Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Can I join with other speakers in saying that it is an enormous honour and a great privilege to stand in this debate on the 125th anniversary of our country leading the world on a very important issue. I have to say parts of me wish that ACT's deputy leader Beth Houlbrooke was here to speak in this debate on my behalf. I think she would have been a fabulous member of Parliament but last year the voters disagreed on that issue.Indeed I was stunned Madam Deputy Speaker to learn that you were only the 74th woman elected to this House. My first thought was Surely she hasn't been here that long." But you know I'd like to point out that the ACT Party has made a vastly disproportionate contribution to those first 70 or 80 women. Muriel Newman Deborah Coddington Donna Awatere Heather Roy Hilary Calvert Patricia Schnauer and Penny Webster were all women elected to this House for the ACT Party over the past 20 years. It's a great point of pride to the party that we have elected a vastly disproportionate number of women to what other parties have done throughout the history of this House. I should add to that somebody who was not elected but a wonderful leader in our party's history: Catherine Isaac—most recently recognised for her dogged and determined efforts to have partnership schools kura hourua made a reality in this country.I should also acknowledge that it is impossible to get elected in New Zealand—if the Epsom electorate is any indication of normalcy in this country and it's debatable—if you do not have a connection with the networks of powerful women who really run the place. I wouldn't be here if it was not for the powerful support of people such as Dame Rosanne Meo Dame Rosie Horton Dame Lesley Max Dame Jenny Gibbs the Hon Chris Fletcher and Jillian Friedlander who were all incredibly important in my election because they are so powerfully connected through our community in the Epsom electorate. I want to take this opportunity also to talk about somebody I haven't previously spoken about in this House but who would be incredibly proud of our country today and of the example that Kate Sheppard set—prouder I suspect if she actually had a daughter in this House. My mum was one of those women who was at the vanguard of women who were the first to make it to the top of their careers. As one of the last people in the Western World to contract the polio virus she was told that she would not drive go to university work or have children. Well you can make your own judgment on the children—I will say my brothers are quite accomplished. She did become the chief pharmacist for the Northland District Health Board after going through postgrad at Otago although I maintain the critics were at least half right about her driving. I want to put on record in the Hansard that she is one of many women who had that spirit that Kate Sheppard spirit and would be so proud to be here today if only she could be. I think it's a great source of pride for all of us that New Zealand led the world. It is one of the seminal characteristics of our country that we are the little country that can. And we should always remember that we as a country have the ability and perhaps have the obligation not to try to follow the world—as we heard from some submitters at the Finance and Expenditure Committee on monetary policy just this morning—but actually to be the best and to lead the world. I'll finish by reflecting what our Prime Minister said at the beginning of this debate: that we are not a static society. Parliament is just one institution that will be remade no doubt as people try to remake the institutions in their own image with each passing generation. And I suspect that this country is not done with gender politics just quietly. I suspect that we will see the family remade that we'll see the role of men in the family being enhanced just as the role of women in the workplace has been enhanced. I think standing on the shoulders of Kate Sheppard we have a wonderful future as a country and I'm so proud to be honouring her today. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."