Rurawhe AdrianVALEDICTORY STATEMENTSSPEAKER: Members the House is resumed for the valedictory statements. Members following the valedictory statements the House will suspend for the dinner break and will resume in committee on the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill at 7 p.m. I call on Todd Muller to make his valedictory statement.TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): Whilst this boy from Te Puna might have dreamt of being a President of the United States it was the Mayor of Te Aroha my grandad Henry Skidmore that planted the seed of purpose in my teenage mind. Seared in my memory were my grandad's trips to collect the mail years after he had retired and shaking hand after hand of that community as he slowly walked back to his car. It was genuine affection from him to them and much in return. I saw in my grandparents how fulfilled one can be through a life of service. By my late teens I was determined to one day stand in this place—so determined in fact that according to Michelle on our first date I used that pretty cool pick-up line about how much I wanted to MP. Clearly I was a keeper.For some reason known only to her that did not put her off and 25 years later here we are. And it is in thanking Michelle that I want to start. I think this House knows it hasn't been the smoothest of rides over the last nine years—in fact at times pretty dire—but Michelle kept our family together through it all under the most intense of stress. She prioritised everyone else at the expense of her own health and career. Thank you for your intuition selflessness and being the glue for our family. In a world that feels increasingly conditional your love was unconditional and in a very real sense I can stand still here today because of you. I love you.To Aimee Bradley and Amelia: from little kids having their photo taken with John Key nine years ago to the remarkable young adults that you are today; my choices have been tough on you all even tougher than Dad talking about you now! But thank you for your love and support. Aimee I so love your humour and immense work ethic; Amelia your passion for theatre singing and your insights on life; and Bradley our Aquinas College captain of the first 11 football team—Aquinas captain of the basketball team who broke his leg on Friday in an interschool competition two weeks out from the national qualifiers watching now in Tauranga. Your courage and resilience that you are demonstrating right now is an example to me. Mum and Dad are so proud of you all.To my dear Mum Trish who has personally lived every political twist and turn and media interview as only mums can thank you for your constant love and support especially in the last six years without Dad at your side. We have all missed his wisdom and love but I like you can sense his guiding force still. To my brothers Gavin Craig Nathan: thanks for always reminding me that brotherly familiarity and depreciating wit normally at my expense is a love all of its own.To my close friends Lain Jager Mike Graham Sarah Paterson Hamish Crafar Lewis Graham and Carrick Graham. Thank you for caring for me and bringing a large disinterest and buckets of humour to the machinations of day-to-day politics which was hugely appreciated.To my Papamoa staff over the last nine years Nigel Raiha Jo Karen and Greer. Nine years of constituent advocacy nine years of making a difference in helping those most vulnerable navigate an often bewildering array of public agencies. You have changed people's lives. To my Wellington staff: Stefan Sharon Aaron Megan Nikita and Jess thank you for your remarkable commitment and passion to bring the very best of yourself to the job. Special hugs to Claire and Celia for the tears and laughter and most extraordinary loyalty to Michelle and I. To my long-time supporters Jim and Joan Bolger Sir Paul and Cheryl Adams Sir Dryden and Margaret Spring Craig and Shayne Greenlees; my Tauranga mafia mates Grant Eynon Mike Chapman Doug Voss and Sir Peter Trapski thank you for your remarkable belief in me and for your consistent perspectives insight and support.To the GGPA—you know who you are—thanks for having my back through thick and thin. To the many parliamentary staff I have met and chatted to over the years from security to messengers to the Chamber staff to the cleaners thank you for your quiet humble service and for sharing some of your own stories with me—a welcome drop of perspective in a place that can easily lose it.To my local National Party members thank you for being there for Michelle and I through the remarkable highs and lows of these last nine years. The commitment of your often precious time to advance our party's values is a treasure I will never forget. Thank you to Sean Mary and Jim Sandie Bonnie Valda Don Pam and Jacci. To my Bay of Plenty electorate it has been a genuine honour to represent the community I have lived amongst for 50 years. We fought hard for each other—petitions and protests for more roads schools health services police—with some success but Tauranga is a city that continues to grow significantly faster than the infrastructure and services provision and frankly it's time for a National Government. Talking of future National Governments can I personally thank you Christopher and Nicola for your private support and values-based leadership. I do deeply thank you. You are a partnership that this country desperately needs.Well it has certainly been a ride but I wouldn't change a thing—well apart from perhaps a few less colleagues to get mistaken for! Earlier last year I arrived in Christchurch and jumped into a taxi and headed north. The local taxi driver disconcertingly spent more time looking at me than he did the road for many many kilometres. After quite a while he got up enough courage to turn to me and say It is an absolute honour to have you in my car Mr Luxon." I felt I couldn't disappoint him so I to him "No no; I'm your local MP Matt Doocey."So in the spirit of valedictories and the knowledge that what I am going to say can be attributed to at least two others I would like to share some highlights and reflections. I hope political colleagues the wider House and media can see these comments for what they are—personal not political conciliatory not critical wary but not lacking in hope. I have two highlights I wish to reflect on. Firstly was the negotiation of the zero carbon Act with James Shaw. It was tough; we didn't get everything we wanted but we were focused on delivering something that would stand the test of time a framework that would give New Zealand surety that this Parliament and those to come would prioritise climate action. Whilst I don't agree with pretty much everything the Green Party stands for I want to acknowledge James as a gentleman and a friend. However while we have embedded a useful advisory structure it will become increasingly meaningless if we don't follow its advice. I believe the Climate Commission must mature into an institution that this House respects. But that respect will come from telling truth to power. That truth will be uncomfortable for us all. I've just got to try and grab a water here for a moment excuse me. It's a thing I've always had from my father—shaking hands when you have a water; he's thinking of me. That truth will be uncomfortable. The nations of the world will not keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees rather they will overshoot 2 degrees by some measure. As the global climate continues to warm New Zealand will bear significant costs due to the impacts of climate change and attempting to adapt to it over time. These impacts on our coastal and stretched infrastructure will dwarf the medium-term challenges and costs of emission reductions. I hope the commission's future advice will include principles that could inform how we could share this adaptation cost within and between generations in an equitable manner because with the possible exception of agriculture we will be a technology taker so we need to balance our international obligations with our capacity to scale up new technologies at pace.We are a tiny country seeking to play a meaningful role in global action on climate but we must be realistic about our size distance from market infrastructure vulnerabilities and balance sheet capacity. But all that strategic context cannot mask the inevitable: we must reduce our gross emissions and seek efficient ways to offset them in the short term. It is a challenging path for a country so small and so distant but it will become impossible if dispassionate assessments of complex options provided by the Climate Change Commission get drowned out by simple tag lines of denialism or catastrophisation or even "kick it down the road" - ism.As we sit here today we cannot meet the gaze of our youth on climate action and that should not sit easy with us. The achievement I am most proud of was becoming the leader of this great National Party. I walked into a school hall 34 years ago as a young man seeking a tentative political home and found New Zealanders who were hard working entrepreneurial deeply caring for their communities and I felt immediately comfortable. To become leader of New Zealand's most successful political movement was humbling and exciting in equal measure but as is well documented such sentiment was quickly subsumed by anguish and horror. As I slowly pulled the pieces of my life together I struggled with regret and loss. I turned up here late-2020 caught between trying to apologise and rebuilding a career walking around constant triggers of what might have been. There were many messages of support from this place which I was grateful for but unfortunately behind the public utterances of many there remained a persistent view that somehow having a mental breakdown was a function of poor political execution as opposed to a contributor to it. I acknowledge this is a sensitive space but we should be open about the unique challenges of experiencing poor mental health when you are a political figure. It is important to provide suitable space for rehabilitation including some distance from scrutiny and accountability. We do that for cancer; we should do it for poor mental health.In my case that largely happened with the mainstream media but less so with some in my party still coming to terms with a terrible 2020 result. I hope that when the occasion arises in the future for it surely will empathy replaces silence and understanding—blame.To the many hundreds of New Zealanders who have reached out to me over the last three years nearly all of whom spoke of their own moments of suffering and hope thank you for your care for your searing honesty and words of encouragement. Please know that apart from my family friends and professional support there was no greater comfort or contribution to my recovery than those messages—especially your words of hope despite your often very private hell.This needs to be the bipartisan cause. I commend MPs for establishing a cross-party committee on mental health but we are losing New Zealanders every day including a friend of mine just last week. We can't care for them to the level they need and we have to fix it. When you or someone you love is suffering you don't care about political blame you don't care about policies or working groups or reviews or dollars to be spent over the next four years; you just want someone to help—you just want the pain to stop. We have to support the many hands that can reach out to them. Thank you Sir John Kirwan Mike King and many others for your relentless pursuit of the care of others. Because you walked it survived it but most of all shared it many others stand up still—kia kaha.Finally there is a broad change occurring in New Zealand that concerns me and I can sense in our private moments concerns many in this House. There is anger at a level I have not seen before. Boiling frustration weaved through the personal conversations of many of our fellow New Zealanders. From this discontent swells greater partisanship which is fuelling a level of political toxicity that is corrosive to our society. I think the most explicit example of community division at the moment is the issue of Māori and economic and political aspirations. There are two polar opposite views that are pulsing through our communities. One: that this country is being radicalised by the Māorification of our society and the other is that we are very slowly but inexorably moving to a Treaty-centred future which was imagined in 1840. From these opposing philosophies emerge policies calling for the Treaty's impact on New Zealand's life to be seriously curtailed and policies that seek to apply Treaty principles more broadly to guide all we do in this House. There is a building resentment that fundamental legislative changes are occurring without due consultation and there is intense frustration that the promise of 183 years ago continues to be denied. As we would hope in a representative democracy these perspectives are not only represented in this House they sit side by side but their world views could not be more at odds.How we deport ourselves on this issue matters. We are a House of Representatives political debate in this unique New Zealand cauldron should be strong ideas tested and their articulation critiqued. But we must ask ourselves: are we standard bearers of civility and decency or amplifiers of division? We set an example here and the ability to temper our language when we are fighting for closely held beliefs is not a weakness but a strength. We need to model the capacity to disagree with respect.The two great tribes of New Zealand politics—the Labour Party and the National Party—have a real responsibility here. As collective representatives of the significant majority of the country we need to be mindful of where these debates and policies are taking us. One of the great examples of bipartisanship of the last 30 years has been our focus on settling historical Treaty claims—often in innovative and inclusive ways. But the areas of common agreement around the role of the Treaty in New Zealand are being eroded by increasingly fierce and partisan demands and responses.We progress as a society when the centre holds whilst slowly moving that centre to reflect the changing nature of our aspirations and beliefs. But if the centre collapses because the extremes are too unyielding or either one of the main parties rapidly moves to embrace that extreme we put the bonds that bind our society at great peril. But the political centre has to move as well.I believe one person one vote is the bedrock of democracy but bedrocks can be built on so where there is inequality in political representation we should be open to ensuring these voices can see a pathway for greater representation. For if our political institutions are to endure they must reflect our changing country. In 1993 I voted against MMP; I was fearful that the National Party's political power was going to be diffused. I was right it has been. We lost the clean efficiency of majority Governments but gained the capacity to govern taking into account a more diverse range of perspectives. The future is more of that not less. Framing Māori aspiration as a binary choice between radicalism and conservatism is as dangerous as rapid changes to our institutions without due diligence and consultation. So I ask the two great tribes of New Zealand politics to quietly begin refreshing and strengthening their relationships across the aisle on this kaupapa and work together to allow the centre of NZ politics to move but also to hold. But enough of my reckons; it is time to leave. So with a sense of immense pride love of family intact close friends still close and many handshakes and nods as I walk around my community I will take my leave. I have done some things well some less well but I gave it my best. My grandparents were right: there is much value in a life of service. Thank you very much.[Applause]Waiata—Tauranga MoanaSPEAKER: I now understand that folks in the gallery will be departing and we'll have Mr McKelvie's friends and family locate themselves in the gallery."