Twyford Phil: Maiden Statements 
Twyford Phil: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:200] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
Pou hirihiri pou ramarama  
Tiaho i roto marama i roto.  
Tenei te pou  
Te pou ka eke  
Te pou kai a koe na  
Ko te pou o enei korero  
Tihei mauri ora. 
[ 
Pillar that recites spells and gleams 
Is radiant and lucid within. 
This pillar that controls and consumes you 
And is the pillar of these utterances. 
’Tis the sneeze of life 
.] 
I rise for the first time in this House proud to be a Labour member of Parliament inspired by the democratic tradition this House represents and humbled by the great parliamentarians who have come before. I congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your election I acknowledge the Speech from the Throne and I look forward to contributing to a robust Opposition that fulfils its constitutional duty for the next 3 years. 
As I look around the walls of this debating chamber and reflect on the battles waged and lives lost by thousands of New Zealanders to help forge our young nation I am moved by the simple but brilliant concept of this House. Like the countless often nameless people who have served and sacrificed for New Zealand in war we too are servants of something bigger—something grander; something bolder. We come from varied backgrounds but we all are united in a goal to collectively serve. At the end of our times here some of us will be remembered but most of us will not. Regardless we all will have served our nation and for that I greet every member of this House regardless of whichever side of the aisle he or she sits and I look forward to working with all members and to disagreeing strenuously with some. 
If there is one thing that unites us all in this House I would hope it is the belief we can make New Zealand the best it can be. It seems a minor miracle that this little collection of islands at the bottom of the Pacific with a mere 4 million people can sustain a successful modern nation State that boasts some of the best quality of life the world can offer. What an implausible but heroic project it is bringing together the descendants of the first settlers who 1000 years ago crossed the Pacific by waka to this the last significant land mass in the world to be settled by humans and also the 19th century Europeans who sailed to the other side of the planet to build a new life free from class exploitation and the 20th century Boeing arrivals who fled poverty and oppression or who were simply seeking a better life for their children. We are all united by a desire to create a better world and the only difference between us is when our waka touched these shores. 
This common bond created a whakapapa of pioneering social reform: the Parihaka prophets of Te Whiti and Tohu who offered a strategy of non-violent action to resolve previously lethal disputes; Kate Sheppard and the suffragettes securing the vote for women; Richard Seddon and the Liberals bringing in ground-breaking social and industrial legislation; Michael Joseph Savage creating one of the world’s most comprehensive social security systems in the 1930s; Peter Fraser at the UN in 1945 helping to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Norm Kirk in the 1970s standing up for a nuclear-free Pacific; and the Treaty settlement process started by Kirk and Matiu Rata a unique effort at post-colonial reconciliation over more than 3½ decades. There is much to be proud of and to draw inspiration from. 
Let us not forget our other nation builders: the entrepreneurs the scientists public servants our artists educators sportspeople the men and women who worked the land the workers who built the roads raised the kids and fought the wars when we asked them to do so and those who clean the offices run the footy and netball teams look after our older and frail New Zealanders and work in the kitchens shops and factories. 
In spite of our national tendency to self-doubt we know we are capable of great things. I believe that to achieve great things there are a few things that we must do first. I believe we must unleash the talents of all of our citizens. This will take great health and education systems and a shared belief that unemployment incarceration and ill health are above all a waste of human potential that we cannot afford. I believe we must recognise there are some things we do more efficiently and fairly together rather than privately. Smart strong Government can deliver the essentials: health care cost-effective social insurance education and superannuation. These social supports mean we all get the best possible start in life and after that it is up to each of us to apply our talent and hard work. This to me is modern socialism. This to me is what it means to be in a modern New Zealand Labour Party. 
I reject the notion that Government is a burden. In a global market place where billions of dollars can be moved across borders at the click of a mouse it is easy for the big to get bigger at the expense of the vulnerable. Rules are needed for fair competition and to make markets work. Government can have a role in owning strategically important enterprises. I believe we must constantly look for ways to help our firms to grow and create high-value jobs and seize the opportunities in global markets. We have to invest more in research and development and science based on our comparative advantages. We have to keep building the infrastructure for a 21st century economy and we must meet head-on the challenge of sustainability. If we win we can continue to do business in a post-carbon world and enjoy a truly clean and green New Zealand. If we lose it does not bear thinking about. Is there a New Zealander who does not want his or her children or grandchildren to once again be able to swim and fish at our beaches and rivers and lakes? 
None of this will happen unless we strike a deal with each other based on the common good: a deal that says if we work hard and play by the rules we will have every opportunity to get ahead and enjoy the fruits of our labours and that we pay our fair share of taxes because they are the price of a decent society and the only way to truly protect the Kiwi way of life: the fair go for all. They are the price of a decent New Zealand where the local school provides a great education where access to health care is not determined by the size of someone’s wallet where people who are injured at work or play are looked after and where no one needs to live in a gated community to feel safe. That is why I am proud to stand here today as a Labour member of Parliament. 
One of the issues we need to talk about is the constitution. That conversation about our nation’s destiny must be framed by the republic and not by the constitutional trappings of our colonial past. We have been far too shy of having this debate. But as our nation rapidly changes its make-up its ties to England will become even more strained and irrelevant. As I look around this Chamber I see the most diverse House in the history of this institution and the last thing that I think of is the Queen on the other side of the world. It is not a debate we should leave for the Australians to have first then by some kind of osmosis follow in New Zealand. We must have this discussion on our own terms. 
It is a journey that I hope to play a role in as a first generation New Zealander the fourth child of Sam and Gillian Twyford who arrived fresh off the plane at Whenuapai shortly before I was born in 1963 as part of the great post-war British diaspora. My mother who will be watching this speech on television more than anyone made me who I am. She brought love and hard work to the task of raising five children on her own. We were never what you would call poor but to put jam on our bread she cleaned other people’s houses and worked the night shift at a local rest home. In mid-life a stroke left her disabled but she recovered amazingly and has lived independently for the last 23 years thanks to her grit and drive. 
Although mother is the core of my being I trace my political awakening to a couple of important moments. As a fifth former at Westlake Boys High School I listened on a transistor radio at lunchtime to a news broadcast of the police and army evicting Ngati Whatua from Bastion Point on the orders of then Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. It struck me as shameful that a democratic nation could send in the might of the State to evict these people from their land. The second was the visit to my school by Michael Lapsley a New Zealand Anglican priest who was part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. A parcel bomb from the South African intelligence services blinded him and blew his hands off. I wagged a class to hear him speak to a group of older students and the story of his courageous refusal to compromise his beliefs before the unyielding power of the State changed my life. 
My moral and political compass took its bearings through the economic and social turbulence of the 1980s. Like thousands of other New Zealanders I marched against apartheid blockaded our harbours against nuclear-armed ships and door-knocked for the election of the fourth Labour Government. Its independent foreign policy long overdue social and environmental reforms and progress on the Treaty were cause for elation. But as for many the sweet taste of social progress turned to ashes in my mouth. An economic crisis became the pretext for an ideological blitzkrieg that tried to impose a commercial model on almost every facet of our nation’s life. Change was needed but by God we paid the price in terms of poverty inequality loss of productive capacity in our firms and damaged generations. We are still paying. 
It is possible I believe to run an open economy that welcomes good foreign investment while also protecting what is good and valuable about our landscape our institutions and our way of life. It is possible to have a business-friendly environment while respecting the rights of workers and treating them with dignity. It is possible to celebrate success and wealth creation while also giving a hand up to those who need it. It is possible. 
During the dark years of the Douglas-Richardson experiments I refocused my energies on humanitarianism and development first as the founding executive director of Oxfam New Zealand then as the advocacy director of Oxfam International based in Washington DC. We gave many thousands of New Zealanders the chance to help in a practical way to make our planet a fairer place. We smuggled medical supplies into Bougainville through a military blockade so mothers who had fled the fighting by going into the bush would not die from preventable deaths in childbirth. We funded loans to Ethiopian farmers driven from the land by famine so they could start businesses. We provided legal support for widows who lost their husbands and children in the Guatemalan civil war so human rights abusers would be brought to justice. 
I tell members these things to illustrate my view that we all need to stand up against what we see is wrong in our communities. Not to act makes us part of the problem. My latter years with Oxfam taught me that one cannot achieve lasting change without politicians who are prepared to be courageous and to take risks to do what is right. As I lobbied the UN Security Council against the invasion of Iraq Helen Clark’s stand against the Bush-Blair-Howard war made me proud to be a New Zealander. 
As a social democrat it is hard to underline enough how important Helen Clark and Michael Cullen and their generation in Labour politics have been to our hopes for this country. They rescued our party and rebuilt it. They brought our nation’s politics back to a better more sensible place. They reconstructed a working model of social democracy anchored in Labour values. For that I say thank you. 
I want to conclude by thanking those who have travelled with me so far on this journey: my colleagues in journalism my fellow members of the Service and Food Workers Union and the wider labour movement my Oxfam mates both here and abroad and numerous party colleagues. I want to single out my campaign manager Barbara Ward and the members of the North Shore Labour Electorate Committee who have campaigned alongside me for two elections particularly Frances and Bill Bell. And most of all today for my partner Joanna and our son Harry I say this: this land is our land and nothing is too good for the future generations we will pass it on to. 
No reira e nga mana e nga reo e nga rangatira maha kua rupeke mai nei ki raro i te tuanui o tenei o to tatou Whare tena koutou tena koutou kia ora mai ano tatou. 
[ 
So to the powers languages and the many leaders gathered beneath the roof of this House of ours greetings to you greetings to you and greetings once again to all of us. 
]