Luxon Christopher; Mallard TrevorCHRISTOPHER LUXON (National—Botany): E ngā Mana Whakawā e ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā mātāwaka. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa e tau nei.[To the adjudicators the authorities the voices and the various tribes. I acknowledge you once twice I acknowledge us all gathered here.]I rise today mindful of the privilege and responsibility it is to serve in this House of Representatives and also being the last of the new intake of MPs in the 53rd Parliament to give their maiden speech. While some time has passed I want to congratulate all my parliamentary colleagues on their election success and I also want to acknowledge the work that all the parliamentary staff do to ensure that this House and our democracy functions well for New Zealanders. I am honoured to be the member for Botany because it is one of the most diverse communities in the country and it's full of hard-working determined and aspirational people. I want to thank the people of Botany for their trust. I will work hard for you. Politics contrary to what people say is actually the ultimate team sport so I want to thank my tremendous team of local volunteers and supporters many of whom are here today for all of their help—in particular the incredible Katja Kershaw Lisa Ambridge Jake O'Flaherty Graeme Rayner our incredible executive committee and our outstanding campaign team. To my children William and Olivia thank you for being so supportive encouraging and understanding. Our future is in great hands with your generation coming through. And most of all—most of all—I want to say thank you to my wife Amanda. She is my best friend. We met when we were 15 and she is quite simply the most extraordinary person I know: strong wise smart and funny. MPs in this House represent different communities and all of them together make up Aotearoa New Zealand. Botany makes a special contribution to the Kiwi mosaic from our mana whenua with their long connections to our land and sea to the northern suburbs of coastal Cockle Bay Shelley Park and Botany Downs to the converted farmland and home to new New Zealanders in Dannemora Somerville Shamrock Park and East Tamaki Heights to Flat Bush and Chapel Downs—some of the fastest-growing residential areas in the country—and to our proud Pasifika community in the south-west in Rongomai and Clover Park. Botany's diversity makes it special. Over half of its population was born overseas and New Zealand is a much richer and better place economically socially and culturally because of these communities. But whether you have lived for 40 years in Cockle Bay or whether it's been four years in Flat Bush Botany people have all worked incredibly hard to get to where they are. It is that desire to get ahead for ourselves our families our community and our country that unites us regardless of our age ethnicity language or faith. But like most districts Botany has its challenges. East Auckland is already bigger than Dunedin and Tauranga and yet it is chronically underserved by public services. So on behalf of those who voted for me and those who didn't I am committed to solving these problems. Let me share a little of where I come from. My ancestors came to New Zealand as Irish miners and hotel-keepers they came as Scottish stonemasons and bakers and they came as English farmers labourers and fishermen. They were new New Zealanders too. I remember and honour in this special place my late grandparents: Bert and Clare Turnbull and Fred and Joan Luxon. I thank my brothers and all my family members for their love and support. Nothing is more precious than family. From my father Graham Luxon—who's up here in the gallery—I learnt to set big goals and to work hard and to achieve them to have a positive attitude and to never let your circumstances define you. He left school and worked his way up from sales rep to general manager. He's a real-life MacGyver a very present father and his enthusiasm and positivity are truly infectious. From my mother Kathleen I learnt about people perspectives relationships and I inherited my sense of humour. Mum came to university the same year as I did to do a diploma in social work and she has become a really respected psychotherapist and counsellor. She taught me to walk across the room to engage with people different from me to see both sides of an issue and in doing so to broaden my horizons. It seems it has become acceptable to stereotype those who have a Christian faith in public life as being extreme so I will say a little about my Christian faith. It has anchored me given my life purpose and shaped my values and it puts me in the context of something bigger than myself. My faith has a strong influence on who I am and how I relate to people. I see Jesus showing compassion tolerance and care for others. He doesn't judge discriminate or reject people. He loves unconditionally. Through history we have seen Christians making a huge difference by entering public life. Christian abolitionists fought against slavery. Others educated the poor and challenged the rich to share their wealth and help others less fortunate. The world is a better place for Christians like William Wilberforce Martin Luther King and Kate Sheppard contributing to public life. My faith is personal to me. It is not in itself a political agenda. I believe no religion should dictate to the State and no politician should use the political platform they have to force their beliefs on others. As MPs we serve the common cause of all New Zealanders—not one religion not one group not one interest. A person should not be elected because of their faith nor should they be rejected because of it. Democracy thrives on diverse thinking and different world views. Until now my career has been in business. My first job after leaving university was at the global multinational Unilever a company bigger than many countries. I had amazing opportunities and a truly global business education. I spent 16 years overseas working in developed and developing countries turning businesses around and working alongside some very smart people. I realised that down-to-earth Kiwis could be as good as the Oxbridge set from England Ivy League - educated Americans and born-confident Australians. I came home to New Zealand and had the privilege of leading our most iconic company Air New Zealand for seven years. My team many of whom are here today turned a good New Zealand company into one that was truly world class and globally acclaimed. Over my career I've come to believe more and more strongly that successful businesses have a critical responsibility to engage on the economic the social and the environmental issues a country faces. Making a difference to people's daily lives is a shared responsibility between Government community and also business. In my time Air New Zealand employed 12500 people and it represented a cross-section of New Zealand life. As CEO I had the opportunity to get things done and demonstrate that a business could do well by doing good. For example we decided that New Zealand's shameful record on family violence was a workplace issue not just a social issue and so we introduced a three-week paid family violence leave policy for victims. The pay equity gap at Air New Zealand was reduced to zero and we introduced a 26-week paid parental leave policy. Senior leadership team positions held by women went from 16 percent to 44 percent. We worked hard to grow career pathways and internships for young Māori and Pasifika. We worked hard to champion and mainstream te reo and tā moko. We earned Gender and Rainbow Tick certifications. Air New Zealand was also a foundation member of the Climate Leaders Coalition and 100 percent of our company car fleet became fully electric—and that was over five years ago. When the business delivered superior commercial returns we shared those profits with our employees through a company performance bonus. The principle was simple: when Air New Zealand did well all our staff should do well too. Now I understand of course that a country is not a company. However New Zealanders look to the Government to get things done. It's not good enough saying you're going to lower greenhouse gas emissions but not doing it. It's not good enough saying you're going to reduce child poverty but not actually doing it. Talking about it gets you a headline but doing it makes a difference. I've entered politics because I want to make a difference I want to solve problems and I want to get things done. New Zealand's ability to become more prosperous and to enjoy a higher quality of life as a nation depends on the size and output of our economic engine. Just as growing Air New Zealand provided the opportunity for all staff to benefit I believe that it's growing New Zealand's economy that will provide the opportunity for all New Zealanders to benefit. However I believe that right now New Zealand's economic engine needs major modifications and serious upgrading. We are underpowered because our economy for the last 30 years has been suffering a productivity disease. Economic growth has largely been driven by having more people in the country and more people working harder. We need to work smarter not harder. We can do this and we can do it by building and unleashing genuinely world-class export businesses step-changing education and labour skills and delivering infrastructure better. Improving productivity is the single biggest thing that we can do to raise our collective standard of living. Now some Kiwi firms are succeeding internationally but frankly New Zealand needs many many more of them. Only two of our top 10 firms listed on the NZX compete in global markets at scale yet New Zealand has many opportunities on which we can build our future. We're well located to the rapidly urbanising and growing middle-class populations in America Asia and Australasia. The question is: will we take advantage of and fully exploit these opportunities or will they just pass us by? New Zealand has not invested in R & D and skills and innovation to nearly the same extent as the great small advanced economies of the world. New Zealand's rapidly falling international performance in maths and science and reading is extremely concerning and I worry not because of a graph on a league table but because of the strong link between educational attainment and higher wages. Higher wages and greater job opportunities underpin the choices that New Zealand families have in how they get to live their lives. Automation technologies which span advanced robotics machine learning and artificial intelligence will unleash unimaginable change in our society and our working lives. When I chaired the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council we looked very closely at both the opportunities and the challenges greater automation presents New Zealand. It has the potential to help us work smarter and seriously improve our competitiveness and productivity. However we're not currently geared up for it. We need to build a bold plan with real actions to harness the opportunities and to ensure that large parts of our society are not left behind. The urgency can't be understated. Let me also talk briefly about infrastructure which is at a crisis point. The issues are multigenerational and systemic. We need to reset and develop a new model to power the country into the 2040s rather than continuing to band-aid and number eight wire" our current system. Infrastructure is not just about dams and transmission lines and highways; it's about nation-building. It's about how we see our future and we need an overarching vision. We need new funding and financing mechanisms upgraded legislation and better project management and execution. Investing in world-class infrastructure that effectively connects transports and develops information and ideas people and products is critical to New Zealand's creation of wealth and the distribution of poverty. I am a proud member of the National Party and I believe that positive practical centre-right principles and policies are best to navigate the challenges and opportunities that New Zealand faces. I'm proud to be here under the leadership of Judith Collins and like my colleagues have built my personal and professional life on National Party values of freedom and choice rights and responsibilities limited yet better government competitive enterprise and equal opportunity in citizenship. I believe in tackling inequality and working hard to find that balance between encouraging hard work and innovation while always ensuring there is social mobility and a safety net. Every New Zealander who cares about other New Zealanders knows what that means. No matter your situation I believe in a New Zealand that backs Kiwis to work hard to convert opportunities and to create prosperity for themselves their families their communities and our country because that is how we will make our country stronger. But I also believe that Governments must make powerful and targeted interventions on behalf of those with the most complex and challenged lives. With the right resources at the right time in the right place the State can help people make positive and sustained changes that enable them to rise up and to realise their own potential. Regardless of the different political that views we hold in this House New Zealanders can all agree that we are incredibly fortunate to live in this place and I believe more than ever if we make the right decisions New Zealand has a great future ahead of us. We can do better and we can be more prosperous and more ambitious if we think strategically solve problems deliver results and get things done. I don't want to settle for mediocrity and I don't believe other New Zealanders want it either. Like most New Zealanders I've sat round the kitchen table talking to my kids about the subjects they're studying or talking to Amanda about the care of elderly friends and family members. I understand that the choices that every New Zealand family has at such times are constrained by their circumstances. I've come to politics because I want those choices to be better for New Zealand families. It's by being more successful as a country that we can ensure that those kitchen table decisions include wider choices and better options for all New Zealanders. The choices we all have are never made in isolation. The resilience and wealth of a student flat a family home a small business a large corporate are all affected by how New Zealand is doing as a country. It's my absolute belief that New Zealand can do better and when it does New Zealanders will do better too. We will all ultimately get the country—the economy society the environment—that we deserve and I think we deserve the very very best. That's the work that I'm committing myself to today and for as long as I'm in the House I intend to represent the people of Botany and to serve New Zealand to the very best of my ability. Thank you. [Applause]SPEAKER: The House stands suspended until 7 o'clock tonight. I will resume the Chair then. Sitting suspended from 6.07 p.m. to 7 p.m."