Macindoe Tim: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: General Debate[Sitting date: 09 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6437. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): I love our country and today I am especially proud to be a New Zealander. I am particularly proud of our constitutional arrangements which have served us well and are internationally admired and I want to add to the tributes that were paid in this House earlier to Her Majesty the Queen on this momentous day as she surpasses the record of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria in becoming the longest-serving monarch in British history. Of course as we know she became the longest-serving Queen of New Zealand about 2½ years ago.Despite the distance involved and the fact that she is the Queen of the Commonwealth and has many countries to visit over the years she has paid no fewer than 10 visits to New Zealand. She came here in the year of her coronation and took part in the opening of Parliament. She was here for the James Cook bicentenary celebrations in 1970. She was here in 1977 when amongst other things she formally opened the Executive Wing which we know as the Beehive and of course there is a plaque on the stairs acknowledging that. She was here in 1990 for the Commonwealth Games which she closed and of course the important thing that year was the sesquicentenary of the Treaty of Waitangi.In more recent years we have enjoyed regular visits from her children her grandchildren and most recently her great-grandson Prince George. They are an outstanding family and of course they reflect the great commitment to service that Her Majesty gave as a young woman when she said that whether her life be long or short she was committing herself to a lifetime of service. I acknowledge that and think that she has been an outstanding example for us all to follow.I think it is particularly significant that today in the House we have this morning seen two more final readings of Treaty settlement legislation because of course the Treaty settlement process has all been conducted during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She was here in 1995 and this year is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the first settlement which was in my own area—the historic Tainui settlement which she attended in person. She issued the all-important Crown apology in person and in the presence of the late and much-loved Dame Te Atairangikaahu and Prime Minister Jim Bolger. As a National MP I am incredibly proud of that process and I believe that it is making a huge difference in bringing our country together and righting the wrongs of the past.I am very proud that New Zealand is a stable democratic nation with a firm commitment to human rights and respect for the rule of law. This is something we should never take for granted because when we look around the world we see how many people are being deprived of that. Of course at the moment we see the dreadful atrocities being committed against the people of Syria and I am proud that we have taken more refugees or announced our commitment this week to take more refugees.I am also very proud at a local level that we are attending to the important things. Other members who have spoken before me have also spoken of our regional investment. In my own region of the Waikato on 28 August I was very proud to be at the sod-turning ceremony for the new Huntly bypass section of the Waikato Expressway. This is a $2.1 billion project in total. It is an incredibly significant investment. I was amazed to hear a Waikato MP today denigrating it because this is the single most important investment that we can possibly make in our region. The 1.5 kilometre Huntly section is the fifth of seven to be built and when the 10 sections are completed the entire 102 kilometre Waikato Expressway project not only will have been completed on time and within budget but it will make an enormous difference to everybody travelling through our region and to those who need to move freight do business and so on as well as most important saving many many lives because of safer roads.So yes we are getting the job done and I am very proud of that. I am also very proud that our Government has been tackling and will continue to tackle the serious social issues of child abuse and violence against women. I was delighted to accompany the Hon Anne Tolley in Hamilton about 10 days ago to the launch of Hamilton’s children’s team. I am disappointed our local media did not give more coverage to it because at its peak that team will be working with up to 650 of our region’s most vulnerable children and what more important work could there be than that? All power to their arm. I am so proud that that is under way and I was proud to advocate for that when the children’s teams were first being mooted.I am also very proud that in New Zealand we have had over half a million patients receiving a first specialist assessment in just the last financial year—a 26 percent increase from when we came into Government. I could go on and on. We are getting the job done. I am very proud of our country.