Sepuloni Carmel: Maiden Statements 
Sepuloni Carmel: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:889] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 Mate atu he tete kura ara mai ra he tete kura. Nga mihi maioha ki nga iwi o tenei rohe karanga mai mihi mai. Ki nga tini totara kua hinga atu moe mai ra. Ki a tatou e hui nei tena koutou katoa. When an old frond passes a young shoot sprouts to take its place. Warm greetings to the iwi of this area. To all those great totara who have passed rest. To everyone gathered here greetings. 
Tulou i le paia fa’atafafa o le Maota Fono. Talofa lava. Malo le soifua. My greetings and acknowledgment to all esteemed members of this House. Greetings to you all. Tapu moe ’afio ’ae ’Otua ’i hotau ha’oha’onga. Tapu moe ’Eiki Sea ’oe Falealea. Tapu moe ’Eiki Palemia. Kae’uma’aa ’ae hou’eiki Minisita. Pea tapu moe toenga ’oe kau fakafofonga falealea ’oku mou me’a heni he ’aho ni kae ’ataa mu’a keu fakahoko atu ’ae fatogia ko ’eni kuo fakakoloa ’aki au he ’aho fakahisitolia ko eni. Io “kuo ta kau he lau pea lau kuo ta kau”! 
God who is in our midst honourable Speaker of the House honourable Prime Minister honourable Ministers and also members of the House who are here today. It is indeed an honour for me to be here at this historic event for today we the Tongan people are finally part of this New Zealand Parliament and today everybody knows that we are now included. 
I have entered Parliament at a wonderful and opportune time despite the fact that we are in Opposition. With incredibly strong and supportive senior Labour Party MPs and an exciting new intake of 13 energetic diverse and committed newcomers I am truly privileged to be a part of this team. I feel honoured to serve the Labour Party alongside the distinguished and inspiring Rt Hon Helen Clark and the esteemed and respected Hon Dr Michael Cullen. We are fortunate that their track record of superior leadership continues under the direction of the Hon Phil Goff and the Hon Annette King. 
I have the privilege of being the first of Tongan descent and the youngest and the most recent member of the already robust Labour Party Pacific caucus. My respects must go to our senior Pacific member and MP for Mana Luamanuvao Winnie Laban; to our MP for Mangere Sua William Sio; to our Tahitian MP Charles Chauvel; and to our new Indo-Fijian colleague Rajen Prasad. I pay tribute to our former Samoan member of Parliament and strong Pacific advocate Vui Mark Gosche. Vui leaves a legacy of achieving results for our Pasifika communities. I thank him for the constant words of advice and guidance. I also acknowledge my political adversary but fellow Samoan National Party MP Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. 
I greeted the House first in te reo Maori out of respect for tangata whenua. There is an inextricable link between Maori and all of our Pasifika peoples. We are linked geographically historically linguistically culturally and most important through our shared whakapapa. I pay respects to Nga Iwi Maori and in doing so I acknowledge our shared ancestors for they are responsible for our existence and our collective achievements. 
 Secondly I spoke in Samoan my father’s first language. This is a language we were not raised to speak; my father thinking at the time that it was best for us to learn only English. Thirdly I spoke in Tongan my grandfather’s first language. Eight out of nine of his children were raised in Samoa and were not raised to speak in Tongan. Only the one sibling who was born and raised in Tonga has retained this language. It is so very easy to see how quickly a language and the elements of identity that language carries can be lost if not nurtured. 
It is only appropriate that I reflect on the journey that has brought me here today. I had a quintessentially New Zealand upbringing with my father working at the Waitara freezing works and my mother working at the Swanndri factory and later as a kiwifruit picker and packer. My maternal grandparents were sheep farmers in Stratford. Growing up I saw the most wonderful display of contrasting political views. 
Although my mother did not have strongly formed political views her parents were resolute Tories. My father was at the other end of the political spectrum and a staunch supporter of the Labour Party. I was fascinated by their opposing political views and have vivid childhood memories of the ways in which these would be manifested. I can remember sitting down at the kitchen table with my grandparents listening to my grandfather grumble about the Labour Party as he listened to his wireless. I recall one time interrupting his grumbling session to say: “But grandad the Labour Party looks after the poor people.” His response to that was: “Just eat your ruddy Weet-Bix.” 
On the other side was my father. His first job in New Zealand was at the railways at Stratford and he would later work for 18 years at the Waitara freezing works. He came to New Zealand speaking only Samoan but quickly picked up a very colourful version of the English language quite commonly spoken on freezing works floors. It was always entertaining to watch him employ this colourful language in his rants and raves at the mere glance of Sir Robert Muldoon or later Jim Bolger during the evening news. As a child one knew not to move during these moments unless the command was given to turn the “beep” TV off. It was my own personal critique of their arguments for why they supported their respective parties and my own upbringing in Waitara that would cement for me my political allegiance. 
The new member of Parliament for New Plymouth mentioned Waitara in his maiden statement but there is a side to Waitara that did not gain mention. Waitara is a place of historical significance to this country. As the place where the first battles of the New Zealand land wars were fought it is a place where much blood was shed and lives were lost and it is a place where thousands of hectares of land were confiscated unlawfully. There is a wairua to Waitara that stems from its history and the battles that have been fought. There is an aroha amongst the people that continues to thrive despite the immense challenges that have been faced. During my own upbringing in Waitara I observed and experienced some of these challenges. In this town of 6000 people 1500 jobs were lost over the course of the 1990s. Perhaps we should call those years the decade of no jobs and no money. 
My dad was a union delegate and was involved with the intense and ongoing strike action of the early 1990s. The freezing works which at its height had employed over 1000 people began progressively to make people redundant until its closure in 1998. In 1994 my own father was laid off for the second time. Although he looked he could not find another job. He contemplated moving to Auckland but found it difficult to reconcile the likely reality of a pitiful minimum wage of $7 an hour—not enough to look after a family. I look back on this time with sadness as a once thriving town went silent. Things were tough and money was tight. 
To this day I take personal offence when I hear negative rhetoric proclaiming the unemployed as dole-bludgers and/or when it is implied that people are too lazy to get out there and find a job. This was not the case in my family nor has it been the case for the vast majority of people I know who have at some point in time needed to draw on Work and Income entitlements for support. 
During the 1990s I saw the political and economic climate of the time pull the rug of dignity out from under the feet of hard-working New Zealanders. There is very little that can match the degradation felt when men and women are unable to provide for their families. Unable to cope with the miniscule weekly sum that my father was allocated to look after his family he made the decision to leave us and seek employment in Australia. Yes he migrated to Australia in 1995 not 2005. 
I observed a National Party Minister sarcastically reciting in the House the other day: “I remember the 1990s.” in a disdainful tone. Her banter signalled National members’ tiredness of being reminded of their wrongdoings from the past. However let me draw on a well-known whakatauki. “Titiro ki muri kia whakatika a mua”—look to the past to proceed into the future. This may be a Maori proverb but it is a concept that is shared by Pacific peoples. The memories of our Pacific peoples are very long indeed. We strongly believe in looking to our pasts to find our presents and to inform the decisions we make going into the future. With that in mind it is of little wonder that the vast majority of Pacific peoples remain Labour voters—the dawn raids under the Muldoon Government and high unemployment rates and low wages of the 1990s have ensured this legacy. This is reinforced by the list of achievement for Pacific people attained under the leadership of the Labour Government over the past 9 years. 
Is it not ironic that I discuss the appalling employment conditions of the 1990s under a National Government in light of the response by the new National Government to the recession that we now face? In the early stages of the 1990s the National Government introduced the Employment Contracts Act which was to impact negatively on the rights of workers. Now in late 2008 the introduction of the 90-day bill which also serves to negatively impact on the rights of workers hails the beginning of another ominous National Government term. 
I have lived in Auckland for the past 13 years stepping away only for a year to teach in Samoa and connect with my family. I have worked in the tertiary sector as a literacy educator a student mentor adviser an equity manager and a Pacific health research project manager. I have seen the very best and the very worst of Maori and Pacific in education. There have been times when I have felt immense levels of anger due to the unnecessary failure of the education system to adequately cater to our people’s needs. Conversely I have seen some incredibly innovative teaching and learning practices and the positive impact that this has had on individuals and whole groups of people. I have had the privilege of meeting teaching and mentoring some of the most inspiring Maori and Pacific people both young and old. I have been inspired by their success in navigating their way through tertiary study to achieve at the highest levels. 
There are always two sides to every story and it frustrates me that when it comes to our Pasifika people 80 percent of the time the focus seems to be negative. I have learnt through my own experiences and the experiences of others around me that our young in particular can quickly begin to self-stigmatise when the media and society stigmatise them. When the media portrays only a picture of a ghettoised poverty-stricken group of troublemakers then our youth can resign themselves to the fact that this is what they are. They may even take pride in this prescribed image because it provides them with a level of attention and status that although negative is attention and status none the less. This perspective only adds to the perpetuation of the problems that exist. 
I deplore the deficit lens being held so intently over our Pasifika communities. Although there are issues that must be addressed I strongly believe that their resolution can come from adopting and adapting best practice where our people have successfully overcome challenges and there are many. 
I thank my parents Fa’atalii Kamisi Sepuloni and Beverley Anne Jordan for all that they have done for their children and grandchildren. Both had very limited educations but encouraged us to work hard in school. They would wake to 6 a.m. starts and take every opportunity to work overtime so that they could provide for my father’s siblings and parents in Samoa as well as for us their three daughters. We never had much but we always had food on the table and whatever we required for school. I am thankful for all that they have given to us and I am indebted to them for their role in all that I have achieved. I will never forget my father’s words when growing up: “Go to school so you can get a good education and help our people.” It is this aspiration to serve the collective that continues to drive me in all that I do. 
The future of New Zealand Pasifika people is promising and positive. We have experienced a 10 percent increase from 2000 to 2007 in the numbers of our Pasifika children enrolled in early childhood education. There has been a 13.7 percent increase from 2003 to 2007 in the number of Pasifika students leaving school with National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 or higher. In 2007 there were almost four times as many Pasifika people aged 25 to 64 years with tertiary qualifications when compared with the 1996 figure. On top of that our unemployment rate has dropped from 13.5 percent in 1999 to 6.5 percent in 2007. I acknowledge the previous Labour Government for its leadership role in this. These achievements need to be built on so that even more of our people can get the benefit of a good education. 
In recent times Pasifika communities in New Zealand have highlighted the need to retain guardianship over our cultural and spiritual inheritance: the languages values and beliefs that are our ancestors’ legacy and our birthright. The Labour Party is notable for its support in recognising the place of Pasifika peoples in New Zealand and in honouring the ties our country has in the Pacific. I hope to support and nurture initiatives in these areas during my time in Parliament. 
As a member nation of the ocean continent in which we reside New Zealand can play a crucial leadership role. Over the past week I have sat quietly at the back of the House listening to the debate about climate change global warming and sustainability and New Zealand’s role in addressing and leading the world on these issues. These are urgent issues and New Zealand must lead the way. Here in the Pacific the repercussions of rising sea levels can already be seen. Take Tuvalu: its highest elevation is only 4.6 metres above sea level but most of Tuvalu is not more than a metre above. Even if Tuvalu were not completely flooded it faces the escalating risk of storms and cyclones which due to changing weather patterns are increasing in strength. Tuvaluans are contemplating the possibility of the loss of their land culture language and way of life. I cannot comprehend why the National Government and its partners continue to prevaricate over our national response to this international crisis. 
My role in this House is no different from the role I have had in every other job I have worked. It is to listen and advocate to educate and to empower. The difference between this job and any others I have held is that I am privileged now to be at the ultimate of decision-making tables. Whilst at this table my commitment is to advocate for the vulnerable promote social justice and equity provide perspectives on issues affecting Pasifika and highlight the great potential that exists in our communities. I do not claim to be an expert on all things Pasifika and I will rely on Pasifika communities to keep me informed. Having been born and raised in New Zealand I also want to be involved in the wider issues affecting New Zealand and I look forward to being able to engage and contribute. 
Without wanting to close this maiden statement like an acceptance speech for a Grammy award I would like to make some final acknowledgments. I acknowledge my friends and my extended family for their love faith and support. I acknowledge my mother father and Uncle Tevita who are here today. I acknowledge the support I have received throughout my campaign from the Tongan community particularly the Mangere Tongan Labour branch under the leadership of Pastor Moi. I pay my respects to Anapeta Mau Hola Taue Salote Lilo and Semisi—thank you for your love and support. I pay my respects to the Labour Party’s Pacific sector for it is through this body under the passionate leadership of our chair Jerome Mika that this has all been made possible. 
I acknowledge my late grandparents with the only sadness of this occasion being that they cannot be here. From Vava’u and Niua Toputapu in Tonga came my paternal grandfather Fa’atalii Sepuloni. He embodied the true sense of humility hard work and love for God and for family. From Vailele in Samoa came my paternal grandmother Masae Sepuloni. She passed away before I had the opportunity to meet her but having listened to my dad talk about her all my life I feel as if I know her. My maternal grandparents were Wilfred and Peggy Jordan. Despite their initial reservations at having a Pacific Islander as a son-in-law they loved their afakasi granddaughters as they did all of their grandchildren and I am eternally grateful to them. 
My final acknowledgment is to my 10-year-old son Bailey—thank you for your patience and unconditional love. The campaign and this entire journey has been as hard for him as it has been for me. I love him more than anything else. 
Malo ’aupito. Fa’afetai tele lava. No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
Hymn