Alliance Leader's Adjournment Debate speech
Hon Sandra Lee
13 June 2002
Alliance Leader's
Adjournment Debate speech-13 June 2002
Mr Speaker.
On behalf of the Alliance I too would like to
acknowledge all of those people who are departing this
Parliament today, and acknowledge the work and contribution
that each and every one of them has made as
Parliamentarians.
This House is a funny place at times like this, by virtue of the fact that it's a time that we reveal as MPs that we did actually have a respect for people on the other side: people in different political parties, and indeed people with different political points of view.
I admire people like Doug Kidd.
I think that he has
made an important contribution as a parliamentarian.
I
adore, actually, Geoff Braybrooke.
Maybe it's because
he's a Londoner, but he's a good, kind and wise politician.
The loss of elders like that from this House represents
a loss of significant institutional knowledge and should be
recognised as such.
My colleague Kevin Campbell from the
Alliance has been a tireless worker on select committees.
All sides of this House have acknowledged that work over
time.
I want to thank two women in particular that deserve acknowledgement as well.
One is the Rt Hon Jenny
Shipley, whose politics and position on almost everything I
never ever agreed with.
However having said that, she
was a person who came into politics (actually on a county
council) at the same time as me, when female county
councillors were even more rare and endangered than the
kakapo that I am now responsible for.
That represented
no mean feat at that time, and the slog and the battle in
that era to get from those kind of places that we both come
from, to a House like this, was very, very hard.
I think
it's too easy nowadays Mrs Shipley, for people to forget the
battles and the rivers that have been run, that are required
to get to a place like this.
To your colleagues in the
National Party who have paid tribute to you, I have to say
that I think that you will be sorely the poorer for having
taken the decisions that you have taken.
I'd like to also
acknowledge my colleague the Honorable Phillida Bunkle, my
former Associate Minister of Conservation, a true feminist,
a fighter, a staunch advocate.
I admire her courage, I
admire her tenacity, and I admire her dedication.
I
mourn the loss of her presence from this House, because I
think that she
has represented a great deal that all New
Zealand women in society aspire to.
I regret her leaving
enormously.
This is the second MMP Parliament for our nation, and again, and tragically, some of the most serious criticisms levelled against MMP at the time that the Royal Commission in 1985 considered it, and later as a proposition was put forward through the political arena, the most serious criticisms seem to be coming to pass.
I think
that that is a matter that will have to focus the minds of
all Parliamentarians in this House over time, if in fact a
Mixed Member Proportional system is to prevail as I believe
it should.
I say that of course because of the tragedy
that has occurred to the political movement that I came into
this House under, the Alliance.
I hope that over time
some of the issues that seem to lead to the fragmenting, or
marginalisation of small parties can be addressed.
But
nonetheless, I believe that this Government and the
contribution of the party that I represent has been
excellent.
When I went on the election campaign trail in
1999, in every region of New Zealand I can tell you that
there was a tangible sense of grief, fear and uncertainty on
the part of New Zealand citizens.
They had been utterly
underwhelmed by two decades of what was euphemistically
described as reform, but what was in fact, in reality, the
demise, the division and the destruction of New Zealand
society, and the New Zealand way that we organised ourselves
structurally, from public health models, to education
models, to trade union models.
That fear and uncertainty had seen an emptying out in the regions of young New Zealanders, with their elders left at home knowing that there was little or no hope of seeing a next generation return to the provinces and the places that they had built as New Zealanders.
The very best thing that this
Government led by Helen Clark and Jim Anderton has done for
this country is that they have removed that fear for New
Zealanders, and provided the young people, and our elders,
with a hope that there can be a
genuine and real future
as New Zealanders for our country.
That is one of the reasons why I hold to the view that Helen Clark, when she gives her valedictory one day in this Parliament, will go down as one of New Zealand's greatest Prime Ministers.
Can I say in terms of my own political leader Jim Anderton, that he is a true political warrior, who has against the odds soldiered on and worked well, in cooperation with a Labour Government, despite the history and the political debates that might have occurred in the past, and restored that certainty to New Zealanders that they so long craved for.
And I want to give a message to
the Opposition.
The rhetoric won't wash anymore.
If you ever want a hope of returning to this side of the House, you'd better understand that New Zealanders are much wiser now, and far less seduced by first level rhetoric.
One of
the reasons that they became cynical about the proposition
of politicians and even Parliamentary democracy, was because
fundamentally, members of the National Party when they were
in Government were utterly and totally unresponsive to the
wishes of the people of New Zealand.
Utterly and totally
unresponsive.
But the rhetoric will not wash a second time, because New Zealanders have had the opportunity to put the distance between you and them, and to examine very carefully the entrails of the catastrophe that was created by the new right reforms and dogma that you have not resiled from, no matter what you say, about health, about education, about housing.
They will not believe you.
I want to
say further as a Maori woman politician in this house that
if you think, in
the Opposition, that you can go on the
campaign trail playing the divisive card against Maori and
Pakeha New Zealanders, you'd better think again about that
one too, because New Zealanders have had a gutsful of being
divided, and they'll never vote back in a Government that
plays New Zealand citizens off against one another, and
again that is something that this Government hasn't done.
I remember the last 10 years, Mr English, as well.
I
remember the way your Government played the sick off against
the well, I remember the way your Government played the
unemployed off against those who have jobs.
I remember
the way your Government played Maori off against Pakeha, and
Mr
Speaker, New Zealanders will not accept it a second
time.
I invite the Members of the Opposition to consider
as they go on the campaign trail waving the Treaty bogey yet
again.
What the face of our nation would look like if we
didn't have a Treaty, and we didn't have a Tribunal, and we
didn't have enough grace to embrace each other as New
Zealanders in this tiny nation of ours.
So my challenge
to the Opposition is to lift your game, because this country
will not accept the lack of leadership that you have
represented in Government for the
last ten years.
To
my colleagues in Government I wish every one of you well,
and I know very well that New Zealanders look to you, to
restore the nature of New Zealand society and the way that
we organise ourselves in order that we can achieve a
better country and a genuinely new hope for a new
millennium,
that is more than political talk speak.
Thank you Mr Speaker.