Burns Brendon: Maiden Statements 
Burns Brendon: Maiden Statements 
[Volume:651;Page:378] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 As I stand to speak in this House for the first time I wish to pay tribute to what has brought me here and to give some sense of what I hope to achieve as a member of this House. May I also Mr Assistant Speaker acknowledge your elevation and the Speech from the Throne from the Governor-General.  
Like some other new members mine is a migrant’s story. In the early 1920s my dad’s Uncle Mick fled grimy Liverpool determined to find a better life than England offered him as a working man. He landed in Wellington working and saving until the Depression hit. Only with the first Labour Government’s election was he able to put a deposit on a house and send for his wife and the son he had never met. They had been separated 15 years. Uncle Mick later encouraged my father Jim and my dear late mother Julie to come here. He told them it was a great place to bring up a family and he was right. I still regularly thank my parents for having the courage to bring me and my five brothers and sisters to New Zealand when I was 4 years old. We were almost wholly bog Irish by extraction Catholic and working class.  
Hon Phil Goff 
: And proud of it.  
BRENDON BURNS 
: And proud of it. Fear of nuclear holocaust was another key trigger for leaving England at that time. As well as being early anti-nuclearists my family shared other Labour values. We kids all got the opportunities afforded by a good Catholic and State education and apart from a bit of teasing as our accents faded we were treated to genuine Kiwi fairness and tolerance. These values remain fundamental to the sort of Aotearoa New Zealand I wish to work for and live in.  
I remember as a teenager making an unkind comment about someone being different. My father gently reminded me that our forebears had arrived in England from the potato famine poor dirty speaking a strange language and professing another faith. They were treated like scum because they were different—“And remember” he said “people are just people.”  
What was true more than 150 years ago for émigré Irish peasants is as true today in my electorate of Christchurch Central which hosts 100 ethnic minorities. Just last week one of my dedicated office staff assisted four Ethiopian orphans to arrive somewhat wide-eyed from Addis Ababa. An already resident family member is helping them start their new life in Christchurch. And so the cycle repeats. I think every one of us who is given opportunity and succeeds owes it to the next generation to provide the same equality of opportunity to ensure that the same fairness and tolerance are provided to every New Zealand child whether born in England Ethiopia Samoa or Shirley. That must be the measure of a fair and caring society. You do not just take the opportunities provided to you and then pull up the ladder; you drop it down further so even more can come aboard. The engine room of our economy the key to our future is what happens in the classrooms of every State school within this country.  
I want to thank the voters of Christchurch Central who supported me and Labour on 8 November. I assure everyone who lives in this wonderfully eclectic and diverse electorate that I am here to represent them and their interests. My first priority is to do all that I can to help employers unions and business groups to retain any jobs that come under threat as the recession bites in Christchurch Central. It was very sobering to read the maiden speeches of some illustrious predecessors—Sir Geoffrey Palmer David Caygill and Lianne Dalziel—and be reminded just how recent was the scourge of high unemployment in my electorate.  
I also wish to acknowledge the extraordinary work of Tim Barnett. Tim was legendary in his devotion to the constituents of Christchurch Central. He was also generous accommodating and supportive of me as a candidate right up to doorknocking on election day. Just hours before he left the country we bundled him out of the electorate office still trying to pass on files and notes. He and his partner Ramon are now enjoying a well-earned break before taking on new challenges. I am sure that this House wishes them well.  
The Christchurch Central electorate is the jewel in the crown of Christchurch. It encompasses all of the splendour of Hagley Park the city’s museum and hospital complex our new iconic art gallery and the country’s best Edwardian heritage buildings as well as apartment complexes. If you have not had a recent holiday in Christchurch then come and experience all that it has to offer. The electorate is also home to AMI Stadium and to the mighty Crusaders so perhaps you might time your visit to come and see your home team play—and be beaten.  
My electorate includes some of the country’s wealthiest streets. But it is home too to some of the nation’s poorest people. We have among the highest figures for those renting those living alone and those on sickness and invalids benefits. Some of the housing stock in Christchurch Central is shameful. Too many houses are best described as wooden tents. They are among the 1 million New Zealand homes that still have no insulation or are not properly insulated. This is unacceptable in a First World nation in the 21st century especially in a city where winter daytime temperatures can sometimes numbingly remain in single figures. To be warm in the place you call home is a basic human right.  
The Labour-led Government forged an agreement with the Green Party to address this through a 15-year programme. I say to the new Government that there are few other initiatives with so many benefits: lower power bills less pressure on the health system from cold people getting sick and reduced demand on our energy system and on our planet. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development has just reported that nearly $5 billion in energy savings could be had in the next decade through insulating every home. That is $300 per household every year. This is infrastructure every bit as beneficial as roads and broadband. And with building firms laying off staff in the face of recession I say now is the time to insulate New Zealand homes especially in Christchurch.  
Another matter of prime importance to Christchurch Central is reform of the liquor laws. At weekends our city’s numerous bars and cafes attract thousands of people locals and tourists alike. Unfortunately many people arrive there in an already grossly intoxicated state. Often they are refused access to licensed premises but despite a ban on drinking in our inner city streets people can then buy alcohol from nearby dairies and supermarkets. Police and hospital authorities estimate that 70 percent or more of weekend crime and injuries in Christchurch are accounted for by alcohol. I suspect it will not be greatly different for any other community represented in this House. Liquor legislation is difficult to get right. In part I think that is because it remains a conscience vote for members a residue from the pro-temperance push early last century. As further liquor legislation looms in the course of this Parliament I suggest it is timely for parties to consider whether such law changes should become matters of party policy.  
I am very pleased to have water quality among my Labour spokesperson duties. Water will be a defining issue for our future as climate change hits and as demand increases. Christchurch enjoys perhaps the best drinking-water in the world. Meanwhile Canterbury accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s irrigation. Much of the new demand has been driven by corporate-scale dairy farming with Canterbury farms nearly twice the national average size.  
I am far from being opposed to development. I was instrumental in setting up an economic development trust in Marlborough but we must have development that is both economically and environmentally sustainable. Dairy farming is already a key contributor to making it dangerous to swim in many Canterbury streams and rivers let alone to drink the water. Effluent is a real problem but more sinister are the poisonous nitrates from urea fertiliser that can take decades to seep into water supplies. When water allocation is on a “first in first served” basis with little real cost to the user we are simply encouraging rampant growth where the environment is always going to come second. We need a new allocation model for water that recognises its primary importance to every New Zealander not just the landowner who owns a thin mantle of soil above an aquifer or adjoining a river. Water is a common good. It belongs to every one of us and we should all have a say in how it gets used and what for.  
My other shadow portfolio is broadcasting. My working life began as a broadcasting journalist and I still regard Radio New Zealand as a national taonga. In an ever digitising increasingly commercial and converging world it is imperative to retain State-owned radio and television to ensure New Zealand content is delivered and our sense of identity is developed.  
I come to this House with strong established beliefs in its traditions and its democratic values. For 12 years I sat up there in the parliamentary press gallery—there were probably a few more of us in our time: I am not sure whether that makes me gamekeeper turned poacher or vice versa. I believe I am the first former gallery member to be elected to Parliament since Sir Frederick Doidge 70 years ago. Although I was never shy of expressing strong opinions as a journalist as some may attest I always retained a healthy respect for members of Parliament on both sides of the House not least for the onerous workload I can only now truly appreciate.  
I wish to acknowledge my former profession but observe it is increasingly difficult for journalists to do justice to their calling in an environment of endless cost-cutting. To give just one example there is now virtually no coverage of election candidate meetings in main centres by major media. How can the media be a public watchdog when the chain keeps getting ever shorter? Many embark on this journey to the House—some of us more than once—but rather fewer arrive. I am here now only because in early 2002 I went as a newspaper editor to a Marlborough mussel factory. Helen Clark opened it and she made everyone in that audience me included feel just so proud to be a New Zealander. I got a lift back into town with her. A fortnight later I was the Labour candidate for Kaikoura. I was privileged to then work for Helen in the Prime Minister’s office.  
But the greatest honour and privilege of all is entering this House being part of a strong and well-led Labour caucus and I hope being of service to my electorate to this Parliament and to the nation. Being able to do that results from a harmonious and hard-working Labour team in Christchurch Central ably led by our campaign manager Pam Wheeler and secretary Coral Hodgson. To them and many others I cannot name thank you. Can I say also to my National opponent Nicky Wagner that I look forward to working together in the wider interests of Christchurch.  
Finally I want to acknowledge my wife Philippa who is here in the gallery today with friends and family and with whom I have shared every step of this journey and to thank our daughters Hannah and Rachel and my sister Julie for their love and support. Sadly my mother passed away in August during the election campaign and my father is too frail to travel but I know they are also here in spirit with me today. In the same way as they and my Uncle Mick came here to give others opportunity I come to this Parliament to help ensure my daughters’ generation and those that follow can enjoy all the opportunities that this blessed nation of Aotearoa New Zealand can and must provide to all its people.