Walker Holly: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWalker Holly: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 11 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15500. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HOLLY WALKER (Green): E mihiana kingā mema o te WharePāremata.Tēnā koutou katoa.[I acknowledge members of Parliament. Greetings to you all.]My baby girl Esther Lucy who is in the gallery this afternoon will be 11 weeks old this Christmas. There is something very special about preparing for our first Christmas as a family. As we decorated our tree on the weekend as I baked my Christmas cake as we plan our summer holiday I have been thinking about the fact that she will never remember a time when we did not do these things. Of course this year it will all wash gloriously over her head but I have been thinking about the things that she will do for years to come that we are going to do for the first time this month: open presents from my old stocking on Christmas morning enjoy a barbecue in her nana’s back yard and finish the day with a swim in the sea. Singing sunshine and family—that is what I wish for my daughter and for all our children: the quintessential New Zealand summer and Christmases full of love good food and family.Two years ago in this debate my co-leader Russel Norman invited us to reflect on the meaning of the Christmas story. “I am not a Christian” he said “... But like all parents particularly those newly acquainted with the role the story of change arriving in the form of a baby has a resonance in my life.” Well now that change has arrived in the form of a baby in my life I know exactly what he meant. Children invite us to experience everything afresh. The world is new for them every day and they show us what it is to be truly open-minded. In their ferocious capacity to learn and grow we see that things truly could change and be better. That is what the Christmas story is all about. But when I think about the Christmases and the summer holidays that Esther will grow up enjoying my hope is tempered by concern that the country and the world that she has been born in to may not be changing for the better.In the few short weeks since Esther was born while she and I have been getting to know each other and adapting to new sleep patterns a number of concerning things have been happening in the big wide world outside our baby bubble: the sale of more State assets the commencement of deep-sea drilling in New Zealand waters the exposure of a casually dismissive attitude towards rape and sexual abuse the news—although some would call it old news—that a quarter of our children are growing up in poverty and the utter destruction wrought as TyphoonHaiyan ripped through the Philippines. I do not want my daughter to grow up in a world of short-term economic thinking environmental destruction sexism inequality and catastrophic climate change. I do not think any parent does.I would much rather that Esther grows up in a New Zealand that lives up to its clean green egalitarian image. I want her to go to school with kids of all races religions and abilities and not be conscious of any discrimination or disparity between her and her classmates. I do not want her to come home asking why some kids do not have lunch or shoes. I want her to feel a sense of community to feel safe riding her bike to kindy or school to know her next-door neighbours. I want to be able to trust that someone would look after her if I could not make it home during an earthquake or a civil defence emergency. I want the contributions of her great grandparents’ generation who built the infrastructure of this country to be honoured by keeping that infrastructure in public ownership to honour the 1.2 million people who by this morning had voted and returned their ballots in the asset sales referendum.I want her to grow up swimming atPētone beach and in the Hutt River like I did as well as at beaches and rivers that we will take her to when on holiday around the country. Yet according to the Ministry for the Environment two-thirds of our monitored river sites are currently unsafe for swimming. I want her to explore our wild and remote places; to marvel at towering mountains and deep icy cold lakes; to breathe in that unmistakable scent of the New Zealand native bush—not from the window of a monorail but on foot or by mountain bike or kayak and preferably not with a view of an open-pit coal mine.I want her to feel safe and secure as a girl and a young woman to celebrate her body and her gender without fear of persecution or abuse. I want her to have strong beautiful amazing role models likeLorde and EleanorCatton like Valerie Adams and Lydia Ko and like Metiria Turei. I want her to be able to marry anyone she likes. Well at least we can tick that one off. But most of all I want to leave her a planet that will still exist and sustain life for her children and her children’s children. When I think about the global inaction and inertia in addressing catastrophic climate change when I think about more floods and bush fires and typhoons and the death destruction and dislocation they will bring there are moments when I despair. I have moments when I wonder whether it was irresponsible to bring her into this world at all. But then I look at her chubby little face and into her big blue trusting eyes and I feel a renewed sense of purpose.The world I want her to grow up in is not so very far-fetched. It is just a stone’s throw from what we have right now—[Interruption] And Esther leaves the gallery. With the right vision the right leadership and practical steps to get there we will get there. This year the Greens have continued to focus on loving and protecting our environment; promoting a smart green economy; and highlighting compassionate social policies that ensure that everyone can have a good life and a fair future. We have proposed real solutions to the housing crisis to rising power prices to improving water quality and to climate change. We have fought tooth and nail to oppose the sale of our State assets and to show this Government that it has no mandate to sell them.I am proud to be a part of a party that is working hard to create the kind of future I want for my daughter. When she is old enough to understand I will be proud to tell her that that is what I come to work every day to do. The fact that I can come to work while still mothering my daughter is a sign that we have come a long way.I want to start my end-of-year thanks with a thanks to you Mr Speaker for agreeing to a new category of compassionate leave to allow me to be away from Parliament without affecting my party. Changes like these will hopefully encourage more parents of young children to consider a career in politics.There are many others who make my work and the work of all of us Green MPs possible and productive: our fabulous staff our dedicated interns and the vast network of Green Party members volunteers and staff around the country who put us here. There are those who make this place tick: the Chamber and gallery staff who kept me supplied with endless glasses of water during my pregnancy; the messengers; the security team; the Office of the Clerk; Hansard; the library; and of course the cleaners who deserve a living wage—and our families who now get us back for a few weeks. Thank you for supporting us and letting us do this mahi.When I return next year it will be a real challenge as you have seen for my little family to help me combine breastfeeding mothering and politics. But we are determined to do it. We will be doing it for Esther to create the kind of New Zealand we want her to grow up in so that she can have a wonderful first Christmas and many many more to come.Nō reirangā mihi nui aroha ki a koutou and to all members of this House I wish you a very merry Christmas.