Robertson GrantGENERAL DEBATEHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. When I arrived in Parliament 15 years ago I arrived at the beginning of a National Government and I sat on the opposite side of the House from what I do now. And there were many occasions during those nine years where I was upset frustrated annoyed and angry with the policy changes that I saw taking place. I obviously understood that it was part of the democratic process that Governments change from time to time and that things that I might have held very dear to me were no longer the priority of the Government of the day. I'm a passionate debater as people know in this House and I certainly made my points about that.One thing I knew however during those nine years was that when John Key was the Prime Minister whatever I might have thought of what he was doing to the country and the policies that he was putting in place the politics of race had been put on the back burner. Like many in this House I vividly remember the period of time in the run up to the 2005 election where the politics of race took centre stage in New Zealand under the leadership of a different leader of the National Party and under a different Government where Helen Clark was the Prime Minister. That period of time where we saw that—and I acknowledge the likes of the Hon Chris Finlayson who I think did an enormous amount and we've just seen a Treaty settlement bill have its first reading in here and I acknowledge the work that he did. I acknowledge the work that as I say the then Prime Minister did. To see the politics of race return in the way they are to our political discourse distresses me. Chris Hipkins when he spoke at the Labour Party's congress in May used a line that I think is very important: Only the weakest of leaders seek to use race relations as a wedge to stoke fear and division." For me I consider that to be a statement that I genuinely believe in. We can disagree on many topics in this House and we do and it is healthy for democracy that we do but when we find yet again that the politics of race have found their way to the top of the agenda we as a Parliament are weaker and worse for that and we as a country are far more divided from that than we should be.The latest example of that over the course of the last week or two has been the question around the equity adjuster within the northern district health boards. It's really interesting to me that there's not been so much attention within that on the ridiculousness and the outrageousness that whether you live in a rural community is counted in an equity adjuster or whether your socio-economic status should be counted. We don't hear that raised. We don't hear that being a major concern. We just hear about issues of race.I believe—and I know that the members' opposite may not be enjoying this contribution but I actually believe the vast majority of the members opposite are better than that. I actually do believe that because I believe they are here for the reasons that brought them to politics to put in place the things that they believed in just as John Key and his Government did. And we will disagree on those things but my personal view is that we diminish this House and we diminish the political debate by the focus and the division being stoked on the basis of race in New Zealand. As a country we have come so far and yet we have so far to go. We celebrate moments like the one we just saw in the House now as a Parliament and that is tremendous that we have the ability to do that but we've got to look again at our politics. The kind of politics of division and fear that are stoked by those that put race at the top of the agenda and seek to divide us on that will only put people off engaging with us. So I want to commit again to the kind of leadership that I see coming from Chris Hipkins which is that we are unifying our country we are finding the ways that we can work together to move ahead as a country and that we don't fall into the trap of the lazy politics of division on the basis of race and stoking fear where that fear does not exist because as we lift up the aspirations of Māori of Pasifika or of rural New Zealanders as we lift up and remove the inequities that those groups face in our health system our whole country is stronger and better. That should be our focus not stoking fear and division."