Volume 689 Week 40 - Thursday 18 April 2013Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeVolume 689 Week 40 - Thursday 18 April 2013[Sitting date: 18 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9537. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Thursday 18 April 2013Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.VisitorsPacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum—DelegatesMr SPEAKER: Honourable members I have much pleasure in informing the House that participants of the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum are present in the gallery. I am sure that members would wish that they be welcomed.Business StatementHon ANNE TOLLEY (Deputy Leader of the House): Next week the House is in a 2-week adjournment. When the House resumes on Tuesday 7 May the Government will look to progress the Legal Assistance Amendment Bill the Education Amendment Bill the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill and the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Continuation and Reform) Amendment Bill.Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): I just check with the Deputy Leader of the House that there are no plans for urgency before the Budget.Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Deputy Leader of the House): I can assure the member that any of those suggestions will be well canvassed at the Business Committee when the House resumes on 7 May.Questions to MinistersPower Prices—Electricity Market and Alternative Policies1.GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) to theMinister of Energy and Resources: Has he been advised whether the Prime Minister agrees with the Deputy Prime Minister that “a lot of us don’t like the power bills that we get” and if so has he been advised what action the Prime Minister proposes to take to reduce New Zealanders’ power bills?Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): Yes I have been advised that the Prime Minister agrees with the Deputy Prime Minister’s actual comment as I do which was: “A lot of us don’t like the power bills we get but the one thing that will be worse and more wasteful will be politicians running the electricity system. And that will look cheap for a while and then you’ll find that the technology hasn’t been upgraded that the new generation that we need hasn’t actually turned up and then there’ll be a big spend by the Government to subsidise something and the prices will go up.” I knew that the Deputy Prime Minister was a religious man; I did not know he prophesied Labour-Green policy.Grant Robertson: Have the Max Bradford reforms delivered cheaper electricity to New Zealanders as the National Party promised; if not why is he so ideologically blinkered that he is tied to a policy that will not lower power prices?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well given that I was about 12 at the time it is hard to recall. But I can say yes—yes I think they did. Unfortunately though what happened was a Labour Government where power prices went up by 72 percent so it is hard to disagree with what Rob Hosking said in theNational Business Review this morning which was that the Labour Party was full of power price gouges that took place between 2002 and 2008.Grant Robertson: Why is the Minister so ideologically blinkered that he is tied to an electricity system that means New Zealand consumers pay the second-highest residential power prices in the OECD despite two-thirds of our power being generated from cheap hydro and where prices have risen at double the rate of inflation? Why is he so tied to that system?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: It is hard to take being called ideologically blinkered from a party that wants to—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Down this end of the House we could not hear half of that question because of the raucous noise from the shameful person saying “What a shame.” and others. So perhaps we could hear it again.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am going to invite the member Grant Robertson to repeat his question. This time there was so much noise that I had trouble hearing the last part of the question myself.Grant Robertson: Why is the Minister so ideologically blinkered that he is tied to an electricity system that means New Zealand consumers pay the second-highest residential power prices relative to industry in the OECD despite two-thirds of our power being generated from cheap hydro power and where prices have risen at double the rate of inflation since the Bradford reforms?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well it is hard to take criticism at being ideologically blinkered from a party that wants to renationalise the electricity system. But be that as it may we have a very competitive system where actually in Christchurch right now by switching from the most expensive to the least expensive retailer one can save nearly $600 per annum. That is more than that party’s new policy would save.Grant Robertson: Does the Minister realise that there are 30 states in the United States of America that use a similar single-buyer model to the one proposed by the Labour Party and when will he be auditioning for Fox News given his views?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: No and as I have said if the party opposite wants to reintroduce some kind of Albanian energy policy that is good for it but this side of this Parliament does not want that.Grant Robertson: Has he taken the Prime Minister to task for failing to deliver on his promise to Grey Power in 2009 that his policies would “help constrain electricity prices” when power prices rose by at least five times the rate of inflation over the last year?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: How can I take the Prime Minister to task when he has in fact met that quotation given that under that Government prices went up 72 percent and under us they have been much more constrained going up by only 20 percent.Te Ururoa Flavell:Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Is the Minister aware of the Māori Party’s policy to enact an annual power rebate for low-income whānau installation of low-cost heating and insulating 10000 low-income homes per year including rental properties and does he agree that the Government needs to look seriously at addressing the quality of life for low-income families?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I was not aware of that policy. It sounds intriguing. Can I say to the member that I think the best thing we can do is to continue with our pro-competitive drive that we started in 2010. The Electricity Authority is leading that and we are seeing real competition all throughout New Zealand where nearly 700000 people have switched from more expensive to less expensive retailers.Rt Hon Winston Peters: What does the Minister think of the Māori Party’s policy of piloting insulation in homes in Ngati Porou and Ngāpuhi two of the warmest areas where Māori live and how practical is that?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: It sounds like good policy.Te Ururoa Flavell: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is very fortunate or some might say unfortunate that the Minister does not have any responsibility for Māori Party policy so I think that question is out of order.Rt Hon Winston Peters: He was talking about the Māori Party policy before to the Minister in a question. The Minister answered it even though he had no responsibility and so he has allowed in my question on the same basis.Mr SPEAKER: And on that basis too I think the Minister is quite capable of answering the question.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: It sounds like very good policy and I think that the Māori Party can share in the credit where this Government has now insulated nearly 230000 homes and will do by September of this year.Grant Robertson: Does the Minister realise that there is no functioning electricity market in New Zealand under his Government’s policy and that Labour’s plan will see incentives for new players to enter the generation and retail market and ensure that New Zealanders will save at least 10 percent on their power bills? Why does he not want New Zealanders to save 10 percent on their power bills?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: As I have said the member opposite shows some sort of Albanian economics understanding there. The fact of the matter is that under this Government we have a very competitive system. There are 15 independent retailers at work in this country competing against each other and we have seen that with 700000 different consumers changing from one to another.Brendan Horan: Is the Minister aware that his own Government’s figures show that average household power prices have soared in Tauranga at a rate 15 percent greater than the rest of New Zealand and what action does the Minister propose to take for the people of Tauranga?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I think the people in Tauranga are exceptionally satisfied with the political representation they get and the kind of quality electricity system they get.Brendan Horan: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. How was that answering the question?Mr SPEAKER: The question was adequately addressed.Andrew Williams: Has the Government considered New Zealand First’s proposal to introduce a 10 percent discount subsidy from State-owned enterprise power companies for SuperGold Card holders and pensioners who are struggling to meet winter power bills; if not why not?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: No. In fact I met with Grey Power this week and we talked through some of its concerns. I have explained I think the system that we have and why it is becoming more competitive every day. I have considered New Zealand First policy and frankly it is almost as loony as the Labour Party’s policy. What they are effectively saying also is they want to see the power generators back in Government hands and I just think that is bad policy all round.Grant Robertson: Further to the Minister’s previous answers if the electricity market is working so well under the Bradford model which he favours why have electricity prices continued to rise and rise over the last decade?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well there are probably many reasons and I do not accept the basic proposition in the question. But one reason would be the way the last Government took so many dividends from the power companies and that is why it is now belatedly trying to apologise to the people of New Zealand with admittedly some “loony tunes” policy.Grant Robertson: Are New Zealand residential consumers paying too much for their power?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well every consumer thinks they are paying too much for power Mr Robertson. But the fact of the matter is that at the moment we have a competitive system where there are options and where we have real security of supply—something actually we could not have taken for granted under the last Labour Government.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Although the Minister went in the direction of that question it was a straightforward question. It was not whether New Zealanders thought they were paying too much for their power; it was whether the Minister thought they were paying too much for their power. He said that New Zealanders did think they were paying too much but he did not include himself in that group.Mr SPEAKER: Let us have the question again and the Minister can re-answer the question.Grant Robertson: Are New Zealand residential consumers paying too much for their power?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well with respect the question is ill-conceived because it is not a question of the price but whether it is competitive and the system today is much more competitive than it was under the Labour Government. Since 2010 when we implemented our reforms we have seen it become more pro-competitive. It has still got some way to go and I think as the Electricity Authority made clear yesterday it is getting better and better.Dr Russel Norman: On what basis does the Minister claim that the market is competitive when the same five companies control 93 percent of the generating and 95 percent of the retail market?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well of the many bases how about this one? In Auckland at the moment if you switch from the most to the least expensive retailer you can save $312; in Wellington $212; in Christchurch $595; and in Balclutha $419. That is competition by anyone’s measure.Dr Russel Norman: So is the Minister telling us that he is comfortable with a market in which five companies—the same five companies—control 93 percent of the generating market and 95 percent of the retail market?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Yes because what the member seems to ignore is that there are from there six other players that yes are smaller but are offering sharp deals—like Ōpunake Hydro—and a number of other ones all around this country. We have low barriers to entry and frankly I understand there is something like four power players at the moment that are looking at coming in. So it is a very sharp competitive system that yes could do better but is getting better day by day.Dr Russel Norman: Well if this market is so sharp and so competitive then how come since National gained office when demand has been flat the price of electricity to residential consumers has increased by 19 percent?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: There are a number of reasons. One is transmission costs and the hundreds perhaps small number of billions of dollars that it is reasonable to pass on. The fact of the matter is that under Labour-Greens policy we would not see another dollar invested in transmission or generation by the private sector because of the economic lunacy of that—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister is required to answer the question he was asked not to give us his views of other political parties’ policies. He is well into his answer and half of it has now been devoted to criticism of the questioner and that is not satisfactory.Mr SPEAKER: No the Minister was addressing the question quite satisfactorily with some connotation. Has the Minister now finished his answer?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Yes.Work Visas—Checkout Operators2.Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR (NZ First) to theMinister of Immigration: How many temporary work visas were issued for checkout operators in 2012?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Immigration): I am advised that there were 49 occupational-specific temporary work visas issued in the occupational category of checkout operator in 2012. Of the number that can be identified by region more than 86 percent of them went to Otago—most likely to the Queenstown Lakes district—and one was issued for the Auckland region.Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor: Were those visas subject to approvals in principle; if not why not?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: I understand that the answer to that question is no and the reason is that the occupation of checkout operator is not on any of the skills in demand lists that Immigration New Zealand would use to get agreements in principle prior to somebody seeking employment.Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor: Given that 2500 Kiwis queued for 7 hours to apply for a mere 150 jobs at the Manukau Countdown in January how can the Minister justify the issuing of temporary work visas for checkout operators and can he explain why Kiwis could not do these jobs?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Well 2500 is certainly a much larger number than one which is the number of checkout operator visas issued last year in Auckland. What that says to me is that Kiwis are lining up they are looking for work and they are being successful in getting it.Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor: How can he justify 138000 temporary migrants’ work visas for jobs like checkout operators when there were 162000 Kiwis on the unemployment benefit last year?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Very good. Well the significant minority of those visas were issued to international students who have work rights. As the member may be aware that industry is our second-largest service export earner behind tourism. More than $2 billion a year is generated in this country from export education. And it is the case that a good number are also working holiday scheme visa holders. That is a reciprocal arrangement that we have with a number of countries around the world. That enables our Kiwis to see the world and to contribute to the richness of this nation and I think that is perfectly justified.Cost of Living—Consumers Price Index and Power Prices3.TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) to theMinister of Finance: What have been the recent trends in the cost of living for New Zealanders?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance) on behalf of theMinister of Finance: I can report some very encouraging progress particularly with consumer price inflation food price inflation and in electricity prices. That progress is particularly stark when you compare the current situation with the first decade of the century in the 9 years to 2008. Statistics New Zealand yesterday reported the CPI for the year to March increased by just 0.9 percent. That was the fourth consecutive quarter that annual consumer inflation has been 1 percent or less. This is a considerable improvement on consumer price inflation of more than 5 percent in late 2008 just before this Government first took office. Combined with interest rates at 50-year lows this low inflation is delivering considerable benefits to households and businesses across New Zealand in terms of their standard of living.Todd McClay: What have been the main factors contributing to annual inflation remaining low at around 1 percent?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The consumer price index showed that in the past year the price of telecommunication services fell 7.2 percent audiovisual and computing equipment fell 12 percent domestic airfares fell 9.9 percent and fresh milk was down 7.7 percent. Electricity prices did rise 5.2 percent during the year. Most of that is due to a one-off increase in the cost of transmission prices of getting the electricity to households around New Zealand. In any event it is substantially less than the 8 percent average—Hon Trevor Mallard: Who believes the member? Who believes him?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —year-on-year increases in the 9 years to 2008 when people like Trevor Mallard were in charge. In addition the food price index fell 0.4 percent in the year to March. This was led by a 2.6 percent fall in grocery prices. Cheese was down 9.1 percent and butter fell 22 percent. It is interesting to note that all of these commodities are priced in a competitive market and the Government did not control any price setting in any of them.Todd McClay: What reports has he seen on the price of electricity paid by hard-working New Zealanders?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Electricity Authority yesterday released its review of the electricity market in 2012. The report showed 18 percent of customers around 32000 people a month voted with their feet by switching electricity providers in 2012 presumably for lower prices. For the benefit of the Opposition that is called “competition”. Since November 2008 annual electricity price increases have halved from the 8 percent year-on-year increases suffered by hard-working New Zealanders during the previous 9 years. This follows a number of pro-competitive reforms by this Government which apparently the Opposition is not aware of. We have reconfigured State-owned enterprise assets to increase competition created the Electricity Authority and made it responsible for promoting competition allowed line businesses to compete in the retail space and funded promotion of consumer switching through the What’s My Number campaign.Todd McClay: Has the Minister seen any other proposals to try to lower electricity prices?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well weirdly yes I have. Just before lunch today I received one report which I believe came from the “North Korean School of Economics”. Apparently the suggestion there was that nationalising the entire electricity industry would somehow lead to lower power prices.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Surely it occurred to you that a Minister cannot knowingly mislead the House. You and I know that he did not receive anything from the “North Korean School of Economics” and yet the Minister got up and he said that he did. Perhaps you would like to bring him back to order.Mr SPEAKER: I do not accept that point of order. Would the Minister continue with his answer.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: If I could perhaps clarify my answer I should clarify that I received a report from the local branch of the “North Korean School of Economics”.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You know full well that there is no local branch and—[Interruption] No no no. The members can treat it with levity but he is knowingly misleading the House. Please do your job.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister is entirely responsible for the content of his answer. If the member thinks that there has been a misleading of the House there is an appropriate way to raise that matter and the member knows that.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In fact I have two. The first is a relatively simple one. You let the Government members barrack during the right honourable member’s point of order. In fact you almost looked like you were going to do it yourself from the way that you were laughing. Can I ask you to treat this House—Mr SPEAKER: The member is now ruining a perfectly fair point of order.Hon Trevor Mallard: —with impartiality.Mr SPEAKER: And the second point?Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The second point of order is that you have already ruled that you do not accept letters about matters of privilege dealing with supplementary answers. That was a supplementary answer. Are you changing that rule?Mr SPEAKER: No. With regard to the first question the member is absolutely right. Points of order should be heard in silence and I certainly do not encourage barracking from either side during a point of order. With regard to the second point of order I make a decision on each alleged breach of privilege on a case by case basis. Further supplementary questions—has the Minister finished his answer?Grant Robertson: He sat down.Mr SPEAKER: No he was interrupted with a point of order.Grant Robertson: No he sat down.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister was interrupted with a point of order. He has every right to complete his answer and will do so.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Thank you Mr Speaker. Just to accept the right honourable member’s point it certainly appeared to be the local branch of the “North Korean School of Economics” but I accept his assurance that perhaps it was not what it appeared. Anyway the suggestion was that nationalising the entire electricity industry would somehow lead to lower power prices. In fact as we have seen historically the world over it would simply lead to blackouts higher prices and considerably higher costs on taxpayers. That is the “back to the 1970s Government” proposal by the Labour-Greens coalition for running the electricity industry in this country.Cost of Living—Impact of Price Increases and Access to Budgeting Services4.Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere) to theMinister for Social Development: Does she agree with the CEO of Mangere Budgeting and Family Support Services that “Increased private rental charges higher power and energy prices higher costs for food and dairy higher road user charges and increased petrol costs etc…without putting up wages…means that we are effectively making our people poorer and ultimately it is costing the nation millions in welfare dollars”; if not why not?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): I have got huge respect for the work that Darryl Evans and his team do on the front line and I have no doubt that the impact of the recession is ongoing and still having an effect for many. But I also agree with this statement in theOtago Daily Timeseditorial from Tuesday: “New Zealand has grasped the seriousness of a growing welfare class and is mostly composed about changes being made to encourage a hand-up not a hand-out”.Su’a William Sio: Why does she believe that Work and Income grants to pay for electricity and for gas tripled in a 2-year period and what plans does her Government have to address this significant increase?Hon PAULA BENNETT: We have seen hardship grants actually come down over the last 2 years and quite considerably—by about 33 percent. What is interesting though is that what we have is that in 2009 8 percent of all hardship applications weredeclined and in October 2012 this proportion fluctuated between 8 or 9 percent. So it is not that more are being declined it is that we are not taking as many. We do as you can see actually accept more than we decline certainly.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My colleague clearly asked the Minister why she believed that electricity and gas grants had tripled in a 2-year period. The Minister did not address that question.Mr SPEAKER: That is absolutely a fair comment. If the Minister would like I can have the question restated.Hon PAULA BENNETT: Sorry Mr Speaker I can be more specific if you like. They obviously are paid out via hardship grants. What I have said is that overall they have come down. What we are seeing though is that people need assistance. That 2-year period was through the recession and through the effects of that and I am proud that this Government has stood up and made sure that people can get the level of assistance that they need.Su’a William Sio: Is she aware that some families according to budget advice services are forgoing food in order to be able to pay for power bills and are relying on food parcels as a consequence; if so what is her Government doing to address this?Hon PAULA BENNETT: What I can say is that in 2008 under the previous Government these budgeting services and organisations were receiving just $4.3 million. Under this Government they are receiving a total of $13 million so we are very committed about giving them that level of support and recognising how they can budget. They do have access to hardship grants and we are providing them with services and support wherever we can.Jacinda Ardern: Can she assure the House that no budget advisers will be lost as a result of the Community Response Fund coming to an end given that budget advice is now a prerequisite to accessing some Work and Income grants?Hon PAULA BENNETT: What we can see is that this Government has more than doubled the funding going to budgeting services over the last few years. This financial year these budgeting services will receive $13 million. That is an increase on what they received last year. We are very cognisant of the fact that they have pressure on them and as a consequence we are working closely with them to see how we can work our way through it.Jacinda Ardern: Can she guarantee to this House that budget advice services will continue to be funded at the same level they have been in past years including the Community Response Fund?Hon PAULA BENNETT: What I can guarantee them is they are getting significantly more than they did under Labour.Carol Beaumont: What impacts have the Responsible Lending Guidelines a joint venture between the Ministry of Social Development and the Financial Services Federation had on protecting vulnerable consumers?Hon PAULA BENNETT: What it has done is set up a way forward for working with those who are lending inappropriately and like others we have huge concerns about that. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is working on some pretty serious work around what we can do to alleviate some of the concerns we have about loan sharks who are really inappropriately lending to our most vulnerable.Carol Beaumont: What efforts has the Minister made to stop harm caused by loan sharks preying on the poor given the significant delay in introducing legislation supposedly getting tough on loan sharks which was announced by the Prime Minister before the last election?Hon PAULA BENNETT: What we have done is make sure that they have access to hardship assistance through Work and Income. For that they do not actually have to payany interest on either the advances they can get on benefit or the extra funding they can get through hardship. That is also available for those who are not just on benefit but outside of it. What you have also seen is a more than doubling of funding going to budgeting services to wrap that kind of support around and to make sure that they are getting the support that they need amongst many other initiatives.Electricity Market—Household Prices over Last 20 Years5.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) to theMinister of Energy and Resources: Does he believe that the electricity reforms of the late 1990s delivered lower electricity prices; if so what has happened to household electricity prices over the last 20 years?Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): Yes those reforms were on the right track. But as a newspaper column said this morning the largest sustained household price increases for a generation or more happened between the end of 2001 and the end of 2008. That is the difficulty as the column says for David Shearer and Russel Norman. So if Mr Norman wants to apologise now I am happy to accept that apology.Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This was a question on notice. It had two parts. The Minister vaguely addressed the first one I suppose but he completely failed to address the second part of the question. It is very specific.Mr SPEAKER: I thought he addressed it very specifically.Dr Russel Norman: Well Mr Speaker “20 years”—we are now in 2013 so we are talking from 1993 to 2013. He did not address that period. He talked about 2001 but—Mr SPEAKER: He addressed a portion within that period of 20 years without a doubt. The member has further supplementary questions.Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question is very specific. It is on notice. It is about 20 years. You cannot cherry-pick a period within the 20 years and say you have answered the question. He did not answer the question.Mr SPEAKER: I think the Minister has adequately addressed the question that you put down. The member has further supplementary questions if he wants to use them.Dr Russel Norman: That is ridiculous. That is ridiculous.Mr SPEAKER: Order!Dr Russel Norman: Supplementary—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will withdraw that remark.Dr Russel Norman: I withdraw. Supplementary question.Mr SPEAKER: A supplementary question Dr Russel Norman.Dr Russel Norman: Is it not a simple—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order! Settle down. The member has a right to ask a supplementary question. Dr Russel Norman.Dr Russel Norman: Is it not a simple fact that the actual answer to the question that was put on notice which the Minister should have given an answer to is that electricity prices for households rose 70 percent above inflation over the 20 years since his party introduced its ridiculous grab for electricity reforms?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: The simple fact is those reforms did not have a chance to bed in and that power prices shot up under the Labour-Greens. But I will give the member—[Interruption] But I will give the member another simple fact—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I want to hear the rest of the answer.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We did not hear the beginning of the answer and we would like to hear it on the basis of “Give a man enough rope”.Mr SPEAKER: The Minister can continue with his answer. [Interruption] A further supplementary question Dr Russel Norman.Dr Russel Norman: Is it not a simple fact that the answer to the question of how much did household power prices increase over 20 years—the question that is on notice—is that prices increased by 70 percent above inflation?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: No I do not think that is a simple fact. I think what is a simple fact is that since the Labour-Greens announced their policy Contact Energy’s share price has fallen by almost 3 percent. I know that member is probably proud of that but on this side of the House we actually believe in shareholders’ value.Dr Russel Norman: Seeing that the Minister seems completely unaware of what has happened to—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will ask the question within the Standing Orders without that—Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Standing Orders require that Ministers address questions that have been put down on notice. The Minister failed to do that and now you are saying—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member is now trifling with a ruling I gave earlier. I have ruled—[Interruption] Order! I had ruled that that answer addressed the question. I then gave the member the ability to ask supplementary questions and in asking supplementary questions it is inappropriate to start with a reflection “Seeing that the Minister is unaware”. The member can simply ask his supplementary—Chris Hipkins: Point of order—Mr SPEAKER: Well I am dealing with a point of order. The member can continue to ask his supplementary question but he does not need to reflect that way on the Minister.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to ask you to reflect further on that ruling not necessarily now because previous Speakers—well the previous Speaker certainly has indicated that where members are dissatisfied with the quality of an answer the supplementary question is in fact the way that a member can follow that up. If you are saying that a member cannot reflect on the quality of an answer in a subsequent supplementary question then that makes the whole process a total farce.Mr SPEAKER: No I am saying that the member has every ability to then ask supplementary questions to delve in and get better answers. He does not need to address it in that way.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is as clear as daylight to anyone watching this House or listening that a 20-year period oversight was asked for. Eleven years were left out and after two times surely the questioner was entitled to assume that the Minister knew nothing of those 11 years and was unaware of them. That is the point that is being made.Mr SPEAKER: Now the member is also questioning a ruling I made earlier. I made a ruling that the question was adequately addressed and left it for Dr Russel Norman to ask further supplementary questions.Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Is it a fresh point of order or is it continuing to question a ruling I made earlier?Dr Russel Norman: It is to try to establish—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Is it a fresh point of order?Dr Russel Norman: It is related to your ruling. It is trying to establish—Mr SPEAKER: No. Order! I have ruled on that question. If the member wishes to raise a fresh point of order I will entertain it. But if it is continuing to question my ruling then I will take that quite seriously.Dr Russel Norman: Is it not time to admit the truth for once on behalf of the Minister or the National Party—the truth just for once from the National Party; that is what I would like to hear—that the reforms in the 1990s have failed to deliver a competitive electricity market and that is why prices have risen 70 percent above inflation over those 20 years and that in the period since this Government has been in place over 4 years power prices have risen by 19 percent in spite of the fact that demand is flat; the market has failed?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I thank the member for that speech. The simple facts of the matter are these. In the 1990s power prices did rise. They then shot up markedly under the Labour Government. We were so concerned when we came into Government that we set up a review. We set about implementing reforms including the Electricity Authority and the rate of increase has gone from 8 percent to some 4.5 percent. Well that is success.Hon Trevor Mallard: Have power prices increased by 70 percent more than the rate of inflation in the last 20 years?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I am not certain of that fact but what I do know is that the sharpest rise was under the 9 years of Labour when that guy was—Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister has answered the question. He does not need to go on attacking any other—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That sort of point of order clearly leads to more disorder. It is not an adequate point of order. The Minister has the ability to answer the question and to elaborate provided he does not go on for too long.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That question is the core of the primary question. For a Minister to say that he does not know cannot be true.Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is a substantially different question from what was asked in the primary question.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Could I ask you and it may not be the appropriate time to make a ruling here but is it your ruling that where a member sets down a primary question on notice that deals with a specific time period a Minister now may be required to provide information for only a small part of that specific time period rather than the entire time period specified?Mr SPEAKER: I think that is a valid point of order. It would be dependent on the question that is asked and the answer that is given. But again I will reflect when I have read theHansard and I will have a look at it but I thought as I have said that the Minister adequately addressed the question.Better Public Services Targets—Pasifika Student Achievement6.ALFRED NGARO (National) to theMinister for Pacific Island Affairs: What reports has she received on raising achievement amongst Pasifika students?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Pacific Island Affairs): Kia orana Mr Speaker. Today I have welcomed figures that show that there was a 3½ percent increase in 16-year-old Pasifika young people achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 last year. That means that of the 3054 young Pasifika students who gained NCEA level 2 there were 252 more than in 2011. Last week I also announced provisional data that 6737 Pasifika kids started school having participated in early childhood education. That is 284 more new entrants than at the same time last year. This is good news and a credit to all the aiga early learning places and schools that have played a role in this increase and there is more to do.Alfred Ngaro: What else is the Government doing to raise achievement?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Through working to achieve our Better Public Services targets we are focusing on every stage of the education pipeline from early learning through to schooling and on to brighter futures. For example many children in Porirua East—Hon Member: She doesn’t care.Hon HEKIA PARATA: They do not care obviously but many children in Porirua East were missing out on early learning. With transport—Sue Moroney: Blah blah blah.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well no it is not blah blah blah. It is transport costs and cultural barriers which this Government cares about but members on those benches do not that have made it difficult for many families. Through the early childhood education participation programme we have supported the licensing of two Pasifika home-based networks in Porirua which has increased the capacity for early learning opportunities for up to 160 children whom we care about even if that side does not. In addition through this network—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the Minister please complete her answer.Hon HEKIA PARATA: In addition through this network 40 Pasifika educators have been trained to deliver high quality culturally responsive early learning.Hon Member: Well done!Hon HEKIA PARATA: Thank you.Su’a William Sio: Does she consider that the use of Pasifika bilingual education can help raise Pasifika students’ academic achievement; if so why has this Government continually under-resourced bilingual Pasifika education and why is bilingual education not mentioned anywhere in the Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017?Hon HEKIA PARATA: It has long been the policy in education of our Government that language identity and culture do form the context within which educational success can occur. So we have focused through the Pasifika Education Plan on early learning and on supporting community-led initiatives to preserve and promote the heritage languages of those communities so that their children will go on to school with a better chance of success.Forestry—Government Support7.Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) to theAssociate Minister for Primary Industries: Has she seen the Manley Report which found that large forest owners intend to deforest 39000 hectares between now and 2020 and what action will she take to promote policy that encourages forestry?Hon JO GOODHEW (Associate Minister for Primary Industries): Yes I have seen this report. To put the finding into perspective the intended deforestation accounts for less than 0.5 percent per annum of the total planted forest area of 1.7 million hectares. However deforestation intentions need to be looked at with an understanding of the factors that can influence the final result. These include changes in the carbon price over time perceptions around land use economics and access to water. In terms of actions to promote forestry this Government has a strong focus on improving the business and regulatory environment to support economic growth of all businesses including those in the primary sector.Hon Shane Jones: Given that answer what steps has she taken to enable forest product exporters to realise the $12 billion 10-year figure when they are reporting that New Zealand exports are encountering barriers because overseas purchasers want to know that the source of the timber is not illegal?Hon JO GOODHEW: I can assure the member that we have taken many steps. We have for instance introduced a permitting system to allow longer and heavier trucks reducing transport costs which improves the profitability of forest growing. I can assure the member that the Ministry for Primary Industries is currently working with the sector on the issue of illegal logging. I can assure the member that we are improving the Resource Management Act speeding up the process and reducing costs and uncertainty. We are making investment—significant investment—in infrastructure including roads. Those are my assurances to the member.Hon Shane Jones: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was directed at impediments that exporters in the forestry sector are encountering that they are unable to assure overseas purchasers about the illegality of the timber—not bridges definitely or roads.Mr SPEAKER: And within that quite lengthy answer I recall some mention of working internationally with regard to illegality. The question was addressed.Hon Shane Jones: What actions is the Minister taking to assist small-scale forest owners to become better coordinated and organised to fully realise the economic potential of their 500000 hectares of timber given they say they cannot even get a meeting with the Minister?Hon JO GOODHEW: Well I will begin with the latter part of the question. I am unaware of anyone having been refused the opportunity to meet with me and I have met with many groups from the sector since becoming the responsible Minister. In fact I have come to understand what an extremely diverse sector it is. I have come to understand that not only are there the very large forest owners or those owners who have large areas under their ownership but also in this diverse sector there are many many tens of thousands of owners who own a small amount of land. I can assure you that I have met and discussed the industry’s ideas for working to make a more coordinated approach. All of this Government’s intentions around making the Business Growth Agenda will certainly be assisting all of the forestry owners be they large or small.Hon Shane Jones: Given that there are 18000 jobs at stake in the forestry sector what policies is she promoting to enable New Zealand - based manufacturers to continue in business given that they are being priced out of the market by foreign-owned log sellers?Hon JO GOODHEW: I have already outlined to the member the many changes that we intend to make in the business and regulatory environment. However this Government has no intentions of interfering with market forces.Electricity Market—Performance and Prices8.JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) to theMinister of Energy and Resources: What recent reports has he received on electricity market performance?Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): I have received the Electricity Authority’s review of 2012 released publicly yesterday which outlines three extremely positive developments: increased competition in the retail market increased activity on the futures market and improved hydro management in response to a dry year. This is further evidence that the Government’s 2010 electricity market reforms are bedding in well and delivering greater competition and improved security of supply.Jonathan Young: What reports has the Minister seen on the numbers of consumers taking advantage of greater competition in the electricity market?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: The member will be pleased to know New Zealanders are increasingly switching companies for a better deal. Since the What’s My Number campaign began in May 2011 nearly 700000 consumer switches have been recorded.Latest figures show that 2013 is off to a great start in terms of electricity switching which is yet more evidence of consumers understanding they have options and switching to achieve the best plan for themselves.Jonathan Young: What reports has the Minister seen on trends in electricity prices in New Zealand?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I have seen figures that show prices rose by 72 percent under the last Labour Government or 8 percent year on year. Figures also show that this Government has slowed that growth to under 5 percent a year. If the public had had the ability to switch retailers as easily as they do now I think we would have seen millions switching under Labour.Hon Trevor Mallard: Have power prices increased by 70 percent more than the rate of inflation in the last 20 years and at nearly six times the rate of inflation in the latest year to 31 March?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: As I have already said I cannot specifically answer whether that precise figure is correct. What is very clear is that the figures showed a sharp rise of over 70 percent when he was a Minister and collected all the dividends.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The answer the Minister gave is simply impossible to believe given his answers to the supplementary questions from Jonathan Young because he actually quoted many of the figures in answer to a patsy question from one of his own members. There is simply no way he can credibly claim he does not know.Mr SPEAKER: Well that is over to the Minister to decide and for the Minister to make that statement that he does not know is enough—Hon Anne Tolley: If the Opposition members had allowed the Minister to finish any of the answers to the supplementary questions they may well have got some of the information he has now spoken.Hon Trevor Mallard: We have had a problem this week with the Prime Minister—Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. It will be heard in silence.Hon Trevor Mallard: —remembering between one supplementary question and another and what an answer was but this is even worse. We have a Minister who is forgetting the answer that he gave for a prior supplementary question from less than 30 seconds earlier. You cannot believe that a Minister forgets over that period.Mr SPEAKER: I have listened very carefully to questions and answers through the day. The Minister is quite entitled to stand and say that he cannot confirm the particular information that was outlined in the member’s question.Climate Change—Displacement of Pacific Island Citizens9.Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green) to thePrime Minister: Will he commit his Government to accept citizens of Pacific Island countries displaced by sea level rise as a result of climate change?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) on behalf of thePrime Minister: New Zealand has strong relationships with many Pacific Island countries. If rising sea levels caused by climate change were to threaten their long-term survival which it is important to understand would likely be some way in the future it would be my expectation that future New Zealand Governments would look very sympathetically on their position.Dr Kennedy Graham: In light of the response what is the Prime Minister’s response to President Anote Tong of Kiribati who said this week that “For our people to survive then they will have to migrate. Either we can wait for the time when we have to move people en masse or we can prepare them—beginning from now …”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Obviously I am aware that the three countries with the largest potential exposure to sea-level rises are Kiribati Tuvalu and Tokelau. As the Prime Minister said back in 2009 New Zealand of course has a strong relationship with all three of those countries and would be working closely with them and in fact continues to work closely with them on matters like climate change and a whole range of matters that are very important to them and other Pacific countries.Dr Kennedy Graham: Given that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that for some Pacific nations sea-level rise poses risks “to their sovereignty or existence” will he accept that a specific plan needs to be developed now?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No not at this time but as I said in the answer to the first question it is my expectation that Governments will continue to work closely with the potentially affected countries and would look very sympathetically on their position should the need for such an approach arise.Dr Kennedy Graham: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It has been established I think in the context of my questioning and certainly from World Bank and UN documents that the need is recognised internationally as now. The Minister has responded that it would be at some future time. I put it to you that the time is now which is what I have tried to get across to the Minister.Mr SPEAKER: That point is certainly open to debate. The Minister adequately addressed the question that was asked by the member.Dr Kennedy Graham: Working on the assumption that the time is now even if that is a debatable point will his Government propose at the Pacific Islands Forum this year that a regional relocation plan be drawn up—and if it is a contingency plan so be it—to address the needs of Pacific Island States and investigate the capacity of Australia New Zealand and other recipient countries to take displaced people from Pacific Island States?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: We will of course be continuing dialogue not just with the Pacific Island countries and not just at the Pacific Islands Forum but also with our Australian colleagues in relation to the issue that the member raises. It may be helpful for him to know that I understand the Refugee Council of Australia is proposing something similar at this point in time. We do not know yet whether that is something that the Australian Government will consider but New Zealand and Australia have a close relationship on these matters and we continue to discuss them at the appropriate times.Dr Kennedy Graham: I seek leave to table three documents if I may. The first is a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees document dated May 2011 headed “Climate Change and the Risk of Statelessness; the Situation of Low-lying”—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Is that publicly available off the web?Dr Kennedy Graham: It may be on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It is a UN document.Mr SPEAKER: I think it is relatively easy for members to access if they so want.Dr Kennedy Graham: The second is a speech by the President of Kiribati dated 27 February 2013 headed “Global Collective Action Needed”.Mr SPEAKER: Is that readily available to members? I suspect it—Dr Kennedy Graham: I do not believe it is readily available.Mr SPEAKER: Let us put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular speech. Is there any objection? There is no objection.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Dr Kennedy Graham: The final one is in fact an article responding to the Minister’s point about Australia being urged to recognise—Mr SPEAKER: If it is an article I take it to be press article?Dr Kennedy Graham: It is a UKGuardian article.Mr SPEAKER: That is available to members who want to seek it. It will not be tabled.Telecommunications Security—Legislative Reform10.MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) to theMinister for Communications and Information Technology: How is the Government ensuring telecommunications security legislation remains effective in a rapidly changing telecommunications environment?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for Communications and Information Technology): Yesterday I announced plans to modernise the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act 2004. The proposed changes relate to obligations for telecommunications companies and have two parts one focused on modernising the existing interception capability regime and the second introducing a formal and transparent framework for network security. The interception changes will continue to require police or agencies to first obtain lawful authorisation to conduct surveillance as they currently must and do not in any way change the scope of what they are lawfully able to intercept. New Zealanders who understand the importance of cyber security know that it is essential that our regime keeps pace in a rapidly changing environment.Mark Mitchell: Why are changes needed to interception capability and network security?Hon AMY ADAMS: New Zealand’s telecommunications market has changed significantly since the Act was passed in 2004. The changes proposed will make it easier for telecommunications companies to understand and comply with their existing interception capability obligations as these will be clearer and better targeted. Secondly although our network security regime has worked to date on the basis where companies have worked cooperatively with the Government the increasing importance of cyber-protection and the growing numbers of companies involved mean that it is now appropriate to move to a transparent and formalised regime.Christchurch Recovery—Housing Availability11.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to theMinister of Housing: Does he stand by the Prime Minister’s statement that he’s not “promising that the Government’s going to go and build a whole lot of houses” if so how does he plan to resolve the rental housing crisis in Christchurch?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister of Housing): Housing in Christchurch is a challenge but it is not a crisis. [Interruption] Well average rents have gone up 10 percent but are less than they are in either Auckland or Wellington. Housing New Zealand waiting lists for the highest need A and B clients are currently 252—fewer than there were prior to the earthquakes and actually half what there were under the previous Labour Government. I also notice that the numbers on the Christchurch City Council’s waiting lists are fewer than they were prior to the earthquakes. We have over a dozen specific initiatives under way to address Christchurch’s housing challenges but these as the Prime Minister said do not include nationalising housing. The bulk of the new houses will be built by the private sector as can be see by the massive increase in the number of building consents being issued in Christchurch.Phil Twyford: Given that response why did he say recently that 40 new homes being constructed by the Government was “stepping up” its Christchurch housingresponse; and does he really think that building 40 new homes amounts to “stepping up” given that his own officials say that up to 7400 Cantabrians are homeless?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The first thing I find amusing having been lectured for the last 4 months that as a South Island MP I should not be commenting on Auckland housing issues is that Mr Twyford now thinks he is an expert—and I am not sure why—on Christchurch housing issues. I detect a double standard.Phil Twyford: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am not threatening to legislate to override the Christchurch City Council.Mr SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. Has the Minister finished his answer?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The Government as I announced last week has settled with the insurance company. We are going to be spending over $1 billion on Housing New Zealand homes in that city. We have got temporary housing initiatives of the sort that have been commented on. We have established temporary accommodation services to assist with householders. It is a big challenge but we are making great progress.Phil Twyford: What is he going to do to accommodate the people who will need to move out of the 80000 homes that are yet to be repaired the 15000 to 20000 construction workers expected over the next 2 years and the 8000 new homes needed to cope with population increase; and does he really think that 40 new homes is an adequate response to that?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I never said that the 40 new homes being built at Rangers Park were a complete solution. You need to see them alongside the other three villages that we have created for temporary accommodation. There are also the 5000 State houses that we are fixing at pace. I note that the Labour Party opposes the settlement with the insurance company that will actually enable us to get on and fix those State houses. We have got a request for a proposal out right now in respect of worker accommodation. We have helped thousands of families with extra grants through the temporary accommodation assistance. There are over a dozen separate initiatives that this Government has given to assist in housing in Christchurch.Phil Twyford: What does he say to the thousands of Cantabrians facing another winter sleeping in uninsulated sleepouts and sleeping in cars and to families squashed into someone else’s spare room or paying hundreds of dollars to live in a caravan; and does he really think that having 7400 homeless people in Christchurch is a challenge and not a crisis?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I noted the editorial in the ChristchurchPress which in its analysis of the housing issues in Christchurch said that it was challenging but not a crisis.Phil Twyford: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked the Minister what he thought not what the ChristchurchPress thought.Mr SPEAKER: The member asked two questions in his supplementary question. The Minister is now attempting to answer either one of those. He had hardly started his answer before the member got to his feet. Would the Minister please continue.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The consistent feedback I get from the people of Christchurch on housing issues in the days that I have been down there—and they are many—is that they are saying: “Thank God it’s a National Government.” which is focused on the issue rather than playing politics with their tragedy.Better Public Services Targets—Immunisation Health Report and Rates12.Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) to theMinister of Health: What reports has he received on the Government’s better public service target for immunisation?Hon JO GOODHEW (Associate Minister of Health) on behalf of theMinister of Health: Only 5 years ago New Zealand had one of the lowest immunisation rates in the developed world. Today I have seen reports that 17 district health boards have achieved the 85 percent immunisation target for 8-month-olds. This reflects the hard work of front-line immunisation teams. This means we have again exceeded the national health target for immunisation and are well on our way to achieving the 95 percent target by December 2014. This is a great achievement for the children of New Zealand.Dr Jackie Blue: What will World Immunization Week initiatives contribute to achieving this national health target?Hon JO GOODHEW: Last night in preparation for World Health Organization World Immunization Week which begins next Monday the Minister of Health Tony Ryall launched the Immunisation Health Report here in Parliament in association with the Meningitis Foundation and Pfizer New Zealand. The report is designed to be a handy guide for parents and anyone interested in the immunisation of our children. Improving immunisation rates to reduce the exposure for the most vulnerable members of our population is a priority for this Government and requires a coordinated effort from the Government parents health professionals and community organisations and I would recommend this booklet to every member of this House.Points of Order—Tabling of DocumentsDAVID CLENDON (Green): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I wonder whether I could ask you not at this time but over the next little while to reflect on your ruling regarding my colleague’s application to table a specific document. More generally it seems that over the last few weeks—we entirely understand of course that you do not want the House’s time taken up tabling extracts from theNew Zealand Herald theDominion Post and so on—it almost seems to be that if a document is available on the internet it is deemed not able to be tabled. Just for your information this United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees document I have actually done quite an extensive search in the time I have had and I cannot locate that document. More generally it is a very specific research paper. It is complex; it will add value to the comments that my colleague was making. I would just ask you to consider where the appropriate line is on that ruling you have made.Mr SPEAKER: I will certainly do that for the benefit of the member. The member might also like to look at quite a substantive ruling I gave in regard to the tabling of documents.Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. While you are examining that matter could you also look at and rule on whether items that are beyond pay walls should be able to be tabled when they have been printed off. I think that there are an increasing number of media organisations that are putting material beyond pay walls. There are obviously a few questions of copyright but I think members having access to that material through tabling would be good.Mr SPEAKER: I will certainly do that. I thank Mr Mallard for his point.Debate On Pacific IssuesHon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Pacific Island Affairs): I moveThat the House note the Pacific Parliamentary Forum being held this week at Parliament and that it acknowledge the needs and aspirations of all Pacific peoples and the contribution New Zealand can make as an integral part of the Pacific region to enhance its relationship with all Pacific people. We are joined today in the House by a number of special guests and delegates—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am sorry to interrupt the Minister but we are joined today by a number of very important guests so for those members who are leaving the Chamber I ask them to do so as quietly as possible.Hon HEKIA PARATA: We are joined today in the House by a number of special guests the delegates attending the inaugural Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum. I would like to extend a very warm Aotearoa New Zealand welcome to each of them. In particular I welcome the Pacific Ministers here with us today. With your busy schedules and various domestic pressures it is a great honour for New Zealand to host you as your cousins in the Pacific. I also acknowledge the other members of the delegation. You represent the leaders and decision makers of tomorrow. It is a privilege to have you here and I look forward together with all members of our Parliament to meeting many of you over the coming days.I would like to acknowledge the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee that in 2010 unanimously recommended to the House this interaction between our Pacific parliaments. I would like to congratulate my colleague John Hayes MP as chair of the committee on the work he has led to bring the original recommendation to fruition. To all those who have helped: ngā mihi nui. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my colleagues across the House who are of Pacific descent and whose presence here adds richness not only to their respective parties and communities but to our Parliament as a whole.The Pacific is a key priority for the National-led Government as it has been for successive New Zealand Governments over many decades. We are a Pacific nation. First and foremost we are united by the great ocean Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa which joins us and that is central to our understanding of our history culture and world view. Culturally New Zealand owes much to other Pacific nations. Around 7 percent of New Zealanders are of Pasifika origin. At the time of the 2006 census New Zealand’s population included some 58000 Cook Islanders 22500 Niueans 6900 Tokelauans 131000 Samoans 50000 Tongans 9900 Fijians and 8900 other Pacific peoples. In the case of the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau with whom we share particular constitutional relationships the New Zealand - based populations are significantly higher than those based in their home countries. All of these Pacific peoples add to the social and economic fabric of this great country and we are richer for their presence.The many ties that link New Zealand across the Pacific make the fate of Pacific Island countries a matter of personal interest to many New Zealanders not least because of the significant contributions that Pasifika people make whether Pacific or New Zealand - born to the strength of our economy the dynamism of our communities and the richness of our culture. Pacific Island nations have gifted us and pushed out boundaries in art literature dance music film fashion; with experts in health education finance and the economy; leaders and politicians at community local and central government; and of course sport in every arena. New Zealand’s universities hospitals art galleries Government agencies schools businesses and Parliament have much to be thankful for in terms of the contributions made by our Pacific communities all wrapped and delivered through language identity and culture and long may it continue.Economically our exports to Pacific Island countries total nearly $1 billion. The region considered in its entirety represents New Zealand’s seventh-largest export market and twentieth-largest trading bloc. Trade with the region has grown more than 30 percent in the last 10 years and our exports have grown by 50 percent. New Zealand industry is working hard to provide the goods and services the economies of the Pacific need. At the same time demand in New Zealand for Pacific goods and particularly Pacific agricultural products is on the rise too. Imports in this sector have nearlydoubled since 2000 and are expanding to include a greater range of quality products. Moving forward Pacific engagement in PACER-Plus negotiations will strengthen economic relationships and enhance regional capacity for trade.This Government has an absolute focus on and commitment to supporting Pacific countries and New Zealand’s Pacific communities in achieving their developmental aspirations. Not only are we committed to working with our Pacific partners to achieve success our results tell us we are making a real and meaningful difference in people’s lives. The most readily visible demonstration of this Government’s commitment to the Pacific is that we spend more than half of our annual overseas development budget more than $250 million in the Pacific. Every day staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working alongside their Pacific counterparts to deliver programmes that will assist Pacific countries to improve their economic performance and support them to achieve sustainable economic growth.Key recent successes that serve as examples of the progress being achieved by our Government include renewable energy. The Pacific Energy Summit held in Auckland last month underlined the commitment New Zealand has made to working with the Pacific to assist in channelling international funding to areas of greatest need. Over 600 delegates attended the summit including eight Prime Ministers three Presidents and 75 chief executive officers. A key outcome of the summit included securing donor commitments of $635 million to advance renewable energy projects across the Pacific. In addition to working with developed partners to secure and channel development assistance New Zealand announced $65 million of funding to assist Pacific Islands to realise their renewable energy and energy-efficiency plans. Support was announced for the Cook Islands Kiribati Papua New Guinea Samoa Tonga and Tuvalu.In fisheries the Pacific tuna stock represents the Pacific region’s greatest shared resource. It continues to be a main source of income in the Pacific contributing US$260 million to combined gross domestic product and providing over 13000 jobs to Pacific Island people. During the 2012 Pacific Islands Forum Prime Minister Key announced New Zealand would invest additional funding into fisheries support programmes bringing our total commitment over the next 4 years to $50 million. Our support is aimed at upgrading the Pacific’s fisheries training institutions fostering seafood business enterprise development helping people in the industry gain formal globally recognised qualifications and upskilling fisheries officials in areas like international commerce and investment appraisal.The Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme helps to address seasonal labour and skill shortages in the horticulture and viticulture industries that cannot be filled from the available New Zealand labour pool. For the last 3 years between 6000 and 7000 Recognised Seasonal Employer workers have arrived in New Zealand annually.Because I am running out of time because there is so much to say I want to quickly flip to the end of my prepared speech and talk about how important it is that this inaugural parliamentary and political leaders meeting is occurring. I want to touch briefly on the issue of democracy a key theme of the upcoming Pacific Forum. One of the values we share with our Pacific neighbours is a commitment to parliamentary democracy. In the Pacific context different States have devised their own ways to shape and scale the democratic model and style to suit their situation. New Zealand is proud to stand by our Pacific partners and actively support the functioning of democracy in the Pacific. New Zealand is and will remain a committed supporter of the Pacific’s democratic traditions and I have no doubt that we will remain ready to support Pacific countries as and when our assistance is requested.Finally it would be unconscionable not to raise the issue of the low representation of Pacific women in their Parliaments. Just as ours in New Zealand has been the better forthe strong participation by women members of Parliament so too will be the parliaments of the Pacific Island nations. We should all work towards that goal.I would again like to thank our distinguished guests for their attendance at the inaugural Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum. We want you to know that we are committed to working with you as our Pacific partners to improve the lives of people throughout the Pacific. We are also committed to working to improve the lives of members of our Pacific community in New Zealand. The Government is mindful of New Zealand’s place as a Pacific country. We are honouring that by working to build a brighter Pacific future in which all Pacific people can share. Tēnā koutou katoa.DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition): Talofa lava malo e lelei kia orana taloha ni bula vinaka. I could go on and on because there are 22 different greetings that I could give today. I just want to say warm Pacific greetings to you all. Tēnā koutou katoa. I hope you are enjoying the Wellington weather. If you think this is bad you should see it on a really bad day. This is my Wellington compatriot Grant Robertson here beside me. It is wonderful to have you here with us today. As I say there are 70 different delegates from 22 different nations.Aotearoa New Zealand is a Pacific nation. It is geographically where we live. More than 20 percent of our population is Polynesian—either Māori or Pacific migrants. They are descendants particularly from Samoa Tonga the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau with which New Zealand has very close relationships. Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world. The gateway to Auckland is guarded by Su’a William Sio the member for Māngere who says that he will be staying there for a long time. The gateway to Wellington is guarded by Kris Faafoi. If you are going through Mana that is his patch. So two of our Pacific MPs guard the entrance to two of our biggest cities. Pacific nations are—Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga: What about us?DAVID SHEARER: And over there—Sam you are sort of in the middle. You pass through Sam’s electorate when you are going somewhere else.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! The member must use the member’s full name.DAVID SHEARER: The Pacific nations are our neighbours in the Pacific region but they are also our neighbours in our streets—and in my street in particular—so it is quite a unique relationship that we have. Pasifika people are overrepresented in our teams particularly our rugby teams and our rugby league teams. One of the great problems about the emigration to Australia is that we are losing some of our best talent which we would rather have here and giving it to our Australian opponents.Although much in our culture and heritage has come from our European ancestry and we are an increasingly multicultural country Pacific influences have shaped the unique character of us as New Zealanders. We are part of the Pacific and as a small country we look as a priority to making a contribution in the neighbourhood in which we live. We are committed to working with our neighbours to realise the vision set out by the Pacific Islands Forum leaders that our region should be one of peace harmony security and economic prosperity. It makes sense for our elected representatives and leaders to come together to discuss the issues and challenges that confront our region and to work together to enhance the lives of all our peoples. One outcome will be that we get to know each other better and develop habits of cooperating and collaborating on a much more regular basis. The Pacific Islands Forum as you know is now in its 40th year and it provides an opportunity for Prime Ministers leaders and Foreign Ministers to get together for talks.This forum today is the initiative of our Parliament and I recognise the role that has been played by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee by its chairpersonJohn Hayes and by the other members of that team to bring together and enhance the cooperation between parliaments and between parliamentarians. Once again I say that it is a great pleasure and an honour to welcome you here.Democracy is a common feature in our region. We know that democracy is a fragile thing and one of the goals of this conference is to discuss how we can make democracy and the effectiveness and responsiveness of our parliaments that much better. Democracy needs a free media. It needs an independent and strong judiciary. It needs institutions that guarantee and protect human rights. It requires openness and transparency. All of those things help to protect the rights of people. It also needs properly functioning political parties to help bring order efficiency and predictability to the way our political system operates.I hope you were not put off too much by our question time. That is what we call robustness of debate and holding the Government to account. It is going to be so much better when we are on that side of the House and we have to answer the questions rather than on this side where we have to ask them.Hon Annette King: It won’t be long.DAVID SHEARER: It will not be long. We are counting down the days. I have got a calendar on my wall and I am just ticking them off.Good governance in turn helps us to achieve economic development and the social services that people need in order to lead secure and fulfilling lives.The global financial crisis as we know revealed just how fragile the economies of many countries in our region actually are. Export levels and growth have fallen. Some countries have had to face real debt problems. We know others have vast natural resources and yet others are less well-endowed. We need to focus on how we develop the strengths of our regions—through fisheries through our tropical agriculture and through tourism—and reduce the dependence on imported fossil fuels.We also need to help build infrastructure and develop our human resources. We need to create decent transport and communication links. I for one would like to see better links around the Pacific so our relatives can get to family weddings and to funerals. I am actually reminded as I say that of The Laughing Samoans whom many of you might know who do travel around the Pacific every year. They make money out of making people laugh which I have to say must be a great occupation. Some people say that politicians are a bit like that as well.Economic development must be sustainable. It must benefit all of the people in a country not just its elite. Most particularly we know that our environment is fragile and that our economic development must be environmentally sound. The Pacific is a beautiful region but the reality is that the region is not as picture postcard - like underneath as it might seem. We have some real challenges certainly socially and economically. We are well off-track with the UN Millennium Development Goals for example. So there are big challenges and we need to work together to try to resolve them.It is appropriate therefore that half of our development assistance is directed at the Pacific something that actually was not the case for quite a long time until the Labour Government and I am pleased that the National Government has continued the trend—I mean that sincerely—to focus assistance in that direction. But achieving better results for the Pacific also requires old and new donor nations to work together and support each other. It is important to work with not just countries like Australia Japan and the EU but also China which is on-track to become the world’s largest economy. We have to work cooperatively with all of those partners.Finally there are other areas where New Zealand can continue to play a key role and support. In particular what we call our Project Protector created significant newresources in our navy. We have a small but perfectly formed Defence Force which actually is getting smaller by the day under this Government. Nevertheless we have as part of those resources a multi-role vessel and inshore and offshore patrol vessels which can help with search and rescue with fisheries protection and with dealing with the impacts of natural disasters such as cyclones and tsunamis. Those assets were purchased with the primary focus being to work more positively in the Pacific.This conference is not about obviously telling Pacific countries what they want or what they should do. It is about working together as the neighbours that we are learning together and collaborating to find solutions to the problems and challenges that we face. I hope that the conference is not just a one-off event—once again I congratulate the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for its foresight—but rather is a first step in a parliamentary dialogue and decision-making process that can be expanded and that can be therefore a foundation for further and ongoing parliamentary cooperation. Kia ora tātou.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou katoa ngā rangatira o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Aotearoa New Zealand is still in the early stages of its identity as a 21st century Pacific nation. For Māori of course—ngā iwi Māori—we are ngā uri o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa; we always have been and we always will be. We are not Europe; we are the Pacific. But in more recent times since colonisation that identity that sense of place and belonging has been a bit of a struggle and that identity struggle has meant that New Zealand’s actions in the Pacific have been at times honourable and at times deeply wrong.Our honourable moments have included joining in the fight to stop French testing of nuclear bombs in Pacific waters and a rapid and compassionate response to the natural disasters that afflict Pacific nations. Our questionable actions have included for example New Zealand’s neglect on climate change and to that end the Greens believe that New Zealand should increase our commitment to climate financing for the Pacific and my colleague Kennedy Graham—responsible for global affairs—will address that issue later in the debate. Other questionable actions by New Zealand over the years include the dawn raids; the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act which took away from Samoan citizens here their right to that citizenship; and of course the continuing poverty that is suffered by Pasifika children here in Aotearoa.So as we welcome representatives from our tuākana sovereign Pacific nations we should reflect on how we as a nation treat their citizens in our own country. My priority of course is the well-being of New Zealand’s children from all cultures. It is with some shame that we reflect on the situation of Pasifika children living here. As a Pacific country we have a blood obligation to our Pacific whānau and yet we have failed in that duty—40 percent of Pasifika children live in poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand. A similar percentage of young Pasifika are without work in Aotearoa New Zealand. We continue to harass and deport the parents of Pasifika children who are themselves New Zealand citizens but their parents are not. We fail to ensure that the economy works to provide decent jobs at decent pay so that for example Jaine Ikurere a Pasifika woman who cleans John Key’s office here at Parliament does not earn just above the minimum wage but has a living wage which she can use to provide properly for her children and her grandchildren. This is what a decent country does what a decent community does for its whānau. We are whanaunga to the Pacific iwi whom we welcome today and we must express that whanaungatanga in all policy and decisions that we make as a Parliament.The Greens have long advocated for human rights issues in the Pacific and good governance as well starting of course with Fiji. We are also particularly concernedwith human rights abuses that result from the colonisation that has occurred in the Pacific and continues to occur in the Pacific. My colleague Catherine Delahunty has been very involved in the human rights issues concerning West Papua and recently along with others supported the New Zealand tour of Benny Wenda a West Papuan freedom fighter. Unfortunately Benny Wenda was refused the courtesy of holding a meeting here in Parliament to talk to members of this Parliament about the human rights issues facing his people. These are the experiences that we as parliamentarians in Aotearoa need to understand. The first step to that understanding is being prepared to listen to Pacific peoples tell their stories to us face to face kanohi ki te kanohi.The Green Party urges our Government and all other Pacific Governments to provide leadership on the issue of West Papuan independence and human rights. This can be done by offering to mediate peace between Indonesia and West Papua leaders and supporting West Papua becoming a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group and of the Pacific Islands Forum. The State-sanctioned violence and human rights abuses against West Papuans requires all the Pacific neighbours to support an end to the ban against independent journalists reporting on West Papua and of course to have the courage of our convictions on the sad and sorry secret of the Pacific region. We are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers after all.This is why the Greens have also been such strong advocates of gender balance and women’s representation in Pacific parliaments including our own. There is no better advocate for women than women themselves who have lived the same lives as their constituents and understand both the needs and the strengths of women. To this end we have worked with others to support Pacific women standing for election in many different Pacific countries. The gender balance in Pacific Island parliaments is certainly improving but there is still a long way to go. Here MMP has significantly increased the representation of Māori women as well as Pasifika women and other women of ethnicity. Structural changes to electoral systems are necessary to combat entrenched gender inequity.Overall the numbers of Pacific women MPs across the region are growing and there are some strong strategies for continuing this trend. One option is to implement electoral quotas so that members are elected by proportional representation. France apparently implemented a statutory requirement for parties to alternate candidates based on gender and these zipper lists have contributed to a high number of women in the French Polynesian and New Caledonian parliaments. Another option could be reserve seats and I understand Bougainville currently has those. Reserve seats can help change attitudes increase acceptance of women in public leadership roles and ensure that their voices are heard. There is currently a bill before the Samoan Parliament I understand that would guarantee that at least 10 percent of seats would be held by women. I will be very keen to see how this progresses and whether we can offer any assistance to women in Samoa around this issue. Each nation will of course develop different systems to assist with gender balance in its Parliament according to the way that it operates. We certainly look forward to working more closely with Pasifika women’s organisations to help progress gender equity in Parliaments.Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa the ocean sustains the Pacific. The Pacific’s fisheries have been described as being as important to the region as oil is to the Middle East. New Zealand has a supporting role in the issues surrounding Pacific fisheries. There is significant worth in strengthening the management of Pacific fisheries in order to safeguard their value and maximise the economic and social benefits of fisheries to Pacific Island countries. One issue of particular relevance here is the conservation of tuna stocks and protection against overfishing—although there are the eels the “tuna” which also deserve to be protected and which have a life cycle that takes them fromAotearoa waters out to the Tonga Trench—so tuna and “tuna”. Sorry that was a distraction—my apologies.One issue of particular relevance here is the conservation of tuna stocks and the protection against overfishing. Tuna stocks in other parts of the world have been severely depleted by overfishing and this serves as a cautionary tale of course for the Pacific as we all know. The key Pacific tuna stocks are now approaching their sustainable limits. We must take action to maintain the productivity of this valuable resource. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention is the regional fisheries management organisation charged with the conservation and management of this highly migratory fish stock. Close cooperation between all the Pacific nations including Aotearoa New Zealand is necessary so that we speak with a united and clear voice about the need to promote and conserve this resource.Finally there are many issues for the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum to discuss not least of which is how we in Aotearoa New Zealand intend to address our own attitude to the tuākana whom we welcome today. Aotearoa New Zealand is teina to the Pacific to those in the Pacific who have been sovereign in their lands for centuries longer than the modern New Zealand has been around. Remembering this we can demonstrate our respect to our tuākana to our elders; re-establish our whānau connection with them; and meet our obligations proudly as uri o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Tēnā koutou katoa.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Kia ora. Tēnā koutou katoa and warm Pacific greetings. It is a privilege to welcome our esteemed guests to this significant event and meeting. It is hoped that by this we will strengthen New Zealand’s relationship with the Pacific region and the countries and peoples within it. The populated Pacific region is extraordinarily large encompassing about one quarter of the world’s surface. The populations may be low but they are high in resources. It is after all our backyard and our neighbourhood.Your presence here today is a timely reminder that one value we share as a region is a commitment to democratic values. It might be painful and difficult but we do believe that we should elect the people who represent us. The record is not perfect and the failures stand out but today provides us all with a chance to look past the failings discuss what went wrong and plan for the future. On behalf of New Zealand First—that is the people’s party by the way in this country—and my colleague Asenati Lole-Taylor welcome to you all and thank you for coming.This region is one of rich culture landscapes and natural wealth. It is a region known for its striking artworks and its strong proud people. It is a region of great potential. These resources held here hold the promise to generate adequate sources of income for the Pacific if they are handled right whether that be in relation to agriculture horticulture tourism or critical areas such as fishing and the fishing resource. Pacific countries and people in the Pacific realise and recognise this fact. In acting to secure their people a prosperous future in the 21st century this region is fast becoming a platform for other small island States around the world to learn from.We play an important role in the Pacific region. We have of late I am very pleased to say over the last 10 years realised that we should be spending far more of our foreign aid in our area where we know the people than in far-flung areas where we have got no idea where it is going. I think we are probably all united on that. We have about 300000 Pacific people in this country and New Zealand needs to play its part to ensure that Pacific people receive the means to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Aid should be seen as an investment. We recognise that our Pacific neighbours are proud people and we recognise that aid is not a handout; it is a hand up. And above all my party for onerecognises that when dealing with the Pacific you are dealing with people who are in every way your equal and many have been here for millennia.It is in New Zealand’s interest to see a flourishing Pacific region. We understand that poverty and social ills lead towards political and social unrest. We want a stable region that is prosperous with strong trade links and a strong diffusion of ideas. If someone suggests to you that the aid thing is not quite right remember the fact is that for every $10 that we export $1 is coming back. The ratio with regard to your people is 10:1 and we have no trading relationship that has that percentage of benefit for this country as it is with the Pacific people. If we had that ratio around the rest of the world we would be enormously rich and we need to address that when we are explaining why aid is important in this part of the world.In a geopolitical sense the Pacific region is fast becoming an area of competing influence and it is a sense of disquiet that one has. This is due in part to the region’s proximity to Asia natural resources and a number of votes in the United Nations. We all know how seductive it is to be taken down the main drag in China with motorbikes all in front and motorbikes all behind and treated like you are a god. But that reminds me of the old saying that new Caesars used to be told when they were appointed in the old Roman days. There was always a person deputed to run by their side and every now and again say: “Remember you’re only a man—remember you’re only a man.” That seductive experience in the Pacific with Asia has to be carefully carefully handled. Do not worry. I have got colleagues like that myself who get totally carried away when they go overseas and forget that their roots lie in their own country. Can I just say—John Hayes: What about a mirror?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh no no no. I am a Pacific person. Our roots here go back a thousand years—just in case any of you were not certain of that.The issues facing countries in the Pacific might be similar whether they be climate change the retention of resources or pollution and environmental degradation. It is up to New Zealand to ensure that we undertake aid assistance and that development does not come at the expense of local people customs and culture. There is a Pacific way and it is not wrong. It should be defended. One of those things about the Pacific way is that their institutions need to be recognised. I have always for example believed in the Great Council of Chiefs in Fiji. They should not be set aside. They should not be as any wise nation would understand and that goes for the rest of the Solomons Vanuatu and other places where there is a chiefly role that the people do respect and we should seek to modernise our constitutional approach to understand that. We must look to uphold and respect the cultural as well as the political boundaries of our neighbours.There is just one thing I want to say and that is this: there is a need all over the world and that is including in New Zealand for politicians to be seen to be accountable and transparent. No one is immune from this. I can remember being offshore with a foreign Minister—I will not say of which country but it was in the Solomon Islands. He was berating the local administration. I said to him: “Look I don’t want to be in the same room if you’ve forgotten your own history. Don’t you remember the State Bank of South Australia Rothwells Bank or that three Premiers in Western Australia got done over under WA Inc.? Do not preach to these people who know about your history. And I don’t want to be in the room representing my country when you do that.”Back to my point we need to understand that accountability and transparency are in everyone’s interests. I know that there is a Pacific feeling because it is very endemic in Māoridom too. It goes like this: if you cannot help your own then who can you help? And that is the seed of so much nepotism and corruption but it is a very very understandable cultural phenomenon that we have to in the interests of the people who represent us fight against. It is extraordinarily difficult because your people expect youto have some understanding of the saying “Blood is thicker than water” but that said it is Government and it is an issue of privilege and we need to strive against it.I want to say that increased dialogue between our countries is of benefit to all. Two of us were recently at an Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees meeting in Australia last week. We found it enormously beneficial that Pacific countries were there and some African countries were there but many of us from Australia and New Zealand had plenty to learn ourselves. Gathering with representatives from across the Pacific not only allows for the bettering of relationships and the sharing of ideas but it also allows for greater scrutiny of how we are progressing together. For my part the New Zealand First Party seriously believes in the Pacific relationship. We believe that is a special relationship with a capital “S”.While you are here you are going to meet all your relations and many are going to say to you “Which party should we vote for?”. I suggest you say to them: “Well first of all get on the roll and then vote for the one party that understands Pacific people—that party being New Zealand First.” And I can promise you without any fear of contradiction that if you all do that we will all be better off very soon. Kia ora tātou.JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa): I know that Pacific people will judge people by their actions not their talk. Some years ago I was standing close to a chain mesh fence at about 10000 feet in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The fence separated people on the outside who had lived as hunters gatherers and gardeners for more than 5000 years on that spot. Inside the fence there were fly-in fly-out foreigners developing the Porgera Gold Mine a mine that cost $300 million to develop and in the first 12 months had generated $380 million of income. On one side of the fence were men local men clad in bilums and “arse grass”. Miners inside the fence were keeping the peace posting 2 kina notes through the holes in the chain mesh. A miner who had been murdered a week before had caught it on the wrong side of the fence. I overheard the villagers asking the miners who had given them permission to sit on their land. “The Government in Port Moresby.” a miner replied. “Wanem disella Govmen e stap long Moresby?”—“What is this Government in Port Moresby?” That was quite a fair question in a very remote part of Papua New Guinea without schools health centres electricity and in fact no sign of any Government at all. I could easily understand why the villagers in this remote setting had no concept of what Papua New Guinea’s Parliament was at that time. I am sure things have changed.In Honiara at 2 o’clock in the morning I was involved in extracting a former student of Victoria University Prime Minister Bart Ulufa’alu from his office in Parliament where he was being held by Malaitans wanting to overthrow his Government. We nervously drove him to the house of an expatriate priest for safe keeping so that at least he could get a decent night’s sleep and a shower. I was astonished a couple of days later in a meeting with the overthrowers to be given a faxed letter from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association commending the actions of the MPs involved in the situation. That was the beginning of the conflict that saw the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) intervention consuming millions of dollars that might otherwise have been used for core services which those who elected politicians expected Parliament to provide.The underlying dispute between the people of Malaita and Guadalcanal is land. It continues to simmer. Solomon Islanders picking apples in my village of Greytown tell me that the conflict will erupt again as soon as RAMSI departs and that will not help anybody. Land ownership was central to the problem on Bougainville. It took 10 years to resolve but it took us 8 years to learn that we needed to stop trying to take responsibility for others’ problems and to instead support communities to take responsibility for resolving their own disputes. Although rarely acknowledged Māoriprocess was critical to the resolution of the issue between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. That took place mainly on Matakana Island. The people of the Solomon Islands may yet find those lessons learnt in Bougainville to be useful.Cohesion across the Pacific Islands Forum members has loosened since leaders around that time of decolonisation—the great tōtara trees Ratu Mara Albert Henry Michael Somare Robert Rex Bob Hawke and Hammer DeRoburt—worked together to unite the region. Since their time we have perhaps unwittingly devolved leaderships to public servants. I think of last year’s Forum Economic Ministers’ Meeting which I went to. There were about 10 Ministers there with at least 70 officials in attendance. The officials spent 2 days before we arrived and the whole time we were there meeting and constructing an 84-paragraph communiqué which no one has read since. That is not leadership. I hope that any record of this meeting will be no longer than two sides of one A4 page.Time pressures and fast planes have reduced the time that leaders spend together reducing their engagement with each other. We do not know each other as well as we used to. This meeting is trying to help overcome this sort of problem with the next generation of leaders sitting in our gallery. This meeting I hope will help us to get to know each other much better because it is much easier to work with people you know and understand.Recent months have seen the emergence of new entities like the Melanesian spearhead group based in Vanuatu the Micronesian leaders’ forum based in Guam and the beginning of a Polynesian leaders’ group coalescing around Samoa. Participants from 22 countries were invited to this forum. Never before has this Parliament House seen the sort of group we have in it today. Never in the history of our region have so many politicians and leaders gathered under one roof in the Pacific to meet share ideas and get to know one another. My committee the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee hopes that this gathering will rejuvenate our ability to work together as brothers and sisters bound together by our great Pacific Ocean. We hope that working more closely together will help our region to work more collaboratively for the betterment of those we represent. The ocean that touches all of your shores encircles our country too. Irrespective of our language or our culture we are all Pacific people in this House today. The future well-being of your community is tied to mine. We are joined together like a plaited rope.Meetings like this do not happen by accident and a huge number of people have worked for this outcome. My one-time boss and hugely supportive friend Mike Moore championed the idea of a Pacific leadership congress in his bookA Pacific Parliament. We would not be gathered here without the support of Prime Minister Key. I bring greetings from our Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully and I want to thank him because it was his involvement and support that provided the help for us to be here today. He has asked me to convey his greetings to you from Africa where he is on a 2-week assignment lobbying hard for New Zealand’s bid for the seat on the United Nations Security Council. I have to say to the House that we actually had one hell of an argument before he took off because he really wanted to be here but we could not slot this meeting in between the energy conference and other things going on in the region. So in the finish he lost and I am grateful to him for doing that.I want to thank David Carter our Speaker; Mary Harris Clerk of the Parliament; and Lesley Ferguson and her team for the huge support. And thank you to each one of our parliamentary colleagues for the support you have extended. Of course none of us would be here without my girls: Emily Taylforth and Morag Santini. They have worked huge hours. They are just magnificent.It is New Zealand’s responsibility to work collaboratively with each of you as neighbours and friends. Understanding each other and working together is essential to the growth and development of the communities we represent. Any instability in our neighbourhood has consequences for us all. Stable and affordable governance is an essential precondition for economic growth. New Zealand is smaller than Sydney and Sydney does not maintain an army a navy an air force and 50 diplomatic officers offshore. We all struggle to maintain an affordable Government. The bigger it is the more constraints there are on those who are in our business sector creating jobs. Keeping bureaucracy at a size our communities can afford is critical to sustainable growth and creating jobs for our young people. Our geography dictates a high level of interdependence logistically and economically in this region.Finally I would like to welcome especially our friends from the North-west Pacific—Guam Palau the Marshalls American Samoa the Marianas and the Federated States of Micronesia. Pacific people contribute to New Zealand at every level—in our universities in our Parliament in our factories and in our Government departments. We are a South Pacific nation. This is deep in our DNA. New Zealand politicians no longer visit the Pacific only on the way to London. Our strategic ambitions are transparent. We want to see the island countries of the North-west Pacific integrated into the institutions of the South Pacific because it makes sense and because it makes us stronger. That is why our Minister of Foreign Affairs made great efforts to encourage you all to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum the premier political meeting in our region. That is why our Minister has visited the Marshall Islands which will host the next forum.We have common problems. We can therefore have common solutions. This is what this historic assembly is about. Thank you.Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): To the delegates who are gathered here from more than 18 countries across the Pacific a warm welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand. The waters of the Pacific lap the shores of all of our countries and bring together our peoples from diverse ethnicities cultures and languages. All of us with the exception of maybe the big island to the west of New Zealand are small island States facing the challenges of remoteness and a lack of economies of scale. We know that we can better meet those challenges working together rather than as separate countries and that is why we are gathered here this weekend to look at those challenges to work together to learn from each other to talk together and to find solutions that will make life better for all of the peoples of the Pacific.Our countries share not only our Pacific location but also the bonds of history of culture of family and of trade. You have already heard that this country was first shaped by people from the Pacific a millennium ago—the tangata whenua of this country the Māori people. Then it was shaped by the Europeans from whom we gained many of our institutions.We are being influenced today by other diverse ethnicities from Asia but I want to pay particular tribute to those who came to our country from the Pacific 50 and 60 years ago and ever since because it is the migration from the Pacific that has helped shaped the identity that we have as New Zealanders which is different from other countries from which we draw our heritage. I want to thank the peoples of the Pacific for the hard work that they put into building our country and our economy and for the huge contribution that they make on the sporting fields of New Zealand and to the culture of this country that enriches us and makes us stronger.The Pacific is the area where New Zealand as a small country can make the greatest difference and where we can make the greatest contribution. That is why I am pleased that well over half of the development assistance that we can provide goes directly tothe Pacific. But there are other things that we can do as well. One of the initiatives that we worked on when I was in Government was the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme a scheme that is of real benefit to New Zealand but also to the people from your countries because it provides work and it provides resources that they can take back to their families and their communities.But there are other things as well and I want to pay special tribute to our Defence Force and our police force. In both of those forces we see the marked influence of Māori members and Pasifika members. Those forces have helped at times of natural disasters such as the tsunami and the cyclones. They have helped to protect our resources the fishery resources—and I say “our” meaning the resources of the Pacific—from those from other countries who would plunder it. They have helped in search and rescue and I want to pay particular credit to them for the work that they have done in places like the Solomons and in Tonga and in Timor-Leste—if I class that as part of the Pacific—in peacekeeping. The particular tribute I pay to our forces is that they regard themselves as equals with the people where they serve overseas.I want to make another special tribute and that is to the defence force that we used as a Government from the 1970s to run our flag up and protest against the people from the United States from Britain from France and elsewhere who tested their dirty nuclear weapons in our Pacific Ocean. We have fought together alongside each other as Pacific nations to bring a Pacific that is finally free of nuclear weapon testing but sadly not free of the consequences the pollution that those things caused.The Pacific faces huge challenges—economically socially environmentally and politically. But we should not be daunted by our problems; we should be inspired and motivated by what we can make of the Pacific as the most beautiful region in the world. In 2011 when the forum leaders met in Auckland they talked about their vision for the Pacific—the Pacific as a region of peace and harmony security and economic prosperity the Pacific where people could lead free and worthwhile lives a place where we could celebrate together our diversity and value the cultures the traditions and the religious beliefs of all.The forum sets some ambitions for us in the Pacific that we should become a region respected for the quality of our governance where we should be respected for the sustainable management of our resources and our environment where we should fully observe democratic values and be respected for the defence and promotion of human rights. We fall short of that vision but we should be inspired and we should be motivated in the days ahead to work out ways to make that vision the reality for our place in the Pacific to create an environment that is sound and sustainable.Two of the areas where we have the greatest comparative advantage are in fisheries and in tourism. Both rely on the proper management of our environment. I am also conscious that it is the small islands of the Pacific that do little to cause the problem of global warming but as countries will be the first victims of that process. I have been in Tuvalu and I have been in the Marshall Islands where the leaders of those countries have said to me “Frankly our people could become the first environmental refugees in the world.” It is beholden on countries like New Zealand and Australia to not oppose the stand that the Pacific takes to stop the process of global warming but to get alongside the Pacific to work with and support the Pacific in those objectives.I want to talk also about development in the Pacific that benefits not simply the elite but all of the people. Our goal in development assistance as a Government was to eliminate poverty. It covered many areas. The Government today talks about sustainable economic development. That is an important goal but it is not the only goal and we need to ensure that in the process of supporting sustainable economic development thebenefits of that development go to the people as a whole and not simply to those who already control wealth and power.I want to talk about trading relationships because I have worked on deals for the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement and the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations and I want to make this commitment. They are trading arrangements that must work for mutual benefit and must also address the huge imbalances in trade between our countries. We must give back to the Pacific because we take so much from it in terms of trade.I want to talk finally about the role that strong democracy and good governance can play. We need not necessarily a Westminster model—that might not be the particular model of democracy for the Pacific. It may be something that embeds better in your local culture and traditions. But whatever model is used the basic foundation stones of democracy must be supported and enhanced—openness and transparency—because that is how you deal with the problems of corruption. We need honesty. We need integrity. We do not need self-serving corruption. We need a free media in every one of our countries—not media subject to censorship. We need the rule of law—where no New Zealander and no person in the Pacific is above the law. In our country a Prime Minister was taken to task for speeding in a police convoy. Many people in the world regard that as odd but it was a sign that New Zealanders say that everybody is under the law regardless of the circumstances.We also need to acknowledge the role of political parties not set out in constitutions which is that they are the glue that holds the system together to make it work properly and also the legitimate role of opposition.There is much that we will talk about in the coming days. Once again welcome to our country. It is good to have you here. You are our closest friends and we look forward to working together with you. Thank you very much.Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR (NZ First):Fa‘afetai lava.Fakauelahi. Meitaki maata. Fa‘atalofa atu malo le soifua ma le lagi e mama I le pa‘ia ma le mamalu o le maota fono aemaise le au-vala‘aulia.Kia orana. Ia orana. Talofa koutou. Taloha ni. Malo ni. Fakaalofa lahi atu. Kam na Mauri. Alo. Halo ola keta.Kia ora tātoukatoa. And of course warm Pacific greetings.Life is a dream for the wise a game for the fool—and there are many of them in some parts of the House—a comedy for the rich and a tragedy for the poor who are struggling with the unemployment rates in our country right now. It is wonderful to have our families our friends and our people from the Pacific here today. Afio mai maliu mai welcome.Let me start by saying that parliamentarians in the Pacific region must ensure that their policy machinery is going to benefit the local communities—the ones who matter the people. The Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum which New Zealand is hosting this weekend is a perfect platform for us to exchange experiences and learn from each other. It is also a chance where we can exchange expert knowledge that will assist in eliminating barriers that continue to prevent leadership in the Pacific region from making progress. Good leadership governance and democracy are essential for enabling people to live enjoyable lives in the Pacific. There is a need—not a want—to emphasise the importance of participative democracy and how this will contribute to the strengthening of our economic social and political development.Regional development benefiting from the Pacific plan and strategies will require a more inclusive network that is well informed and open to different viewpoints that traditionally might have been ignored. There needs to be a shift in our mentality from leadership that is biased and tainted by exclusionary norms. Civil society has a vital role to play in ensuring that political leadership and credibility are held accountable for thepolicies and strategies that are put in place. People in local communities need to be kept in the know and also afforded the platform to engage in dialogue and discussions on matters that affect them. The Pacific plan is everyone’s business and it is paramount that all stakeholders concerned—that is all of us—are able to voice their concerns and add more value and weight to the issues that directly affect them.As people of the Pacific we realise that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. As Pacific people history has taught us many lessons that we will not forget. In some respects we have been more fortunate than others. Many Pacific Islands were colonised in a time when the “great powers” realised that they had a responsibility not only to take but also to give back. I look at my own country of origin and the periods of colonisation firstly under Germany and then under the New Zealand administration. Inevitably these administrations brought misery and hardship to many Samoans. However they also brought infrastructure roads schools power hospitals transportation telecommunication trade and more. It enabled many of our people to step into the global village with some confidence as our forefathers looked beyond the shores of our many islands as they saw at that time an opportunity to better themselves and their children.Most Pacific people understand that their special relationships with both New Zealand and Australia are something that should be valued and maintained. We have seen the economic expansion and influence of our Asian neighbours. We can only look on in awe in recent years as these economic giants spread their hands across the Pacific. Successive New Zealand Governments are beginning to understand that they can no longer take their nearest neighbours for granted if we are to maintain our unique strategic economic and cultural ties. I fully understand why France and the United States take their Pacific protectorates very very seriously. In a modern world the islands of the Pacific have a unique opportunity to supply not only as in the past New Zealand and Australia with the labour force but also a nearby warm and welcoming holiday destination. Our Pacific neighbours are in a special position that gives the opportunity to take the best of the West and the East and maintain the unique friendships and relationships that have developed over many years. If New Zealand fails to recognise and support the importance of their position in our world then we undoubtedly lose much of the unique character that makes our New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours a special unique place in our global village.One of the main issues that is confronting the Pacific region is equality. Participative democracy and women go hand in hand with governance and given that I am the only Pacific Island woman in Parliament this term and also the first woman MP born outside of New Zealand I think I have every right to advocate for this particular topic to be discussed in this House. [Interruption] I hear that Michael Woodward would like to correct something that I have said.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Yes my name: Woodhouse.Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR: Woodhouse.Hon Michael Woodhouse: But also Melissa Lee was born outside New Zealand.Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR: I happen to be referring to the Pacific Michael Woodhouse. Thank you.It allows the process of democracy to fully capture a nation’s development needs and solutions to these needs. For years now women have been left firmly at the margins and have been excluded from sitting in on decision-making processes. Or if they are they have little room to manoeuvre themselves because political authority is still very much a man’s world. We fail to realise that women make up half of the Pacific population. This is why their perspective and active participation is essential for good governance and for the process of democracy. Collectively women make up 12 percent of theparliamentary seats in the Pacific Islands and if we exclude the French territories that figure would fall to a mere 5 percent. New Zealand has a responsibility to play a role in this area although it does not help that there are budget cuts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the moment. Participation should be viewed as a measure by which we can assess good governance. This will ensure that the process of democracy is not tainted and that political credibility is in fact credible. Thank you.ALFRED NGARO (National): Kia orana tatou katoatoa e te aroa matua o te atua matou. Greetings to everyone here. Kia orana tatou katoatoa te moana nui a kiwa. Greetings to all our Pasifika visitors and guests who are here today. You have travelled from far away to be with us at this inaugural parliamentary forum and to listen to and observe this historic debate of 3 hours. It is the first one that has ever been held in the House to discuss our Pacific issues. Not only is it historic but your presence here is historic as well. So we do look forward to the next 3 days and spending time to debate and to discuss important issues as well.I want to just reflect on a story that I once heard. There was a young Pasifika man and a young European man—a Palagi a Papa’a—and together they were friends. They decided to go off and they wanted to go camping. So they went camping. They did not have a tent but what they did have was a blue tarpaulin from The Warehouse. So they put the blue tarpaulin up over the top. They put this tarpaulin up and said: “That will be our tent.” They went out and they played for some time and eventually they stopped and had something to eat. They had some povi masima some corned beef which is very healthy for you. They had some kalo and then had some breadfruit. They sat and they ate and they told all the stories about how their parents would be really annoyed that they had spent this night out in the tent.Anyway they went to sleep and in the middle of the night the Palagi—the young Papa’a man—sort of motioned to the young Pasifika man and he said: “Hey hey hey get up.” The young Pasifika man said: “What’s wrong?” and the young Palagi man said: “Look up. Look up and what do you see?”. Then the young Pasifika man said: “What do you mean?” and the Palagi said: “Well what I see when I look up is that I think about astrological. That means that I learnt at school about the wonderful things about the stars and the Milky Way and isn’t it wonderful?”. And the Pasifika man said: “When I look up I think about astronomical as well”—oh I have got them mixed up actually. Astrological is about magazines and reading about your horoscopes and astronomical is about the Milky Way and the stars.Then the young Pasifika man wanted to say something but that is not all because the Palagi boy was on a roll you see. He was bright; he was intelligent. He said: “I think about theological and I think about when we went to church and they taught us about how God had created this wonderful universe and this world.” Then he said: “But that’s not all. I think about meteorological and I think about the fact that I look up and I see those stars and their movement is telling me that tomorrow is going to be a fine day.” With that he had finished. Then he motioned to his young Pasifika friend and he said: “So what do you see when you look up?”. The young Pasifika man looked up and looked to his Palagi friend and said: “Someone stole our tent.”Here is a very simple analogy and a very interesting story. In other words you can have a world of intelligence you can have development you can have economic social and cultural development but at the same time too if we are not careful we can miss the very thing that is important to us. So can I encourage all of us both the politicians here and the political leaders who are here today to sometimes stop for a moment to look up and see and have a little common sense.That is what the debates over the next 2 to 3 days are actually going to be about. You see we can be intelligent we can have research we can have evidence—and thosethings are absolutely important—but you and I know that in the communities that we live in whether here in Aotearoa New Zealand or back home in your communities sometimes the issues are actually about having some common sense.I believe that what our communities are looking for is leaders who have a little common sense and who speak in a language that they understand that they can connect with and with whom they can communicate back to you and me. That is what they are looking for and that is the confidence that they are asking for in us as well.I want to add a simple little story about taxi drivers. Taxis are wonderful things—we politicians over here in New Zealand travel in taxis all the time. I was travelling over to Wellington Airport on my way up to the promised land of Auckland and as I was doing that I had a conversation with the taxi driver and this is what he said. He said to me: “So how’s it been going? Going well?”. I said: “There are some difficult issues in New Zealand that we are having to deal with.” He was an Englishman and he simply said this to me: “Do you guys realise that you are just a pimple on the backside of the world?”. I said: “What! What do you mean a pimple on the backside—how long have you been here?” and I ardently advocated and spoke very strongly about how wonderful New Zealand is. After about 5 minutes he then said: “Sorry sorry I stand corrected. You are a very nice pimple on the backside of the world.”It is really interesting because in one sense even though this was a funny sort of story there was some truth in a sense about the size and scale of who we are and to whom we belong. See in one sense to the bigger parts of the world we are simply smaller than the rest of the other parts of the world. Why would anyone be interested in who we are or in what we have to contribute? That is a very interesting question we need to ask but at the same time too they are still knocking on our doors.I wanted to say that because I think that is one of the things that we have to contend with in our discussions and in our debate. Despite the size and the scale of who we are we have to ask the question: what is our point of difference that we have to offer both here in New Zealand and also out in the region? When we know what our point of difference is then that is what we take to the bargaining table of trade agreements and of economic development out there in the rest of the world.You see the old man who was interviewed by a reporter was asked this: “You come from the smallest nation in the world?” and his reply was this: “No sir I come from the biggest ocean in the world.” What a confident reply only because of this: he knew who he was. He knew what he was contributing and he knew where he came from. Can I say to us and to our Pasifika people that we have to absolutely know not only who we are and to whom we belong but also what it is that we contribute to the rest of the world. We need to be confident—as the old man said: “I come from the biggest ocean in the world.” Why? Because there was once a history that was told about us that said that we were idle navigators—we were the people who somehow idled around the world and found these little islands in the vastness of the Pacific—and yet that has now been proven to be wrong in that we were conscious we were confident and we were capable travellers and navigators of the whole of the Pacific.We were navigators for the rest of the world. We inhabited the very islands that people had written about. So when the people from Europe when the people from England and the people from other places came whom did they find? They found Polynesian Pasifika people inhabiting those islands with a civilisation and with the confidence of who they were and what they could contribute. We need to have that confidence.Can I say to us this: we are political navigators. Our people and our community need us. They need us to be conscious of the currents of the world that are around us. We need to know what political opinion is around but at the same time too we need toknow the mood of our people. How well do we know our communities? How well do we connect with our people? You see it is very easy for us in a position of power and of influence to sometimes be in a place of an ivory tower. In other words we can become disconnected—we can become disconnected. So these are the things that are absolutely important to who we are as leaders and as political navigators.That is the task that you have. That is the task that I have. You and I are similar in a number of senses. I am a new MP. I am the first Kiwi of Cook Island descent to be here in this New Zealand Parliament. I am only here today because I had my grandmother and I had my family and the people around me who supported me to be here. Because of that I have a sense of accountability and responsibility back to them.Today I do not want to talk rhetoric about the amount of contribution that we have to make because others will talk about that. I want to make a passionate plea to you who are here today and to me for this one thing—we will debate for 3 days about the issues. For the first time we are doing this. We are stopping and we are saying this is our space. Sometimes we need the Palagis and the Papa’as to be outside the room. No they will not be because they will actually be inside here with us but sometimes we need to have the outsiders out of the room. And here is the reason why. It is because we need to discuss our issues. What we also need to say is this: what are we going to take responsibility for? Yes we have had aid for many years. Yes we have had people supporting our development but when are we going to take responsibility? When are we going to find our own sustainability?There comes a time when we need to say both domestically here in New Zealand and to our own Pasifika communities that we are outraged when people use our communities to stroke a charitable ego and when they refer to the poverty of our nations. We came here. Our people know what poverty smells like tastes like and they have lived it. But guess what? We do not see it as poverty. Let us turn what other people see as a negative into a positive about what we have as a people. We have so much to contribute to this nation. We have so much to contribute in our passion. We are more than just sporting people. We are more than just performers and dancers on a stage. We have intelligence. Let us call back the intelligence that comes from the navigators of the past. Let us stand confidently and contribute not only to New Zealand but to the Pacific and to whoever else comes.I am proud to be in this place today to speak to the leaders that are here today and to our Pasifika community. We have a pride of place in this country in this region and today is our day. Thank you.Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): May I quickly acknowledge our many distinguished visitors parliamentarians and political leaders of the South Pacific Island countries who are present today. Ou te fa‘apoipoi lili‘a fa‘aalofisa o tupu nai le Malae o Vavau ma o‘u fa‘atulouna le paia maualuga ua aofaga potopoto tulou tulou tulouna ia.I acknowledge the participants from American Samoa Cook Islands the Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Guam Kiribati the Republic of the Marshall Islands New Caledonia Niue the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tokelau Tonga Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Welcome once again to all the participants from these countries to New Zealand’s House of Representatives. I feel that this is a momentous occasion especially for those of us in this Parliament who have strong Pacific Island links back to the homeland and there are also members of Parliament here who represent pockets of the Pacific community who live here in Aotearoa New Zealand.It feels with the presence of so many from the Pacific Island nations that truly the Pacific is in the House. Who would have thought that such a thing would be possible when our Pacific parents some of the first arrivals came to New Zealand all those yearsago? Who would have thought that for the first time in the history of our nations such a diverse group of political leaders from the Pacific outside the Pacific Island Forum would sit shoulder to shoulder with New Zealand members of Parliament? It will be the first time that such a large and diverse group of foreign parliamentarians will have the opportunity as they will have today tomorrow Saturday Sunday and Monday to be able to speak in the debating chamber of New Zealand’s Parliament. That is usually reserved and extended only to visiting leaders of significance and I acknowledge each and every one of you as leaders of significance.For myself and I suspect the feeling will be shared by all members of this House our gathering in the next few days from a New Zealand perspective is a big deal. For me as a Labour MP it was a big deal when the Labour Government initiated the Inquiry into New Zealand’s relationship with South Pacific countries. From that inquiry emerged the idea for this forum. I acknowledge my former parliamentary colleagues who are no longer with us in this House the Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban and the Hon Vui Mark Gosche who were part of the Labour Government that initiated this inquiry in 2006. I also acknowledge and thank the National Government which picked up this inquiry and completed the work in December 2010.I acknowledge and pay tribute to the multipartisan way in which all parties from across the political spectrum of this House have put their shoulder behind making this forum a reality. I want to thank in particular Mr John Hayes the chair of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for his efforts and drive. I suspect that he most of all of the committee members today cannot wait for this forum to be over. I want to thank also the many members of that committee past and present for their work and commitment to the Pacific region and for bringing everybody together.In the next few days the Pacific leaders and members in this House will debate a range of issues and these issues which I will raise briefly are the issues that the members or the delegates themselves have forwarded. They include gender equality. There is a strong debate throughout New Zealand about having more women representatives in this particular House. I note also that that is the challenge facing many throughout the Pacific countries.The media—like it or not sometimes we crave media attention and then there are other times when we wish we did not have so much media attention. Like it or not in the work we are involved with the media as far as New Zealand is concerned have a critical role to play in our democracy.The environment and climate change—I agree it is an issue that has an impact and I have seen the impact of rising sea water levels. As a member of the committee and as a representative of the Labour Party I have had the privilege of visiting with many of our other colleagues some of our Pacific Islands. I am saddened when I see some islands where I think to myself that perhaps it might take only a wave to sweep over them and there would be no more island. So I think that that is a critical issue in our debates.Delivering for local communities is not only an issue that you face but we certainly have our own challenges here. Health care is a big one because that has to do with the health and safety of the next generation. Business development and job creation—you will have noted some of the debates in the last few days about our call for better-quality jobs and high-paying jobs. Then there is the global economic outlook and opportunities for this region. I suppose for the sins of the committee we have also included discussions around sports and rugby.The report of the 2006 inquiry reflected the strong feeling that most Kiwis have that New Zealand has a special relationship with the people of the Pacific both in New Zealand and in the South Pacific region. Our ties to the Pacific are many and varied. I think that Samoa’s head of State His Highness Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi summedthis feeling up best for me when he thanked New Zealand for supporting Samoa after the 2009 tsunami. He said: “He who comes to my aid is kin.” This feeling of kinship and connectedness with the Pacific is a good foundation for further strengthening New Zealand’s relationships with those of you who are and who will become future leaders of your parliaments in the Pacific.This forum expands our relations with the Pacific leaders by setting aside a week of the New Zealand Parliament’s time to host and focus not only on issues of concern to the domestic Pacific neighbourhood but also on issues of common regional interest. Members of the New Zealand public who had the opportunity to make submissions on the 2006 inquiry also saw scope for New Zealand to make better use of the knowledge and expertise of Pacific people residing in New Zealand particularly regarding the provision of services to Pacific people and the aid programme. Many Pacific people living in New Zealand have strong links with and an understanding of the culture values and aspirations of Pacific communities. They represent an underutilised asset on which New Zealand could capitalise. For this reason the committee has organised many of the events and seminars to include as much as possible of the talents and expertise that is available within our Pacific region.Earlier—I will finish this off as time is running out—the Minister for Pacific Island Affairs made reference to the growing Pacific population here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I suspect however that the basis for that reference was the 2006 census and we have not had another census recently not until last month. So I think the figure for the Pacific population may be smaller—some of us will have had more children between 2006 and the census last month. That proposes some exciting elements for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand because we have not only one of the fastest-growing populations but also one of the youngest populations.I continually promote that population as young beautiful and gifted and I use that statement to challenge them to look to the future of Aotearoa New Zealand and to plant their feet firmly here as this is their home. But by giving them that challenge that also offers up challenges for the Pacific Island region. The longer we are here the firmer our feet are planted in Aotearoa New Zealand and the weaker the links are back to our homelands and that also will have ramifications for those countries that are reliant on the remittances that come from Aotearoa New Zealand.May I conclude by saying that my colleagues have raised many other issues. In addition to the issues that are on our programme I would hope that we also explore the opportunities to find the space to look at other issues that we can talk about in the hope that we will develop a greater and better vision for the future. Thank you very much.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie): Ou te fa’atulou atu i le paia o le fono fai tulafono. Le Palemene o le malo o Niu Sila. Le paia maualuga le afio o le Kovaga sili. Le afio le afioga le Palemia. Le mamalu le Kapeneta. Le afio lau afioga le Fofoga Fetalai. Le paia tele o sui usufono mai malo eseese. Le Pasefika ae tainane. Le paia maualuga le sui usufono o le Palemene o Aotearoa Niu Sila. Tulou Tulou Tulou lava. O le a ou tautala i le gagana e fa’asino i ai lenei aso.Mr Assistant Speaker I have greeted you in my native tongue of Samoan and I greet members of this House members of Cabinet of course and the Prime Minister and I want to especially welcome the delegates to thePacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum. Delegates I want to thank you personally for venturing here for a week from your valuable family time work commitments and other duties and obligations. It is an honour to speak in this debate firstly as a Pacific person representing the many Pacific people in this Parliament and across this country as well as the fine people of Maungakiekie in Auckland; and secondly as a Pacific person born in Samoa whose family came here seeking a better life. Like many of you in the gallery we came asmigrants here many years ago. My parents wanted a better life for my siblings and me—a better education well-paying jobs to ultimately serve our families and our communities. Finally I am honoured to be a member of this John Key - led National Government and we are committed to the plight of not just Pacific people here in Aotearoa New Zealand but also our Pacific brothers and sisters who are scattered across the many Pacific Islands across the Pacific Ocean.I like my colleagues would like to thank the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for bringing about this forum. This forum is a consequence of its report to Parliament in 2010. I commend the leadership of John Hayes and the recommendation to foster better relationships with parliamentarians across the Pacific. This was something that was shared with me in my experiences when I visited the Pacific on the many Pacific missions that we go on as parliamentarians here in New Zealand.I think it is significant that New Zealand is hosting this forum and it demonstrates New Zealand’s leading role in the Pacific in which we punch well above our weight in terms of contributions that we make to our Pacific nations. To that end we have heard how we spend over $250 million annually in aid to the Pacific. Of course that is more than half of our aid budget and I would like to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs the Hon Murray McCully who is not here because he steadfastly increased our commitment of these resources so that we may improve the plight of Pacific people in the Pacific. Of course this aid includes $145 million in funding towards a joint venture with Australia and that will provide over half a million children with education across the Pacific. We have heard domestically that we are assisting Pacific workers with the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. This provides $25 million in take-home pay much of which is returned to the Pacific.Indeed only last month we have heard we hosted in Auckland the Pacific Energy Summit where we managed to secure donor commitments of $635 million. These funds are to advance renewable energy projects and energy efficiency plans. All these projects do not even go towards some of the other areas that have been mentioned already and they include New Zealand aid projects that focus on non-communicable diseases and sexual and reproductive health as well as strengthening national health systems which we will be hearing about later in our forum.Of course relationships are not just about aid funding. We are here to build on relationships foster cooperation and promote political cohesion across our Pacific boundaries. We will be discussing issues such as health climate change and gender issues. However there is little time and much to discuss so my hope is that other items may find themselves on the agenda during the breaks during the rugby and during the barbecue tonight at Premier House. Some of these subjects include education economic development infrastructure and employment matters. I believe that these matters are interconnected and that education still remains—we have the education Minister Hekia Parata here with us today—the key to unlocking the potential of our Pacific peoples both here in New Zealand and across the Pacific.These are some of the issues that I have been pushing for Pacific people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Therefore these are the issues I am interested in hearing from you our delegates about. I know how much we have to learn from your experiences in the Pacific your unique Pacific knowledge and wisdom and how we can apply those experiences to Aotearoa New Zealand. I know that sustainable economic development cannot happen in an environment where basic education is weak so I would hope that discussions include how we can assist in building models for infrastructure and education. What are effective ways of providing education services and developing a modern workforce to sustain those higher standards in the Pacific? What is the role of the internet in leveraging the learning of kids in the Pacific? As you can see delegates Ihave more questions than answers for you but I am certainly here to listen and learn from your experiences in the Pacific.I would like to use a local example of a project called Manaiakalani. This project has assisted young Pacific and Māori children through wireless networks and affordable netbooks. I know those types of learning models are possible—in fact they are probably happening in the Pacific—and I would like to hear from you delegates during the weekend on this. In terms of infrastructure—apart from the constraints around funding which we all debate and we all disagree upon across this House—we must ask how a project is delivered such that it is sensitive to Pacific cultural values our traditions and our norms while creating opportunities for employment and wealth creation. Those are just some of the things that we grapple with here and I would like to hear from you delegates as to how you deal with them in your nations. May I say that we need to hear your voices in this engagement so that we may better understand how we can engage with you our Pacific neighbours and how we can improve the lives of your people as you can do for the lives of our people here in New Zealand.When we consider issues of economic development we need to assess issues of trade. The Pacific of course has offered much in the way of trade to New Zealand. We have nearly $1 billion annually and it is New Zealand’s seventh-largest export market and our 20th-largest trading market. Herein lies the interesting issue because although we benefit greatly from exports to the Pacific the surplus does not necessarily benefit our Pacific neighbours. Although we all accept that volume of trade is important because it raises all our standards of living we know only too well that extremely large balance of trade deficits can be crippling to countries leading to high levels of Government debt and/or the sale of domestic assets. That is something for you to ponder this weekend and I again urge you to give us some feedback on that.So the question is how we can foster domestic industries that lead to greater exports not just to New Zealand but more global markets. To that end I have raised in select committee financial reviews here in New Zealand how we can assist you with those markets. What can New Zealand Trade and Enterprise do to assist in those markets with introductions to buyers of your goods and services? For the delegates please assist us in how we can address what I believe is a precarious anomaly. But trade is about relationships in foreign lands and can prove expensive distant and out of reach for Pacific traders. Again delegates I challenge you that intra-Pacific trade between your countries as well as between New Zealand and your countries is particularly important. I also urge you to think about markets of value that many of your nations have strong links to—for example the United States Australia and of course of late China. We have also had the Pacific Cooperation Foundation in New Zealand which is a public-private organisation that leverages a lot of those promotions to trade.Finally may I commend to you the work of the annual Pacific Islands Forum which brings together leaders from 15 Pacific nations. This forum I believe complements that work. I look forward to working with you in this forum to support our already strong relationships between our nations. Thank you.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call of 5 minutes Kris Faafoi.KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Yes and I will be sharing it with my Fijian brother Rajen Prasad. Mr Deputy Speaker taloha ni and to the delegation from the Pacific taloha ni. It is a privilege to speak in this debate.As one of the five Pacific members of this Parliament this House of Representatives welcomes you. This forum will begin and strengthen strong personal and national links. As Labour leader David Shearer put it we will get to know each other better. I would like to acknowledge my fellow Pacific MPs in this House: my colleague Su’a William Sio Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga Alfred Ngaro and Asenati Lole-Taylor. As you will see ourPacific representation is pan-political. We are diverse not only in our nationality but in our opinions. I think you have already seen this in this debate today but I think I can assure you that despite some fundamental philosophical differences I believe all Pacific MPs work for the better of our community. We have Alfred Ngaro and Sam Lotu-Iiga leaders in their communities on the other side of the House. I do honestly believe their plans are to lift their communities in their regions and the Pacific. The problem is we just disagree how we go about it. That is the beauty of the democracy that we live in and that we as Pasifika are participating in it is a sign that Pasifika are well and truly a force—a growing force—in politics here in New Zealand.Can I also acknowledge the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee led by John Hayes for organising this forum and this event over the weekend. I know it has been an interesting task. The programme for the weekend and the 3 or 4 days ahead looks great and I look forward to hosting you all in Porirua on Sunday evening.Hon Hekia Parata: We—we.KRIS FAAFOI: We look forward to it—pan-political. To the 70 members of the delegation from the 22 Pacific nations taloha ni and tēnā koutou katoa. I look forward to the next 4 days as we in New Zealand discuss and as Sam Lotu-Iiga said hear from you about the issues that are important to the Pacific. I would in particular like to acknowledge Margaret Pedro and Tavita Pue from Tokelau malo ni. As a proud Tokelauan it is great to have two young leaders from Nukunonu and Fakaofo here to ensure there is a strong Pacific voice from Tokelau. For those who are at home watching or listening Tokelau is a proud small nation of three atolls Atafu Nukunonu and Fakaofo.It is an interesting time to be a Pacific MP. As I said we are now well entrenched on the political stage but as we move towards a Pasifika community that is becoming more New Zealand - born new opportunities and challenges emerge. Attitudes are changing but it is important that our values do not. Many of you may have seen that last night in a debate in our Parliament on the issue of marriage equality. I felt compelled to ensure the diversity of views in the Pacific community were represented but in doing that I needed to respect the view of others although I disagreed. That is one of the challenges. I know we can overcome it. That is ensuring that our youth can live in the two worlds they live in—and some live in three or more—in its simplest form: living in New Zealand with Kiwi expectations and living in our Pacific community with Pacific expectations. It is not easy but I look around our communities and this House and I know it can happen.But enough about us. Let us look at you. In David Shearer’s speech he pointed out the importance of democracy. He said that democracy needs a free media. Before I entered this House my background was with the media and I agree with David Shearer 100 percent. We may not like it all the time in New Zealand but our media have freedoms are fearless and most of the time focus on issues that matter to New Zealanders.I know that in some places in the Pacific the freedom of the media is not so entrenched. The media in its purest form is the conduit of the people to hold people like us to account. I believe we in New Zealand can do much more to ensure there are free and skilled media in the Pacific. Tales of torture of the media muzzling of the media and limited control of the media do nothing to advance democracy. I am not saying that we know better; I am saying that we can help to ensure that the right questions are asked in the pursuit of fair honest and accountable representation that is of the people by the people and for the people. I look forward to discussing that tomorrow afternoon.I would like to pay tribute to our pioneers those grandparents and parents many of whom came to New Zealand to a new land many of them at a young age to get as Sam Lotu-Iiga said a better life for their families. Someone told me very early on in mypolitical career to drop the grateful migrant story but never never never will I do that. I thank them for making the journey to this land and giving us the opportunity to live better lives.Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour): E ngā rangatira katoa o Pasifika ka nui te mihi ki a koutou nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. It is a pleasure for me to take a call in what is a historic debate in this Chamber in the presence of our Pacific politicians participants and political leaders. It is especially significant for me as a Pacific-born Indian as a Fijian person who lived there grew up there received the wisdom of the people of Fiji and being from a family with a long history and tradition in Fiji. That is what I brought to New Zealand years ago and it is what sustains me here. Those of us who are from the Pacific can never be from anywhere else. So for that reason it is a special pleasure.I want to acknowledge all of you who are here welcome you warmly and add my weight to others who have already welcomed you. In particular however I want to acknowledge the five participants from Fiji. These are young people and they represent the future of Fiji. They will be the new leaders and I know your task is more difficult than those whom you sit alongside at the moment but know that you in this Parliament and in the time you are here are warmly welcome and will be as warmly supported as you need to be. I know that you will pick up much to take back to our homeland and contribute to what needs to be done there.I also acknowledge all those who have worked hard to make this particular forum possible—those who started in 2006 and those like John Hayes and the present Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee who have made this possible together with the officials who have made it possible as well.What I value most as a member of Parliament and as a New Zealander is the ability of citizens to decide who is going to govern them and then to change them if they are not performing. Sometimes that is called democracy. But it is the ability of people who are ruled to decide who is going to be their Government. I have heard it said sometimes that democracies are a Western concept designed for a different environment and not relevant everywhere. I do refute that. The system of people deciding who will rule them and when to throw them out belongs to the people. There is much more that goes alongside a democracy. When a democratic system does not work we try to find out what the reasons are for it not working and change them. We do not change the system. There is no other system that I know of that produces the kinds of results that democracies produce that enable people to access their rights etc. So for that reason I support democracies and I support a system where people rule.Some democracies are confused with the workings of Government. The workings of Government are not necessarily equal to democracies. They are quite different concepts. If Governments do not work then change the Government. It does not mean that democracies have not worked.Democracy represents many things but certainly it is the sum total of all the institutions that have been developed to enable the people to choose a Government on the basis of the policies and manifestos they have put forward. It includes a clean electoral system a system of voting where all votes are equal a predictable transition when Governments change a free media an independent judiciary proper separation of powers a military that is totally subject to the will of Parliament effective agencies to provide public services and a system for people to access their rights. Those are the tools and when these things work together which is the case in New Zealand then in this Chamber we can debate any issue. We can argue with each other and we can go out and still be friends but knowing that the Government is being held accountable. The Opposition has a role.So the gift of democracy is a huge one and if there is a gift that New Zealand has to offer it is to demonstrate this democracy. And today tomorrow Saturday Sunday and Monday that is what we will be doing—demonstrating our democracy to you. What I regret is that the county of my birth is still struggling with this—not through the actions of the people who elect Governments nor—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member.TE URUROA FLAVELL (Māori Party—Waiariki): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātau katoa ngā whanaunga i haere mai i tawhiti. E Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa haere mai e rarau ki roto i te Whare nei. Ahakoa tōna āhua he āhua Pākehā nei i tōna mutunga anā kua noho nei mātau te iwi Māori ki konei ki te kawe i ngā wawata o Te Ao Māori. Tēnā koutou haere mai haere mai haere mai rā.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Salutations to you all the relatives who have come here from afar. Welcome to you the great ocean of Kiwa settle into this House. Even though this setting is somewhat European-like we the Māori members have eventually become part of this scene to bear the aspirations of Māoridom. Acknowledgments to you collectively welcome welcome and welcome indeed.]When the Māori Party acknowledged the relationship between tangata whenua and the people our brothers and sisters of the Pacific Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and as we travelled from Hawaiki we shared an ancient knowledge of the stars and the oceans. That knowledge is passed down to us to this day in our tukutuku panels that adorn the walls of our carved whare throughout the motu. Today in this place we pay tribute to the rich oral traditions of our ancient navigators who guided us from the past to this future. From our whakapapa connections our genealogical connections we have an obligation to support the well-being of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific as Māori. As our closest neighbours our security stability and prosperity are closely linked. On a personal level our people interact every day and must unite to face the challenges that we all experience.We say that the strength of Māori and Pasifika peoples lies in our āinga our whānau our communities who pull together to bring change for ourselves. Our key priority whānau ora has been described by our Pasifika relations our Pasifika whanaunga as restoring the role of the village. We stand together in the pursuit of mana motuhake. We support Pasifika nations in growing their own local accountability and success rather than foisting a system of private enterprise upon them that may not fit either the culture or the people. Our view in the Māori Party is that we should assist rather than dominate development. We support Pasifika nations in their journey to realise their own modern aspirations on their own land in line with their own tikanga and their own traditions.Here in Aotearoa we have provided a place to live for many people who call the Pacific home. Just as in Māori communities where young people leave their papakāinga for urban areas those left at home feel the loss of their most talented and those who have left feel a loss of connection. We must support our Pasifika relations to remain connected to their homelands maintaining the essence of who they are. We call this rangatiratanga; others might say mana motuhake—the ability to be strong in your own identity language and culture. We think the key for any peoples lies in developing their own solutions as a more effective efficient and enduring response. We believe in greater community development and less governmental bureaucracy. The focus of the Māori Party is to bring to fruition the aspirations of New Zealanders through self-determination kaupapa tuku iho and a commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. In the Pacific we would expect the same—that your own forms of business and governance which were in place many years prior to the arrival of the Palagi European colonisation will stand you in good stead for the generations to come.It is wonderful to have you all here—our relations—and I want to finish by paying tribute to all of the Pasifika brothers and sisters who have stood by Māori in the Land March of 1975 in the hīkoi of 2004 and in our mutual desire to honour the Treaty of Waitangi. Likewise we have stood by our Pasifika communities throughout the traumatic history of the dawn raids in the 1970s and in confronting and addressing so many of the educational economic and social yardsticks by which our peoples are measured. Tangata Pasifika and tangata whenua have always shared a common bond in our connections through our ancestry our culture and our customs. We both understand implicitly concepts that run to the core of our being. Our land our whenua is the central link to our genealogical connections as an enduring umbilical cord pito between yesteryear and tomorrow. I wish all of you delegates who are with us today all the very best. I look forward to the continuing dialogue that is so vital to our ongoing relationships with one another.In closing I say that I listened earlier and noted that some of the parties have been pitching to you as our visitors for your vote. I will not do that myself. Suffice to say which of these words sounds sweeter to you my Pacific brothers and sisters? Which word sounds sweeter looks sweeter and may be even smells sweeter: New Zealand First Labour National or Māori? Kia ora tātou.Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT): Much of this debate has been about New Zealand’s relationship with our Pacific neighbours and so it should have been. The ACT Party acknowledges the importance of these relationships. We celebrate the contribution that Pasifika communities have made to New Zealand. They have enriched our society and added to our cultural vibrancy. As Mayor of Auckland for two terms I had the pleasure of working with and getting to know and respecting greatly the Pacific community of that wonderful multicultural city from where I hail.In my contribution I want to focus on the obligation we have to our Pacific neighbours and our Pacific families in our local communities and across this country—in particular in the education system. Every New Zealand child deserves a world-class education. There is not much more we can give a young child than unconditional love in the home and the family and a world-class education and I know that Pacific families are signed up to that proposition. We have much to do to make this a reality for all our young people.So first the good news is Pasifika education outcomes have improved in all parts of the education system across this country. The latest data shows that the number of 2-year-old to 4-year-old Pasifika enrolments in early childhood education increased by 15.5 percent between 2009 and 2011. The proportion of all Pasifika learners achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 qualifications or equivalent increased from 55 percent in 2009 to 63 percent in 2011. Pasifika learner take-up of the Youth Guarantee initiative was 20 percent of all young people participating. Pasifika learners with New Zealand Qualifications Framework level 5 qualification increased from 18 percent to 28 percent in 2011. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of this National-led Government and in particular the Minister of Education for her efforts in raising achievement for Pasifika learners. She is committed to that cause. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of our teachers and the wider Pasifika community for their efforts in helping to raise learner achievements amongst Pasifika kids.Now for the bad news: despite all these improvements significant challenges remain. Although New Zealand performs well on the average in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment study we rate poorly on equity. We are 24th in the world equal with the US. If we were to take the results for Pasifika on their own we would be 35th in the world. Although Pasifika participation in early childhood educationhas increased it is still the lowest for all population groups. Significant disparities remain evidenced in literacy and numeracy achievements. Disparity in achievement levels for Pasifika students are significant at the NCEA level and widen further at the higher qualification level. There is much work to be done and we need to embrace this challenge.There is a wonderful saying that high tides rise all boats. We know that when Pasifika communities are doing well then the education system in this country is going to do even better. We know that when Pasifika kids do well in Auckland Pasifika kids are going to do well across the nation and when they are doing well across the nation the high tide will lift the boats across the Pacific countries that you represent.Can I turn to further good news. Partnership schools are coming and they can innovate. We have had very good interest from Pasifika groups around partnership schools. They can focus on creating a learning environment where every Pasifika child learns to succeed. They can employ teaching staff who understand and embrace cultural difference and cultural difference is critical to this multicultural society. In short they can make a real difference to Pasifika learners. I would like to thank the partnership schools working group and in particular Dr Margaret Southwick a significant Pasifika educationalist for her great contribution in this policy design. This Government is absolutely committed to accelerating achievement for Pasifika learners through the partnership schools initiative and the Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017. I am absolutely committed to making sure that every young child including—Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): Can I join with others on behalf of United Future to welcome our visitors to this Parliament for this important forum. I have been a member here for nearly 29 years and I am embarrassed to say that this is the first occasion that I can recall in that time where such a gathering as this has taken place. It is long overdue and I hope we do not have to wait another 29 or 30 years for it to be repeated.Can I welcome you for the nations that you represent the diversity of your cultures and your backgrounds and say how well that sits alongside the diverse nature of our society in New Zealand. For my part I am a third-generation Irish New Zealander. My wife is a direct descendant of New Zealand’s recognised first European family a granddaughter some seven generations down the line. The thing we all have in common whatever our background whatever our cultural roots whatever our heritage is that we live in this part of the world. The issues that confront this part of the world—be they related to climate change be they related to the movement of people be they related to economic development—are issues for all of us and the solutions are ones that we all have to engage in.I do not subscribe to the view that New Zealand is some big sugar daddy on the edge of the Pacific. I think that is a very patronising and a very old-fashioned view and I think we have to work much more collaboratively on the things we have in common sharing the strengths that we have—and they will be different from nation to nation—and the capacities that we have and they will differ as well to assist each one of our nations to achieve their full potential.We say that often in respect of our attitude towards young New Zealand children. We want them all to have the opportunity to reach their full potential in life. So it is with our relationships with our neighbours. I do not think that it is for New Zealand or for any individual member of the Pacific family to presume a view in respect of other members of the family. What we need to do is work together to ensure that all of us are capable of achieving the goals that we want and they will differ. And in some senses New Zealand will be the provider of educational opportunity of employment of technology ofvarious other forms of assistance. But in other senses it is very much a two-way street and we have to recognise the strengths of our Pacific family as we move forward.One of the things that I think that leads to in a very immediate sense is the capacity to assist each other in times of stress. It may be physical stress brought on by adverse climatic events such as cyclones or storms or whatever or the mounting threat of climate change. It may also be unrest brought on by political or other means. We need to stand by to help. I think from New Zealand’s point of view we have to be very careful that we do not interpret such situations as ones where we effectively ration our assistance—not in financial terms so much but in terms of things like temporary immigration in terms of things like family reunification where we sometimes take in my view too rigid a position in respect of the nations of the Pacific.We are all in this part of the world together and the opportunity that we have may be on a smaller scale but it is no different from the opportunity that the Europeans have developed over the last 50 or 60 years. It is about the capacity to build a unique community where we work together collaboratively respecting the identity and the integrity of the member nations but where we speak with a much more unified and connected voice about the issues that concern us.I welcome this forum taking place in this Chamber and elsewhere over the coming weekend. I think it is a very important development. It is one that is long overdue. I acknowledge the work of colleagues in this House and elsewhere who have helped to bring it together. But the real challenge and the real test of its achievement will be what flows from this—that is what procedures protocols and forms of assistance are put in place that mean that the goal of a broad Pacific family which we often talk about in a loose-lipped way can be a goal that is actually achieved in practice. I believe there is sufficient goodwill on all sides for that to happen and I look forward to the deliberations. I encourage the delegates to participate fully. I give you a very warm welcome to this country. Have a great weekend. It is wonderful to have you here.BRENDAN HORAN (Independent): Welcome to our Pacific neighbours and dear friends. I have to say that I am looking forward to going to the rugby with you tomorrow night. We will be watching a New Zealand team dish it out to those Aussies. But it would be great if instead of a Super 15 it was a Super 17 with at least two Pacific Island teams. I look forward to the time when I can go and visit the islands and be there to watch a Super 17 rugby game.Today I will cover three topics three challenges for all Pacific nations: one have we preserved and enhanced our heritage; two have we cared for and protected our environment our countries; and three have we respected loved and cared for our children? Here in New Zealand we face challenges in honouring our obligations to our children. Some of those challenges include social instability resulting from a breakdown of family standards and values personal unrest and alienation that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals. Another challenge we have in New Zealand is some of the things that we see and I see too much of our land technology and industry being sold to foreign powers. I see pathways opening for our mineral wealth onshore and offshore to be exploited by overseas interests and throughout the Pacific we share a common concern in the plundering of fishing stock by foreign fishing powers.Earlier today a New Zealand First member spoke of political seduction and it is a very real threat. New Zealanders only need look back at the news last week where we saw our Prime Minister meeting the Chinese Premier with the army out there and parades and everything. So political seduction is real but there is a solution and I believe our saving grace is our children. I would implore that the core aim for this forum is the future well-being of our children—to the children of New Zealand to the children of the Pacific. Here in New Zealand we have more children than ever beforeliving in poverty. But what is far worse than poverty is poverty of spirit. The challenge for all of us here today and this weekend is to raise that spirit that cultural identity within each child of New Zealand and the wider Pacific. The great challenge therefore is to increase the cultural wealth of each child and each and every family. Therefore the goal or aspiration must surely be to be aspirational positive family role models—to have children say “How do you do that?” and to live lives where children say “I want to be able to do that. I want to be like that.” My mother and my father—positive role models. And so are my older brother and my older sister.The pathway for cultural wealth is surely education—education of culture and identity. Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? Spirituality—in New Zealand we call it wairua. Heritage in spirit our children’s thoughts and feelings their behaviour awareness of health and of self and social interaction with families friends and strangers. Personal understanding knowledge and awareness. This is cultural wealth—essential ingredients for every family throughout the Pacific. With major advances in technology in areas of broadband-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets the opportunity to educate our families becomes more viable and also the opportunity for us as nations to collaborate and communicate more readily and to share our knowledge and our technology. For there is a synergy that binds us above even our precious Pacific locations and that is our love—our love for our children and our families. And let that synergy that binds us be honoured by our commitment this weekend to preserving our resources and environment for our tamariki our children—tātou tātou; us and us. Kia ora.Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua): I warmly greet and salute our visitors from around the Pacific. Thank you very much for coming this way. You show great stamina here this afternoon. The genesis of today’s debate has come from a variety of individuals and from the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee inquiry into New Zealand’s relationship with the South Pacific. May I acknowledge the drive that John Hayes chair of that select committee has put in to make this event possible. In the most admirable way he can accurately be accused of borderline belligerence bullying badgering and bulldozing the select committee members and a few others. However he deserves our heartfelt thanks.As a fifth-generation New Zealander of Scottish Irish and English descent I can speak only as a relative newcomer to this region since about 1831. But like many New Zealand families we have intermarried and are proudly multicultural. My brother’s wife Kuinimeri Aiono Ma’ia’i from Samoa has always claimed that the Garden of Eden was close to Apia and that the rest of us have a great deal to be thankful for. Kuinimeri’s brother Dr Semisi Ma’ia’i not only is a fine and distinguished physician but also wrote the first New Zealand - Samoan dictionary an extraordinary piece of scholarship and hugely important for our mutual understanding.Like many other Kiwis I have had the chance to explore holiday live and work in the wider Pacific. As a young medical student I had the adventure of my life in Papua New Guinea prior to its independence in 1968 where we set off to go crocodile hunting but due to several hiccups in the planning I ended up carrying out immunisation patrols in the central Papuan mountains along the Kokoda Trail—the very track on which thousands of young Americans and Australians lost their lives to prevent invasion by the Japanese beyond Port Moresby and on to Australia and New Zealand. If they had not been successful the whole Pacific might be very different today. It has been indelibly imprinted on me how hard-won our freedom and democracy are and how potentially fragile they can be. All of us will hope that Fiji can be restored to democracy as soon as possible and the intentions of the superpowers in our region are for stability peace and prosperity.I have also had the good fortune to work as a locum specialist for Dr Toia Alama at the National Hospital of Samoa in the 1980s. We got to know each other as trainees at the National Women’s Hospital in New Zealand where doctors all over the Pacific do postgraduate work and then return to their homes. The strength of that professional network is inestimable. I have no doubt that we in the Pacific should continue to mutually foster the educational and cultural ties that bind us as a region be they in medicine law business music literature sport or of course politics.By the way Wesley College just happens to be in the Hunua electorate which I am privileged to represent. We have had some stunning rugby players from that extraordinary institution. I will never forget Joeli Vidiri on one wing and Jonah Lomu on the other fresh out of school playing for Counties and smashing the Blues. Thank you Fiji. Thank you Tonga.The inaugural Pacific forum ahead of us will be exciting and worthwhile. It will act as a conduit to progress our mutual challenges and aspirations and remind us that we are guardians of our environment that we have led the way in a South Pacific nuclear-weapon-free zone and that we must strive for democracy choice prosperity peace and true friendship for what my sister-in-law refers to as one great Pacific Garden of Eden. Thank you.Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green): I rise to address the issue of perhaps greatest concern of all to humanity. The onset of climate change on current emission trends is likely to prove dangerous and according to the World Bank possibly cataclysmic in the course of the 21st century. We have acknowledged the magnitude of future climate change for about two decades now. What has caught us unawares is its imminence. Climate change is here. Its effects are seen around us as we speak.Climate change is now seen as a threat to national security and as the United Nations Security Council has acknowledged a potential threat to international peace and security—a risk multiplier. Nowhere is this more starkly portrayed than in the Pacific. For our visitors here in this gallery the risk is existential. The international community has to put it simply failed to solve climate change. It might be argued that an international community of 193 sovereign States each pursuing competitive national advantage cannot solve a global problem. Not only do we have a global ecological crisis but we have a global governance crisis as well. We approach climate like trade negotiations: punching above our weight as we heard earlier. In the presence of our Pacific neighbours in this House today I apologise for the failure of New Zealand to act as a responsible global citizen in the matter of climate change.Among developed countries New Zealand has the worst track record of net emissions over 20 years—an extraordinary rise of 83 percent from 1990 to 2011. We have tried but so far have failed. Among developed counties we stand alone in not having entered a formal commitment to the UN for reductions by 2020. Our informal pledge of 10 to 20 percent conditional is derisory when the UN had identified 25 to 40 percent and the Alliance of Small Island States 45 percent. New Zealand sees domestic reductions as an economic option involving the least cost abatement. Pacific countries see it as a moral imperative involving national survival. Small island States have special needs of relocation. Kiribati has issued a clear appeal to relocate as may be required to Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand has failed to respond adequately.In 2009 I asked a question of the Prime Minister in this House about his Government’s plans to receive environmental refugees from low-lying Pacific Island States. The Prime Minister responded as follows: “If one was to look at the Pacific one would see that the three countries that have the largest potential exposure to climate change are Kiribati Tuvalu and Tokelau. From New Zealand’s perspective it has a strong relationship with those countries. Although we will not be setting out exactlywhat support we would provide those countries if”—if—“a situation of climate change threatened their long-term survival I think those countries could rely on the fact that New Zealand has a long history with them would support them and already has quite a number of residents from those countries calling New Zealand home.” He continued: “If that situation occurred—which it is important to understand is likely to be a long way in the future—it would be my expectation that future New Zealand Governments would look very sympathetically on that position.” Translation: “I trust that the need does not come up on my watch and I am sure Kiwis will prove to be decent if and when the time comes.”That was 2009. Today I got precisely the same response from the Prime Minister virtually word for word. For our national leader nothing has changed in 4 years. This was from a Prime Minister who as recently as 2005 has said that he had his suspicions about global warming 13 years after all Governments had acknowledged it as a fact in the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change.I say to the Pacific delegations here today “Welcome to our shores.” Feel free to urge our country to make it clear today not in 2050 or even 2020 that we shall receive you as migrants displaced by climate change and that we stand ready to discuss with you now—now—plans to that end.Hon TAU HENARE (National): Can I start by saying welcome. Secondly can I mention three names that have not been mentioned in this House so far today. One is Arthur Anae a former member of Parliament of Samoan descent and a member of the National Party for some time who served in this House. Taito Phillip Field who unfortunately went off the rails was another member of Samoan descent and in fact made a pretty big contribution while he was here. In fact he came in with me 20 years ago this year. The other one is my brother-in-law Tukoroirangi Morgan. Half of him is from the Cook Islands. We think of him as being only the Māori MP the Western Māori MP the Te Tai Hauāuru MP and the king’s spokesperson but his other half his father was from the Cooks.I was born and bred in Ōtara in “O-town 274”. Let me tell you the names of some of the families whom I grew up with. I am very proud to have been able to go into each of their homes and be looked after by the mothers and fathers of my friends. The Kaleta family—rest in peace my brother Kaleta Kaleta who died some years ago. There were the Jackson whānau the Iosefa whānau and the Tafa family—the Tafa family whose father played a game of cricket with us in Ōtara. He was a stand-in he was a ring-in he smashed Howick Pakuranga all over the field and I still remember the cries of despair from the other team. There were the Tuai family the Papali’i family the Tofilau family and the Collins family. They were all people I grew up with and I consider myself to be a true Pacific Islander. This is a Pacific Island nation; we just have not thought about it yet. So I am hopeful that one day in my lifetime we will all call ourselves Pacific Islanders just not in the way that we think of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific Islands.Māori made the long journey to these shores over 1000 years ago. Why they left is beyond me. Who would want to leave an idyllic neighbourhood such as the Pacific to come down here to the South Pacific? Maybe it was overcrowding maybe it was for the adventure of a lifetime or maybe it was the real Kiwi attitude of wanting to know what was on the other side of the fence. Auckland has the biggest concentration of Pacific Island people in the world. You know that is one of the things that we should keep in the back of our minds every day. It is time New Zealand realised that its true place in the Pacific is as I said as a Pacific Island nation. We need to assist our brothers and sisters in the Pacific to be part of the international organisations such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.I have come to despair over the last couple of years that our Pacific Island brothers and sisters cannot even afford to be members of these international organisations. I want to float some ideas in the last minute or so. Maybe the Pacific Island people can piggyback on some of our free-trade agreements. Maybe it is time for a Pacific Parliament à la the Rt Hon Mike Moore’s suggestion 20-odd years ago. We have common borders. We have citizenship. We have issues like citizenship. There are three issues that I get in my office every week: immigration residency and citizenship mainly from the Pacific Islands. It is about time we started treating the Pacific Islands like our back lawn with our whānau in it and offer them more than just a few immigration schemes.Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): Kia orakoutoukatoatēnei te mihinui ki a koutou. It is a very great pleasure to stand and speak in Parliament on this historic occasion. This is a unique event and I hope it will not be the last one of its kind.I was a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee at the time that we did our report into the relationship between New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours and I want to recognise John Hayes and his work as chair of that committee. Yes there might have been all of that bulldozing and bullying and stuff that went on but the result was good and it was very well worth it. So I do acknowledge him and other members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee at that time. We are now beginning to reap the benefits of that report and this is one of those moments that have come out of the report.I recently had the great good fortune and the great honour of visiting the Solomon Islands. My colleague Dr Cam Calder and I visited the Solomon Islands to talk with members of Parliament there about the implementation of a report—again another report—that came out of an open forum held last year on Pacific adolescent sexual reproduction and health rights. That report had a number of recommendations in it and one of them was that members of the New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development which is a cross-party group go and talk with members of Parliament around the Pacific because this was a Pacific report. People had come from Tuvalu from Papua New Guinea from Kiribati and from around the Pacific to contribute to that open forum. We heard from members of Parliament but we also heard at that time from NGOs—those non-governmental organisations that work in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights particularly with young people.So I was able at that time to not only advance the agenda that came out of that combined report with Dr Cam Calder from the National Party but also I had the privilege of visiting a part just out of Honiara that is called the New Zealand Camp and saw the places where my father served as a member of the New Zealand Air Force in World War II. My father never talked about that experience very much. He was one of that generation who did not discuss what happened in the war much but I remember very well having Solomon Islands visitors come to our house not in a steady stream but visitors who arrived at our house in New Plymouth for years and years and years afterwards because my father had known their fathers. My father had known their parents and their families through his posting to the Solomon Islands at that time. It was a very moving moment for me and I want to acknowledge the contribution that jointly the Solomon Islands and New Zealand forces played at that time.My particular brief is around overseas development assistance and I have that responsibility in shadow terms as associate foreign affairs spokesperson. I have always been concerned about our ability to assist our Pacific neighbours to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. We have not engaged sufficiently I think in the achievement of those goals. I hope in the course of these few days that we will be able to discuss such things as overseas development assistance so that we understandexactly what the needs are so that this is not seen as the distribution of largesse from a country that is better off but as an engagement in partnership to ensure that the peoples of the Pacific are educated are healthy and are well-equipped to make their own decisions for their own futures. Thank you.JAN LOGIE (Green): Very very warm Pacific greetings to my fellow Pacific parliamentarians whom I cannot really see but I am assuming you are up there in the gallery and I am feeling your beautiful faces.Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga: I’ll wave for you.JAN LOGIE: Thank you—thanks Sam. I am really pleased to take this call for the Green Party as our women’s spokesperson and as our Pasifika our overseas development aid and our human rights spokesperson. For me all of those things go quite nicely together. It is wonderful to be able to talk to you today on some of those themes. This is my first time of experiencing—I grew up in a little town down south that most people think of as quite Palagi a place called Invercargill. But actually at the time I grew up it had the second-highest Polynesian population after Auckland in the world. So you have been part of my growing up. It is really wonderful to have you here in the House today to give us that sense of the Pacific here in this House. It is all too rare an occasion. I hear that some of you were a little shocked by our question time. I also share that shock every day so I understand. I would also like to offer my thanks to the Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for hosting this event and promoting this dialogue between us today.There is so much I could say because of course our relationship is long and deep and there are many things to talk about. But I would like to start by acknowledging that New Zealand’s past relationship in the Pacific has been a dual one. It has been at once an imperialistic and exploitative role and at the same time many iwi and the Kīngitanga movement have had really strong relationships with many Pacific people. So we have had these two relationships of solidarity and imperialism happening at the same time. I think we are still sometimes fighting between those two tensions in our relationships. As an example New Zealand is still earning more now from the exporting of products that contribute really strongly to non-communicable diseases in your countries than we are putting into the health budget through official development assistance. I think that in this discussion we need to be acknowledging some of those tensions.As the women’s spokesperson though I really do want to focus on some of the issues that we share all of us in the Pacific. One of those really important issues is violence against women. Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have the highest levels—reported levels at least—in the world. We see that in Australia 20 percent of women experience sexual abuse. In Fiji 66 percent of women are physically abused by their partners in Kiribati 68 percent in the Marshall Islands 30 percent and in New Zealand depending on your figures between 15 and 30 percent. In Palau and Papua New Guinea 70 percent of women have experienced gender-based violence in Samoa it is 48 percent of women and in the Solomons it is 64 percent. In Tonga 23 women a month are victims of physical assault in Tuvalu it is one-third of women and in Vanuatu there have been 3600 cases reported between 1993 and 2000. Sadly we do not even have the data for the Cook Islands Niue or the Federated States of Micronesia. This is a shared problem. We are all struggling with this. If we put some focus on it it is something we could make a real difference about. It would pay off for all of us in terms of our well-being our health and our economic benefits.I am a member along with some of my colleagues here of the New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development. We have recognised that economic development is intrinsically and reciprocally linked with sexual and reproductive health including maternal health. We have asked our Government to makea commitment to ring-fencing 15 percent of our overseas development assistance specifically for sexual and reproductive health. Part of that is a link to the connection to the violence against women because if we cannot control our bodies we cannot control our destiny. That is around violence and it is about sexual and reproductive health. There is a huge difference that all of us could make on this issue. I am really looking forward to having a good dialogue with all of you this weekend on those issues. Kia ora koutou.Hon JO GOODHEW (Minister of Women’s Affairs): Warm greetings to our Pacific colleagues. Welcome to the first ever Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum. Welcome to New Zealand.My background is that I am an elected member for an electorate called Rangitata on the east coast of the South Island. I think it would be fair to say that there is no other part of New Zealand that has so few Pacific people amongst its population but the number is growing. The economy of my electorate benefits from the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme and I thank the Pacific Islands for sending people to work in my electorate. I hope that the work they are doing in New Zealand is indeed enriching their lives and assisting their families as it is our economy and our lives. In fact I want to say to you that as the number of Pacific peoples in my electorate increases so too is my community enriched.As Minister of Women’s Affairs I am delighted that I can welcome to this forum over these days the 16 female political leaders who come from Pacific Island nations. I want to acknowledge the fact that prior to me speaking there were two other female politicians from New Zealand—one from Labour; one from the Greens. I know that our Minister for Pacific Island Affairs is going to wind up our debate here this afternoon—again one of our female politicians. So although we are some I think 31 or 32 percent of this Parliament we are finishing in style with the women’s voice of this Parliament. I know that increasing women’s participation in the Pacific legislatures is a challenge. I acknowledge that challenge. I wish you well in the different way that each nation is addressing that challenge. I also wish you success.I would like to congratulate the Pacific on bringing gender to the forefront. For example the 2012 Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration renewed the Pacific’s commitment to improving the lives of women and girls. The Pacific Regional Action Plan on Women Peace and Security 2012-15 was the first of its kind in the Pacific. It enhances women’s security in conflict situations and women’s leadership in conflict prevention and peace building. In March this year I was absolutely delighted to see the Pacific play such an active role in the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. It was noted that the Pacific Islands were playing an increased role a very much increased role. I was delighted to be there in amongst it. I would also like to commend Samoa for leading the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action Monitoring Group. The gender plan of action is the framework through which the Commonwealth contributes to the advancement of gender equality.The Pacific’s performance on gender equality in education also deserves specific mention. Literacy rates are very high and significant gains have been made in girls accessing primary and secondary education in most areas of the Pacific. Congratulations on your progress in this respect.New Zealand is a supportive partner for gender equality in the Pacific. In health and education we work very closely with our development partners to improve access to education for girls and to strengthen services in maternal and family reproductive health and through our aid programme we offer scholarships to assist women into tertiary education. Improved infrastructure—primarily transport energy water andtelecommunications—also contributes to economic development and women’s economic empowerment.We recently extended the Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme to 2016. This is a successful partnership betweenNZAID the New Zealand Police and the Pacific Islands chiefs of police. It aims to reduce violence against women and provide better access to justice for women victims and survivors.Along with Australia and the US New Zealand is supporting the Emerging Pacific Women’s Leadership Programme. Women leaders from the 12 Pacific countries are implementing projects that promote young women leaders and advance women’s economic opportunities. Women’s economic empowerment may be enhanced by improving women’s rights to land ownership secure employment and fair and equal pay.As my colleagues before me have acknowledged eliminating violence against women is a struggle we face nationwide. We join with you in attempting to address that struggle here in New Zealand as well.I close by once again saluting the 16 women leaders—political leaders—who have come to this forum. In fact I salute all of the political leaders who have come to this forum for improving the lives of women and girls can be done only with our menfolk helping us. Please enjoy your time in New Zealand. It is wonderful having you here.Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Pacific Island Affairs): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakahaere otirā tēnā tātou huri noa i tō tātou Whare. Kei ngā rangatira o ngā motu o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnā koutou ngā waka katoa e tau mai nei ki Aotearoa ahakoa nō tēhea o ngā motu o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.[Salutations to you Mr Speaker and indeed to us throughout our House. Good afternoon to you the leaders of the islands of the great sea of Kiwa acknowledgments and greetings to you all. I salute you all the canoes that have arrived here in New Zealand regardless which of the islands in the Pacific you have come from.]Good afternoon once more and thank you very much. Can I acknowledge as previous speakers have done your stamina and resilience for the 4 hours that you have sat there this afternoon watching the debate that has gone on in the House itching to be participants in the debate yourselves which we look forward to occurring from tomorrow on. Many speakers before me have already commented on how important it is that this occasion is occurring how long it has actually taken for it occur and how we must look forward to continuing this process in the years ahead of us.Every speaker in this House no matter which party they have come from has participated in the celebration of democracy; of the diversity of our country Aotearoa New Zealand; and of the direct links between members of Parliament on all sides of the House who are of Pacific descent all of us who are of Polynesian descent and all of us who are descendants of navigators and adventurers who set out from other parts of the world with a clear conviction that there was something better for them and their families and their descendants as you too reflect in your own parts of the Pacific. We are gathered here in our unity of being sons and daughters of the Pacific committed to creating a better legacy for those who will follow us. We join despite our differences whatever those may be in our commitment to creating a better world. I thank you for your participation this afternoon and look forward to it over the next 2 days. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātou katoa.Motion agreed to.Sittings of the HouseLOUISE UPSTON (Senior Whip—National): Given the progress in the Pasifika debate I seek leave for the House to rise early and I wish our Pacific colleagues a successful weekend.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is no objection.Can I just welcome our guests from overseas. I look forward over the next 4 days to your participation. From tomorrow it will be your turn to be down here debating those issues of interest to you and we look forward to your participation during the next 4 days.The House adjourned at 5.58 p.m.