Hayes John: Valedictory StatementsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes John: Valedictory Statements[Sitting date: 23 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19377. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa):This afternoon I come to say farewell and to share a few final thoughts with you my colleagues and the Wairarapa community. But first I want to thank the Wairarapa Tararua and Central Hawke’s Bay communities who three times elected me as their representative each time by a greater margin.It has been a privilege to have represented the people of the Wairarapa for 9 years—it actually feels like 9 long years. It has been an experience that few of us get. No one arrives here as an electorate MP without the support of many people too many to name. Some of them are here today. Thank you for coming.I particularly want to acknowledge the late John Falloon and the late Juliet Hensley. You departed too soon. I would never have made it here without your support. I want to acknowledge John and Helen McFadzean Sue Perry Snow and Di Peterson from Waipukurau and Bernard Cleary my kneecapper in Carterton. I acknowledge Keith Hancox in Masterton Richard Ellis in Pahīatua Alister Plimmer Stephen Kerr and many many others including my family Emily Neve Corrin and Luis Cunha up in Kuwait and Matthew Louise Edward and James Hayes and especially Helen who has carried the brunt of long absences and my distractions. They have tolerated not approved my being here.Being an MP is not a job; it is an all-consuming life and constituents deserve no less. I am deeply indebted to Yvonne Payne in my Masterton office for 9 long years and to Janet Castell in Waipukurau Rebecca Algie and Maureen Fenemor in Dannevirke and the wonderful Emily Broadmore here in Parliament. There are many others like Paul Jane and Mike at In Style Travel Lou and Fiona at Capital Travel and AJ at Lamb-Peters Print in Greytown who consistently made the impossible possible. Stan and the late Nola Mangin have been superb neighbours who without any fuss covered all those things I was never around to fix like the cows jumping the fence. Thank you. I would not have survived here without your support. I need to apologise to the crew of the Maranui—Captain Povey Doug Mike and Andrew—for never being around when you were short of crew.Nine years have passed really quickly—almost a quarter of a working life. It has been an interesting time. My friend and sounding board John Schnellenberg told me in 2005 that I would develop a carapace. I had never heard of the word but I can say now Schnell that you were right. Politicians need a tough outer shell. Mine formed pretty quickly when Michael Cullen whacked Finlayson and me around this Chamber one afternoon.I guess Parliament reflects our collective character and personality as a country. I am no saint—no I am not. Much of my first term here was spent reflecting on why I had come. The atmosphere was toxic not helped by a Speaker who was shrill and screamed and by loopy committee chairs Pettis and Yates. Visits to parliaments in Denmark and Sweden showed that parliamentary debate can be respectful focused on issues and without narcissistic tone. Better behaviour in debates might encourage more members of the community to come here and make a contribution. It might also arrest the decline in the numbers of people who are voting.I have brooded about our inability as a society to be more generous of spirit and accepting when people get something wrong. The media especially fall over themselves to beat up on anybody who buggers up—that is a Papua New Guinean word. “So what?” you say. Well I think the “what” is the question. Why would anybody expose themselves to public life when the risk of a mistake is the public pillorying which inevitably follows? We collectively pay a price in not creating an environment conducive to attracting more good leaders to Parliament. We could move our country forward further and faster by focusing on what is important; we bog down by arguing with each other.For more than 10 years the Wairarapa electorate has been trying to progress a couple of irrigation schemes. It is a simple task to collect and store water that falls at the wrong time of the year and then to use it in the summer drought but very little progress has been made. Why? Is it leadership that is wanting? Yep sometimes. Are Resource Management Act requirements a constraint? Yep. Are Māori demands a constraint? Sometimes they can be. Are nimby issues the problem? Yes. Well let us be up front and be clear that affected landowners will be fairly compensated for their land and the disruption. Irrigation is the quickest way to grow our national income and the whole country wins.It is difficult to fathom why simple sensible straightforward concepts have become so difficult to implement. Were I New Zealand’s next Prime Minister I would ensure that the next Parliament got rid of a plethora of unnecessary legislation and excessive regulation. Three years is not long enough. This year’s election is going to cost taxpayers $27 million together with the time they have invested in MPs who are going to be distracted by parliamentary campaigning. Were I Prime Minister—and do not laugh Brendan; it is not too late to nominate—I would promote a 4 or 5-year term to spread the cost over more years. Doing so would give Parliament a more reasonable time to implement its programmes.Colleagues from across the House—and Cam has just said it tonight—often say that Parliament provides a wonderful experience. Having spent time here and in the Foreign ministry my curiosity is satisfied. To those contemplating a political career I will say two things: if you have got kids do not come near the place because they are going to be short-changed; and if you want a really fascinating job head to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The big advantage: there is no election every 3 years. Besides foreign affairs ministers come and they go.Constituent work is rewarding. Few beyond the beltway understand how Government works. That is where I have tried to add value. The Labour candidate for the Wairarapa dropped a leaflet in my letterbox the other day proclaiming that he should be my member of Parliament because he had been compère at the Golden Shears competition this year. I have no doubt that that requires some skill but not the sort that is going to make him a competent member of Parliament. I doubt the community will elect a candidate who has so little experience and expertise. People who live and work in cities assume provinces work like the cities they live in. They do not. Much of my time has been spent bridging that gap. I have often felt like a scribe in an Indian bazaar drafting letters for people. But there is a satisfaction from securing good outcomes and seeing common sense prevail.The campaign to keep Mākōura College from closing in 2006 was a tough battle for an Opposition MP but the outcome keeping the school open was a victory for the Masterton community. That issue taught me the critical importance of school leadership. It is great to see the school’s roll today in a very different place to the projections of ministry officials who used to walk up my drive on a Sunday morning to beat me up—the same officials who wanted to close the school rather than address 6 years of Education Review Office reports pointing out dysfunctional relationships at senior levels in the school. I acknowledge and congratulate Mākōura’s outstanding principal Tom Hullena. He has more than doubled the school roll topped the country’s National Certificate of Educational Achievement results and in the last 6 weeks received the Prime Minister’s recognition for Excellence in Leading - Atakura Award here last month.The residence status of many Pacific families is a concern. Too many Pasifika people have irregular immigration status. They make no demands on social welfare—I see them in my electorate—but they live in fear. Their children do not easily sit in school and they do not access health care. These families are often desperate. They are vulnerable to being ripped off by unscrupulous lawyers and others who charge fees and deliver no results for them. It is a large but hidden problem. I urge Pasifika people to get appointments with your MPs after the election because they can help you regularise your status without charge.When constituents have sought help my driver has been a simple test: is it fair? When the answer was no then I have always gone into bat. In provincial New Zealand interpersonal issues are held much more intensely than in our big towns. People are inclined to stop talking to each other. If they only would talk to each other most problems would dissipate. The impact of the Horizons One Plan proposed for the Tararua a couple of years ago would have been that it removed $62 million each year from the local economy in the Tararua area. Bringing people to Parliament for a meal and a libation in my office afterwards was a formula that generally got people talking to each other. They then took responsibility and established frameworks for sorting out their problems. They got to common-sense outcomes.I think that economic and social progress in provincial New Zealand will happen only if we who live in provincial areas take responsibility for our own affairs. No one owes us a living. Those who think—and I am talking Wairarapa at the moment—that Wellington-based ratepayers are going to subsidise activity in the Wairarapa are at best misguided. They do not live on my planet. No one owes us a living. Air New Zealand demonstrated that a few months ago when it ended the air link to Auckland. That is why I worked so hard with others to secure the restoration of a financially sustainable air service between Masterton and Auckland. Eighteen people came to a meeting on Monday at Masterton’s town hall. As we speak contributions are now being put into a trust account held by accountants Amy Kerr and Associates. Subject to an undertaking to improve the runway I am confident that an air service based on an Air Chathams Metroliner with Wairarapa livery will resume in September.It is not possible to win on every issue. I spent a year trying to advance a plan to turn Masterton’s old hospital into an integrated family health centre. At the time the recession was in full swing and the proposal offered 70 immediate jobs and about 50 full-time positions when completed. Two letters from Māori asked for the site to go into the land bank. Despite an assurance from a colleague Pita Sharples’ clout was greater than mine and the building went into the land bank. After Opus International Consultants’ evaluation a local Māori leader told me 4 months later that they no longer wanted the complex. I have always stood the ground for Māori on issues like the seabed and foreshore and Treaty settlements. I suggest though that Māori could well reflect carefully on their actions if they want to carry the support of most Kiwis into the future. A growing number of Wairarapa people are keen to see an end to the grievance industry the end of Māori seats and the coming together of all Kiwis. I support the Prime Minister’s call for consultation about a new flag when Treaty settlements are completed. A new flag may help strengthen our nationhood.Finally a couple of things about foreign affairs. I was pleased in the last Parliament to complete a Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee inquiry into New Zealand’s relationship with the South Pacific. The Government did not have a majority on the committee and the report had more than 40 recommendations unanimously supported by all parties. This led to our being able to host the first ever Pacific Parliament last year in this Chamber with more than 50 Pacific participants. It was great to have five Fijians there at that gathering. Since 2005—being here—I have consistently argued privately with colleagues that it was better to engage Fiji than talk to them by megaphone as Helen Clark and Phil Goff did. The Pacific Parliament could never have progressed had I not been here.There have been some interesting interactions over these 9 years. I think of a visit to Israel with colleagues Paul—“Hutch” down here—Phil Goff Kennedy Graham and Jacqui Dean. During that visit I realised the extent to which the majority of Israeli politicians did not have the slightest interest in resolving issues with Palestinians. That was a disappointing lesson to me because I left that visit thinking that the Palestinian leadership was a bunch of people whom you could do business with. Before that visit I had not appreciated the extent of segregation being practised in Israel towards Arabs. To Israelis I simply ask you: have you no humanity?Finally can I say thank you to all parliamentarians from all parties. It has been fun working with most of you and I have made some good friends including in other parties. Thanks also to all the staff in the parliamentary complex especially the library and our staff here providing water and other things. Can I just say thank you one and all and wish you all the luck you deserve for the next election. Cheers.