Foster AndyANDY FOSTER (NZ First): Thank you Mr Speaker and can I join all the other previous speakers in congratulating you on your new role. I also want to congratulate all the other members in this House for being elected to this House especially those of you of the class of 2023 and just listening to some of the maiden speeches we've already heard gosh you are going to make an immense contribution to this House and to this country.I also want to congratulate the Rt Hon Winston Peters the Hon Shane Jones and the dedicated team at the heart of New Zealand First. You've all given up so much and worked so hard to bring New Zealand First back to this House and I want to congratulate all the New Zealand First team supporters and candidates right across the country. My personal thanks to the New Zealand First Wellington hub team many of whom are in the audience tonight for your hard work and wonderful support during the campaign. New Zealand First was written off by many but Winston you have packed out halls up and down the land. You have achieved what some called a political miracle and tonight you have brought New Zealand First back into this House. Even Lazarus could do it only once; New Zealand First has done it twice.Ka mihi ahau ki tēnei Whare te Whare kōrero i ngā whakatau nui. [I acknowledge this House the House that discusses the major decisions.] I salute this House where many great decisions have been made. I salute those who have gone before us and on whose shoulders we stand. We now shoulder the responsibility for setting the platform for those who will come after. I salute those whose courageous service of our country is recognised in the famous names on the walls around us. They fought and sacrificed so that we and other nations might live in freedom and peace. And I salute those of you my colleagues who have themselves served our country with courage and sacrifice. Thank you.We all come here to make a difference. We come here because we care. We care very much about this beautiful country. We care about our home. I'm proud to be a member of a Government that will work collaboratively three teams in one together on behalf of New Zealanders to make the changes that our country needs to be a Government of delivery. But growing up I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in politics. I don't even recall politics being talked about round our family table and my children now when we talk politics they just say Sigh." and "Can you stop please?"Our childhood was pretty comfortable. Mum and Dad were good honest hard-working supportive suburban parents who taught us the values of honesty hard work thrift service and to treat others as you would have them treat you. We were part of several lovely communities full of other lovely young families. However Mum and Dad had a much tougher start to life. Mum who's in the gallery today and Dad who's sadly no longer with us both grew up in London's working-class East Ham during the Depression and the Second World War. As young children both were evacuated. Dad at least got to be evacuated with his family; Mum's father though was an engineer and he had to stay to keep the power network on as the bombs fell so Mum was evacuated with her two-year-old sister and mother. Picture a little family at the railway station not too sure where they were going or who would take them in. Money was always tight and it became too expensive to keep the family going in two places so they had to return to London to finish the war together in East Ham. Both Mum and Dad recorded separate stories about bombs landing on the houses next door.But I share this part of my family story also to make the point that we human beings aspire to a better life. Most of us work diligently to achieve that. Dad worked for Shell as his father had before him and studied for a degree in the evenings. Career options were limited especially for women. Mum was told by her father that university was unaffordable and so she trained as a primary school teacher but she did get that degree later in life. My parents married and moved to a new life in the county of Kent south-east of London where my brother my sister and I were born. It's a beautiful area if you haven't visited it full of history castles and stunning villages and a whacking great motorway and railway to the continent.I'd only just started school when we made another much longer move. Dad was wanted by Shell to help run the new Marsden Point Oil Refinery and so we moved to New Zealand first to Whangārei and then to Wellington. After four years Shell wanted Dad back in London but it wasn't long before the lure of a better life in New Zealand brought us back to Wellington—happily this time for good. Mum was a primary school teacher and Dad ran our coastal oil tankers and fuel storage system. His job was to ensure that every part of the country always had the necessary supplies of each type of product—fossil fuels of course. We enjoyed a good childhood although it did mean eight different primary schools in eight years—and no I wasn't kicked out of any of them.In the brief time I've been in this House I've already heard a lot of reference to Rogernomics none of it very positive. It was Rogernomics that got me to take notice of politics. It was that topsy-turvy political period when the left became the right and the right wasn't quite sure what to do about it. By the time Rogernomics hit New Zealand I was teaching in Nelson I'd already graduated from Victoria University and Christchurch Teachers College. I'd worked in hospitality—I've seen that's been raised in the last couple of days—during holidays evenings and weekends; spent time in the naval reserve; and had a couple of years working in the heady world of investment finance.I'm sure we all know the Lange-Douglas Government story: radical rapid crash-through political changes; one of the most protected regulated State-dominated economies transformed almost overnight into the most open free-market economy anywhere. Changes were needed—yeah I see the ACT guys like it; the Labour guys don't ha ha! Funny that—but the speed and brutality came at enormous cost to people. Inflation interest rates and the Kiwi dollar all soared. Mortgage rates touched an eye-watering 20 percent. The sharemarket soared and then crashed just two months after Labour was re-elected—I wonder if it'd been the other way round if they'd have been re-elected. There were massive redundancies across the public sector. Rail was saved by sacking three-quarters of the staff. Then after being re-elected Labour went on a massive State asset sale programme and I'm not sure that they signalled that very clearly. Many manufacturers went to the wall. The experience taught me a number of things: to dislike government by ideology to dislike hidden agendas and that the checks and balances in our system are weak.But rather than grumble I thought I'd join the left-wing party and joined the National Party. I was the youngest party member in the Nelson electorate by about 50 years so what did they do? They promptly made me the electorate chairman.After teaching I had two brilliant years on a great Kiwi OE working and travelling but keeping a close eye on what was going on back home. I was a camp director in the USA worked on an Israeli moshav in a Swiss hotel in London offices and on building sites.I got back just in time for the 1990 election. Labour was swept out of office FPP was shortly replaced by MMP and I think that was the Kiwis saying that they wanted to reduce the unbridled power of single-party Governments and wanted minority voices to be heard.I got my first introduction to this House a job in the new National Government's parliamentary research unit and I'd like to acknowledge my former boss Wayne Eagleson who's in the gallery.I've always had a very strong involvement in community. In 1992 I was invited to stand for election to the Wellington City Council and was privileged to be elected. I might also say I had the privilege of standing alongside an even younger James Shaw. He didn't make it. I'm not sure who got the booby prize on that one. I stood on three values values which remain core to me today: authentic listening careful use of public money and caring for the environment. It was a privilege to serve 10 consecutive terms on the council—the last of them as mayor. It's effectively half of my lifetime. I'm deeply grateful to the many thousands of Wellingtonians who voted for me over so many years and in this election to the good people of Mana. Though I'm now a list MP I know very well what it is to help thousands of constituents with all manner of issues. I know what it is Jamie for that supermarket shop or the walk through town to take twice as long because there are always people to talk to. I love that; I'm not sure that my wife is so keen.I know what it is to work with my community to drive projects and programmes to run events and festivals to spearhead the development of many many community facilities like parks pools and libraries. I know what it is to fight with my community against the odds on behalf of your community when the council was not listening to them. And I recognise some of my friends from the Miramar community in the gallery for their courage in fighting together against city hall.But together on the council we made a huge difference to the city. We built sewage treatment plants built the railyards stadium opened up the waterfront supported the opening of Te Papa built a new airport terminal and a beautiful convention centre. We supported the emergence of new creative industries like film and digital tech. We liberalised the planning rules to energise the central city. And for several years Wellington CBD was the fastest-growing population area in the whole of New Zealand. The once-grey walk-short city became a centre of fashion film arts culture and events and a significant tourism destination. We led the way in protecting restoring and strengthening heritage buildings. We grew public transport use after reversing its long-term decline.But if there is one thing I'm personally particularly proud of as a councillor and as a mayor it is in helping spearhead Wellington's stunning environmental transformation. I can remember as a parliamentary researcher reading the then new Ministry for the Environment's first state of the environment report. It was depressing. Unique biodiversity evolved over 70 million years in isolation was in steady and continuous decline. That began with Māori settlement accelerated with European arrival and 150 years on it was still getting worse.But we could do something about it. Karori Sanctuary now Zealandia was Jim Lynch's crazy never-been-done-before idea to not just reduce environmental decline but to turn it around to make the environment better. The mad idea was for an innovative new-design fence around a former water reservoir to eradicate introduced pests and restore native species that were then largely confined to offshore islands. I was part of the original steering committee a foundation trustee and a long-time volunteer. The early journey was often tough. There were many doubters people who said we couldn't do it and many roadblocks. But over time it has truly taken flight. It is now without doubt a success—much loved internationally recognised—a success for the environment for education for science tourism culture and an amazing community builder. Zealandia has a staggering 16000 members paid up and 600 active volunteers. And I'd like to recognise some of the team particularly Phil Meyer in the gallery who's chaired the trust for the last six years.As a councillor I also drove the charge to piece by piece acquire protect and revegetate ridgelines right around the city fringe. Over 30 years that has created one of the world's very best greenbelts. The city's wild reserve network is not quite complete but it's getting very close. And I also recognise the Hon Grant Robertson there for his work supporting the town belt.And Wellingtonians in their thousands have come together to contribute to this world-leading restoration journey trapping planting weeding. Wellington's Miramar Peninsula has recently become the first urban area on the planet to eradicate introduced predators including rats. The collective result of this kaitiakitanga is a very rare phenomenon a city where wildlife is dramatically improving and other cities are now copying our mahi and that is awesome.In some ways that brings me full circle. Another one-party Labour Government inspired me to return to this House and I thank New Zealand First for giving me that opportunity. There will be plenty of opportunities to debate our current condition but suffice to say across so many aspects of our society demonstrably measurably we were going backwards and that is why New Zealanders voted for change.I expressed my dislike earlier of hidden agendas—saying one thing and doing another—but I think that this Government has been elected with a very clear mandate and the coalition agreements articulate that very closely and the 100-day plan is putting the first stage of that into delivery.I want to finish off with two big areas where I think we need to make a difference. The first of those is in lifting our economic performance. New Zealanders for the most part work really hard but that is not enough. We've fallen so far behind other countries. In the 1950s some assessments had New Zealanders enjoying the world's third-highest per capita incomes equivalent to Switzerland. Today our incomes are 66 percent lower than the Swiss and we rank only in the mid-30s. We are 20 percent below Australia and it matters. Imagine if everyone earned 66 percent more. We probably wouldn't be having half the arguments we do. It matters to what public services we can afford. It matters to how much we are paid. It matters to keeping the skilled people we cannot afford to lose to higher wages and higher living standards to other countries.But to create higher incomes we must be more productive and grow the output per hour worked. We cannot borrow our way to wealth. We cannot redistribute our way to prosperity. This is not a zero-sum game. This Government is very focused on raising productivity. We need to be smarter; invest more in technology research and development; and support emerging creative businesses better. We need to grow savings and investment and reduce the handbrake of collective indebtedness. We need to reduce the burden of excessive regulation and heavy taxation.I hear too often the stories of businesses and individuals frustrated delayed and financially impacted by slow often uncaring responses from central or local government. That needs to change because time is money. We need to spend every tax dollar well. We need to plan better for the critical long-term issues like infrastructure immigration urban planning and superannuation. We must reverse falling school achievement standards and fix the tertiary sector. Our health sector is struggling and I think too often siloed. We've turned our back on prospective employees over the last three years. We've got a lot of work to do there.The other big challenge we have is bringing our people back together. The concept of a team of 5 million together facing the common foe of COVID was powerful emotional and uniting. But less than three years later poll after poll shows we are more divided than ever: COVID mandates co-governance rural against urban gender issues and generation against generation over housing. Social cohesion is essential. I spoke earlier of the need for authentic listening and for greater protections being built into our Government system.The most special part of being mayor of our great capital city was working right across the diversity of our community building a new relationship with our mana whenua iwi working with our Interfaith Council some of whom are in the gallery today and they were internationally honoured for their efforts in showcasing different faiths to build friendship and understanding following the awful events of 15 March 2019. During the parliamentary protest I engaged with protesters police politicians and press and it was very special also to work with the LBGTQI+ community including honouring community pioneers and supporting community at a vulnerable time. I loved working across our diverse ethnic communities working with our disability community and with our diplomatic community some of whom are in the audience tonight. Citizenship ceremonies were a highlight. My message to our new citizens was always that they should continue to treasure their original cultures while embracing their new one. Our task is to bring people together and I can say it no better than this: "Mā te rongo ka mōhio. Mā te mōhio ka mārama. Mā te mārama ka mātau. Mā te mātau ka ora." Through listening comes awareness. Through awareness comes understanding. Through understanding comes knowledge. Through knowledge comes life and wellbeing.There will be bumps along the way but through kōrero and whakarongo I believe we can be the best multicultural nation in the world. And there is an apposite African proverb about the journey: if you want to go fast go alone; if you want to go far go together. As a nation if we walk together on the things that matter we will go far.And I want to finish off with my most important thanks. That is to my children Brendon and Ella and to my darling wife Ann. Members here will know or will come to know that our families give up so much when a partner or parent is in political life. I've been a councillor a mayor and now an MP for Brendon and Ella's entire life and all of our married life. The hours are often long. Work is often taken home; so sometimes is the stress. You're often away from your families. You're almost never off duty. Social conversation so often turns to politics. The media can be harsh judgmental and often unfair.We politicians can grow a thick skin but we're not invulnerable. But our families often feel it the more. Ann Brendon and Ella thank you so much for your support and for your love. I love you very much. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."