Bennett Paula: Address in Reply 
Bennett Paula: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:191] 
PAULA BENNETT (National) 
: 
 Madam Speaker may I offer my congratulations to you on your re-election as Speaker and congratulate Clem Simich on his role as Deputy Speaker. In relative terms I have known Clem a short time only about 8 or 9 years. He probably does not know it but he influenced my decision to run for Parliament. He has always held himself with dignity and integrity and that is an example to us all. I wish you both all the best. If the first few days of this parliamentary session are a measure of what is to come then you both have a very challenging job to say the least ahead of you. 
I have been overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of the response to my election to Parliament. I am greatly moved by the attendance here this afternoon of friends and family who have contributed to my life’s experiences and have supported me through the good times and the bad. Others who have worked so hard to support me are listening over the airwaves from many parts of New Zealand The best way I can thank them is to go forward in this new role with vigour and enthusiasm and maintain my integrity. 
I proudly call myself Maori. I proudly call myself European. But I most proudly call myself a New Zealander. I am of Tainui descent but consider myself urban Maori. A lot has been said over the past few years of the “browning” of New Zealand. There are many different shades of brown. I am very proud of my heritage. I grew up with a picture of Tawhiao on the wall and later in life I gained via my grandmother knowledge of our Maori history. I was raised as a New Zealander. I did not grow up using Maori language or really understanding tikanga Maori. However under the guidance of my parents I grew up with a strong sense of self-responsibility and a sense that one was master of one’s own ship; that the true measure of a person was not only how he or she handled himself or herself day to day but perhaps more important how he or she dealt with adversity and the many challenges that life seems to throw our way. 
I do not consider myself tribal but I do have a very real sense of who I am and where I came from. It was not until I was at university as a mature student that I connected with my Maori self. I realised then that I had always felt it. It is difficult to put into words but I feel Maori blood running through my veins. I feel the power of my ancestors when I stand on a marae or hear a powhiri or a waiata. But I am urban. I believe that we are all equal and should be treated equally before the laws of this great country. I do not think for one moment that because I have Maori ancestry my love of New Zealand and my affinity for this land is any stronger than someone whose ancestors may have arrived here after some of mine. 
We are all so privileged to live in an open democracy and have rights from birth as residents. All rights should be equal for all New Zealanders. I meet New Zealanders every day who feel the same as I do. They are part-Maori and feel comfortable in their shade of brown but they live in today’s world and do not feel comfortable with the growing sense of separation between Maori and other New Zealanders. I for one am grateful for the Treaty. I believe that it has been a founding document and has helped us to move forward as one people. There can be little doubt in modern New Zealand that there were wrongs in the past that needed to be righted and I am proud to be part of a National Party that started the process of addressing historical Treaty grievances. And there are some wrongs that still need to be righted but we need to move forward. We need to settle claims quickly and then see the Treaty for the historical document that it is and move forward as was always intended as one people. 
Although born in Auckland I grew up in Kinloch a beautiful bay on the shores of Lake Taupo where I learnt to fish and hunt and had a relatively carefree and easy childhood. It was a predominantly male household and like many of its time was rather traditional in its values. I was treated differently from my brothers purely because I was a female. And so I learnt to fight for what I believed in. I rallied against the sometimes only perceived injustice of it all and found that I had a voice. With women at record levels in tertiary education and in many ways outdoing boys academically we seem to have come so far. But now there are some questions that we need to ask. 
I want to be part of a Government that opens up discussion on the type of society we want to be in the future and the role the family plays in modern New Zealand society. It is not individual pieces of legislation that have been passed recently that I rally against; it is the fact that this House of Representatives does not lead the discussion by encouraging open debate about what direction we want our country to go in. As we are pushed to increase women’s participation in the workforce we need to ask who will be raising our next generation. A lot of women are saying that they would like to; that staying at home and raising their children is an option they would not only like to have but one they would like to be actively encouraged to do. 
 More women are in paid employment than ever before and their contribution is immeasurable. However when we hear of someone currently working who becomes pregnant one of our first questions is: “How long will she be taking off work?” There is a subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—push for women to return to the workforce as soon as possible. But I ask members not to misunderstand me. I advocate for choice—for women to work part time or full time in paid work or not at all or to stay at home and raise their children. Most men make wonderful fathers. We should let them have a choice about the role they play in raising their family. Most of all we should let parents have choices. Families come in all shapes and sizes and no one formula will suit everyone so we should stop presuming that it does. 
A good Government stays out of people’s homes. I would never have wanted anyone to tell me how to raise my daughter and I would never presume to tell someone else how to raise his or her family. All parents regardless of the make-up of their families or their economic situation want what is best for their children. The role that Government has to play in this is to provide an education system that sees all children develop to the best of their ability a health system that supports its citizens in their times of need and a welfare system that supports people when they cannot support themselves. A good Government does not come into parents’ homes and tell them how to raise their children. It does not provide welfare to middle New Zealanders and package it as a scheme that “works for families”. It does not push through legislation that may change the very fabric of our society without asking us what type of society we want to live in and without openly encouraging debate on the issue. 
I have first-hand experience of knowing what if feels like to believe that one has few choices in life. Like many other strong and outspoken teenagers I took an unfortunate turn in my teenage years. I found myself mixing with the wrong people and making some poor decisions. As a consequence over 18 years ago I found myself to be an uneducated unemployed young solo mother with very few opportunities ahead of me. It was not an easy time. I found myself living day to day with my primary focus being one of survival. But I also had a strong sense of self-responsibility. I felt that it was my decision to have my daughter and as such it was my responsibility to raise and support her not the taxpayer’s. 
I had short stints on a benefit but I knew that being in paid work was the only way for us to try to get ahead. In the early days I worked two jobs. One was a part-time job I did during the day at the local harbour organising fishing and sightseeing trips for tourists. The other job was at the local diner where I worked the midnight to 8 o’clock shift serving food to truck drivers while my daughter slept. By the age of 19 I had bought my own very humble house in Taupo. There were days weeks and months of real struggle. I knew I could not keep going like that but I also knew that only I could change my and my daughter’s life. 
Upon the untimely death of a much-loved brother I found the courage to move to Auckland and make a new life. Living in west Auckland I initially washed dishes at a local rest home before being promoted after 6 months to the role of nurse-aide. The most significant thing that happened to me at this time was that I met people who told me that I should get an education. I had never considered university as an option but the seed was planted and I knew that if I did not make a significant change then I would find myself in exactly the same situation of day-to-day struggle for the rest of my life. 
I was accepted into Massey University Albany Campus as a mature student and quickly found myself involved in student politics. I was the first female student president at Albany and I was responsible for getting many services up and running at the then new campus. These may seem like small accomplishments and in the scheme of it all they are but they changed my life. They proved that I could advocate on behalf of others that sometimes with the right argument and the right pressure commonsense just might prevail and that I could make a difference. 
After completing university I worked as an electorate agent for a few years before leaving to work in the private sector initially as a recruitment consultant and then in my final role before coming here as a manager for a human solutions company. My daughter is now 18 years old and I am incredibly proud of her and our relationship. Some might say I was lucky but luck had nothing to do with it. It took hard work determination the ability to bounce back after the knocks and a lot of love. So the values that I hold true to—self-responsibility hard work and reward for effort—made it an easy decision to join the National Party. 
With unemployment levels at their lowest in many years we should also be seeing reduced numbers of those receiving welfare. But we are not. The number of people receiving benefits is still way too high and the cost to taxpayers is huge. The financial costs are not what should concern us most. Our concern should lie with what it is doing to our culture and the lack of aspiration and self-esteem that many beneficiaries feel. There were times in those early days when I made less money in paid employment than I would have if I had been on the domestic purposes benefit. But I knew I had to start somewhere and it was very important to me that I set a positive example for my daughter. I am grateful that there was a benefit system for me to fall back on when I needed it but welfare needs to be seen as a backstop—a hand up until people are able to stand on their own two feet. 
I support an initiative that would see those who are on the domestic purposes benefit in some sort of part-time employment retraining or community service when their youngest child reaches school age. Raising our next generation is without doubt the most important job those parents will do but we equally have a responsibility to instil in our children a sense of ambition and aspiration. My own life experiences have shown me that taking responsibility for myself and my own and getting into paid employment—no matter how lowly paid—was the stepladder to a better life and the only way to escape the welfare trap. 
I want to work on implementing systems that will encourage welfare beneficiaries to have choices because a life of dependency gives none. That cannot happen by the will of a parent alone. Employers need to get with the programme and offer part-time work that fits in with school hours flexibility for parents with children who may be unwell or need a bit more attention at times and an understanding that some of those workers may need retraining. 
It is with enthusiasm a touch of cynicism and a bit of trepidation that I step forward to take on my new role as a member of Parliament. I feel extremely fortunate to be based in the beautiful and wild west Auckland. People in west Auckland are my kind of people—determined innovative creative and gutsy. West Auckland is like most areas in Auckland in that it is made up of Maori Pacific peoples Europeans Indians many Asian groups Croatians and a myriad of other nationalities. People drive Holdens and BMWs and they do not all have haircuts like Pita Sharples but some do. Their issues are not unlike those faced by people in many cities across New Zealand as they raise families and try to get to and from work in a grid-locked roading and transport system that needs urgent improvement to keep up with their needs. 
I never thought I would be a member of the House of Representatives but I did know that I would not lead a passive life. I was always going to be an active participant and as I have such an aversion to physical activity I was never going to become a Silver Fern so I had to use my brain and my mouth. I feel a great sense of responsibility but I know that I have something to offer and I will actively play my part in helping to shape New Zealand’s future. I stand before this House as a New Zealander—as a Maori and as a European as a solo mother as a graduate and as a woman. I know that it is how I face the upcoming challenges as a member of Parliament that will be the measure of me as a person.