McCallum Grant; Brownlee GerryGRANT McCALLUM (National—Northland): E ngā mana e ngā reo e rau rangatira mā tēnei te mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa. I whānau mai au ki Kaipara. Ko Mangatūroto tōku wā kāinga. I ngā pūkete whenua e pāmu noa ana ahau. Ko Grant McNational" ahau. Tino hūmārie ko ahau te mema Pāremata mō te Tai Tokerau. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [To the esteemed ones the representatives the many leaders this is my warmest greeting to all of you. I was born in Kaipara. Mangatūroto is my home. In the land records I was farming. I am "Grant McNational". I am very humbled to be the member of Parliament for Northland. And so my thanks and greetings to all of you.]Mr Speaker congratulations on your election as Speaker. While I know you will do an outstanding job I have one concern—namely given your deep Canterbury roots you are known to have one red eye and one black eye. I hope you won't hold the fact I have two blue eyes against me. It is an honour and a privilege to have been selected by the members of the Northland electorate of the National Party to be their representative and then to have been elected by the people of Northland to represent them in Parliament. It has been quite a journey to get here. While it is always fraught to thank people for fear of missing some out I feel it is important to acknowledge those who have helped: my electorate chair Iain Huddlestone and his wife Janet; my campaign chair Colin Rowse; my campaign consultants Michael Little and Dylan Parshotam; my long-serving secretary Lynn Pooley; my treasurer Nigel Wooding; the amazing Sally Macauley; and in the Hon John Carter I could not have a better mentor although I will leave the joke-telling to him.I'd like to acknowledge the great work of our leader and now Prime Minister the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon and the campaign team headed up by president Sylvia Wood. Finally a big thankyou to all the volunteers across Northland who have helped. I'd like to recognise all the other MPs in Northland: the Hon Shane Jones from New Zealand First; the Hon Willow-Jean Prime from Labour; Act MP and fellow dairy farmer Mark Cameron; Hūhana Lyndon of the Green Party; Mariameno Kapa-Kingi from Te Pāti Māori; and the Hon Kelvin Davis who has served Te Tai Tokerau for many years and will shortly be delivering his valedictory speech. A special recognition to former MP for Northland the Rt Hon Winston Peters who first campaigned for the seat of Northern Maori in 1975. Finally I would like to thank New Zealand's first female Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley and her husband Burton for their advice and support.I am a farmer—a farmer who is proud of the contribution our sector has made to New Zealand. Farming is in the blood on both sides of my family. My mum's family the Whites arrived in the early 1900s first settling in Hawke's Bay. After experiencing a few droughts they put in for a ballot farm near Tokirima west of Taumarunui in the King Country and were successful. So Richard and Mary White moved there in 1906 and Te Moata Station was born.This steep unforgiving country was a real challenge to break in and it is a real testament to the pioneering families that they stuck at it. My grandfather Lewis White married Aileen Wells a journalist from New Plymouth who had secured a scholarship to Canterbury University where she graduated with a Master of Arts—quite an achievement for a woman in the early 1930s. Lewis and Aileen had three daughters: Pam Elizabeth and Lois. Pam is my mum. Mum loved growing up on the family farm. Unfortunately at the age of six she had to go and live with her auntie Jessie Grant in Turakina so she could attend primary school. She did this for two years as there was no school bus. This changed after Aileen negotiated with the education department in New Plymouth to have a school bus service provided. Clearly sub-standard services in rural communities were as much a challenge then as now. In 1960 tragedy stuck. Grandfather Lewis White was killed by a falling tree. So I never had the chance to meet him but I do carry Lewis as my middle name with pride. Sadly tragedy in farming families was not unusual and it highlights the sacrifices some families made in trying to build their businesses and contribute to the prosperity of New Zealand. I would like to acknowledge all the descendants of the White family who have come today some wearing kilts.My dad Ron McCallum and his family hailed from Goodwood Otago: a settlement halfway between Palmerston and Waikouaiti—or "Whack-a-wight" as the locals refer to it—where the local primary school was called Flag Swamp. Dad often brags of attending Flag Swamp primary and tells great stories of his teacher Mr Brown—an out and out Labour supporter who used to enjoy nothing more than strapping those Tory farming kids. It is the McCallum family that carries the strong National Party connection. Great-grandfather Frank was involved when the party was created in 1936 and grandfather Duncan and his brother Charlie were also heavily involved. Then there was Dad. Many of us have political heroes like Winston Churchill Nelson Mandela Maggie Thatcher and Barack Obama. Well I have a political hero: my dad. You see Dad was a well-respected activist in the northern region. When Dr the Rt Hon Sir Lockwood Smith became the National Party candidate for Kaipara in 1983 Dad took over as electorate chair—a role he held until 1996 when he became chair of the Whangārei seat held by the Hon John Banks. The Kaipara electorate in 1983 had 36 branches and Dad and Lockwood went to all the AGMs. Dad would often joke that if Lockwood lost his voice during a meeting he could stand up and carry on giving his speech. Thirty-six makes my 10 branches in the much larger electorate of Northland seem a part-time job. That symbolised the level of commitment Dad gave to the National Party and democracy in New Zealand. I salute all the volunteers who like Dad work hard for the cause they believe in. I thank you all.So to my own political journey and my strong desire to serve my local community not surprisingly it started when I joined as a Young Nat at 18 years old. In 1985 I attended Lincoln College to study a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture. One of the dominant issues of 1985 was the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. During this debate I was door-knocking one evening in the Selwyn electorate for the Hon Ruth Richardson. One door was opened by a youngish guy who invited me in. He introduced me to his flatmate. It was immediately obvious to me that they were a same-sex couple. They encouraged me to ask Ruth to support the law change. As I was listening to them I was thinking that under the law of the day they could be in jail. Why? Why should two adults who clearly loved each other and weren't harming anyone else be punished for it? The lesson for me out of this experience was that it is up to leaders to see through the current noise and do what is best for the country—and in particular minority communities—in the long term. Saying these things is easy; doing it when you are swimming against the tide of popular opinion is more difficult. Not long after that visit I attended the Selwyn electorate AGM where I helped to move a motion supporting the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. Disappointingly it lost. In 2005 after many years of activism I was elected to the board of the National Party; a position I held until 2015 when I retired. In Northland my main role was chairing every campaign since 2002 with the win in 2017 being a real highlight.The 2017 election was a tough time to be a farmer. Farmers became the punching bags of the campaign. We were threatened with a water tax blamed for all the water-quality issues in New Zealand and were continuously used as a pincushion by the left. Farmers' concerns were so strong that it led to me organising a protest in Morrinsville with the help of Lloyd Downing who did a great job of fronting it. I know you're here somewhere. The stress and worry that flowed through the rural community at that time reminded me of the mid 1980s when Rogernomics was in full swing the share market was booming and agriculture was being called a sunset industry.All of these experiences have taught me that while change is inevitable it is the job of leaders to take people with them during periods of change and to help cushion the effects on society. The other aspect that was highlighted by these experiences was the need to reach cross-parliamentary consensus on long-term issues like water quality. As farmers all we ask for is a clear direction of travel that is achievable while maintaining a profitable business. Having the pendulum swing wildly every time there is a change of Government is not good for anyone and it is certainly not good for the environment.In 1998 the Hon Simon Upton and the Hon Nick Smith formed the Bluegreens. I joined in 1999 and have been an executive member ever since. The Bluegreens is an excellent forum for debating some very challenging environmental issues. It is a forum where all sides of the political and environmental spectrum can meet. Organisations as diverse as Greenpeace Federated Farmers Environmental Defence Society DairyNZ Forest and Bird and Beef + Lamb are regular attendees at our annual forum. It was there that I met long time Greenpeace campaigner Steve Abel who now sits opposite me in the House as a first-term Green MP. We have had many discussions about the way forward for farming and the environment and I look forward between jousting in the House to having many more. It is respectful relationships like this that need to chart a way forward as we work through long-term environmental issues. One final point on the environment: solutions to environmental challenges lie with Parliament and New Zealand as a whole. No single political party or organisation owns the environment; we all do.So what is my vision for the primary sector a sector that has consistently been the mainstay of the New Zealand economy? As I've highlighted we are used to challenges. We are innovative and collaborative. Farmers love sharing their knowledge; we all know how tough and lonely it can be. Right now we have another challenge: climate change. Some see this as too tough and as a pointless battle; I see it as an opportunity—an opportunity to help the world reduce global emissions and increase the value of our exports. Let's back ourselves and our amazing scientists to find solutions. Then we can add real value to our produce and help secure a future for the next generations both financially and environmentally.And so to the amazing electorate of Northland the electorate that is miles above the rest and my 2040 vision for it: if ever there is a region that has untapped potential it is Northland. We are located next to the biggest city in the country and we have a great coastline and beaches. We are blessed with quality soils that can grow a large range of crops. We have one of the highest percentages of young people under 15 in the country yet we are struggling economically and socially and have done for a long time. The single biggest factor holding us back is connectivity and in particular the quality of our roading infrastructure. It is best summed up by the state of the Brynderwyns and the Mangamukas.The Mangamukas have been closed since August 2022 and are expected to be closed for the rest of 2024. The Brynderwyns were shut for 58 days after the wet weather last summer and are going to be shut for at least another nine weeks to do some urgent repairs just to try and stop a catastrophic failure this winter. That is two parts of State Highway 1 shut at the same time. Northlanders have had enough. It is time to stop politicising Northland's roads. It is time all the members of this House release the handbrake on Northland's prosperity and back the four-lane highway. It is a vital part of lifting families out of poverty by enabling businesses to invest creating jobs and opportunities across a range of sectors and breathing new life into Northland. Northland will not prosper by increasing the size of the welfare cheque.The next part of my 2040 vision is highlighted by two towns. Northland is a community of small communities—towns like Kaitāia Mangonui Kawakawa Dargaville Maungaturoto and Mangawhai to name a few. The two towns I wish to focus on are Kerikeri and Kaikohe. They are 30 minutes apart but in some cases a world apart. They symbolise the challenges and opportunities in Northland. They need each other. This is not an "either/or" story; it's an "and/and" one. In 1953 Kaikohe was the hub of the North where Queen Elizabeth stayed during her tour of New Zealand. Kerikeri was a smaller village to the east. So what changed? Water. That's what changed. In the 1970s and 1980s two dams were built to irrigate the fertile land around Kerikeri. The results are obvious: economic growth resulting in jobs in a town that now has a population of 8500 and is still growing. It has become a significant economic driver for Northland. I am pleased to see that in the Kaikohe area we now have one dam that has been built and another being built at Waimate North. There is also the Ngāwhā Geothermal Power Station the first carbon-neutral plant in New Zealand and the Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park.The other aspect of these two towns is the cultural difference. This is best summed up by the rolls of the two high schools. Northland College in Kaikohe has a roll that is 98 percent Māori whereas Kerikeri High School is 38 percent Māori. So how do we help create a greater understanding and connection between these two communities? The answer is education. Through education we can teach the history of our cultures and what all our ancestors have contributed to New Zealand. For example the settlers developed world-leading pastoral farming practices and were encouraged to do so by Chief Hongi Hika who after visiting England asked the settlers to teach the farming techniques to Māori. This led to what was effectively New Zealand's first demonstration farm at the Waimate North mission station.We also need to celebrate our Māori culture which is uniquely New Zealand. Central to Māori culture is te reo. Wouldn't it be great if in 2040 we are starting to be seen as a bilingual society as our younger generations embrace te reo? Through language and leadership we help create understanding. In Northland the other significant contributor towards creating a united and thriving community would be a Ngāpuhi settlement. I stand ready to help and engage however I can to help achieve this. So my vision is clear: by 2040 a four-lane highway to Northland; a society where we celebrate and respect all our cultures; and a Treaty settlement for Ngāpuhi. And then we can celebrate together the 200th anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a united region and a united country.Finally to Mum and Dad who are watching at home: thank you for being great parents and for your love and support. To my sister Sandra and my brother Murray I want to say thank you also for your love and support on this never-ending journey. To my children Eve and Jeremy: I am incredibly proud of you as is your amazing mother Kate who has done an outstanding job of being your mum. I love you both dearly and could not have become the Northland MP without your support. The family hug we had in the Kaikohe hall when the results of the nomination contest were announced is a memory I will always cherish. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Applause]SPEAKER: All right. I'll ask members to resume their seats and the gallery to be quiet for the moment. To make her maiden statement to the House I call on Nancy Lu."