SpeechPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): E te whare e tū nei tātou o te Whare tēnā tātou. Tēnā tātou i ō tātou tini mate rātou kua huri ki te pō kaore e hā ko Kara Puketapu tērā o ngā pou e noho mahana tonu ki roto i ngā whakaaro. Nā reira tangihia rātou te hunga mate. Hoki mai ki a tātou ō rātou nā morehu ki muri nei kia ora anō tātou.Te Ātiawa Taranaki Whānui te iwi taketake o tēnei wāhi tēnā koutou. Kei te mihi ake ki a Ahumairangi te maunga whakahī o tēnei rohe. Kei te mihi hoki ki te moana o Te Whanganui-a-Tara e papaki mai nei. Ki taku rohe kāinga o Rongotai me te iwi e whai pānga ana ki reira tēnā koutou. Tēnā hoki koutou ngā iwi o Whare Kauri Rēkohu Ngāti Mutunga Moriori anei tēnei o pononga e mihi nei ki a koutou. E te Pīka Adrian tēnā koe. Tēnā koe e pupuri nei i te mauri o te Whare. E ngā Mema Pāremata otirā ngā kaitautoko hoki o tēnei Whare tēnā koutou kia ora huihui mai nei tātou katoa kia ora kia orana.[To the House that stands here and us who are of thie House greetings to us all. Greetings to us and to our loved ones who have departed to the spirit world including Kara Puketapu that pillar that remains warm in our thoughts. And so we grieve for them who have passed away. And to return back to us the descendants who are left behind hello to us all. Te Ātiawa Taranaki Whānui the indigenous people of this land greetings to you all. I acknowledge Ahumairangi the illustrious mountain. I acknowledge the sea of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. To my hometown of Rongotai and the local tribe who have interest there acknowledgements to you also. Greetings also to the people of Whare Kauri Rēkohu Ngāti Mutunga and Moriori I stand here as your servant to acknowledge you as well. To the Speaker Adrian thank you for holding intact the life essence of our House and to the Members of Parliament as well as the staff of this House greetings to all of us assembled here hello hello.]I rise one last time in this House. I rise one last time to pay tribute to members past and present and those yet to be elected. I rise one last time to honour the invisible hands that make this great House function. The cooks and the cleaners the clerks and the couriers the security guards and switchboard operators the techies and tradies. Without all of you this boarding school for older kids simply wouldn't work. So thank you all for your manaakitanga. Less than six years ago I delivered my maiden speech as a message to my son Tamarangi. I promised him that I would be the best dad that I could be that I would be a strong representative for the people of Rongotai and that I would change our adoption laws so that thousands of people like him—and me—would know our whakapapa our identity. Now I've tried hard to keep those promises but it will be for Tamarangi and others to decide if that's true.It might come as a surprise to many that my election night success in September 2017 was a bittersweet moment: sweet because I was the first Māori man to win a general seat for Labour in more than 100 years; bitter because I was giving up the deputy mayoralty of Wellington with the daunting task of filling Annette King's very large shoes. People who know Dame Annette will understand what I'm talking about. It goes without saying that I owe a debt of gratitude to Annette and her husband Ray. I want to also acknowledge former party leader Andrew Little for opening the door for my bid to stand in Rongotai—kia ora Anaru. Your belief in me paved the way for me to become an MP.Now some people think I came late into politics; the truth is I was born into it as my parents—who are watching from hospital unfortunately—will attest. My dad was a Methodist minister for some 50 years who was heavily involved in the Labour movement. Mum Judith was a health worker who believed in community service. During my childhood our house was always full of visitors who came to talk about politics and social justice issues and it was the same at church and party fundraising events alike. At one point I did say to Dad What is the difference between the church and the Labour Party?" I can't remember the response but there was talk of stopping the Dawn Raids about apartheid in South Africa and old stories about standing up to nuclear testing at Mururoa. These conversations seeped into me and influenced my thinking. They also helped shape my values and my politics and those were values around honesty integrity authenticity and approachability.In the spring of 2017 my first campaign for Rongotai was going very well. My favourite opponent was the fearless Christopher Finlayson and at our first public debate I found it interesting that we mainly talked about the Chatham Islands where he had done a lot of early work on the Treaty settlement for the Moriori and Ngāti Mutunga. At subsequent meetings the crowds used to get quite testy—until my opponent at one of the meetings reassured everyone that if he unexpectedly won the seat he would call for the recount. We got on pretty well after that. Like the workers in Parliament the activities of an electorate MP as Jamie Strange has said are often invisible. Our contribution is not measured in policy announcements the passing of new laws or the amount of column inches we generate. The work is done quite often in the humble suburbs of the electorate where local issues dominate where constituents get help to find a job a new home a visa or some funding for their school project or help to understand a letter from the council or Government agency. But these are but a fraction of the many hundreds of issues that as an electorate MP I love to solve. And it's been certainly a privilege to represent constituents who grapple with difficulty with such matters that affect their daily lives.As you've heard—and as some people say—one of the joys of being the MP for Rongotai is that I'm also the MP for the 660 residents of the Chatham Islands and their diaspora on the mainland here and around the world. To our Chatham whānau here today mayor Monique Croon councillors chief executive Owen Pickles Ngāti Mutunga's Deena Whaitiri and Gail Amaru our Moriori whānau here and the island fishing community represented by Pita Thomas—thank you.I have to say each year the Chathams have this annual big festival and I wanted to have a Labour stall there. I saw all these blue tents and I thought "I must get a red tent in there somewhere." So I talked to the event organiser Alexandra Hind and said "Look I've got this idea." She said "Yep no problem." But I just needed some heavy hitters to run the stall. So thankfully I found two people: the self-anointed selfie queen Anahila Kanongata'a and the Women's Weekly cover man Tāmati Coffey who agreed to willingly help.We had a wonderful time. We met the locals and it came time to leave. But unfortunately the plane broke down. This was normal but with no mobile or internet coverage we couldn't even contact the whip's office to say we weren't coming home for three days. But also at this stage Tāmati had developed a sore foot and got a quick health check which we all agreed just to keep on the down low. As he hobbled back down the hill to our accommodation only a couple of minutes away where the hotel manager innocently asked with a big smile "How's the gout Tāmati?"So I'm pleased to say we did help get them a mobile phone network on the Chathams. We extended the runway and brought them into the jet age and will soon lower their power bills with renewable energy generation. These investments were made possible thanks to the previous Labour - New Zealand First Government under the Provincial Growth Fund which enabled Chatham Islanders to get the same basic services we sometimes take for granted here on the mainland.As I said earlier one of my main goals was to change our 1955 Adoption Act. While we didn't quite complete the reform during my time the groundwork has been laid. I believe the next Parliament will bring the law into the 21st century and I acknowledge Andrew Little again here. Members from across the House I believe recognise now that every New Zealander deserves to know who they are where they are from and not have to wait 20 years to know who gave birth to them as happened to me. I do want to acknowledge my birth father Jack; birth mother Madeline; together with my birth sisters who are here—two of them—Lorraine and Courtney. Thank you for inspiring me to make those changes that I reassure you will come very soon. I look forward to the new legislation that will ensure the needs of the child are at the centre of any adoption. Kia ora.One of the privileges afforded to backbench MPs is the member's bill and I was fortunate enough to promote such a bill with the support and guidance of Nanaia Mahuta when she held the local government portfolio. The bill sought simply to reinstate the four wellbeings to the Local Government Act and it became a Government bill. Thank you Nanaia for your insights and leadership there too. Also alongside Nanaia I want to personally thank Peeni Henare and Rino Tirikatene for their perspectives and all the members of Labour's Māori caucus for their support. Tēnā koutou e ngā rangatira.I want to also thank my Samoan uncle and good friend Aupito William Sio who rang me from Samoa—well it sounded like it was Samoa—and who has watched over me ever since we first met in Manukau City some 20 years ago. But I'm truly grateful for his friendship and wisdom. Fa'afetai tele lava e le avanoa.No valedictory is complete without acknowledging those who have contributed to my time in this Whare. Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban is one of them with Dr Peter Swain for their unwavering support for many years. The Greater Wellington City Council chairman Daran Ponter who helped keep me grounded when I got too big for my boots. I'm sorry for harassing you about our city bus service constantly but thank you Daran. I thank all my support staff volunteers and helpers. These are the unpaid people who do so much and have done so much. Rita Evans Taylor Arneil Lauren Woolley Dominic Shaheen Kirsty Carre Ray Tuffin and Candice Russell. Louie Encabo Tawhai Johnson Sera Benseman and Melissa White—and how could I forget the 30-year plus veteran my super loyal volunteer Robin Boldarin. You are all amazing and have gone above and beyond.There is one staffer who deserves special mention. He has been my electorate office manager media minder trusted adviser MC event organiser ordained Anglican vicar occasional bus driver and salt-of-the-earth character—up there in yellow and black stripes—my wingman the Rev. Brian Dawson. Thank you Brian. I also acknowledge the Rongotai Labour electorate committee chairs Bob Mason Jo Spratt and Maryan Street who will continue the work leading our local Labour members.But of course there's one person who won't be there to keep the electorate humming anymore and that's my wife Miriam. Without you there would be no parliamentary career there would be no political representation and certainly no public service. You've been there through the thick and thin the good times and the bad. We've had lots of good times though haven't we? But thank you for everything. I love you and I appreciate all that you do.In closing I have one wish and that's to urge our future parliamentarians to rise above petty politics. Let's see what unites rather than divides us—to know that pragmatism is not a dirty word. I believe we fundamentally sort of agree on most issues but politics sometimes gets in the way from us seeing that. Everyone knows that a divided House is a recipe for failure but a House underpinned by kotahitanga is a foundation for success.Although I am stepping down from the political stage I leave here with a full tank—or a fully charged battery as I have to say now. I've got lots more to give and there's lots more work to do. Community service is in my DNA which means I will continue to be a servant of the people. Can I thank my Labour colleagues? Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou me rongo.[Applause hongi and harirū]Waiata—Te ArohaSitting suspended from 5.48 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."