Naylor Jono: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 29 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:368. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National):Tuatahi he mihi ki Te Atua nāna nei ngā mea katoa. Tuarua he mihi ki Te Āti Awa e te iwi tēnā koutou. He mihi ki a Rangitāne o Manawatū tēnā koutou. E ngā mana e ngā reo kua tae mai nei i tēnei wā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[First of all an acknowledgment to God who owns everything. Secondly a greeting to you Te Āti Awa salutations. A greeting to you Rangitāne of Manawatū salutations. To the powers and languages who have arrived here today salutations greetings and acknowledgments to you all.]It is with great pride and a sense of privilege that I rise to take my first call in this House. May I join others in congratulating you Mr Deputy Speaker on being elected to the post of Deputy Speaker. I want to start with some thanks and acknowledgments for it is upon the shoulders of others that I find myself here today. First and foremost I want to acknowledge my wife my best friend and my campaign manager Karen. She has stood beside me for 25 years and given me encouragement and inspiration and backed me 100 percent in everything I have done. Your belief in me when self-doubt has at times crept in has ensured that I have stayed on track. Your energy at times has appeared endless and you have always ensured that our household has hung together through the craziness of six election campaigns and everything else we have faced in life.Together we have raised three great kids and it is due to your great skill and commitment that they have turned out to be amazing people. To Chloe Luke and George you have spent most of your lives sharing me with the public and this has meant great sacrifice to you at times. I do not believe that I have heard you complain once—maybe you did it while I was not listening! This journey in public life continues in a different realm now and your support and encouragement are appreciated and not taken for granted. I want to thank my parents. I think you have done a great job. Thank you for the values you have placed within me for raising your children to be others-focused and for ensuring that we each experienced a great life filled with opportunities. I want to thank the rest of my family including those related by marriage for your encouragement and for being a significant part of my life.I want to acknowledge those others who have been instrumental in getting me here—to National Party president Peter Goodfellow I thank you for the great advice and encouragement; to Malcolm Plimmer for encouraging me along this path; and to the local electorate teams of volunteers who put in a huge effort to help get me here. In particular I want to acknowledge Trevor Day and Wendy Schultze for your unwavering support and herculean effort on the campaign trail. Finally I want to thank and acknowledge the people of Palmerston North and the voters of New Zealand who have seen fit to place their trust in me to act in their best interests. I take this responsibility seriously and hope to repay that trust with good decision-making.I have lived a privileged life not because we grew up rich; we did not. A Presbyterian minister’s stipend and part-time radiography work did not offer a great life of luxury. I am privileged though because I grew up with a family who loved me and ensured that I could follow whatever I chose to do. I also grew up in a period of New Zealand’s history when my parents had confidence that as a 5-year-old I was safe wandering around in the firebreaks and the bush behind Silverstream in the Hutt Valley with my friends. It was also a time when as 10-year-olds we could sleep in tents or huts in the backyard in West Auckland and our parents could sleep soundly with the knowledge that we would be safe from harm. Though to be fair I am not sure they knew that we would then run up and down the middle of Great North Road in the early hours of the morning pretending to be motorcycles. It was a different world to the one my children have grown up in. Although I do not want to become one of those people who hankers for the good old days I do not want to give up hope of New Zealand once again being a place where our children can grow up safely and with confidence that they have a future here.I have to confess that I did not always make the most of the opportunities that were on offer to me. My first foray into tertiary study at Massey University was somewhat less than spectacular. In the 2 years I was there I learnt three things: how to play the guitar where the Fitz was and where everybody else who was not studying would be hanging out. If there was ever an argument against returning to free tertiary education with universal student allowances my life in 1985 and 1986 exemplifies it. However following a number of years of community-based youth work I later returned and completed my Bachelor of Social Work with honours where I learnt that well-directed effort can pay huge dividends. It was during this period of my life that I learnt some other important lessons. I learnt that raising a family on a limited income is incredibly challenging. I learnt that having one child and one on the way a mortgage to pay and 47c in the bank is not a nice place to be. I am grateful for having the support of family and friends and for having the skills required to negotiate that time and come out the other side. I also learnt that having an education creates greater choices and offers more opportunities for work and for success.Since attaining my degree I have worked as a care and protection social worker in child and adolescent mental health as a school guidance counsellor and as a church worker. I have had the privilege and challenge of making heartbreaking calls to remove children from their parents’ care the week before Christmas and of sitting on the end of an accident and emergency bed assessing the likelihood of a young person making a further attempt on their own life. I have sat with the families who are struggling to know what to try next to get themselves out of the pit of despair that they have found themselves in. All of these experiences have shaped me and moulded my world view. I am continually amazed by the strength of the human spirit and I am challenged that whatever I may achieve in Parliament together we must ensure that we build a society that improves outcomes for the people who live here one that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams. Most of my working life has been about assisting others to fulfil their potential.In 2001 I shifted my focus from individuals and families to serving the community of Palmerston North through local government. For the last 7 of those 13 years I was privileged to serve as mayor of that great city. Although I am currently serving as a list MP I still consider my role is to represent that city and the region of Manawatū here in Parliament. My colleague from Southland Todd Barclay made reference in his maiden speech to his electorate being of a similar size to the nation of Switzerland. The closest European example I could find for Palmerston North was Monaco. Palmerston North is quite possibly the most significant city for New Zealand’s future and I do not say that lightly. One of the greatest challenges facing the world in years to come is that of food supply. The growing middle classes in Asia and Africa will demand more and more protein. As we all know New Zealand is exceptionally good at producing protein. However to meet these emerging markets our traditional products will need to be developed for changing tastes and expectations. Palmerston North houses most of our country’s food research capability and has many world-leading researchers in the area of food science. In short although in the 1960s Burt Bacharach argued that what the world needs now is love I would argue that what the world needs now is Palmerston North.The city is not a one-trick pony however. Its central location is providing a great foundation for a growing logistics industry our tertiary education is strong and our city is arguably the best place in New Zealand to raise a family with its balance of opportunity accessibility and affordability. We are poised to capitalise further on our natural strengths with a regional growth study currently being undertaken jointly by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and the Ministry for Primary Industries. As you can tell I am proud of my city and my region. It has been a great honour to serve Palmerston North as mayor and I am proud of many of the things we have achieved during my tenure. I now want to take what I have learnt in that sphere and apply it in this realm for the betterment of New Zealand. I entered my mayoralty with a simple vision that Palmerston North would be the kind of place where my children would want to raise my grandchildren. I carry the same vision for New Zealand with me into Parliament.The decision to make the transition from local to central politics is not one that I have taken lightly as I loved what I was doing and knew there was still more that could be achieved in that sphere. I do not have a history in party politics and would describe myself as a pragmatist rather than being wed to any particular ideology. Before taking a leap of faith into the unknown I asked myself three questions that I knew others would be asking me in the ensuing months. The first was what Parliament offers that local government does not. I have come to realise that much of what affects local communities is a result of decisions made here and one of the best ways I could help my community was to try to influence those decisions. I also had a growing desire to help New Zealand develop and progress not just Palmerston North.The second question was: why now? Although I had always considered that running for Parliament might be a part of my future I did not give it serious consideration as I had decided I would prefer to wait until my family was older. However when I was presented with this opportunity earlier this year I realised that they had grown up and that now was as good a time as any. I also recognise the need for our community to have a strong voice in Parliament.The third question was: why join the National Party? The pragmatist in me answers this question easily as I firmly believe that the National Party is the only party with the leadership and the ability to get the job done. But there is more to it than that. My various professional and personal experiences have taught me that what an unemployed person needs more than a benefit is a job that what vulnerable kids need are strong and stable communities that are backed by a sustainable economy that suicidal teenagers need hope and that families who are struggling the most deserve to get services that are targeted to their needs. I believe that this National Government has shown that it is prepared to make difficult calls and take on serious issues to ensure that we all prosper and that we are building a great nation. This is a party with a wide base of support that reflects all sectors of New Zealand society. It is truly committed to all New Zealanders. This aligns with my own personal mantra which is that we will all do better when we are all doing better.I am reminded of and would like to echo the words of the Hon Hekia Parata as she said in her own maiden speech that I come with high hopes of what is possible. New Zealand is an incredible place and can offer even more if we work collaboratively across the country—not by trying to be something that we are not but by striving to be excellent at what we are already good at. I am passionate to see our nation fulfil its potential and for it to be a place that offers opportunities for people to achieve their aspirations.I want to conclude with a challenge to all of the members of this House in which I include myself. May we never lose sight of the fact that we serve at the pleasure of New Zealanders who have trusted us to make the very best decisions we can to ensure that they prosper. May we be big enough to put aside our own agendas for the sake of the common good. May we recognise that any power of influence we have is not ours to hold on to but is given to us temporarily by the people of New Zealand. We have been given a great deal and so I believe much is expected. It is my aim to try to live up to that expectation.Finally I will end with a quote from the late Sir James Hēnare. I am not sure exactly what he was referring to when he made this statement but I believe it captures the essence of how I feel today and provides a great challenge for us all as we move into this the 51st term of Parliament. He said: “Kua tawhiti kē tō haerenga mai kia kore e haere tonu; kua tino nui rawa ō mahi kia kore e mahi tonu.”—you have come too far not to go further; you have done too much not to do more. May those words echo in our hearts and challenge us as together we serve our nation. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.