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Good morning, Kia ora tatou everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here, on this momentous day in New Zealand’s firefighting history, to mark the establishment of Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge a few special guests:

Kia ora and good evening everyone.

Welcome to all of you to celebrate the achievement of some significant milestones in Government’s digital journey, which you have all had a part in delivering over the past five years.

Through the Better Public Services Programme and Functional Leadership, Ministers set some ambitious goals.

I am delighted to see how far we have come – in the way we use technology, in the services provided to our citizens and the way we are working collaboratively across Government.

I would like to welcome you all here today – in particular the CAARA members visiting from Australia.

CAARA has been hosted by Archives New Zealand in Wellington once before, about 10 years ago – it is great you could make it over to us this time, and I hope that your meetings so far have been insightful and productive.

It is great that the New Zealand National Archives is hosting this symposium to coincide with your visit. My hope is that everyone here will get to absorb some new knowledge from the four speakers this afternoon.

Tēnā koutou katoa

I am pleased to welcome you to the opening of this extraordinary exhibition.

At the centre of He Tohu are three taonga which have played a significant role in shaping our nation:

• He Whakaputanga, the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of the New Zealand;
• the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi; and 
• the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition.

I would especially like to welcome and acknowledge:

Tēnā koutou katoa

I would like to welcome you all here to celebrate the launch of three New Zealand Post stamps commemorating the He Tohu exhibition.

I would especially like to acknowledge:

It is a pleasure to open this year’s Australasian Casino and Gambling Regulators’ Conference.

Today, I will briefly share with you some thoughts about your Conference theme “regulatory excellence”.

But first, I want to reiterate the warm welcome provided by the mihi whakatau and waiata.

Thank you all for joining us in Auckland, especially our international guests and speakers who have travelled from across Australasia and further afield to be here.

Tēnā koutou, hello and good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for the opportunity to open this conference, and to share some thoughts about building a 21st century digital government.

‘Digital government’ and ‘digital transformation’ are buzzwords you will all be well familiar with.

They are nice, high level terms that flow easily off the tongue.

But what does ‘digital government’ and ‘digital transformation’ really mean for your average person?

Good morning and kia ora koutou.

I am pleased and honoured to open this year’s annual Five Nations Passport Conference which begins today.

Firstly, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to delegates from participating countries here today from: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Republic of Ireland.

Thank you for coming all the way to Wellington, New Zealand.

Kia ora tatou.

I am very excited to be here to celebrate the launch of Te Puna Foundation.

The Foundation is the start of a wonderful new chapter in the National Library story and for the people of New Zealand.

For Aotearoa to thrive as a nation, for its people to become all they can be and achieve their potential, we need to unlock the knowledge held within the National Library.

Tēnā koutou, hello and good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you to the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Ministry for the Interior for hosting both the Government 3.0 forum and the 3rd Digital 5 Ministerial Summit – and kia ora to my fellow D5 Ministers.

I am delighted to join you today to talk about my beautiful country, New Zealand, and how our government is using the enormous potential offered by technology to transform the way we deliver services to our citizens.

Firstly I would like to start by acknowledging the following people from the UFBA here today: your President, Russell Anderson, and Vice-President, Alan Kittelty; your Chief Executive Officer, George Verry; Rick Braddock, Chairperson of the UFBA Board, and Patron of the UFBA, Dame Margaret Bazley; Deputy chair of the UFBA Board, Glenn Williams and Board members Nigel Lilley, Bill Butzbach, and Matt Cleaver.

Kia ora Tatou and a very good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for the invitation to speak at your AGM this afternoon and for the kind introduction.

May I acknowledge:

• Barry Dyer, CEO of Responsible Care
• Gordon MacDonald, Chief Executive of WorkSafe New Zealand.
• Tom Barratt, Chairman RCNZ

This afternoon I want to share some insights with you about the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill and in particular what the changes will mean in relationship to the chemical industry.

Tēnā koutou katoa

I would like to acknowledge and welcome all guests here today, to celebrate this important milestone in our journey to launch an exciting new exhibition of three of our treasured taonga that shape us a nation. 

I wish to welcome our manawhenua leaders Neville Baker and Taku Parai.

Neville and Taku, also other manawhenua representatives here today, have stood with us throughout this exhibition journey, guiding and supporting us on tikanga and protocols.

For this we thank you sincerely.

Tēnā koutou katoa

Thank you Marilyn for that introduction.

I would like to acknowledge and welcome all guests here today, to celebrate this important milestone in our journey to launch an exciting new exhibition of three of our treasured taonga that shape us a nation. 

Placeholder: I want to acknowledge my Parliamentary colleagues [to be completed on the day dependant on attendance.]

I wish to welcome our manawhenua leaders Neville Baker and Taku Parai.

I move, that the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill now be read a first time.

I nominate the Government Administration Committee to consider the bill.

This bill repeals and replaces two pieces of legislation – the Fire Service Act 1975 and the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977, and instigates the biggest change to the fire services of New Zealand since the response to the disastrous Ballantyne’s fire in Christchurch nearly 70 years ago.

Good morning and Kia ora tatou.

Thank you Rebecca for your introduction.

I note the theme of this conference is disruptive innovation.

According to the commentariat, this is a subject that I should have daily familiarity with, allegedly because of my hair.

Well, I am sorry to disappoint them, but it is 100% natural, in texture and colour, and seldom needs more than a brush in the morning.

However, on a more serious and substantial note, thank you for the opportunity to open this conference once again, and to address you all today.

Good morning.

I am very pleased that you invited me here today – it is a welcome opportunity to catch up with the Clubs movement once more, and to hear what you have been up to.

I would like to begin by acknowledging Clubs New Zealand delegates from all over the country, and especially your national President, Tom Fisher.

I would also like to acknowledge your Chief Executive, Larry Graham, and host Cosmopolitan Club President, Wayne Henshaw.

Tena koutou.

I am very glad to welcome you all to New Zealand, and particularly to Wellington, our capital.

A few of you here today, I know, have been here before – and to you I say ‘welcome back’!

However some, even many of you, have not been here before, and I am especially glad to welcome those people – hoping that our small friendly city with its brisk and breezy weather will leave a positive impression on you.

Good evening.

Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to share some thoughts about New Zealand’s experience in transforming the way we provide government services to our citizens in the digital age.

New Zealand’s digital journey is a story about better public services.

It is about how our government is reshaping our relationships and interactions with our citizens to meet their changing expectations.

The word “journey” implies a known destination.

Firstly I would like to start by acknowledging the following people from the UFBA here today:

your President, Mark Adie, and Vice-President, Russell Anderson;

your Chief Executive Officer, George Verry;

Deputy chair of the UFBA Board, Nigel Lilley and Board members Bill Butzbach, Glenn Williams, and Matt Cleaver;

Rick Braddock, Chairperson of the UFBA Board, and Patron of the UFBA, Dame Margaret Bazley.

Good afternoon.

I want to talk today about some of the developments affecting the class 4 gambling sector and to make a few announcements on future directions.

Gambling policy is one of the key areas in my Internal Affairs portfolio and one that I have given considerable thought to since I took on the portfolio last year.

Tēna koutou kātoa, good evening.

I am delighted to have been asked to speak at the launch of this exhibition, “Çannakale: Road to Peace out of War”.

As Minister of Internal Affairs I am responsible for the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand, which function as the memory of society and the memory of government respectively.

Between them, they hold many thousands of records and treasures relating to this most important time in New Zealand’s history.