enough, as far as they go. That said, we are also of the view that an opportunity has been lost for reforming the institution more thoroughly than the recommendations in this report allow…perhaps the most important [issue] concerns the [adoption of a] code of conduct for Members. The New Zealand Parliament is rated poorly by the public, yet we as
Parliamentarians are in denial.”
Valedictory Speeches Towards the end of the 49th Parliament the House heard the valedictory speeches of 15 Members. On 28 September Mr Keith Locke, one of the original Green MPs, said in his speech: “Initially, [the Greens] were dismissed as either utopian dreamers or dangerous extremists. It is much easier now, because public opinion has moved much closer to the Green way of looking at things.” He considered himself “lucky to have been here during the MMP [mixed-Member proportional representation] era, in a much more representative Parliament.
passes through this Parliament. On several issues I have looked more to Scandinavia than the Anglo nations like America, Britain, and Australia. For the last 12 years I have been a Green battler for New Zealand to be more independent in foreign affairs and defence, building on what we have achieved in leaving ANZUS [Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty] and becoming nuclear-free. There is an independent, pioneering spirit within most New Zealanders that grates against subordination to American dictates”.
Mr Jim Anderton
Politically, the thing that has most saddened me has been the ease with which legislation giving the police or SIS [Security Intelligence Service] more powers or legislation extending sentences for crimes
Mr Jim Anderton (Leader— Progressive), in his speech on 4 October, mentioned his distaste for the old first-past- the-post electoral system: “It gave me no satisfaction at all to see the [Labour] government we had all worked so hard to elect in 1984 sheet inequality into New Zealand in a way that I could never have envisaged. That is why I left the Labour Party in 1989 to form the New Labour Party. The promises broken by successive governments…led to the dramatic changes that have taken place in Parliament under MMP. It was no wonder that people rebelled against an electoral system that delivered such outcomes.” Furthermore, “between 1853 and 1984, when I first came to the House, 1,102 MPs had been elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Of [that number], 25 were women. Currently there are 38 women in this Parliament—more than were elected in a total of 131 years under first past the post. I have no doubt that I…made the right decision in joining with others to form New Labour when I did, then taking it into the Alliance with other parties, and, later, when the Alliance was set to become a threat to
an enlightened government rather than a supporter of it, forming the Progressives as a coalition partner for Labour. As I have often said, one bad day in
losing votes or not staying on message: abortion, adoption law, children’s rights, and sexual violence issues. I do not share this timid view. The truth is if we do not have those debates here, where will we have them?”
Hon. Bill English, MP
government is better than a thousand good days in Opposition”.
According to the retiring Minister of Justice, Mr Power, in his valedictory speech on 5 October: “Politicians must have a plan; a plan that is in place early, and one that they are prepared to lead. I believe that politics is 90 per cent preparation and 10 per cent execution. Ideas also matter. In politics ideas matter more than the political players themselves because all of us will come and go, but the ideas will
endure…taking a position and selling it, persuading and debating, is what politics is all about. It sounds idealistic and maybe it is, but I always told myself I would leave politics before the idealism left me. I realized that…working with other political parties to reach consensus, where possible, was a legitimate way to advance legislation and to progress an agenda. Not everyone agrees with me on this approach, but I know I am right. It is our job to tackle the tough issues, the issues the public pays us to front up to and come to a view on. There are many, many debates that Parliament does not want to have, for fear of
Adjournment debate The adjournment debate on 6 October 2011 was the final debate of the forty-ninth Parliament. The Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Bill English, MP, acknowledged the Speaker, Dr The Rt Hon. Lockwood Smith, MP, for his “valiant attempt to make this a place of facts, with more facts and less politics”. He acknowledged also “the resilience of the people of Christchurch. They have had to put up with the most dreadful of circumstances. On any given day, of course, what is going on in Christchurch now is not
Rt Hon. Lockwood Smith, MP
spectacular, except the days where there are large shakes, but day after day after day they have to put up with the grinding discomforts and uncertainties of a city whose way of life has been fundamentally affected by the earthquake”. The election…will be between a National government that is looking ahead to a better New Zealand, a brighter future driven by the aspiration that New Zealanders have shown, and a Labour Party still looking back with nostalgia to its time