Mr Speaker, when I first came to this Parliament, as the Member for Clevedon, and later Papakura, I knew that it was a privilege to be here. Twenty-four years later, I do not think that I contemplated either this length of service, nor what a journey it would be.

I could not have done this, nor withstood the hours, the commitment, nor the lack of privacy without the love and support of my family. I take this moment to publicly thank my husband David and my son James as well as my brothers Gary & John, my sisters Pam & Barbara and their families, and my many friends for always supporting me in my work.

None of the last 24 years would have been possible without the support and hard work of the many volunteers for the National Party in Papakura, from my selection to stand in 2002 to now. So many have given their time, money and enthusiasm to make every election for us, a winning election – eight times in a row. My particular thanks go to those who have been the Chairs, the late Roger Burrill, Chris King, Megan Wallace, and Adrienne O’Connor. You have given years of your lives to voluntary public service.

To my friends Annabel Young, and Liz Coutts thank you for encouraging me into politics and for your friendship throughout.

To my electorate staff over the years and those with me now, my dear friends Claire Schoeller and Kim Rush, and all my staff thank you for your competence and your loyalty. The many ministerial staff were best when both professional and apolitical in their work and none more so than Hon Barbara Edmonds. Some need particular mention, the marvellous Megan Wallace, Julie Johnston, and Rebecca Alo who have worked with me in several iterations over many years.

There is saying that I’ve heard attributed to Sir Robert Muldoon that an ounce of loyalty is worth a ton of talent. In the case of each of you, both your talent and your loyalty are measured by the ton.

To my wonderful constituents, thank you for supporting me faithfully for 8 elections in a row. I really could not have done it without you. To our dearest friends Richard and Mary, Christopher and Joy, Daniel and Sybelle, Megan and John, Claire and Jock, Jeff and Julie, Greg and Diane, Niko and Melissa, thank you for all you have done for us.

When I first came to Parliament in 2002, when the National Party suffered our worst defeat it was something of a shock. I was a lawyer, a regulator and director and I had very little political experience except in the Law Society. The politics in the Law Society are, as I found out, quite a bit different from those of Parliament.

I was a lawyer, not a politician and I had extensively studied and practised law, but never politics.

I approached everything as a lawyer. Looking to the facts, often oblivious to the way things would be portrayed by media, and not really understanding that being fearless in my prosecution of issues, while admirable in a lawyer, might be seen as a little confrontational in Parliament.

I have never had patience for the concept of ‘doing my time’, or worse still, ‘knowing my place’; and the Parliament and the National Party caucus room of 2002 are a lot different from what they are today. As one senior MP told us; “Just because I smile at you, don’t think I like you.”

For a woman who has never known her place, I was not in my happy space. I was, with my 21 years’ legal experience and several years of regulatory, business and corporate work given the less than weighty portfolios of Associate Health, Internal Affairs, and National Library.

In a caucus of a mere 27 Members, I received a message that not much was expected of me. That I would either make something of not much or I would be an MP who came and went.

So, I decided to make the most of what I had since I knew that I am genetically incapable of sucking up to hierarchy in order to get ahead.

Within that first term, I used my position as Associate Health spokesperson, and member of the Health Select Committee, to get first the backing of National and then other parties to get an Inquiry into the use of Agent Orange and its effects on our troops during the Vietnam War.

This was against the advice to both National and Labour governments from the “Reeves Inquiry” and the “McLeod Inquiry” where both concluded that the spraying of Agent Orange had not occurred where our New Zealanders were stationed and therefore had no effect on their health. So, I was up against it.

Ross Miller of Northland and Col John Masters of Christchurch, as well as many other Vietnam Veterans provided information and evidence. I was able to use that information to convince National, ACT, NZ First, United Future, and the Greens that we should undertake the Inquiry. When all those parties lined up together, we had a majority of votes on the Select Committee and Labour Government members supported it then.

What came about was the evidence had been in New Zealand all along, but was held in tapes and needed de-coding.

That evidence showed that these toxic herbicides had been sprayed at least 356 times in the Phuoc Tuy province where the majority of New Zealanders were based.

It was a lesson in working across parties. It showed me that a government can eventually come to the party against its officials’ advice when a back bench MP does their work, brings others on board and is willing to share the credit. And, as has been recently revisited by media, yes, as a first term MP, I held to account a senior minister who had leaked to the media, a lawyer’s legal advice letter to a 16 year old refugee applicant client, and then lied about it.

Some other achievements of which I am most proud include banning smoking in prisons.

I really did not have the support of either Parliament nor of the whole of government. Corrections found a way through in 2010 by each Prison Manager announcing a ban on smoking, matches and lighters to be implemented a year later in 2011, just in time for the 2011 election.

It was, as our campaign director told me at the time, a courageous decision. I think he was trying to tell me something.

Corrections put in place smoking cessation programmes, and were very clear in expectations. It went ahead without a hitch, implemented a month early and all the neigh-sayers’ concerns of riots were proven wrong.

Around that time, a couple of youth justice inmates took to the roof of a facility but came back down after a cold winters’ night on the roof and a promise of a pie and a coke. Eventually, the Courts held that the ban was unlawful, and by that stage, Parliament was right on board with the no-smoking rule and new legislation, from my successor, making it permanent was passed without problems.

That smoking ban had several unintended consequences: first it put more money in the pockets of prisoners’ families, it made our prisons a healthier environment for staff and inmates, and it almost overnight stopped prison fires. Corrections did an excellent job and apart from the ‘pretty legal’ legal advice regarding prison managers’ powers, it could not have ended better.

For Police, there is nothing better that I could have done than getting them access to tasers and better access to firearms. All the frightened concern that our Police would use tasers for torture were unfounded and there is no doubt that the taser option has saved lives of both Police and offenders. None of that would have been possible without the budgetary resources to put it into place and my colleagues’ support was crucial.

Mr Speaker, I have been Minister of at least eighteen different portfolios and 3 of those twice. You will be grateful that I do not intend to run through all of them with my greatest hits.

However, there are a few in this term of government that are worthy of noting.

First, as Attorney-General, I am proud to be the one who, after 16 years of litigation and 180 years of injustice, settled the Nelson Tenths’ litigation. For this I credit the remarkable fortitude and decency of the Stafford family, the great work from Crown Law & Te Puni Kokiri, Hon Tama Potaka, the negotiators, and all my Parliamentary colleagues who agreed with the deal. A reminder that the legislation still needs to be passed to give full effect to the settlement. So, Chris Bishop, please finish this for me.

Secondly, the Legislation Amendment Act 2026 and its implementation to make all secondary legislation freely available to the public was one of those cross-party pieces of work that we started in the Regulations Review Committee I chaired in Opposition, and I was able to get in place as Attorney-General. Thank you to all my parliamentary colleagues on supporting this.

As the first Minister for Space in the World, or even, dare I say it, the Universe, I have officially consented every vertical launch approval for the past 2 and a half years. Our Space industry is now worth 2.5 billion dollars to our economy and is growing each year. That’s an enormous increase from zero, 10 years ago.

Being a Minister for Space has got me, and therefore our New Zealand tech, defence, and space businesses and our Space Agency into overseas meetings at the highest levels, increasing New Zealand’s reputation as a country of innovation, of tech, and of space.

That appointment cost us nothing. It didn’t matter if I had 3 or 8 portfolios, the price paid was the same.

I’m pleased we’ve come a long way in digitising government, reforming the science system, promoting technology as a Kiwi strength, in adopting AI in government, and in being the minister responsible for our Intelligence security agencies, in continuing to play our part as responsible and reliable partners in keeping ours and other countries safe. I’m pleased my cabinet paper on setting up Invest NZ was accepted and that my colleague Todd McClay is now overseeing it to great success.

But it’s in Defence where I feel I have made the most significant contribution.

It should be no surprise that the daughter of a World War 2 veteran, and someone who has been for 24 years the electorate Member of Parliament for our Special Forces, would consider this to have been my political destiny. I have come to know many of our Defence people well. I would like to acknowledge them all with a special shout out to my friend Staff Sergeant Tina Grant, whose empathy and courage when faced with her husband Douglas being killed in Afghanistan is an inspiration.

Through Defence, well before I was its minister, I have met the most humble and good people. I was a friend, until her death, of the Last Secret Agent from World War Two, Pippa Latour Doyle. Years ago I was made an honorary member of the Long Range Desert Group, and an honorary Sapper. And as Minister of Defence, last year I travelled with Defence to Ukraine. I would like to congratulate our Parliament for its unstinting support for the freedom of Ukraine. I am proud to be able to say everywhere in the World, that our Parliament supports Ukraine. Good on us!

Of course, a time of trial occurred for us in Defence with the loss of the HMNZS Manawanui. I stand by my statements at the time. It was a difficult time, but, with no loss of human life, it was not a tragedy. It also had nothing to do with gender. I’m proud of backing our people and supporting them during a tough time. Many thanks to all our parliamentarians for doing the same.

On a happier note, the Defence Capability Plan putting combat readiness back into Defence thinking and supporting it with money was a highlight of my time in government. Thank you to the Ministry of Defence, the New Zealand Defence Force, my colleagues, government coalition partners and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Particular thanks must go to Hon Nicola Willis for being the first Minister of Finance in many lifetimes to put our money where my mouth is. Many thanks as well to Rt Hon Winston Peters and the Hon David Seymour for their sterling support. Thanks too to Hon Chris Hipkins for supporting it in principle.

Of course, there have been tough times. Thank you to those of my colleagues who worked hard to do the best in the worst of circumstances.

In particular, I would like to acknowledge you, Mr Speaker, Shane Reti, David Bennett, Jacqui Dean, Andrew Bayly, Stuart Smith, Nicola Willis, Todd McClay, Harete Hipango, and Maureen Pugh for your courage and your friendship during the toughest of times when I was asked to take the reins in 2020 as the third leader of the opposition in 7 weeks, during the global pandemic and a few months before the election. We never gave up and we did not run away.

It is often commented that I have a fair bit of resilience. Well, we don’t get to be resilient without having to be. I sometimes quip that adversity is just an opportunity to show character.

But, I accept that I am a resilient soul.

For this, I blame my parents. I was brought up to think I could do anything I sought to do as long as I was prepared to work hard. I was fortunate to have parents old enough to be my grandparents who taught me to read before I went to school, imbued me with a love of history, and made me feel like my views counted too.

Some people would unfairly describe me, the 6th child ( by a long way) of having been spoilt. That is not true.

I just never understood that I should know my place, nor accept other people’s limitations.

In my choice of parents, I was profoundly blessed. My father always told me to never let anyone make me feel less than them. My mother told me that I was ‘Mummy’s little baby all the way from Heaven’. I sometimes think I was better at living up to my father’s expectations than my mother’s.

On a serious note, our Members of Parliament need to be resilient. It’s a tough gig. It’s got a lot tougher since social media and the way in which some mainstream media have chosen to adopt social media standards. I’m told that it’s all about advertising clicks these days and that’s why headlines often seem completely at odds with the substantive article.

So, some advice to the Fourth Estate. Most of our media are utterly professional and give no indication of their political views. Be those people. Report the news, don’t be the news. And for the avoidance of doubt, the news should be the truth, the facts, not someone’s reckons. Everyone has an opinion. Don’t mistake it for news.

I would like to acknowledge that the true news of my resignation (I will never retire!) was greeted with an outpouring of love around Parliament. It was so lovely, that I thought I must have died.

The National Party in Papakura was momentarily devastated, or at least they told me so. Now they have the lovely Emma Chatterton to replace me as favourite daughter and I wish her well.

It feels great to be leaving on a high. And for this, I thank you Prime Minister. You’ve given me the privilege of so many ministries, departments, and agencies. Sometimes it felt like I had a bit too much privilege.

When you phoned me, following the formation of the coalition government, you told me to get a pen and paper and sit down. You then proceeded to rattle off 8 portfolios. I thank you for your somewhat extreme confidence in me. Thank you for wanting me to stay a bit longer and thank you for letting me go a bit sooner.

Thank you to the Leaders of the parties in Parliament for supporting me to go to my next career without causing a by-election. Thank you to Hon Paul Goldsmith for his excellent decision in appointing me as the next President of the Law Commission. I truly appreciate your support.

To my dearest friends in Parliament, my caucus colleagues and to my many good friends on the opposing teams, I bid farewell.

I now leave politics behind and move into an apolitical world with gusto and … even relish. I’m over politics and looking forward to going back to my first loves … my family and the law.

Thank you.

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