Hon Chris Carter

Mr Speaker

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 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 has been possible without his 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 the money for our party levies and hosted numerous Labour Party functions in our home including Helen Clark’s 60^th birthday party.

He organised the lot and as many of my former Labour colleagues can attest without Peter’s contribution Auckland regional Labour politics would have struggled, particularly during the difficult political period between 1993 and 1998. He 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 wouldn’t 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 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 very successful and popular school principal and the last few years in politics have been enormously difficult and stressful for him as media have unfairly dragged him into the public spotlight. It is an acknowledgement of the respect that he has earned that no matter how nasty or unfair media stories have been about us he remains a much loved, respected and valued Leader in his school community. To be honest for 15 years Te Atatu 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.

Jenny Atkins, the long-time Secretary of our LEC 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, Tao Ren, 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 5 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 and 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 also been very really important to my success as a politician. I can truthfully say that it was my staff more than anything else that 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 all of us through so much. Wendy Hogg, Shibo Zhang and Tao Ren were also long-time local staff and made a huge and valued contribution. Joy Bridge, Brian Henaghan, Lautofa Tanielu and David Taylor were among the many volunteers that have helped out on a regular basis in my Henderson office.

In 2000 Serge Sabylak, a recent migrant from the former Yugoslavia come 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 advisors, 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, advisor and friend.

Others who made a huge difference to my successes 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 have 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 thank you for their loyalty and hardwork.

I would also like to acknowledge the fine chief executives that I had the privilege of working with as a government minister. Hugh Logan and Al Morrison at DOC, Sonya Rathgin and Mervin Singham at Ethnic Affairs, Chris Blake and Brendon Boyle at Internal Affairs, Katrina Bach at Building and Housing, Leslie McTurk and Pat Sneddon at Housing NZ and Karen Sewell at Education.

The American politician former Speaker of the House of Representatives Tipp O’Neil made that famous quote, “all politics are local”. The local was always the part of the job l loved the best.

I have tried to work hard on behalf of all 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 there is not a house in my electorate or a letterbox or probably even a dog that I do not know personally.

Local achievements that I feel very particularly satisfied about include saving at least half of the Harborview land in Te Atatu 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 support for the Waitakere Ranges Protection legislation. On a more personal level the innumerable immigration, housing, ACC, IRD and other constituency cases that came through my local office often had a life changing impact on individual’s lives. Nothing could 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 all of us will reflect on what was our legacy in Parliament. Did the time spent in this place make a difference to our country and to its people?

I would like to think that the 15 years I spent here, particularly the six 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 quickly.  Every ministerial job I had, and I was entrusted with quite a few, saw lots happening. I would like to touch on a few highlights.

Conservation was the job I enjoyed the most. During the 5 years I spent as Conservation Minister, the longest anyone has held that position, over 360,000 hectares of land was added to the conservation estate, an area more than 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 land will be protected, accessible and an asset for every New Zealander. The cabinet approved the money but my energy and determination drove that process forward.

Other highlights for me were the gazetting of seventeen new marine reserves, creating each one felt at times like fighting world war three, but marine reserves work. This is a controversial process and I am not surprised that few new marine reserves has 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 public camping grounds on the DOC estate while I was minister. I also extended protection to a number of marine species including the endangered Great White Shark. I particularly enjoyed that media announcement, made in the Chatham Islands in a wet suite and underwater in a shark cage. No wonder my cabinet colleagues often teased me about those photo opportunities I had as Conservation Minister.

I signed staff exchanges between DOC and 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 from PNG, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Niue and Fiji. A move that complimented New Zealand’s regional assistance work in the Pacific. I battled Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whalers at 5 IWC meetings putting New Zealand in the world spotlight as the most staunch anti-whaling nation – a reputation now somewhat tarnished by the present Government’s softening of Labour’s strong anti-whaling stance.

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 Tirimatangi on the doorstep of Auckland. None of these projects could have happened of course without then Prime Minister Helen Clark’s support and cabinet approval but I was the man entrusted to get the job done. I relished doing it!

For six years I served as New Zealand’s Minister of Ethnic Affairs, again to date the longest any individual has held that particular portfolio.

Being Minister of Ethnic Affairs was not a job cabinet colleagues were queuing up to take. Why was that? Quite simply the work load. If you valued any free time on weekends being Minister of Ethnic Affairs is not a job for you.

Over six years I visited almost every mosque, gudwara (Sikh temple), Buddhist temple, Hindu temple and synagogue in New Zealand and there are a lot of them. I celebrated Buddha’s birthday on numerous occasions at temples in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, watched karbadi competitions (a sort of Punjabi bullrush) at Sikh temples, was spattered with paint powder at Hindu Holi festivals, attended religious services for Indian Christians, Greek Catholics, Iraqi Christians, Lebanese Christians and Russian Orthodox,  was splashed with water at Songkran, the Thai water festival, danced the night away at Nawaz, Iranian New Year, celebrated each year Eid and launched the annual Islam Awareness Week and enjoyed Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year.

Over the last 10 years I must have attended at least 60 Diwali events (the Hindu Festival of Light) 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 now make up modern New Zealand also like to celebrate their National Days as a focus for their community members resident in New Zealand. The drums of Ghana’s, Burundi’s, Rwanda’s, the Congo and Nigeria’s National Days became as familiar to me as the traditional dances of Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Korea and Romania.

On one notable weekend in 2005 I attended eight ethnic festivals in Auckland on one Saturday followed by 5 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 NZ. The initiation of the annual UK/NZ Dialogue on Multicultural Communities, an exchange of policies and best practices between the Office of Ethnic Affairs and the UK Department for community and Local Government.

Helen Clark’s decision for Parliament to celebrate annually Chinese New Year, the Hindu Festival of Diwali and the Muslim festival of Eid was a message to all of NZ 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 magnificent 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 passage of the new Local Government Act in 2002 and a major overhaul of dog legislation – always a controversial subject. As 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 NZ 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 promoted to the 7^th 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 we had an equally great story to tell in education. We had indeed. Over 8 years Labour had doubled the education budget from $5b to $10b. 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%.

Two personal education initiatives I was proud of were a major package to try and 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 only had 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 practise. I hoped my presence and interest encouraged the excellent teaching and learning I witnessed happening in classrooms.  

I was the first MP to openly acknowledge being gay although I am sure I wasn’t 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 Labour colleague Tim Barnett and my remarkable transsexual 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, 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 that have inspired me in this place have included Helen Clark, a remarkable and inspirational Leader who made me proud to be a Kiwi. Michael Cullen, a man who knew how to build and maintain a strong economy. Margaret Wilson, Steve Maharey, David Lange. Individuals of great intellectual ability. My friends Jonathan Hunt, Charles Chauval, Lianne Dalzeil, Jill Pettis, Martin Gallagher, Judith Tizard, Mark Burton, David Benson Pope, Rick Barker, Ashraf Chaudray, 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 will 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 not an automatic right.

I also 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 personal support you have given me in the last year.

Mr Speaker where to from here for me? I have been appointed to a senior UN position and 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.