Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Address in Reply 
Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1211] 
Hon LUAMANUVAO WINNIE LABAN (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Kia ora talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings. I offer my congratulations on your appointment Mr Deputy Speaker and also to the Speaker and Assistant Speakers on their appointments. I extend a warm welcome to all our new parliamentary colleagues. It is a real pleasure to welcome Catherine Delahunty and to also welcome another Labour Pacific woman in Parliament—Carmel Sepuloni—which makes two of us. I am very proud of that. 
I am really honoured to stand and speak in this Address in Reply debate. I am very privileged to be the Labour member of Parliament for Mana and stand proud of the Labour Government that took up the challenge 9 years ago of a New Zealand that was very fragmented that was divided between the haves and the have-nots. The Pacific community was the most damaged at that time. Under Labour’s watch we delivered many many good projects and outcomes for our community. We reduced the Pacific unemployment rate from 14 percent in June 1999 to 6.3 percent in June 2008. 
We launched the Pacific Economic Action Plan and the Pacific Women’s Economic Development Plan and we supported Pacific business initiatives. The whole aim of those plans was to stimulate upskilling so that our people could move from lower-income jobs to higher-income jobs. We put in resources in terms of targeting more apprenticeships for Pacific people. We also supported the introduction of the Pacific Return to Nursing Programme for those nurses who had trained in the Pacific so that they could get higher-paid jobs here. We provided access to better-quality housing affordable primary health care and many other initiatives. 
There is a Tongan and Pacific saying that goes like this: takana enau fohe. We paddle our canoe together we paddle in harmony and ultimately we all reach our destination. The Labour Party is the party of the “we” and not the “my” or the “me”. It is the Kiwi and Pacific spirit that ensures every human being—man woman and child—has a right to belong and to participate and a right to opportunity and to dignity. That is especially true for our most vulnerable. National’s response has been no bold and comprehensive plan for the economy just a tinkering with infrastructure and no development of a plan that is aimed at specific actions that build an inclusive society. 
In education expenditure developed across schools works out to a measly $8000 per school—ha ha. There will be only 69 new State rental houses a measly 50c an hour increase to the minimum wage and a new 90-day hire and fire law. Our families earning less than $44000 a year now pay more tax and subsidise the more affluent. The worst thing of all is that the latest report says the Pacific community’s unemployment rates have jumped from 5.2 percent to 7.8 percent. We also have a Minister of Pacific Island Affairs who was hugely absent from the Government’s economic summit and who has not even initiated an economic summit for Pacific peoples. Those peoples will be very very successful in the future and will contribute enormously. We have a Minister of Pacific Island Affairs in the National Government who has said absolutely nothing about what the Government is doing to protect our lower-income communities and specifically to continue to build on the previous Government’s fabulous Pacific Island initiatives which were focused on outcomes targets and value for money to deliver a better New Zealand. So it is back to the fragmented exclusive divided New Zealand. 
Another spokesperson’s role that I have is for aged care. I recently put out a media release that talked about the issues of concern around aged care. Last year the then Minister of Health the Hon David Cunliffe talked about spot auditing of rest homes. I ask where the evidence is that spot auditing of rest homes will occur to ensure the elderly are secure well cared for and safe. 
I am a very very proud Labour MP who has been part of a team led by Helen Clark and Michael Cullen that left our economy and society in good heart. It was a New Zealand for everybody. Now Labour members are under the fabulous leadership of the Hon Phil Goff and the Hon Annette King. It is very very important that we have good strong leadership that will help keep the National Government accountable and honest. “Integrity” is the word. We talk about an inclusive society. We talk about a society that really inspired Pacific people to fly. In Phil Goff’s words—no hidden agenda no broken promises—we will hold the National Government accountable for what it does. Our Labour team is totally committed to doing that job. Takana enau fohe. We will paddle our canoe together. We will ensure that every human being in New Zealand—man woman and child—has equal opportunity and we will strive in terms of their educational and economic achievements. We look forward to holding the National Government to account and we will be holding it right there in our sights making sure that those principles of an inclusive society are not lost in the rhetoric around a plan that has delivered very little for New Zealand.