Frustrations and rewards: South Island MPs give their valedictory speeches

Friday, 25 August 2023

Labour MP Poto Williams says it’s “rewarding when we make a difference”.

Christchurch East MP Poto Williams is leaving Parliament with “everything on the field”.

Williams, along with Green MPs Eugenie Sage and Jan Logie, delivered valedictory speeches in Parliament on Thursday.

Williams was elected as Christchurch East MP in a 2013 by-election and served as minister of conservation and minister for disability issues.

Williams is farewelled by Parliament on Thursday.

She said she came to Parliament for two reasons. One was to be a good local electorate MP, especially in light of the Christchurch earthquakes when she cried with the 2628 households who came to her for help with insurance and earthquake issues.

“It is truly humbling to be trusted with the most difficult issues that your community faces, but rewarding when we make a difference.”

Green MP Eugenie Sage says she is leaving politics with frustration.

Williams said the second reason was her commitment to 4-year-old James Whakaruru, who was killed at the hands of his mother’s partner, Ben Haerewa. She wanted “to end family harm and bring voice to the experiences of children living and experiencing the trauma of family violence”.

She was proud to have worked with the families of the victims of the March 15 terror attack to put in recommendations for the royal inquiry, and to have secured the drilling of additional boreholes at the Pike River mine to help the police criminal investigation into the explosion that killed 29 men in 2010. Williams said she hoped the investigation would lead to a prosecution.

Sage said she was spurred into politics by anger when she and her fellow elected Environment Canterbury councillors were axed in favour of “commissioners more sympathetic to irrigation development”.

Sage embraces fellow Green MP and valedictorian Jan Logie.

She first entered Parliament as a Green list MP in 2011 and got her “dream job” as minister of conservation, minister of land information, and associate environment minister with responsibility for waste when the Green Party formed a Government (with Labour and New Zealand First) for the first time in 2017.

She said the 2017 election was a time of heartbreak - with the forced resignation of Metiria Turei and the loss of some MPs - and excitement.

“We got heaps done over the next three years. In conservation this included the largest addition to an existing New Zealand national park… a plan to better protect Māui and Hector’s dolphin; changes to the Conservation Act to benefit our threatened native fish.”

Logie gives her valedictory speech in the House, saying the country needs to do more to protect children.

Sage spoke about an “outburst of misogyny and online hate” when she directed the Department of Conservation to implement a plan to control Himalayan tahr numbers. She asked New Zealanders to call out personalised attacks.

She said she was leaving Parliament “with some frustration about what has not been done”, particularly more protection for oceans, sea birds and fisheries.

Originally from Southland, Logie has stood as the Green Party candidate in the Mana electorate since the 2010 by-election and entered Parliament for the first time as a list MP in 2011.

Logie said New Zealand needed to do much better by children who experienced violence or neglect.