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Talofa lava, Kia ora, Fakalofa lahi atu, Aloha, Ni sa bula, Malo e lelei, Kia orana, Taloha ni, Halo olaketa.

I am so pleased to be here tonight to celebrate with you the diversity, the resilience and the splendour of tagata o te moana nui, the peoples of the Pacific.

Thank you Reverend Tokerau Joseph for opening this fono with your blessing for our day.

As we gathered together in silence, I thought of a Native American verse, which in less than twenty words challenges us to focus on what we know to be right:

Good morning - it’s a pleasure to be attending this conference on bioenergy at this time, when there is so much happening in this field. 

Countries around the world are facing the same energy challenge. 

We want to continue to grow our economies and help our people to prosper. 

This means we need secure and affordable energy.

At the same time, we’ve got to reduce our carbon emissions. 

There is no single solution to reducing emissions. 

Countries around the world are facing similar energy challenges.

We want to continue to grow our economies and help our people to prosper, but we need to reduce our carbon emissions and respond to climate change.

At the moment, the world is in a transition phase towards a low carbon future.

In the US, President Obama speaks of an “all of the above” policy on energy. That is also what we have here in New Zealand – a mixed and balanced approach to our energy future.

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you this afternoon. I am honoured to be representing the Government of New Zealand, as Minister of Internal Affairs, at this workshop on Legislative Openness.

The New Zealand Government has a strong citizen centric focus, and is making strong achievements in its digital engagement and service delivery, in support of core Open Government principles.

I have been invited to speak to you today on the topic of Moving toward Digital Democracy: Using technology in Citizen Engagement.

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Thank you very much to the Grey Power Federation Board, delegates, and observers for having me here today, and a special thank you to your President, Roy Reid, for his introduction.

Fellow Governors, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen,

New Zealand extends its thanks to the Government of Kazakhstan, and to the staff of the Asian Development Bank, for their efforts organising this 47th Annual Meeting of the ADB.

We congratulate Takehiko Nakao on completing his first year as President of the ADB. We look forward to your continued leadership.

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangaranga maha, tēnā koutou.

Thank you for inviting me to the World Heart Federation World Congress of Cardiology session to share some of our experiences from Aotearoa New Zealand.

I believe that very essence of global health equity comes from realising that something as precious as health is a citizenship right that all should be entitled to.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto and signatories.

New Zealand has a proud tradition of openness and transparency.  We are number one on a range of integrity measures including:

Ka mihi atu au ki te tangata whenua, te hau kāinga, nāu te reo karanga ki a mātou.

I firstly greet the traditional owners of this land, the Wurundjeri people.

Thank you for the invitation to speak today. A particular thank you goes to the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand who are hosting this conference.

Good afternoon, it’s great to be here today.

I would like to thank Business New Zealand and Fujitsu for hosting this event.

Today I want to talk about the Budget that Finance Minister Bill English will deliver next week.

I will also announce two important initiatives that will be of interest to this audience.

But first I want to set the scene as Budget 2014 approaches.

This will be the National-led Government’s sixth Budget, and can I say Bill English is doing an excellent job.

Ka mihi atu au ki te tangata whenua, te hau kāinga, nāu te reo karanga ki a mātou.

I firstly greet the traditional owners of this land, the Wurundjeri people.

The issues around tobacco, trade and advertising have, of course, been particularly pronounced for indigenous peoples.  

For Aotearoa, tobacco was associated with the arrival of early Pākehā explorers and traders and was used as a currency and article of trade.  There was even an exchange of tobacco at the Treaty grounds as iwi and hapū leaders gathered to sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

In August 2013, the Government announced the most significant reform of New Zealand’s workplace health and safety system in more than 20 years.

Our reform package ‘Working Safer – a blueprint for health and safety at work’ marks a turning point in New Zealand’s approach to safety at work. 

It provides us with a valuable opportunity to create and deliver a world class health and safety system.

Thank you Miriam, and thank you Prime Minister.

I would like to reiterate the Prime Minister’s welcome to you. In particular I welcome our international guests:

It’s great to be here in Christchurch today.

Thank you to everybody attending today, and thanks to the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce for hosting this event.

One of the National-led Government’s four main priorities this term is to support the rebuilding of this, our second-biggest city, and to stand beside the people of Canterbury.

From the first earthquake in September 2010, the Government has totally backed Christchurch and the wider region to respond, to recover and to rebuild.

Mr Speaker, this Bill is a crucial piece of legislation.

As members will remember, this legislation came from the Ministerial Inquiry led by the Hon Paul Swain. That Inquiry was set up following serious allegations of mistreatment of crew on foreign chartered vessels. It made a number of legislative and non-legislative recommendations to improve agency coordination, monitoring and compliance of foreign chartered vessels.

This Bill is necessary to ensure that health and safety requirements on all fishing vessels in New Zealand waters are of the highest standard.

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be with you again today.

I would like to thank John and Raewyn and their team at the Wellington Employers’ Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to speak to you again this year.

I also want to acknowledge the Chamber’s work in promoting the Wellington business community and in grappling with issues affecting businesses in the capital city.

It’s great to see measures of business confidence in Wellington rising.

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Good evening and thank you Richard [Stubbs, Managing Director, P3 Research] for the kind introduction. 

I am delighted to be here tonight to celebrate the completion of renovations to P3 Research’s unit. 

I would like to acknowledge the ground breaking work that P3 Research does, both in Wellington and in Tauranga, to help develop new treatments. 

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Good morning, it is my pleasure to be able to open the 2014 Heart Foundation Forum.

Thank you Tony for your warm welcome.

I acknowledge the life members, board members and delegates.

I would also like to acknowledge this morning’s other speakers Prof Phil Baker, Chair of Gravida and Professor of Maternal and Foetal Health at the University of Auckland, and Dr Debbie Ryan, Director of Pacific Perspectives.

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Thank you so much for having me here this evening and thank you, Grant, for introducing me.

I would like to also acknowledge Selwyn Mayor Kelvin Coe, and Ray MacDonald, Chair of the SeniorNet Federation.

It is fantastic to see so many people here today - so many people who are embracing the ever-changing range of technologies, and teaching others to embrace them also. 

Ka nui te mihi rawa atu ki a koutou kua tae mai nei ki te tautoko i te kaupapa o te hunga hauā.  Tēnā koutou.

I am really pleased to be here at this breakfast this year to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day.  

And I want to mihi to all our parliamentary colleagues.  It is so wonderful to see that you have all come today because this is such a significant issue and one that we should be really aware of to understand and to be sure that we progress the issues on behalf of people living with autism.

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Thank you to Merryn Morrison for your kind introduction. 

I am grateful to the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce to have this opportunity to speak to you tonight.

The Chamber has a proud history as the district's leading business organisation for over one hundred years. I look forward to the contribution you will make over the next hundred.

Thanks for the invitation to say a few words tonight.

Your conference theme is “Securing the next generation’s future” – which is a very good vision.

Tonight I want to say a few words on the importance of irrigation to New Zealand’s future, and what the Government – and industry – can do to help it succeed.

The potential of irrigation

I’m sure I don’t need to remind this audience of how important the primary industries are to our country.

Today countries around the world are facing the same energy challenge – we want to continue to grow our economies and help our people to prosper, but we need to reduce our carbon emissions and respond to climate change. 

At the moment, the world is in a transition phase towards a low carbon future. 

In the US, President Obama speaks of an “all of the above” policy on energy.  That is also what we have here in New Zealand – a mixed and balanced approach to our energy future.

It is right and proper that our first acknowledgement is to Reverend Tui Sopoaga for the opening prayers for this very special day.   I want to also mihi to Toeaina Mika Perez for laying the foundation for such an important event.

I want to thank Zechariah Reuelu, the facilitator of this project, the Tokelau Core Group, and families from the Atafu, Fakaofo and Nukunonu communities for the great honour of being with you today.