A transcription of the valedictory statement of Hon CHRIS CARTER (Independent—Te Atatū) : All satisfying stories should have a clear beginning and a conclusive end. This is the conclusive end of my parliamentary story, but, I hope, not the end of any opportunities I might have to do some public good in the world. I would like to use this opportunity to reflect on some of the highlights of the 15 years I have served as the member of Parliament for Te Atatū. But before I do that, I need to acknowledge some rather special people who are here today.
This year my partner Peter Kaiser and I celebrate 38 years as a couple. We met in 1973 when we were both very young students and have been together ever since. Nothing I have achieved in my life would have been possible without Peter’s support and energy. In politics he has canvassed as many houses as me, delivered as many leaflets as me, attended as many conferences and regional meetings as me, raised money for our party levies, and hosted numerous Labour Party functions in our home, including Helen Clark’s 60th birthday party. Peter organised the lot, and, as many of my former Labour colleagues can attest, without his contribution Auckland regional Labour politics would have struggled, particularly during the difficult political period between 1993 and 1998.
Peter has served at all levels in the Labour Party, up to and including the executive of the New Zealand council, the ruling body of the party. He has served as an area representative and was chair of the Auckland regional council of the Labour Party for many years. Together we founded Rainbow Labour, the gay and lesbian sector of the Labour Party.
In the good times and the bad, he was always there for me and for the Labour Party. Many people, including me, urged him last year to take my place as the Labour MP for Te Atatū. He would easily have won the selection and the election, but he would not have a bar of it. Successful relationships are often difficult for MPs to sustain, as many in this House have found. The stresses of the job, living part of the week away from home for non-Wellington members, and the intrusion of the media into our personal lives all have a high personal and relationship cost.
Peter has put up with all the costs of being a reluctant public figure for me. He is a successful and popular school principal, and the last few years in politics have been enormously difficult and stressful for him as the media have unfairly dragged him into the public spotlight. It is an acknowledgment of the respect he has earned that no matter how nasty or unfair media stories have been about us, he remains a much loved, respected, and valued member of his school community.
To be honest, for 15 years Te Atatū and the Labour Party actually had two MPs for the price of one. I know he is very happy that I am leaving politics, but I will always be indebted to his support and contribution during the time that I have been a politician. The children of MPs also have a heavy burden to bear. Our three children, Alice, Willem, and Oliver, have not had an easy time with me as public figure, and I have often worried about how they have coped, particularly during the last year.
I want to acknowledge today for the record my appreciation of the friendship and support of a large group of people in my electorate. Without their help and encouragement, I could not have achieved the support I won from my constituents. I acknowledge Jenny Atkins, the long-time secretary of our Labour electorate committee and her daughter Adele, Margaret Sutton and her family, Neville Tilsey, Bill Guy, John Edgar, Claudia Elliot, Sherilee Swanepoel, and Verity Davidson, Mary Bragg, George O’Donel, Maurice and Barbara Caryllie, Orsa and Haraald Hansen, Rex and Marilynn Hurley, Brian Henaghan, John Wakenshaw, Anne Pala, Mahendra Tailor, Camille Nakhid and her husband George, Shane Misselbrooke, Lincoln Dam, Pon Lok, Roy Clements, George Bach, Emad Khan, Haseeb Metla, Zhang Shibo, and many, many more.
Without the support of these friends and supporters we could never have kept the Labour flag flying out west so successfully and won five elections so comfortably. I cannot thank them enough for their personal support and friendship. The unanimous support and repeated endorsement I received from my electorate committee last year meant a great deal to me. I probably appreciated even more their commitment over many years to knock on doors, dodge dogs, deliver thousands and thousands of leaflets and target letters, fund-raise, and provide me with their collective wisdom on everything from major policy issues to the content of my numerous electorate newsletters.
Staff have always been very important to me and to my success as a politician. I can truthfully say that it was my staff more than anything else whom I missed the most when I ceased to be a Cabinet Minister. I would like to acknowledge my two electorate secretaries, Margaret Sutton and Dianne Montieth. Margaret has been with me since the beginning in 1993, and her Irish background and sense of humour have seen us all through so much. Wendy Hogg, Shibo Zhang, and Tao Ren were also long-term local staff and made a huge and valued contribution. Joy Bridge, Brian Henaghan, Lautofa Tanielu, and David Taylor were among the many volunteers who have helped out on a regular basis in my Henderson office.
In 2000 Serge Sabylak, a recent immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, came as a Victoria University intern to my office. We discovered we had so much in common, even the same birthday. He came for 7 months and stayed for 7 years. Over time he became more like a son to me than a staff member. As a Minister I had two skilled, wise, and valued political advisers: Kevin Smith and Michael Gibbs. Both became friends as well as staff and did amazing work for me and for our country. For 5 years Nick Maling was my long-suffering but much valued press secretary, adviser, and friend.
Others who made a huge difference to my success as a Government Minister included Richard Marshall, Gavin Rodley, Steve Boyd, Elizabeth Brown, Becky Chin, Elizabeth McMillen, Stephen Cross, Leroy Taylor, Jay Eden, Daniel King, Peter Graczer, Simon Gilmore, Helen Lahtinen, and Brett Demalmanche. After the 2008 election I had two parliamentary staff, David Hawkins and then Tim Kano. Both have served me and my constituents well. I owe them and my other staff a huge thankyou for their loyalty and hard work.
I would also like to acknowledge the fine chief executives whom I had the privilege of working with as a Government Minister: Hugh Logan and Al Morrison at DOC—the Department of Conservation—Sonya Rathgin and Mervin Singham at the Office of Ethnic Affairs, Chris Blake and Brendon Boyle at the Department of Internal Affairs, Katrina Bach at the Department of Building and Housing, Leslie McTurk and Pat Snedden at the Housing New Zealand Corporation, and Karen Sewell at the Ministry of Education.
The American politician and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill gave the famous quote “All politics is local.” The local was always the part of the job I loved the best. I have tried to work hard on behalf of my constituents. My majority at the last election was the highest of any Labour MP in west Auckland, even though Labour narrowly lost the party vote in my electorate. That personal support was earned by never taking support for granted and consistently providing a service. I can truthfully say that there is not a house, a letterbox, or probably even a dog in my electorate that I do not know personally.
Local achievements that I feel particularly satisfied about include saving at least half the Harbourview land in Te Atatū peninsula as a public park, helping to expand public services at Waitakere Hospital, numerous local school projects, support for the Ark in the Park project in the Waitakere Ranges, and, with my two Labour colleagues in west Auckland, support for the Waitakere Ranges protection legislation.
On a more personal level, the innumerable immigration, housing, ACC, IRD—Inland Revenue Department—and other constituency cases that came through my local office often had a life-changing impact on individuals’ lives. Nothing can be more satisfying than helping people in such a practical and direct way.
At the end of any politician’s time in Parliament I imagine that all of us will reflect on our legacy in Parliament. Did the time spent in this place make a difference to our country and its people? I would like to think that the 15 years I spent here, particularly the 6 years I spent as a Cabinet Minister, did make a positive difference. I have always been a very goal-focused individual who wanted to get things done yesterday. Every ministerial job I had—and I was entrusted with quite a few—saw lots happening. I would like to touch on just a few of the highlights.
Conservation was the job I enjoyed the most. During the 5 years I spent as the Minister of Conservation—the longest anyone has held that position to date—over 360,000 hectares of land was added to the conservation estate. That is an area almost twice the size of Stewart Island. Of all my actions as a Government Minister, this land acquisition programme on behalf of the public is the achievement I am most proud of. Long after I am forgotten I know that that land will be protected, accessible, and an asset for every New Zealander. Cabinet approved the money, but my energy and determination drove the process forward.
Another highlight for me was the gazetting of 17 new marine reserves. Creating each one felt, at times, like fighting World War III, but marine reserves work. This is a controversial process, and I am not surprised that very few have been created since I left the job in 2007. Worried about the sale of private coastal camping grounds to property developers, I managed to gazette 100 new camping grounds in the Department of Conservation estate while I was the Minister. I also extended protection to a number of marine species, including the endangered great white shark. I particularly enjoyed the media announcement made in the Chathams in a wetsuit and underwater in a shark cage. No wonder my Cabinet colleagues often teased me about those photo opportunities I had as the Minister of Conservation.
I signed staff agreements between the Department of Conservation and the State conservation agencies in Italy, the Philippines, South Africa, and Canada, giving my department’s expertise a chance to be shared with others globally. I negotiated and implemented regional assistance and training for environmental and park service staff in Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Solomons, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, and Fiji, a move that complemented New Zealand’s regional assistance work in the Pacific. I battled Japanese, Norwegian, and Icelandic whalers at five IWC—International Whaling Commission—meetings, putting New Zealand in the world’s spotlight as the most staunch anti-whaling nation.
I initiated and actively pursued a huge number of individual biodiversity and recreational projects, the most exciting of which was Project Hauraki, the establishment of Rangitoto and Motutapu islands in the Hauraki Gulf as pest-free, with the potential to become another Tiritiri Mātangi Island on the doorstep of Auckland. None of these projects could have happened without my Cabinet colleagues’ support and Cabinet approval, but I was the man entrusted to get the job done, and I relished doing it.
For 6 years I served as New Zealand’s Minister for Ethnic Affairs—again, to date, the longest any individual has held that particular portfolio. Being the Minister for Ethnic Affairs was not a job Cabinet colleagues were queuing up to take. Why was that? Well, quite simply, it was because of the workload. If you value any free time on weekends, being the Minister for Ethnic Affairs is not the job for you.
Over 6 years I visited almost every mosque, gudwara—Sikh temple—Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, and synagogue in New Zealand, and there are an awful lot of them. I celebrated Buddha’s birthday on numerous occasions at temples in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. I watched karbadi competitions, which is a sort of Punjabi bull rush, at Sikh temples, was splattered with paint powder at Hindu Holi festivals, attended religious services for Indian Christians, Greek Catholics, Iraqi Christians, Lebanese Christians, and Russian Orthodox.
I was splashed with water at Songkran, the Thai water festival, danced the night away at Nowruz the Iranian New Year, celebrated Eid each year, launched the annual Islamic Awareness Week, and enjoyed Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Over the last 10 years I must have attended at least 60 Diwali events, countless Chinese New Year events, as well as the annual Hindu Navrati festival.
In addition to these religious services, most of the over 184 different national and ethnic groups who make up modern New Zealand also like to celebrate their national days as a focus for their community members who are resident in New Zealand. The drums of Ghana’s, Burundi’s, Rwanda’s, the Congo’s, and Nigeria’s national days became as familiar to me as the traditional dances of Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia, the Ukraine, Korea, and Romania. On one notable occasion in 2005 I attended eight ethnic festivals in Auckland on one Saturday, followed by five more the next day.
Significant achievements that I am proud of completing during those years as ethnic Minister included the establishment of Language Line, a professional telephone interpreting service using 39 languages that allowed people with little or no English to access Government services; the Connecting Diverse Communities work programme, a whole-of-Government approach containing more than 70 initiatives across Government agencies to improve policies aimed at strengthening positive relations between diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious groups; the Building Bridges initiative, launched in 2006 in conjunction with the New Zealand Federation of Islamic Associations to help dispel Muslim stereotypes in the post 9/11 environment; the intercultural awareness and communication programme, which saw the Office of Ethnic Affairs staff provide specialist services, advice, and training to other Government agencies to help facilitate better cultural and religious understanding in New Zealand; and the initiation of the annual UK / New Zealand dialogue on multicultural communities, an exchange of policies and best practice between the Office of Ethnic Affairs and the UK Department for Communities and Local Government.
Helen Clark’s decision for Parliament to celebrate annually the Chinese New Year, the Hindu festival of Diwali, and the Muslim festival of Eid—which, of course, is happening tonight—was a message to all of New Zealand that our country was now home to many cultures and religions and all of them have value and are part of our evolving national identity. I also initiated at Parliament during my time as Minister the celebration of Jewish New Year—Rosh Hashanah—and a significant celebration in 2008 of 150 years of Croatian settlement in our country.
Other ministerial jobs included that of Minister of Local Government, which saw me responsible for the passage of the new Local Government Act in 2002 and a major overhaul of dog legislation—always a very controversial subject. As the Minister for Building Issues I was responsible for the passage of the new Building Act in 2004, a review of the Residential Tenancies Act in the same year, and the passage of the Retirement Villages Act during my time in that portfolio. I had a brief spell as Acting Minister of Pacific Island Affairs and was appointed housing Minister in 2005.
I am proud that under my watch Housing New Zealand increased the quantity of social housing by another 1,923 housing units, increased the provision of community group housing units, and introduced a shared equity scheme to allow better opportunities to boast first home ownership. We also significantly expanded the community renewal programme, which saw big concentrations of social housing undergo major renovation and community development.
My last major job in Government was that of education Minister. As a former teacher I was immensely proud to be promoted to the seventh-ranked Cabinet position, responsible for New Zealand’s education system. When Helen Clark informed me I was going to be appointed education Minister she said I had done such a good job selling the Labour-led Government’s successes in conservation and that we had an equally great story to tell in education. Indeed, Labour had.
Over 8 years Labour had doubled the education budget from $5 billion to $10 billion. The capital works programme for schools alone was an astonishing $3.3 billion, 42 new schools were built, and expenditure on early childhood education increased by 281 percent. Two personal education initiatives I was very proud of were a major package to try to address the scourge of bullying in schools and a ban on the sale of junk food in school tuck shops. Both at the time were condemned by the Opposition as PC and the nanny State gone mad. Yet surely keeping students safe and trying to address the rising rate of childhood obesity was just plain good sense.
I was very proud of these and the many other investments Labour made in the educational sector during our time in office. I had only 14 months in the job, but I worked hard to justify Helen Clark’s faith in me. During that time I personally visited 327 schools and early childhood centres to see education in practice. I hope my presence and interest encouraged the excellent teaching and learning I witnessed happening in our classrooms.
I was the first MP to openly acknowledge being gay, although I am sure I was not the first gay MP to enter this Parliament. Why did I choose to be the first to be open about my different sexuality? As a former teacher I knew that gay and lesbian teenagers faced huge amounts of prejudice and had few affirming messages or positive role models. By being open and honest about my sexuality, and joined soon after by my industrious gay colleague Tim Barnett and my remarkable transsexual Labour colleague Georgina Beyer, we broke a glass ceiling. Today having gay and lesbian MPs is no big deal, and thank goodness for that.
In 2007 I met a beautiful young Māori woman in Melbourne who told me that as a 15-year-old she had been seriously contemplating suicide because of her sexuality. I had come to her school prize-giving, and my presence, she said, convinced her that being gay was not a barrier to personal success. She told me tearfully that I had saved her life. That story alone made it all worthwhile.
The people who have inspired me in this place have included Helen Clark, a remarkable and inspirational leader who made me proud to be a New Zealander; Michael Cullen, a man who knew how to build and maintain a strong economy; Margaret Wilson, Steve Maharey, and David Lange, individuals of great intellectual ability; and my friends Jonathan Hunt, Charles Chauvel, Lianne Dalziel, Jill Pettis, Martin Gallagher, Judith Tizard, Mark Burton, David Benson-Pope, Rick Barker, Ashraf Choudhary, Raymond Huo, Rajen Prasad, and George Hawkins. Thanks for your support and friendship, often rare commodities in this place.
The last year has not been easy, but now is the time to look forward and not back. I am and will always be a Labour person. I still consider myself a Labour MP and I still believe passionately in social democracy and that the Labour Party has the best philosophy for ensuring social justice and providing effective pathways to realising individual potential. The State should and must play a positive role in providing services and creating opportunity for all.
I remind those who seek leadership here in Parliament that strong leadership is about strong policies, rooted not in opportunism or pandering to the press gallery but in values that reflect your own political philosophy and your own personal ethics. Loyalty is a two-way process. It is earned and is not an automatic right. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Greens, who have been so kind to me. You truly have the nicest political culture here at Parliament. I want to thank Green MPs for all the support they have given me this year.
Where to from here for me? I have been appointed to a senior UN position and I look forward to making, over the next few years, a contribution to the UN’s global mission. It is time for a change for me, but I will always consider that it was an honour and a privilege to have served as a west Auckland representative in this Parliament for 15 years. Thank you very much.