Young Jonathan: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:69. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth):Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch and can I like others extend my congratulations to you on your appointment as Assistant Speaker with your depth and breadth of knowledge that you bring to this House and of course congratulations to the Rt Hon David Carter on returning to his very important role. I want to also just congratulate my electoral neighbour the Hon Chester Borrows Deputy Speaker. He used to be known as DS Borrows—detective sergeant—but now he is Deputy Speaker. I think that one has prepared him well for the other as he keeps a firm hand on the misdemeanours of some who are likable rogues in this House. Speaking of one of those congratulations to Trevor Mallard—poacher turned gamekeeper. I think that is one of the beautiful ironies this House has produced. I think the Hon Trevor Mallard must have been ejected more than any other member in the last Parliament. Our only hope is that his rulings will be at least as entertaining. Of course we must give him credit for his experience and his knowledge of how this House works. So I think we have an excellent and well-equipped Speakers team.I want to also congratulate all our new MPs who have been sworn in—in fact from every party. Parliament is a place where you can make a difference and certainly in your electorates you can work hard for the people whom you represent. I want to especially congratulate Chris Bishop and Barbara Kuriger who this afternoon delivered their maiden addresses. It was great to hear of the experience and the depth and the quality that we have in our new National MPs who spoke this afternoon and no doubt as the rest of our team give their maiden addresses I think New Zealand will be very pleased and proud of the people whom they have elected to this place.Parliament is a place where people from all ways of life and perspective can come together and through debate we know that the best ideas will win. New Zealand still thinks the National Party has the best ideas on how to lead this country and resoundingly gave its vote of support to this effect on 20 September. We have policies that are not ethereal but apply to everyday life—policies that are pragmatic that focus on people that bring the concerns that people have to some solution and that create aspiration for people who want to build their lives and go somewhere in this fantastic country of New Zealand. What National represents is not just sound strategic and safe policies but a team that is singly focused. Our goal is to make New Zealand a better more successful and prosperous place. Certainly we are a progressive party. It is notable that in this Parliament we have two further women who have joined our ranks and of the three new Ministers two are women. It is great that we are seeing women take their place through their achievements and not just through allocation.The Prime Minister continues relentlessly to bring strong leadership that people continue to be willing to follow. We are a caucus that is not fractious but is unified and that supports respects and gets on with each other. I think that that is something New Zealanders have identified with and are pleased to support.We are a Government with a track record. We have delivered for New Zealanders and we continue to do what we said we would do. We continue to take Kiwis with us in the way in which we lead. I think this is a significant difference. We take people with us. Our steps are not huge silver-bullet leaps of faith in some ideas like a capital gains tax or a single-purchaser model for wholesale electricity or 100000 houses that just are not achievable at the price point they claim. We take steps that New Zealanders can follow in. I believe that is the best model for leadership. The best model is someone who can see over the horizon who sees what is coming and where we need to go but sticks close enough to the people to carry them with them. John Key continues to offer that type of leadership for New Zealanders. He is a man who not only can walk with leaders of the world but will walk with everyday New Zealanders in our streets in our workplaces in our towns and in our rural areas.Politics is not just about policy; it is about policies that work that resonate with people that people will support that people will recognise. We are totally focused on keeping people within our focus. We will continue to work for all New Zealanders. I would have to say that this is notable not just by what people may say but also by what is coming out from members on the other side of the House where people are concerned that those members have not listened to them and that they are disconnected from them. We understand that political success is not essentially rocket science; it is listening to people it is being connected to them it is finding solutions that will enable their aspirations to be fulfilled. We have kept to some very fundamental core strategies and purposes. Essentially New Zealanders support that. They see that our policies the work we have done over the last 6 years have made a difference in their lives and they continue to put their trust in us and well deservedly I say.But our intention of course is to remain completely focused on the aspirations and the ideals that New Zealanders have. We believe that as a country we have got a significant contribution to make in this world. We have acknowledged that in the fact that we have been voted on to the United Nations Security Council and it is good to see that other nations of the world hold us in significant respect to be able to achieve that fantastic position. But we must always take these gains with I think a circumspect and humble view and attitude. Whatever we achieve we achieve in partnership with one another and with the communities in which we lead. So we continue to work with our communities to enable them to have the tools necessary for their success. The tremendous gains that we have been making in education—not without opposition not without people disagreeing—and the results that we are seeing are certainly proving to be recognisable not only here in New Zealand but internationally.To see our young people coming through the education system with higher levels of attainment has got to be gratifying not only for us as politicians but for every teacher who puts the effort in to change and enable those young people to succeed and even more so for every parent who has a hope and a dream for their son or daughter to see the sorts of achievements that we are gaining through an education system that has been going through some substantial reform. It is gratifying to see that it is going to have a great result for our young people. We want to have a world in which our young people can engage in successfully. We are not just here competing against ourselves but we are competing against other countries in this global world and so we need to be fit we need to be educated we need to be men women families and young people young men and women who are able to compete in the workplace and in the arena of ideas if we are to continue to succeed in this world. We are just a small country a long way away from every market that we seek to sell our goods in and so we must be better than just about every other nation in the world to be able to achieve and keep that leading edge.What I have learnt as a local MP is that if you listen to people and if you hear their heartbeat and their aspirations and you work to fulfil those aspirations they will support you. I want to just take a little bit of credit away from my opponent Mr Little for my win. It is not right or fair that all the credit goes to him. The local National MP has just a little bit to do with his own majority more than doubling and his opponent’s shrinking by over 10 percent. I want to thank the people of New Plymouth and the 21500 people who supported me and pledge my continual hard work to better their circumstances and to see our electorate and our region continue to prosper. Thank you.