Lee Melissa: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10251. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): I would like to begin my contribution by talking about some Kiwis. Some people might not recognise me as a Kiwi. They might actually consider that if I go to a house auction I might be Chinese. But I am in fact a Kiwi. I am a very proud Kiwi indeed and I would like to acknowledge an amazing young Kiwi lady. This week she won a major golf tournament and I think this House should congratulate and acknowledge Lydia Ko the youngest player to win two major women’s championships in golf. Lydia of course became the No. 1 ranked professional female golfer in February last year aged just 17 years old. This year in 2016 she was voted the Young New Zealander of the Year and we must say we are very very proud of her. As Ms Anne Tolley said maybe she will not be allowed by some people to buy a house because she just happens to look like a Chinese person.I think we live in a great country. This Government under great leadership by John Key is building this country and growing our economy. We are actually getting known in international circles and not just because we are doing such great work but also because of our product. I had an opportunity to visit Korea last year and I visited the kiwifruit growers in Jeju Island. It was amazing—they have 100 hectares of kiwifruit-growing land. This is about investment by Zespri. It had a long-term vision about what it wanted to do with New Zealand kiwifruit. It wanted to grow the taste buds of the Korean market so that Koreans will become used to the kiwifruit and it wanted an opportunity for Korean growers to grow them off season for our producers so that kiwifruit will be available all year round. That means more kiwifruit will be sold from New Zealand to Korea.With the amazing work by our former Minister of Trade and now the Ambassador to the United States the Hon Tim Groser we have a Korean free-trade agreement. What that means is that in the next 5 years the tariff which was set at about 45 percent for kiwifruit will be going to zero. We were paying in excess of $20 million a year just in tariffs for kiwifruit and what an amazing thing that is. Not just that—that opportunity has meant that we are giving opportunities for Korean growers to have better job prospects. Often orchardists and farmers in Korea are not earning as much compared with New Zealand farmers and our helping them grow more kiwifruit means that we have more opportunity for more people to like kiwifruit and it ends up with New Zealand exporting more kiwifruit as well.I also want to talk about another Kiwi and that is Kiwibank. Today’s announcement about Kiwibank is a great commitment that this Government has made to stable economic management. It is a bottom line of this Government that Kiwibank will remain 100 percent Crown-owned and to support the transfer of shares inside Crown agencies. What that Crown-owned model actually means is that ACC and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund will hold minority shares in Kiwibank which will continue to be under majority control of New Zealand Post. Kiwibank was originally established as a niche market banking unit in New Zealand Post but it is now a market competitor in the banking industry and it is growing. It needs a little bit of capital injection and I think selling to ACC and our Superannuation Fund and getting the funds to grow its business means that it will actually improve its services and improve its market share.The decision by the Government also shows a great example of better service practices being applied to Crown-owned enterprises and no doubt those members opposite will support this great opportunity. After all Sir Michael Cullen is their former Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First advocated for the freeing of capital at Kiwibank back in 2008. So I am sure that those members opposite will be voting for this bill as well. I am happy to lend support to the Government’s bottom line to keep Kiwibank 100 percent Government-owned and an active part of the New Zealand market.Also I want to—oh I need to wrap it up—thank the New Zealand Police. In the last couple of weeks we have had issues with Asian students being attacked and police have acted very quickly and many arrests have been made. I think that we need to congratulate the police on the amazing work that they continue to do for New Zealanders.