New Zealand Parliamentary Debate

Valedictory Statement [4445]

VALEDICTORY STATEMENT

Hon JIM SUTTON( Minister of State):

In my maiden speech on 2 October 1984, I paid tribute to a couple of my predecessors who had been members of Parliament for Waitaki-both, I thought, far more distinguished than I could ever aspire to be, and I was right. The first was the Rev. Arnold Nordmeyer, one of the architects of New Zealand's welfare State. Nordie, the author of the 1958 black Budget, displayed a degree of raw political courage, rare in any Parliament. Earlier, as Presbyterian Minister for Kurow, he had visited a mother in one of the hydro construction cottages. Her young children were grubby. They had ringworm, nits, and runny noses. Nordie inquired how long it was since they had been bathed. The woman replied that it was some time, as her husband required the use of the bath to brew his beer. Nordie went into the bathroom and pulled the plug on the brew. Nordie might not have voted to lower the drinking age, but I am sure he would have applauded the 75 percent reduction in registered unemployment achieved by Helen Clark's Government.

An earlier representative, Jock McKenzie, was the Minister of Lands who broke up the big estates for family farm settlement. That policy, I told the House 80- odd years later, had reflected the egalitarian values of New Zealanders and made us the sort of society we still are, by and large, today. The same principles led this Government to abolish interest on student loans. The Hon Jock McKenzie also set up legislation to give effect to the so-called Queen's Chain. In 1984 I said that the law on public access was ridiculously complicated and uncertain, and needed sorting out. I quoted the anonymous citizen who, when that great proponent of private property rights, the first Earl of Camden, in 1764 fenced off a piece of common land for his own exclusive use, wrote:

The law doth punish man or woman That steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater felon loose That steals the common from the goose.

I regret that this is still unfinished business I leave behind, but I am confident that quite soon now this Parliament will ensure that the birthright of New Zealanders to enjoy responsible and legal access to our glorious natural environment will prevail over the selfishness of the squatter Camden.

It is reckoned to be better to be in Government for a week than in Opposition for a year, but one does not have to be in this place on either side for long to appreciate that it is better to be in Cabinet. Geoffrey Palmer, when Prime Minister, gave six of us the opportunity to take that step up in February 1990. Six established Ministers, planning to retire at the end of the term, were invited by Geoffrey to resign their portfolios. Well, it did not turn round the fortunes of that Government but it did induce me personally to stay in politics and, indeed, to return in 1993- a courtesy of the generous people of Timaru, having lost my always tenuous grip on Waitaki in October 1990. Well, now it is my turn to stand down in order that new and younger blood may flow into the arteries of the Government, so I reflect on the highlights for me of my ministerial career.

In 1990 I took on agriculture and forestry from Colin Moyle. His were giant shoes in which to step. I would have liked to reform the producer boards, but there was not enough time; nor was there a political mandate, other than the enthusiastic support of Roger Douglas-and he was counting down to retirement. I did think that I might at least remove the monopoly of the Apple and Pear Marketing Board in the domestic pipfruit market, where it was resented by retailers and consumers alike, while preserving the single-desk export arrangement. But this plan was frustrated by the Prime Minister who, he said mistakenly, having misheard a briefing in his limo on the way to