Korako Nuk: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKorako Nuk: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 22 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:149. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]NUK KORAKO (National):E Te Mana Whakawā tēnā koe. Tēnei hoki te mihi atu ki a koe Te Kaihautū o Te Waka o Aotearoa o Te Pirimia the Rt Hon John Key tēnā koe. Tēnā hoki koe Te Rakatira o Te Rōpū Reipa the Hon David Parker tēnā koe. Huri noa i Te Whare Mīere nei ka mihi ki tā mema katoa. Ko Kaitahu Kāti Māmoe Waitaha Te Rakiamo tēnei e mihi atu ki Te Mana Whenua o Te Waha o Te Ika Te Āti Awa tēnā koutou. E haere mai i kā waka katoa e tau mai nei ki Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara. Ko Tūtehounuku Kōrako ahau. Ko Aoraki Mauka e tū mai ake kei uta maringi i Te Awa o Waitaki rāua ko Waimakariri ki Te Tai-o-Mahanui. Ko Te Whare Mahanui hoki rāua ko Te Whare-o-Wheke kei Te Rāpaki-o-Te Rakiwhakaputa e tū ana. Hei anō tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Speaker and my acknowledgments to you as well to the Prime Minister and leader of the National Party of New Zealand the Rt Hon John Key greetings. To you the leader of the Labour Party the Hon David Parker greetings and to members throughout the House of Parliament salutations to you all. I of Kaitahu Kāti Māmoe Waitaha and Te Rakimo acknowledge the local tribe Te Āti Awa whose authority prevails over the Mouth of the Fish my personal salutations to you collectively. A welcome indeed is extended to all the canoes that have landed here in Wellington. I am Tūtehounuku Kōrako. The mountain of Aoraki stands ashore yonder from where the rivers Waitaki and Waimakariri flow into the ocean of Mahanui. The houses of Mahanui and Wheke which stand at Te Rāpaki-o-Te Rakiwhakaputa. Acknowledgments therefore to you all.]Like all others who have entered this House over the past 150 years I cannot hide or disguise my humility. It certainly is a time to reflect upon family my life experiences to date and those who assisted me on the journey to this House.I come from a working class background. My father Tūtehounuku Te Here Māka Momo Kōrako was a World War II returned serviceman and a freezing worker and my mum Hine Elizabeth Mānihera Kōrako was a gentle loving person who passed away when I was only 10 years old leaving behind nine children—me and my eight sisters. It was not long before we found ourselves in Cholmondeley Children’s Home to give our father time to organise life without our mother. This sad event started a relationship between me and Cholmondeley Children’s Home that continues to this day.My father worked hard to keep us together and to ensure that we all understood and lived by our family values and he instilled in me the significance of ancestry leadership education and humility. He taught us to be proud of being who we were and the importance of being able to move seamlessly between the two worlds of the Māori and the non-Māori. Education was paramount in our family and I was lucky to be given the opportunity to attend St Stephen’s School Bombay Auckland. It is fair to say that I did not expect to be standing here as a member of Parliament and addressing the House of Representatives all these years later.Like many young Kiwis the call of the OE took me overseas on a much more extended journey than was originally planned where rugby and the tourism industry kept me offshore for over 20 years. The hallmark of that journey however was meeting and marrying my beautiful wife Christine and a few years later with a family pending and a desire to raise our children as Kiwis we came home to Canterbury—more specifically to Christchurch and Ngāi Tahu’s Riviera: Rāpaki on Lyttelton Harbour.Rāpaki is one of the ancestral communities of Ngāi Tahu. When you arrive it is a little like being transported to another time. Our four boys now aged between 17 and 22 grew up in this kāinga or village surrounded by our immediate and wider whānau. Growing up in Rāpaki in a safe and nurturing environment gave them the opportunity to learn the tikaka of their home place and their marae and to enjoy and experience many adventures surrounded by mountains and sea. It is their safe haven and always will be. It was not unusual for Chris to feed 10 children at lunch or dinner time or for a family neighbour to do the same. That very environment created lifelong values for our children their cousins and the friends they brought home. My uncle Ben Couch who was a three-term National Party MP a Minister of Police and Minister of Māori Affairs and a New Zealand and Māori All Black was also raised in the same village.In reflecting on my wider whakapapa I am reminded that some of my tūpuna were familiar with the political environment. Hoani Paratene the first ever Southern Maori MP was my great uncle. My grandfather Tutehounuku Korako Tua Rua represented Ngāi Tahu at the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in London in 1897 and at the opening of the Australian Parliament in 1901. My other grandfather James Duncan Manihera was a 1926 Māori All Black. These role models have instilled in me the idea that there is value in striving for something more than the mundane more than the trappings of comfort and in achieving something beyond myself which is what I am doing in this special place.I do bring a vision with me and that is about where we are heading as a nation. I recently came across a National Party manifesto from the Māori MPs in the late 1940s which said: “New Zealand as a whole is under a great debt one that has not always been sufficiently recognised to the Maori people for the role they have played in the economic development of this country. What you have received by way of social security and benefits is your due. You as a people have contributed to the pool from which come these benefits. That is why we appeal to you to assist in the task of increased production … it is our aim to expand and develop the Maori Land Schemes inaugurated in 1929 by Sir Apirana Ngata. We know to what extent the human element is consciously developed along with work on such lands. That must be taken into consideration if we are to secure the maximum results from such a policy—the promotion of a healthy intelligent people disciplined in the habits of industry and business practice equipped by the economic resources of their lands to enter with full confidence into the wider industrial life of this country.”This illustrates not how much has changed in terms of vision but how much has changed in terms of achievement. The Māori economy and Māori participation in our national economy has advanced so dramatically in the past 30 years and I have been honoured to be a participant in moving that forward. I have operated my own businesses worked on Māori incorporations and trusts like Mawhera and the board of Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation and represented my hapū at iwi governance level on Te Rūnunga O Ngāi Tahu. The Ngāi Tahu settlement brokered by the Bolger-led National Government was a milestone for South Island development. I look forward to continuing to make a contribution to Māori economic advancement while sitting in this House because that is the only pathway to long-term prosperity and the betterment of ourselves and it is not just for Māori; it is for all New Zealanders.It is important though to acknowledge that I may move easily amongst the Māori communities but I also share a common set of values with all New Zealanders. My recent Banks Peninsula and Port Hills political campaigns have clearly shown that many other New Zealanders believe that I have something to contribute to all of society. I am deeply grateful to our people of the Port Hills for their continued support especially our National Party members the campaign team the army of volunteers and the Young Nats. I want to acknowledge our Canterbury-Westland regional chair Roger Bridge and my campaign manager Cathryn Lancaster.As most of you here will know there is something remarkably rewarding about getting amongst the community and engaging with a constituency. Sure some will slam the door in your face and some might be genuinely offended by your politics but that is who we are. We are not homogeneous. We are diverse we are passionate and we are opinionated—thank God. It would be fair to say that I have never lived in a suburb that is built upon privilege. In fact for much of my life I have lived in my traditional kāinga. My neighbours have been successful and struggling business owners labourers and academics bureaucrats and tradesmen beneficiaries and retirees. These are my people. These are National’s people.I have lived the National Party’s philosophies for most my life despite my family background where many of them were typical Labour Party supporters who lived the old adage that Labour looked after the worker. I have taken a fair bit of stick especially on the front line in Lyttelton as a scrutineer for National in the port voting booth but that was my decision and I stood by it.The myth that National is simply there to look after the wealthy has been seriously challenged in this past election. Thousands upon thousands of voters abandoned their traditional roots to give their party vote to National because there was a greater accord with what they wanted in a Government. Voters responded to the quality of leadership and have been drawn to a unified party that really did care—and still does passionately—about what matters to New Zealanders. I am sure that working New Zealanders have new expectations of themselves. New generations certainly understand that the State is not there to provide their every need. They genuinely believe that the Government is a partnership—us and them—and we each have to tow our own weight.Labour may purport to represent the working New Zealander but a bevy of career bureaucrats does not reflect the aspirations of the young checkout person at the Ferrymead Countdown or the Lyttelton wharfie or the process worker in Bromley who all want better lives with jobs fair pay homeownership and the like. Preaching working class from Ponsonby does really fall upon deaf ears.There are three immediate priorities for me for this term. One is to build the “brown blue”. Many Māori have lost sight of the huge gains made under successive National-led Governments and one has only to reflect on the Ngāi Tahu and Tainui settlements and more recently the groundbreaking Tūhoe settlement to get a sense of what is possible. Whānau Ora and the underprivileged-focused partnership schools have arisen under National and the modern iwi leader engagements have given effect to an unprecedented partnership approach. In the last election even without a candidate contesting the Māori seats National still secured 14 percent of the party vote within Te Tai Tonga. Over the next 3 years I want to assist in building that not only in Te Wai Pounamu but also across Te Ika-a-Māui. I want to champion the “brown blue” cause.The second priority is the Christchurch earthquake rebuild. We all admire the incredible earthquake recovery and rebuild work carried out to date under Minister Brownlee and I want to assure him that like in my years as a feisty rugby-playing No. 8 I am keen to put my two shoulders behind the pack and add my weight as required. I know that taking us through the next few years will require a continued team effort and I want to be part of that team.My third priority is that I will deliver on what I promised to the Port Hills constituents during my campaign by continuing to work hard within our Port Hills electorate alongside our community leaders in developing vibrant communities with plenty of opportunities supported by great leadership.I want to acknowledge my extended and immediate whānau and friends including those who have travelled here today to share this occasion. E ka whanauka e ka hoa i te hunga kāinga e haere mai ki te tautoko i ahau ko tēnei mihi aroha ki a koutou.[To those of you the relatives and friends from back home who travelled here to support me I extend this fond acknowledgment to you collectively.]It is also the time to acknowledge the wonderful people who have stood to support me in place of my tāua and pōua and my mum and dad: my Auntie Mamae Warnes who is here today and was once a Young Nat in Wellington over 70 years ago; my Auntie Rima and Charlie Subritzky and Uncle Dudley and Melissa Couch from Rāpaki; my father-in-law Derek Willard in Australia; Alec Graham from Palmerston North; and my oldest and dearest mentor Lachie Griffin the unofficial mayor of Governors Bay. And to the person who has been there for me ever since we met on the Grand Canal in Venice 24 years ago who bore me four sons and saved the Korako name from extinction—Chris: “I am because—you are.” To my sons Maximillian Nicholas Michael and James Oliver: He mahi kai hoaka he mahi kai takata takata. [Anything worthwhile will always require a considerable effort.] This is how I got here today.Finally it is difficult to stand here being humble when there is so much to be proud of. I am in this Parliament however as a list MP representing the National Party’s interests. I cannot be other than a Māori and Ngāi Tahu but it is my duty to address the needs of all New Zealanders and to concern myself with the whole spectrum of citizenship. Today I pledge myself to that task.Huri noa Te Whare Pāremata e mihi atu ana ki a koutou katoa mauri ora mauri ora.[I extend a greeting to you all throughout Parliament House good health and well-being.]Waiata