Fenton Darien: Address in Reply 
Fenton Darien: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:197] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
Tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. It is an honour to speak for the first time in the House and I take pleasure in congratulating you Madam Speaker on your election as Speaker of the House. I congratulate my fellow new MPs on their election and those who have been re-elected to this Parliament. I celebrate the return of a Labour-led Government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark and I look forward to 3 more years of social and economic progress for the peoples of our country. 
I send love to my whanau who are here today and to those who cannot be here but who are listening. I particularly acknowledge my husband John my son Aisha my daughter Anna my sister Linda and my brothers. I thank them for their love and support in years past and in the years ahead. I honour the memory of my parents Verdun Edward Frost and Patricia Mary Te Rata Mahuta Frost. I miss them both. I pay tribute to the leaders delegates and members of my union the Service and Food Workers Union NgaRingaTota whose courage and determination for a better life for working people comes with me to this House. 
I follow my grandfather the Reverend Frederick Ledger Frost who was a member of this Parliament. He died when I was a very small child so I have no personal recollection of him but I am here on his shoulders just as we are all here on the shoulders of many. My grandfather was born in the north of England to a poor family. He left school at the age of 12 to work in the mines as a pit boy continuing that occupation in the mines on the West Coast of New Zealand when he immigrated here as an adult. He studied at night and qualified to become a Methodist minister but war intervened. He was a soldier in the 1st Otago Tunnelling Corps in World War I and was injured at the Somme. After the war he was the Auckland City Missioner. 
My grandfather was deeply troubled by the Depression and as a consequence he joined the Labour Party. He was the Labour candidate for Napier but lost by a handful of votes so he went back to work at the Huntly mines in the intervening period until he was elected as the member for New Plymouth in the first Labour Government. After my grandfather had made his maiden speech to the House that great orator John A. Lee said: “By their deeds are Parliaments known; and if Parliaments have played an important part in the public well-being—in nation building—and if politicians have done so then they are known by their institutions. I venture to assert that as the years go by because this party”—the Labour Party—“has established good institutions and will continue to do so there will be many members of this House whose names will become by-words and will become as historical as some of the great names in the history books of New Zealand.” 
How right he was. During my grandfather’s time in this House the Labour Government introduced the Social Security Bill which brought in free health-care and universal superannuation in addition to the programme of State house construction and many other achievements that set the basis for a fairer society. So many members of that Parliament are indeed now great names in our history books. We know them well: Michael Joseph Savage Peter Fraser and Sir Walter Nash. I am proud that my family was part of that important contribution and part of the first Labour Government of Aotearoa New Zealand. 
Politics is in my blood. I suspect that that is not unusual in this House. Many of us have whakapapa that could indicate why we have chosen this path. I have proud family connections with Ireland England and the tangata whenua of in particular Waikato. But there is one story in my ancestry that I want to tell because it illustrates the terrible battle that many have waged for justice. An ancestor of mine Charles O’Brien who lived in Youghal County Cork was the local leader of the United Irishmen resistance fighters and he was known to the English as “Plague O’Brien”. Charles was caught by the English and sentenced to be hung from the Clock Gate tower in Youghal. The Clock Gate was a grim prison building a symbol of terror and tyranny for the countryside around and its inmates were often tortured. 
The United Irishmen movement was recruited principally from amongst the working class and the labouring element of the country districts. In that period the open organisation of labourers for any purpose was against the law. Consequently all the trade unions that then flourished among the Irish working class were illegal organisations whose members were in constant danger of arrest and transportation for the crime of organising. What was Charles O’Brien fighting for? He was fighting for the democratic reform of the Irish Parliament and for the removal of English control from Irish affairs. He fought for political reform and the rights of others and paid with his life. 
A poignant account of Charles’ execution is told by family members. At the top of the Clock Gate tower the mayor was supposed to put the noose around Charles’ neck and push him out. But the mayor was a family friend doing the job under duress. Charles is reported to have said to the mayor: “Let me do that for you.” and to have put the noose around his own neck and jumped. 
The point of this story is that history and whakapapa are important. We are shaped by experiences where we come from and those in our families who have gone before. As a Government list MP I have no particular electorate although I am from the west of Auckland. I acknowledge the tangata whenua of the Waitakere Ranges and coastal valleys Te Makerau a Maki and I celebrate the vibrant city of Waitakere and its surrounding rain forest wild coast and rich diversity. 
I am proud to be part of a city that is young progressive eco-friendly and Labour. But I claim as my constituents the service workers across New Zealand—those who clean for cook for and care for others—and the workers who process and manufacture our food. Many of them work long hours on shift work. They work in hot factories with repetitive and noisy machines they care for someone’s grandmother in a rest home or they clean up after the rest of us when we have gone home. Some of their jobs are physically hard and are not particularly well paid. But what amazes me is the pride they have in the work they do—the belief that they are making a contribution no matter how disregarded by some. It is union organisation and rights that bring dignity and give a voice to their contribution. I salute those workers particularly those in the gallery today who have come here to encourage me on my new journey. In addition I pay tribute to the great women presidents of NgaRingaTota: Sue Wetere Julie Kahaki and Sharryn Hough along with our mate and fellow unionist Mary Campbell who sadly passed away earlier this year. 
I follow other leaders from the union movement into this House. It interests me how often our beliefs experiences and talents are written off by some in politics and the media. I believe that this is because their view of society is as indistinct as the view of the street below from the lofty heights of a high-rise building. It shows no understanding of the real world of work and of what life is like for many ordinary working people. Unions represent the hopes and aspirations of hundreds of thousands of workers in our country. They stand for the fundamental principles and beliefs shared widely in our society of a fair go for everyone whereby in good times people can get a fair share of the benefits and in the bad times there are protections. I grew up with these values believing that if people worked hard played by the rules and paid their dues then the nation would provide security opportunity and fairness for all. 
As a trade unionist I experienced first-hand the devastation of a New Zealand experiment in the 1990s—the Employment Contracts Act the welfare reforms and other structural adjustments. I saw worker after worker lose pay sick leave holidays public holiday pay and jobs. I despaired at the ruthless restructuring whereby quality jobs became casual jobs with no security of hours of employment—where workers were supposed to wait at home on call in the hope that they could get a few measly hours of work per week. Thousands of hospital cleaners and kitchen workers had their jobs contracted out and their pay slashed in the brutality of competitive tendering. 
Catering workers employed at Capital Coast Health for example had their employer change six times in 8 years and their managers change at least 10 times. The only thing that stayed the same for them was their pay rate. Until September 1999 those workers were paid the same hourly rate as they were paid under the 1990 hospital domestics award. Some employers’ idea of a fair employment agreement was a 2-page individual contract that scrapped all conditions and paid a minimum wage. The impact on the lives of working women and men was appalling. It set our country back years yet what astounds me is that even with the evidence that those kinds of policies do not work we continue to hear a call for more of the same from some in politics and business. These are not the standards of an advanced economy; they are the standards of a Third World country and they undermine the generations of people who have worked hard to get a fair share of the prosperity of our land and give their families a chance to get ahead. 
New Zealand’s unions are modern energetic and representative organisations. When unions had the opportunity with a change of government in 1999 they did not demand a return to the past. They intelligently sought democratic engagement with our future including in the areas of growth and innovation sustainable development technology skill development and industry and regional development. Unions instead of being seen as part of the problem have become part of the solution. Initiatives in industry training such as Learning Reps; in Maori economic development; and in productivity; as well as in the future of manufacturing and tripartite development projects in the wood food and beverage industries to name just a few have all had significant union involvement. Changes to industrial law with the emphasis on good-faith bargaining and the recognition of fundamental International Labour Organization conventions on the rights to organise and collectively bargain set the scene and there are now real results to show for it. 
We can contrast the gloom of the 1990s with last week’s announcement on wages and employment. New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest rate since records began and is the lowest in the OECD. The largest annual and quarterly wage and salary increases since the series began in 1992 were also recorded. 
Success in building a secure high-skill high-productivity and high-wage economy relies on an understanding that it is people who make the difference. It requires an investment in all workers not just a few at the top. No one gets to do well on their own. None of us here or anywhere is a self-made person. All of us rich or not so rich can advance only because of the efforts and contributions of many. New Zealanders past and present have invested through their taxes in our education system health care infrastructure highways airports and even this House providing the opportunity to make our way in our lives. Those contributions must be defended so that they are equally available for others. 
This brings me back to the cleaners kitchen workers caregivers and food production workers. They have a right to be heard in this House and I bring with me their hopes and dreams for a fair share and a better life for their families and communities. Their place in our economy and society is essential. They help to build a nation that makes life better for all of us. My role in this House—this House of the people—is to help make life better for them. The last 6 years and the programme of the third term of a Labour-led Government means that we are well on the path to doing so. I am conscious of the privilege it is to serve as a parliamentarian. I will do my utmost to uphold the values and core beliefs of the Labour Party and to do my best for all the peoples of New Zealand. No reira nga mihi nui ki a koutou. Tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.