Smith Damien; Mallard TrevorDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): Mr Speaker it's an honour and privilege to rise today to deliver my maiden speech. Céad míle fáilte which for Hansard in Celtic means a hundred thousand welcomes". I welcome my dearest daughter Alexis and her mum Jo from the mainland of New Zealand and Rory her friend. Thank you Jo for bringing me to this great country giving me the greatest daughter a man could have—a scholar an athlete and a leader—and thanks for being a great mum to her. I also with Jo experienced the benefit of getting the great New Zealand passport a privilege for this immigrant. These gifts have led me to be able to participate fully in this great democracy the 53rd New Zealand Parliament and the principles of liberalism. We believe in the liberty and freedom of New Zealanders and their prosperity. Also thank you to my dearest friends and supporters who've come here today and are watching on TV and to the ACT president Tim Jago the board my fellow caucus members our leaders and the management of the party and Sir Roger Douglas. New Zealand's fastest-growing centre-right political party is the ACT Party which in 2020 grew by 900 percent at this election: the greatest campaign result in ACT's whole history. We listened to the country and advocated for change and for your continued freedoms and rights and ACT is needed like never before. I'm an Irish-born MP—a list MP—but there have been 61 MPs from Ireland before from 1853. There have been three Premiers and Prime Ministers—Pollen Ballance and Massey—and a Speaker called O'Rorke. Indeed Thomas Bracken an Irish MP in the late 1800s wrote "God Defend New Zealand" our national anthem. It was originally a poem published in the Dunedin Times and modified later in the century. So I honour them and it's fitting that Peter Ryan the Irish Ambassador is here today to witness the latest one. Peter and I intend to put St Patrick's Day back on the map post-COVID and we may even apply for a new national holiday on 18 March because it seems to be in fashion.So I think I'm the first ACT Party one—is that right David? Well then it's so. It was a stoking of my passion for the principles of liberalism by David that led me to the ACT Party and to run for office after watching one of his famous speeches in a Belgian bar in Auckland. We call it the ACT public speaking house—the "alternative House". I don't want to go over-the-top on that day but some Churchillian prose may sum up what I thought about your speech: "That chap makes the cosmos out of chaos." Thank you David for the inspiration then and what you do as the most effective leader of an Opposition party in recent times. So on to the humorous part: at No. 11 and then No. 10 on the ACT list I was always the one who was supremely confident of getting here and I thank the nation and its party votes and our campaign teams across the country and local and fellow candidates. I now see New Zealand as the place to do good and see laws have a massive impact on a free or not-so-free society. If the standard falls then democracy will fall and bad law under emergency or not is a grave insult to the people of New Zealand. The people must be listened to and given time to respond on any legislation. I honour today my father Frank who has passed away and my darling mother Agnes who lives with Vincent her husband in the small town of Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. They raised a family of four: Brenda John Paul and myself. I guess I'm Ringo! My father was an amateur tenor singer a great small community-based businessman who was loved by his town. Over a thousand people turned up to his funeral—that was a lot of whiskey—and he never knew he was so much loved till he was gone which is a very Irish thing to happen. My mum's early career was as a telephone exchange operator and then a bookkeeper and a mum. She was a precursor to an operator in the Five Eyes network I think in my small town! I used to watch her put a call from Mr Smith to Mr Brown with a twinkle in her eye. She was really a natural connector and the most loving mum a boy could have. She guided me to being the man and dad I am today and so thank you on behalf of all our family.On a sadder note I was raised in a war-torn country where your freedoms were threatened with a bullet or a bomb at every moment by stepping into the wrong district anywhere in the Irish or British Isles. We were bombed out of our house with just a 20- to 30-minute warning. We had to check under our cars for incendiary devices and informants were regularly kneecapped for playing both sides of the fence but a lot of people who died did not even get a warning. The epoch of these terrible times was in my small home town on 8 November 1987 when the Remembrance Day service bomb massacre claimed the lives of 11 people—10 civilians and one police officer. Sixty-three were injured. This formed a turning point in the Troubles and personified the evils of sectarianism and division and all the darkness that it brings. It also showed me how the shutting down of freedom of speech and liberties leaves citizens paralysed and in fear of the State apparatus. From that day forward I chose to believe in the power of peace and freedom of expression and protecting the actions of people under the law for the person and family and the country. And I have learnt that from that darkness does come light and freedom. Prosperity and democracy are the only path for a Westernised nation but it can be taken away from you by political or warring factions or bad economic situations. So those events spurred me on to leave my small town go to university and then with Ireland's youth who had ambition you had to leave because of recessions and property busts to cities like London New York and Sydney—which is unfortunately now not available to the young people of the world. A corporate sales career followed in fast-moving consumer goods in banking and governance and advisory services at some of the top companies in the world across the UK Ireland Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand has become home for me and it's truly a great free society underpinned by a bill of rights our uncodified constitution and the Treaty of Waitangi New Zealand's founding document. And upon these documents rests the New Zealand way of life. Let it be known from the ACT Party that all people should be equal before the law as guaranteed in article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi regardless of race gender sexuality religion or political belief. We should be very proud to live with these values and ACT honours their spirit as its daily bread. As an immigrant—and aren't we all—my mind boggles at the lot of the shiploads and waves of early settlers their resilience pioneering frontiering and enterprising spirit. They drove the cohesion and spirit contained in the fabric and soul of this great nation but we can and must improve it further to honour them and not become insular but leaders global citizens and once more unleash the creative and economic spirit and promote the achievements of New Zealand.It is a privilege to honour all those people that have gone before and the ACT Party will never forget who went before us and their contributions to building out the nation for a better place: going to war to defend our freedoms safeguarding the Kiwi way—they came to New Zealand for a new life and travelled further and further for our future. Today I'd like to thank my friends at the Parnell Returned Services Club for their embrace and carrying the torch.New Zealand is a country of high-achievement thinking and creative enterprise property rights and a freer society for family and friends was always a given. We were lucky as a nation because of their arrival and subsequent generations of Kiwis that have made New Zealand the envy of the world. Kiwis have great values in life and how we trade and relate with the world is well known. The New Zealand and the Irish passports means something real and the ACT Party will be freedom fighting every day to uphold these principles—have no doubt about that absolutely no doubt.New Zealand has this incredible opportunity to be a star economy in the 21st century. It is based and must continue to be based on a highly developed free-market economy. But some things are changing fast. We fear for its future and we'll fight for its free markets and liberties taking everyone along with us where all dreams of achievement are possible by self-drive.I ask myself every day when I come into this Chamber "Is this Government flattening the curve on our competitive advantage with its policies? Is it protecting us? Is it providing services and freedoms? Is it costing too much?" If it's really good policy and a real solution we'd like the Government to know that ACT will be super positive and supportive of the Government. However at present Government debt local authority debt and household debt and spending is unsustainable. ACT believes that the Government needs to lighten the burden it places on the economy. It's difficult to overstate the level of spending today and what is projected. It seems politicians' core expertise are spending the nation's wealth. I call for no more vanity projects or political promised projects. Every dollar must have a cost-benefit analysis as the Auditor-General states. We have no honey pots to reach into like the European Union and the Australian banks in the economy have their own problems so hence we are on our own. The Government should be continuously cutting spending. Instead it's doing the opposite and adding its inflationary problems to the health problem of COVID-19 which is why we'll be in worse shape in the medium term.I remember in the 1970s in the UK inflation was blamed on everything: decimalisation the eurozone Eurovision whatever—and no one blamed the UK Government's deficit spending as being the problem and we have to address that. So we will hold the Government to account. If big Government works then why hasn't it? Private debt is unsustainable as well. We must get out of the red. We must say to the Reserve Bank and the banks that the licence to print money or to lend money is a privilege not a given right. Cheap interest rates have fuelled an asset boom of epic proportions in New Zealand and we need to recognise that. Two years to get the Resource Management Act through is just not acceptable. If they were a corporation this new Government would be dead. A gap has emerged between the real productive economy and the financial economy. The banks must lend to business roll over loans and not hoard cash. It would be remiss if money printing and lax lending was our downfall. Debt leverage and low interest rates are tools granted but current settings do not augur well for the long run and inflation. This has led to the worst inequality child poverty and our largest intergenerational problems I've ever seen in my 25 years in New Zealand. And given the Government's record in first-home buyers' schemes this boom in property would not be possible without the bank of mum and dad to underwrite it. I'd like our Prime Minister to understand that the leverage in the system is horrific. We need to build more houses like the boomers did. I hear the phrase from the other side saying "Build back better." Well we haven't built anything so it's not better. Households are fuelling expenses with more debts. The problems are domestic and we can't control them. It's in our own backyard and we can do something about it. We have complete confidence that we can sell to the world—and the world wants our export products people and services—leading to new incomes and sustainable incomes and less wasteful spending. ACT believes that the answer lies with productivity and the most basic right of all: the right to earn a living. Paul Krugman once said that in the long run productivity is almost everything. It was also Murray Rothbard who said "It is not true that high wages make prosperity. Instead prosperity makes high wages." We all need to realise that productivity not employer generosity determines wages. Wage growth and productivity and more jobs will lift us all up. So my friend Stephen has given me a basic formula for long-term growth: it is potential—in brackets real growth rate—equals productivity growth and labour force growth. We are falling behind on some of these measures and it's not good enough to compare ourselves to other countries for the sake of comfort with high debt ratio levels who are not like us at all.So in conclusion ACT will advocate for better solutions in these areas with common-sense practical policy. We can't have a fair property-owning lower-tax democracy based on new productivity. We can't share the benefits together of improved productivity and profit share together. We can reduce debt and change our future. The Government must listen now.This new Government the people of New Zealand need to understand have a feeling of weariness and exhaustion and they need to show in vital aspects of life like housing and poverty that they are going to get on and do the job. In this country we need cooperation not a class war or anyone disadvantaged by artificial market forces. We need to introduce a level playing field for financial services and deposit-taking for Māori and Pasifika people and use credit unions and building societies as well as the big five banks. We need to start managing individuals working for the common good. Then we will have a free liberty-based open and inclusive society. ACT will be the most highly effective political Opposition a party of ambition because on our side of the fence everyone is held accountable. We have a great opportunity in this century and it's up to us to be positive and it is in our hands. But the next three to four Government cycles will see a challenge around crime local authority and household debt—and we have to address that problem. As Dwight Eisenhower said a long time ago plans are nothing but planning is everything—and ACT has a plan. ACT trusts the people as sovereign individuals in a sovereign country. This Government has been given a huge trust and managed responsibility and it's time to balance the books and manage the systemic risks in the economy and in niche economic investment. Let's reduce the control of people who want to not be millstones and ground down by taxation and inflation and let's allow people to be productive to succeed and create their own prosperity. Thank you everyone for attending today. You've come out in great numbers and I thank you for that. And thank you Mr Speaker.[Applause]SPEAKER: Order! I'm now just checking to see whether I should give the next speaker her call. I call Brooke van Velden for her maiden statement."