Wade-Brown CeliaCELIA WADE-BROWN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. Ko Ranginui e tū iho nei ko Papatūānuku e takoto nei tēnā kōrua. Te Whare e tū nei tēnā koe. Taranaki Whānui Ngāti Toa Rangatira me te iwi o te motu tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. He tangata Tiriti ahau. [The sky above the land below I acknowledge you both. The House that stands here I acknowledge you. Taranaki Whānui Ngāti Toa Rangatira and the people of the nation my thanks and greetings to you all. I am a person of the Treaty.]I'd like to acknowledge current and past leaders in this House including Georgina Beyer from the Wairarapa. When I made my affirmation I brought in a pair of kahikatea seedlings. They symbolise many things. In particular for me they represent Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald our first Green co-leaders in this Parliament who exemplified by words and action our four principles: ecological wisdom social justice appropriate decision-making and non-violence. Their legacy lives on and I can assure this House that the Greens including my sisters will care for nature including wetlands and forests rivers and oceans birds and bats eels and frogs while also working for climate solutions and acting on poverty ending discrimination and calling for non-violent answers. Te Taiao underpins our existence. As Simon Upton Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment said recently The economy is a subset of the environment." What whakapapa shaped my belief about the fundamental importance of nature? Well on my mother Estelle's side it's North West England for generation after generation century after century. She was born in 1915 and was named Estelle for the stars that my grandfather saw when he fought on the Western Front. My mother was a physiotherapist painter and a keen amateur botanist and she taught me love for the natural world despite us living next to the soot of the Paddington main line. That didn't put me off trains though and I look forward to working with my colleagues Mike Butterick and Andy Foster and of course Kieran McAnulty on bringing trains more often more on time to the Wairarapa. On my father Paul's side recent DNA testing confirmed family stories. My Sephardic Jewish forebears were expelled from Portugal in the 15th century together with Portuguese Muslims. They became conversos in Northern Italy and then they left the beautiful Italian lakes for the smog of London in the 19th century. My father Paul left school at 14. He fought in Egypt and at Monte Cassino and after the war he stayed for security with one company until he retired. Immigration policies allowed—after my mother had died—him to join me in Wellington and family reunification is so important I will fight for people's rights to bring their families here. I grew up in that London smog and I'm sure you'll agree that the 1956 vintage is a good one Mr Speaker. Clean air regulations have now vastly improved people's health so regulation is essential. Our council flat was a good solution for medium-density urban housing but it was very basic inside. My grandmother tended the basement coal boiler that provided hot water for all six floors. What made our flat work for a young family? Well it was having great public facilities nearby—extensive free libraries museums and galleries; and parks and swimming pools—and excellent public transport meant we didn't need a car. Public investment not austerity underpins social wellbeing. I attended a State high school in Berkshire where great teachers instilled a love of science and debate. After school I went to West Africa at 18 to work as a laboratory assistant in a girls' school in Ghana. Moving to a country where I knew no one where weekly letters—remember letters?—were the only communication with my family was so exciting and after that gap year I completed my honours degree in philosophy in Nottingham. Then I worked as a systems engineer at IBM supporting the first computers into small engineering companies and making some great friends at IBM who are here tonight. I've also been a schoolteacher in a low-decile area. My best life decision was to come to Aotearoa New Zealand working for Databank in Wellington. I'd like to say that the digital economy including games development and films is a significant earner for this country and not every export leaves on a ship or a plane. I enjoyed the very first Island Bay Festival. An open day at Tapu Te Ranga Marae was led by the marvellous late Bruce Stewart and that welcome—I didn't even know I had to take my shoes off I was so fresh to New Zealand. That welcome shaped my world view and I'd like to also acknowledge Sam and June Jackson Billie Tait-Jones and many other Māori kaiako for opening my eyes to tikanga land theft tino rangatiratanga and the beauty of weaving singing and oratory. In Aotearoa New Zealand we are justifiably proud of leading universal suffrage in 1893. We should be equally proud of He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti. I was delighted to be with the whole Green caucus at Waitangi again this month and to experience inspiring Māori leadership supported by so many tangata Tiriti. There is much conflict in this world huge inequality within countries as well as wars between countries and the struggles of indigenous peoples against not only an elite class—the 1 percent—but the huge corporations that dominate our world. I stood in the No Blood for Oil marches against the Mururoa nuclear testing and for homosexual law reform. I will stand up for social environmental and economic justice. I don't support Israel's attack on Gaza but I don't support Hamas terrorism either and I will continue to bear witness to the Holocaust. Deploring violence can be loud and clear without being anti-Semitic nor Islamophobic. It was an honour to become a councillor and then mayor of our smart green capital. Our council led the return of nature to the city from working with Andy Foster on creating the Outer Green Belt in the 1990s supporting volunteer conservation groups and ensuring Zealandia—the first fenced sanctuary—was financially sustainable. I'm still part of the world-leading Predator Free Wellington bringing back the dawn chorus to this city. Those of you who watch my activities closely know I will not swallow a dead rat; I will feed it to the eels. Predator Free 2050 is a worthy goal I will continue to champion and work on across the House. It deserves sufficient funding adequate legislation and above all continued active public support. I led this city through the 2013 earthquakes taking decisive action in increasing earthquake resilience funding and partnerships and I would like to acknowledge Mayor Foster and Mayor Lester for your part in continuing some of those initiatives. We initiated the robust Tākina conference centre in the heart of the capital but homeowners renters and business need certainty and support over both earthquake resilience and climate adaptation for buildings across the country whether they're high-rise city apartments coastal baches or red-stickered single-storey shops. Earthquakes and water: I could make my whole maiden speech about the three waters and I'm sure every other local government graduate could do the same. We spent millions and millions of dollars. We built Moa Point. We funded Omāroro Reservoir—35 million litres of drinking water on the city side of the Wellington fault. We investigated cross-contamination diverted closed landfill run-off promoted conservation habits and set targets for leak reduction. Now I'm sure the 2013 and 2016 earthquakes inflicted significant underground damage yet we didn't do enough. There must be a serious partnership including iwi central government and local government to clean up our urban and rural streams and coastlines and to provide healthy drinking water without nitrates E. coli nor microplastic contamination. Let more of our awa run free rather than always choosing expensive infrastructure that may not stand up to increasingly frequent extreme storm events. A long view is needed but with urgent action funding and cross-party accords. I salute those farmers who earn a living feed us and manage their environmental effects well. People are planting natives recreating wetlands managing stock to reduce fertiliser run-off and controlling introduced predators including along the Ruamāhanga River. Central Otago has got the world's first zero - fossil fuel orchard. Martinborough vineyards create habitat to lure back the kārearea. Modern primary production has got some great champions—we saw some of them yesterday at the lamb event—but nutrient pollution unswimmable rivers a lack of shelter for farm animals from the blazing sun and sedimentation of coastal waters killing shellfish all show there's a long way to go. I ask rural communities to remember the 20 years of investment from Jeanette Fitzsimons' establishment of the Sustainable Farming Fund. I'm proud of starting our capital's cycle network—and yes my bike is in the basement—including commitment to the Great Harbour Way. We're seeing more and more people choosing to bike one of the best ways to reduce congestion. I am horrified by this Government's reckless blanket cancellation of so many walking and cycling projects robbing today's children of their independence and health. We made Wellington this country's first living wage council. As the Council of Trade Unions says "Rising profits contribute more than half of the inflationary pressure while labour costs are less than a third. We need to tackle energy rents and transport costs not drive down wages."—and I quote—"For over 70 years economics has been fixated on GDP … as its primary measure of progress. That fixation has been used to justify extreme inequalities of income and wealth coupled with unprecedented destruction of the living world. For the C21 a far bigger goal is needed: meeting the human rights of every person within the means of our life-giving planet. And that goal is encapsulated in the concept of the Doughnut."—Kate Raworth 2017.Or as Jeanette Fitzsimons put it the politics of enough. I'd like to say that I've always recognised the value and delight of cultural diversity adding Asian African and European events to the city calendar. It was ridiculous to have to fight Waka Kotahi to have the Carmen Rupe traffic lights in Cuba Street or the Kate Sheppard lights nearby. All achievements on council required teamwork. Ehara taku toa i te taku takitahi engari taku toa he toa takitini. [My strength is not that of the individual but is instead the strength of the collective.]After choosing to stand down in 2016 my seven years in the wilderness included walking all 3000 kilometres of Te Araroa and later cycling Tour Aotearoa. Each journey between Te Rerenga Wairua and Motupōhue taught me about the history people and geography of this country. They were quite a good political detox tour too—so I highly recommend it James! But now I'm wrenching myself away from our off-grid tiny house next to the Tararua Forest Park and returning to politics. I'd like to acknowledge the parliamentary staff—who are missing their dinner break—whose roles are under threat. Without the mahi of our public servants our words in this House would be empty echoes. I'd like to thank my husband Alastair—happy Valentine's day dear—our sons Ramsay and Jono my dear friends and family of different colours diverse genders and various political persuasions for their love and understanding their kind support and their gracious criticism. Thank you to all the Green Party staff volunteers and voters for making this the biggest Green caucus ever. Finally to my MP colleagues I do look forward to working with you on projects private member's bills and select committees to make our world and our country a better place for the most vulnerable people and for all the species with which we share our planet. We won't become a smart green country by 2040 with three-year flip-flops cancelling out each other's policies and Budgets. Look to the Waitangi Tribunal the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and the zero carbon Act to understand how implementing shared values can have a lasting effect. Manaaki whenua manaaki tangata haere whakamua! [Care for the land care for people and advance!]Let me close with the words of Kīngi Tūheitia: "Be who we are live our values speak our reo care for our mokopuna our awa our maunga." Tēnā koutou katoa. Waiata—"E tu Kahikatea"Sitting suspended from 6.21 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."