Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Mr Speaker I wish you and all in this House season's greetings. For making our work possible in this House a huge and undying thanks goes to parliamentary staff. To those who clean who cook and who keep us safe and to the librarians the clerks and our Green staff our volunteers and our champions I wish you all the joy over these holidays because that is well earnt.The adjournment speech is about reflecting on the parliamentary year that's passed and for me that's about seven weeks long so I'll zoom out as I look back to the campaign. It was tough—it was tough for every one of us in it but undoubtedly also tough for everyone out there. But it was also exhilarating. It was a defining moment for our democracy which we learnt is alive and well. Then we stopped and learnt about MMP. We learnt to count. We realised we have a beautiful system where every vote counts and we get to have diversity within our Government. It turns out that if you have a lot of friends in here because you like diversity of thought in your politics you get to win and that is how we changed the Government.Then the real business of MP-ing began and for me that was quite a gauntlet. It hit me that my portfolios like trade foreign affairs and defence meant that I might be in opposition a lot of times in this House even from inside the Government and even when everyone else in the House agrees like on that little issue that little trade agreement—don't call it the TPPA. The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agreement—a rose by any other name—came up for negotiations right around the time I took up the mantle of Green Party trade spokesperson. It got a wee bit lonely in the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee when we questioned the ministry on that one—the Hon Gerry Brownlee asking how wonderful the trade agreement was before the change of Government my Labour Party friends asking how wonderful it had become since and me asking But foreign investors can still sue us for law change right?"But that is what diversity in Government looks like. That's what we are proud of on this side of the House. Our identity each as representatives of different schools of thought different constituents makes us stronger.The CPTPP wasn't even the first splash of cold water that actually woke me up to this mad world of politics because the other big global issue that hit New Zealand around the time that I took office was the humanitarian crisis on Manus Island. I got hundreds of messages from people on the island family members and activists from around the world and the full weight of being the refugee MP hit me. The panic hit when I realised that these were our kinds of people. They were political cartoonists they were activists who had criticised their Governments and they were members of the rainbow community—gay men running away from the likes of ISIS. Our Government put this on the agenda for talks across the Ditch because friends don't let friends torture refugees. I got a huge platform to criticise our friends across the Tasman and it felt great.Apart from these portfolios making me a political minority I realised that they were also ones that women have rarely held in New Zealand politics. I checked with the Parliamentary Library today and it turns out that women have never been Ministers for trade for foreign affairs or for defence here. Only two women have ever been full spokespersons for trade; only two associates for foreign affairs. Never has a woman been defence spokesperson and now a greenie gets to do it. We need a voice of protest. We need a watchful eye. We need a voice for peace and disarmament with a human rights perspective at that decision-making table. I want to give full credit to the Minister of Defence the Hon Ron Mark for taking such an inclusive approach with me on this. With our wildly different but weirdly similar experiences of Middle Eastern war I think those meetings are going to be very interesting.I think in global terms and I see us in New Zealand as standing as a counterpoint this election to the rise of populism around the world. We got to stand for inclusion for diversity for nature and for fairness this election and I am so proud to represent the Green Party in taking those lines forward on behalf of New Zealand. Those are our values that I'll be proud to represent going forward. Thank you."