was a time when those differences did matter. It tested both families when my parents married in 1961 now nearly 50 years ago. I am thrilled they are both here together in the gallery today. 
My parents scrimped and borrowed and bought a Four Square dairy in New Plymouth. They were not greatly educated—they both left school at 15—but they worked really hard to make a go of their business and their family. They ran a 7-day business and brought up five kids at the same time. From where I am sitting today that seems pretty heroic. My family then is from a long line of small-business people. Apart from a few years managing a supermarket my father and mother always owned their own businesses including their own supermarket. So it is probably not a surprise that I did the same. 
I had my first taste of radio when I was finishing my zoology degree at Massey University in 1983. A bunch of us worked at Radio Massey. In 1984 members may recall there was an election so we decided to run a series of current affairs shows in the style of the political television shows of the time with intercut interviews. With seriously inferior equipment a fearless group of us worked 24 hours at a time to bring to air the hugely important Radio Massey election specials on political issues of the day. We interviewed luminaries like the late Bruce Beetham and the late Trevor de Cleene and put those shows to air for audiences of roughly 50 people each night probably 48 of whom would have preferred to hear the latest Joy Division track. 
So I could have been a journalist maybe. I have a brother and a sister who are members of that truly esteemed profession. Instead it was during those late-night sessions at Radio Massey that five of us decided to start a commercial radio station of our own. We each put in $100 and Energy Enterprises—which became RadioWorks—was born with $500 in the bank. Energy FM ran as a summer station in New Plymouth for 3 years which was all we were allowed to do under the law at that time each time making a bit of money to help pay for our full-time FM licence application. We chased down shareholders and a board of directors went to a licence hearing with the Broadcasting Tribunal then waited 15 long months for a decision to be released. During that time we lost three of our number—I think they got bored—and found one more. In mid-1987 Energy FM got a licence to start broadcasting across Taranaki and on 30 November that year we went to air. 
Running one’s own business is hard work. It is hard work a lot of the time and fantastic fun some of the time. Running one’s own radio station is even more fun. The three of us poured all we had into that business. We continued to live like university students for years on the grounds that if we did not become used to a more comfortable lifestyle we would not miss it. We bought stations in Tauranga and Hamilton. We started The Edge and Solid Gold FM and built those two and The Rock into national satellite-delivered networks. We added stations by growth and acquisition until by 2000 we had offices in every major town and city in the country and 650 staff across four networks and 18 local radio stations. It was an amazing ride. We all learnt a huge amount about growing and running companies organisational cultures and getting the best out of people. I met and worked with hundreds of fantastic people many of whom I count as friends today. Throughout we had mostly the same board: Norton Moller Derek Lowe and John Armstrong. They were my mentors commercially and I am greatly indebted to them. 
CanWest raided our share register on the stock exchange in 2000. Some of us held out for a while but eventually we realised the dream was over and I retired from my role as chief executive officer of RadioWorks on my 38th birthday. 
It was time to take stock and time to give something back. I joined the gym. I started running; unfortunately I later stopped running. And I joined the National Party. I put my name forward and nearly stood in 2002 but as it turned out it would have been a purely academic exercise. Instead I got my first National Party job after the election. I was asked to join the campaign review and then the full strategic review of the organisation. It was an absolute honour to do both and to be trusted by a set of people who had no history by which to trust me. The party in 2002 was hurting pretty badly and I was conscious of the need to take real care. 
The rebuilding of the National Party was a team effort and I am very proud to have played my part. However a lot of the credit must go to our party’s president. Judy Kirk is now coming up towards 7 years in the role. In 2002 when she took over as president an opinion poll that week rated the National Party at 18 percent. For the first time in its history it was in danger of no longer leading the centre-right in the New Zealand Parliament. In the 2008 election—1 month ago—the National Party achieved 45 percent of the party vote the highest vote by any political party under MMP and the highest vote full stop since 1990. It is a fantastic turn-round ably led from the front by our new Prime Minister the Hon John Key and prior to him our previous leaders Don Brash and Bill English. However any great leader needs an organisation to lead and Judy Kirk rebuilt that organisation without sacrificing either her decency or her principles. When all is said and done I am confident her name will be up there as one of the National Party’s great presidents alongside the name of her mentor Sir George Chapman and that will be no more than she deserves. 
It is traditional to thank your electorate workers in your maiden speech for helping you get to Parliament. I am of course one of the lesser beasts—a list MP—and worse still one who did not stand in an electorate. But I did run a campaign of sorts. It was a little bit dire in places according to some of my critics but redeemed by a fine candidate who shone through despite the poor support he received from his national campaign chair! There are many people I can and do want to thank for that campaign particularly those at campaign HQ in Wellington and the thousands of volunteers around the country who put up with the rather dictatorial requirements of the Wellington crew. I will not mention names today. They all know who they are. Can I just say that I could not hope to work with a finer bunch of people. 
So via a stint running another marvellous proud smallish New Zealand company with another great team of people Jasons Travel Media I arrive here in this building this hermetically sealed vortex which is our Parliament. So what contribution can I make to this place? Who do I represent? Well I think I can be a voice for the people who always pay their taxes and who want to see them go to a good home. Primarily because I have been in business for most of the last 21 years I can bring an understanding of the thinking of business people—small and medium sized business people in particular who organise most of the wealth creation that takes place in this country. 
I understand the mentality of those who become frustrated at Government getting in the way of their doing their job who chafe at needless regulation and the sight of wasted tax money who become frustrated by poorly performing infrastructure. I understand the fear they have of Government organisations muscling in on their industries by spending public money to compete with them in their marketplace for no good reason. 
I bring a real understanding of the value of a dollar. From the time I was a little tacker sitting at my family dining table as my parents added up the week’s takings I understood that there was no money around if you did not go out and earn it yourself. I understand those people who see Wellington as a “great sucking sound” that hoovers up more and more of the nation’s money so that politicians can look like heroes when they spend it—people who are happy to pay their share but are not happy to see it wasted. I also understand what drives people: the desire to better the lot of themselves and their families under their own steam and to not have to rely on Government handouts. 
I understand that as a country we have limitless calls on our resources and limited resources. I know that the only way we are going to progress in the manner we all hope for and provide for those less fortunate is by spending wisely the money we have and spending most of our time working out how to grow faster to pay for all the things we need. And I think I understand what is possible in organisations that think small and nimble where the frontline is encouraged and well resourced and the back office is pared back and that are tuned to what the customer is seeking. 
One of the distinctive features of this country is that we are a small group of islands at the bottom of the world. There are only 4.25 million of us. Small can be tough. It means small home markets not as many resources and not as big a pool of talent as some bigger countries have. However our smallness need not be a negative; it can be a strength and it should be more often. Individuals with ambition and drive have shown throughout history that they can achieve a lot more here a lot more quickly than they can in bigger countries. One great running coach one great rowing coach can achieve amazing things. Our smallness means that a high proportion of us are interconnected. People used to talk a lot about the six degrees of separation; in New Zealand I am sure that half the time it is just two or three degrees. 
Our smallness can translate to nimbleness: the ability to change course move quickly make things happen. Sadly from a vantage point outside the Government and now from inside it I can see that we get wrapped up in the fact that this new regulation or law or entitlement or initiative is world best-practice that by doing it we are suddenly right up there with the EU or the UK or the US. Maybe a world-beating all-singing all-dancing multilayered process is the correct approach for a large country. Maybe for us we can trim it down shorten it and dare I say spend less money doing it. Put it this way: if we cannot how can we compete with much larger countries? I am all for fair and sensible rules of commerce and social interaction; we just need to scale them to our size and look for the simpler way. 
I believe we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in this country and a corresponding risk that goes with it. We can recapture our mojo and become the feisty resourceful exciting No. 8 wire sort of place that enabled all our forebears to make a success of themselves way down here at the bottom of the world; or we can fade away and continue on the path of figuratively and maybe one day even literally being the smallest and poorest also-ran state of Australia. 
I do not believe I bring any pretensions to this new role. I am honoured to be provided with the opportunity to serve and I will work diligently to repay the confidence that has been shown in me by my party by my leader and by New Zealanders. When it comes to work I am a believer in doing the hard yards. In rugby terms and I stress that my familiarity with the code has pretty much always been as a fan I like to grind it out—nothing too flashy. 
I also these days like to have a little balance. Members may ask what I am doing here! Apparently it is a little bit tricky in this Parliament to have balance but I find that it helps people to keep perspective—which also might be a bit tricky here. I have an inspiration though: my wonderful wife Suzanne; our daughter Amelia; and Gemma the retrodoodle. I know they will insist on seeing me regularly no more than I will insist on seeing them. 
Mr Speaker I will work diligently to help make this country a stronger more successful and proud place. That is why I am here—for no other reason. If I can help to do that then I will be able to hold my head high when I report back to New Zealanders when my time here is done.