Lees-Galloway Iain: Maiden Statements 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:207] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 May I add my congratulations to you Mr Speaker on your election to your position. I look forward to your guidance and wisdom as my colleagues and I find our feet in this place. I am proud honoured and humbled to enter this House as the member for Palmerston North and a member of the Labour caucus. Unlike my esteemed predecessors Steve Maharey and Trevor de Cleene I am not a native of Palmerston North nor did I spend my formative years in the same State house on Savage Crescent where coincidentally that pair grew up. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Together? 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Not together. My childhood was spent a world away on a beef farm near Waiuku south of Auckland. For me the decision to live in Palmerston North was a conscious one that was made without the weight of parochial loyalty that I now feel towards my home town—and Palmerston North is my home. I have lived there for close to 11 years I met my wife there and my children were born there. Over the last 10 years all of my immediate family have followed me to Palmerston North and it is my desire that our family will have a close connection with the city for many many years to come. 
Like my relationship with Palmerston North my relationship with the Labour Party is not one founded on generations of family loyalty. Exactly how a privately educated boy from a beef farm who had Bill Birch as his local MP grew up to become active in the student and Labour movements still has many people somewhat perplexed not least my parents. 
That is a story for another day but the reason I joined the Labour Party is quite simple: its values match my own. I believe in communities. I believe in decent pay for good work. I believe in strong public services and that the State is still relevant and necessary in a modern economy. I believe in freedom of choice and individual responsibility. I also believe that we each have a responsibility to work in one another’s best interests and not just our own. Most of all I believe in empowering people. That means investing in our communities and in each other. It certainly does not mean withdrawing support from those who are the most vulnerable and at the margins of our society. 
These are values that were taught to me by my parents who I am pleased to say are watching us from the gallery today. Everything they did for their two growing sons was done out of a desire to give us the very best opportunities in life. It is fair to say that these days my family and I do not exactly see eye to eye politically. In fact it seems it caused quite a dilemma for my parents when choosing between voting for their son or for the local National Party candidate. My parents are lateral thinkers and they came up with a novel if not slightly drastic solution. They moved out of the electorate. I am sure Simon Power will be relieved to know that he has two more loyal supporters. Nevertheless I know that I would not be here today if it were not for the love and encouragement that pervaded my childhood and for that I thank them both. 
The city where my wife Clare and I have chosen to raise our own children is a bustling vibrant regional centre. It has a robust economy thanks to a mix of public and private sector industries and services. It excels in servicing the agricultural sector of the Manawatu and beyond. It excels in research education retail manufacturing and distribution. The city is full of innovative people and the work being done at Massey University at the Fitzherbert Science Park and in numerous small businesses in the city has the potential to put Palmerston North and New Zealand on the map as a leader in sustainable agrifood research. Such research and the teaching of the skills required to carry it out are at the heart of New Zealand’s ongoing and necessary economic transformation. The public sector must support the kind of blue-skies research required to make substantial scientific advances and it is right that Governments remain committed to funding such work as well giving our scientists the freedom to explore avenues of potential benefit. 
However it is equally important that an environment is created in which New Zealand businesses are encouraged to invest in research and development. New Zealand’s private sector research and development investment is woeful by international standards. In fact as a percentage of GDP it is one-third the OECD average. The countries ahead of us have been offering something called research and development tax credits for years. Currently 21 OECD countries are offering research and development tax credits; it is soon to be 20. Our research and development investment must improve because 
New Zealand needs a private sector that is committed to research and development. As my colleague the Hon Pete Hodgson told the House last night businesses engaged in research and development are by their nature more likely to be high growth economically sustainable more likely to have a commitment to staff retention and more likely be exporters. They need skilled labour not cheap labour. They are what this country needs. 
If we are to remain on the path towards a high-wage economy we must stay focused on what makes New Zealand unique. Part of what makes New Zealand unique is that thing we call our clean green image. When thinking of New Zealand most international travellers tell us that they come here to experience our lush native bush our pristine mountain ranges our unblemished beaches and our pollution-free rivers. The marketing is perfect: 100 percent pure New Zealand. Unfortunately the reality does not quite match the hype. But it is not just the tourism industry that relies on clean green New Zealand. The quality of our exports will increasingly be judged by the environmental impact of their production. Yes we already do well by international standards but given the distance to our markets and the misleading attention given to food miles there is increasing pressure to be cleaner and greener than everybody else. 
But the arguments in favour of environmental sustainability are about much much more than the economic imperatives. I am immensely proud to be a member of the party that led the Government into finally facing up to the difficult challenge of taking just the first few steps towards reducing emissions. I am equally dismayed to be a member of a House of Representatives that plans to stall the progress of the emissions trading scheme. To me the sustainability question can be boiled down to this: in what state will we leave our one and only planet for future generations? Will we hand them the legacy of blind greed of an environment so devastated that there is no foundation for a sound economy? Or will we take action now so that our children our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren can enjoy the lifestyle we naively take for granted? 
We should also ask ourselves what kind of society we would like our children and grandchildren to inherit. Palmerston North is a great place to raise a family. It is a safe culturally diverse city blessed with tremendous schools an effervescent arts culture and outstanding sporting facilities. The opportunities to learn work and play seem boundless. It is a place where children thrive. Sadly though so many of our families are unable to create the environments in which children prosper. Some of the reasons are financial and I ask members to take note of the advice I have received from the Palmerston North Salvation Army and Methodist Social Services that their food banks are now increasingly being frequented by low-income working families that are struggling to make ends meet. 
But money—or the lack of it—is not the root of all the challenges for our young families. When I listen to the principals of our primary schools there is a clear theme in what they are telling me. When they see a child walk through the door at age 5 they can tell straight away how stable his or her home environment is and by extension the likelihood of that child’s academic and social success and the likelihood that he or she will go on to be a productive and valuable member of the community. We can demand all we want from our schools: to teach our children how to read and write the fundamentals of maths science history and geography how to use a computer and how to access the Internet. We can expect our schools to provide opportunities for children to explore their artistic and sporting talents and we can even ask them to teach civics and instil discipline. We can ask our schools to do all that but if our children then go home to an environment where learning is not supported where there is little or no adult supervision where violence is a day-to-day occurrence and where there is no food on the table then all our demands on our schools are for naught. 
I am not saying our nation is riddled with bad parents. I know that the overwhelming majority of parents want the very best for their children. Parents who are struggling want to give their children the opportunities they might not have had themselves. But often they just do not know how. What many of our parents desperately need is guidance and support. We need role models to help set our parents and our children on the path towards achieving their own goals. How can we help? What can we do? Is there a place for the Government to offer assistance or do we baulk at the idea of interfering bureaucrats moving into our homes and telling us how to raise our children? If that is what I was advocating then I would expect an outright rejection but it is not. There are already numerous organisations working within their own communities to assist the parents of young families. Te Aroha Noa Community Services is just one of several I could name in Palmerston North. Te Aroha Noa is based in Highbury a suburb in our city that struggles to hit the news for the right reasons. Five years ago things hit rock-bottom in Highbury. Tensions between rival gangs flared and it culminated in the tragic end of a young life. The community could have chosen to turn a blind eye or to blame some outside force but they chose instead to take ownership of the problem. They decided they needed to rebuild their community. They decided they wanted people to be proud to live in Highbury and there are now several organisations involved in achieving this splendid ambition including the primary health provider Te Wakahuia the Highbury Whanau Centre and the people of Rangitane. 
I single out Te Aroha Noa because their focus is on children and their families. In particular it delivers the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters—HIPPY for short. This is a home-based programme that supports parents in becoming actively involved in their children’s learning. Parents and children work together for 15 minutes a day with story books puzzles and games and the goal is to help those children become successful learners. The tutors are parents themselves who have been through the programme with their own children. They visit people in their homes so it creates an opportunity to build community relationships. Te Aroha Noa specifically works within the Highbury community and the neighbouring communities of Takaro and Cloverlea—they work in and with their own community. Some of the tutors are young mothers who have themselves struggled—indeed they are still struggling—to build the life they want for their families. 
Earlier this year I met three young women—very inspirational. They are all mothers and all are now giving something back as tutors. They spoke of their goals and ambitions and more important how they planned to achieve them. One woman spoke of making Highbury violence free. I wish we could all be so bold to articulate such aspiration. My deep desire is that every parent in New Zealand would have access to the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters or something like it. I appreciate that significant funding is already available through the Ministry of Education but there are still so many families that the providers cannot reach and my fear is that these are exactly the families whose need is greatest. 
The Government can and should do more. It will be difficult to measure the outcomes of any spending. We are not likely to see the results for another 20 years maybe. But I say to members that proactive investment is far more cost-effective and far more valuable to our society than trying to fix the problems we are ultimately responsible for through our own inaction. We must also pay attention to the pressures placed on all families by the organisation of Western society in the 21st century. 
Our societal focal point is unarguably the workplace. Family time community activities and volunteering all take second place and must be fitted in around the requirements of the workplace. I believe we need to shift that focal point towards the family home or at least promote non - workplace-based activities on to an equal footing with the workplace. There is no doubt that children do better in an environment where there is at least one adult family member available to nurture them. We ask so much of our parents and we are quick to point the finger when things go wrong. I am certain no one in this House would disagree that parenting is the most important job there is and that parents shape the future of our civilisation. The previous Government certainly acknowledged this and made incredible progress in supporting families. But we have considerably more to do to make our words anything more than empty sentiment. I suppose what I am talking about can be summed up in that cliché phrase work-life balance hardly something politicians are renowned for. 
I am sure it is obvious just how important my own family is to me and I would briefly like to mention just how thankful I am that my wife agreed to join me on this journey. Unfortunately Clare and the kids could not be here tonight but—technology willing—they are watching us on the Internet from the other side of the world which by the way I think is marvellous and I hope more of Parliament’s public activities will be available through that medium one day. I am thankful to all the wonderful people in Palmerston North who have supported me thus far. We ran a long campaign and we faced many hurdles. But I was never alone and it was the team that truly carried the day ably led by our campaign manager John Shennan. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the support and mentoring I have received from the Hon Steve Maharey. I know he will be missed in these halls and will be remembered as a dynamic man of action who achieved lasting change in his portfolios. I once heard him described as the “Minister of Everything That’s Important” although I must say he showed his wisdom by never taking on the health portfolio. His return to Palmerston North as vice-chancellor of Massey University was warmly received by our community and I look forward to working with him in our new respective roles for as long as Palmerston North will have me. 
I cannot count the times I have been told since my selection as the Labour Party candidate for Palmerston North that I have big shoes to fill. I hope this does not disappoint anyone back in my home town but I have no plans to do so. Steve Maharey may have been as well known for his fashion sense as anything else he achieved in here but I want you all to know that I have my own shoes they fit me very well and I am comfortable in them. I do hope however that my footsteps will leave even a slight impression akin to that of my predecessor’s. That would be an achievement indeed. My focus is on the future and I expect to be judged on the effect my time here has on future generations of all New Zealanders.