Brownlee Gerry; Penk ChrisADJOURNMENTSITTINGS OF THE HOUSESPEAKER: In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee the motion for the adjournment and for the sitting programme of 2024 may be moved.Hon CHRIS PENK (Senior Whip—National) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Thank you Mr Speaker. Merry Christmas. I move That the sitting programme for 2024 be:January 30 and 31;February 1 13 14 15 20 21 22 27 28 and 29;March 5 6 7 19 20 21 26 27 and 28;April 9 10 11 and 30;May 1 2 7 8 9 21 22 23 28 29 and 30;June 25 26 and 27;July 23 24 25 30 and 31;August 1 6 7 8 20 21 22 27 28 and 29;September 10 11 12 17 18 19 24 25 and 26;October 15 16 17 22 23 and 24;November 5 6 7 12 13 14 19 20 and 21;December 10 11 12 17 18 and 19;and that the scrutiny weeks for 2024 under Standing Order 338C be:June 17 18 19 20 and 21;December 2 3 4 5 and 6;and that the House do now adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday 30 January 2024.Mr Speaker as the most senior MP named Chris on this side of the House who was available to take this call I do so on behalf of National. First I want to wish you and all a very merry Christmas. I congratulate you again on your new role. Clearly you're a man of experience and it shows in a way that is very helpful. It's not your first ro-day-o or indeed your first rodeo—which reminds me sir to acknowledge and thank our coalition partners of New Zealand First and of course the ACT Party. Some returning colleagues and friends and some new ones alike—we are enjoying the opportunity to walk together in a way that reflects the election result for the good of New Zealand.Sir you haven't yet thrown anyone out of the House. If you choose to do that to me today I'll be able to get home a bit earlier and avoid some of that Wellington traffic that we're going to hope to get Wellington moving again—SPEAKER: You can go voluntarily.Hon CHRIS PENK: OK. I'll move on and if I finish before the 10 minutes that will be the reason; not because I haven't prepared sufficiently well for this sir. I do want to say as we're concluding the whole of the parliamentary year that your predecessor Adrian Rurawhe is to be acknowledged for his good humour and judgment. Our right honourable friend earned the respect of the House throughout the period in which he held that role and again we thank him for it.We acknowledge your presiding officer colleagues. Barbara Kuriger Maureen Pugh Greg O'Connor and Teanau Tuiono—thank you very much. Please consider this to be the last closure motion that we will see at least for now.We're well served in this place sir as indeed you are personally by the Clerk of the House and the Office of the Clerk team. We are grateful for the important functions that they fulfil in this place. We're supported too by the grounds and buildings staff in this place. To colleagues who are finding out for the first time the difficulty of putting rectangular furniture into a round building—a good problem to have. I hope that they don't find that too much of a metaphorical experience—square pegs and round holes and all that.I also wish to thank Bellamy's and other catering staff in this place. They do their job sometimes too well. Parliament runs on the will of the people democratic institutions' strength and of course coffee.I want to thank as well on our behalf the security teams who are approachable but not too approachable as is appropriate for their role including wearing the new black; the messengers; the Parliamentary Library team; and of course IST—I'd like to thank them for their service to me and I hope they've got my telegram of thanks; the VIP team and all the other drivers who get us to and from Parliament—I'd especially like to thank those who get us from Parliament; the travel office likewise; so too the cleaners; the pay office; and also the education services in this place. They play a vital role in assisting our democracy flourish in a way that New Zealanders can understand what's going on here. I think it's appropriate this place has some mystique but not complete mystery. And of course I thank all those others who help fulfil the role of the House of Representatives playing its part in our functional democracy.I also want to thank on that note the press gallery. We acknowledge that the fourth estate has an important role in our vibrant democracy.In terms of the year I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the events of earlier this year with Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe emergency weather events both before that in terms of Auckland anniversary floods and since that time too all across New Zealand. I want to thank the first responders and all who worked hard to improve that situation in terms of response recovery and so forth. I also want to than our New Zealand Defence Force personnel who are serving overseas this Christmas.New Zealanders voted for change this year and change they will get. Change is not our right but our responsibility to deliver. We have that mandate and indeed we have that responsibility. Six years ago a new Labour Government came in and they had finally caught that passing car at which they had been barking at for nine long years. They made a mistake I think in not seeing that they had any mandate for change and working to effect that. But for us we will be working over working groups and we will favour mahi over mihi.Our 100-day plan is being rolled out. We've seen it over the last three weeks. We will see it more indeed in the year to come. Our coalition Government is purposeful and again I acknowledge our coalition partners. We will manage the economy well so New Zealanders get ahead. We will restore law and order. We will deliver public services in health education and every other way that New Zealanders rely on the Government—including they rely on the Government not interfering with their lives beyond a reasonable measure of necessity.From a National Party perspective I thank all our team including the chief of staff Cameron Burrows who the Prime Minister has generously acknowledged that he deserves a long holiday. He's less generously stated that I think he's going to get a short one but that's appropriate of course. We're going to be back in the new year hitting the ground running of course. Other leaders from the National team from the leader's office the Prime Minister's Office our team of whips—I'd like to personally thank especially the Hon Scott Simpson for relieving me of that role in more than one sense of the phrase along with Suze Redmayne our House team and all the MPs' support teams including in our electorate and community offices who are no less than anyone else a part of the work that is done in this place for the people of New Zealand.I want to acknowledge not only our leader the Prime Minister but also Nicola Willis in terms of her role as deputy and that finance gig; the Leader of the House Chris Bishop; and to all my National Party caucus colleagues congratulations for being here. Thank you for your hard work already and we look forward to proceeding with such exciting times in the new year. We'll see many more constructive bills and work programmes of the Government.On that note I also wish to thank every member of the Parliament—all the very best for the new year. It has been a frenetic resumption of play in terms of the Parliament. The maiden speeches across the House have been a particular highlight. They reflect some very good decisions of the people of New Zealand voting in the general election particularly those who voted for parties on this side of the House of course. But in the genuine spirit of acknowledging and thanking those who have stepped up to the plate in public service and have been successful who are now in this place but also those who put themselves forward for public office took that risk put themselves and their families through that we thank them too for their commitment and their service to democracy.On that note: to all a very merry Christmas. May you have a blue Christmas and to those particularly who got the Elvis Presley reference I say thank you thank you very much.