Search

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.

Good morning it’s great to be with you in Queenstown today. I would like to acknowledge:

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

I would like to start by acknowledging Tasman District Council Mayor Richard Kempthorne, and my colleague local MP Dr Nick Smith and Labour’s Damien O'Connor.

Thank you all for being here today, and thank you for inviting me to speak to you on a subject I love talking about – positive ageing and ageing positively.

Today I want to talk about the Budget, which will come out on 15 May.

This will be the National-led Government’s sixth budget.

Some of those budgets have felt at times like an exercise in crisis management.

So I take my hat off to Bill English, who has done a great job of steering the country through the recession, the global financial crisis and the aftermath of a very destructive and expensive natural disaster.

Everyone’s circumstances are of course different and some people are still finding it hard.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. 

It’s great to see so many people, including the many international guests, here today.  I hope those of you from overseas have an opportunity to see some of the sights that our country is renowned for before you return home.

I want to take a minute or two at the outset this morning to tell you about a couple of the key points I made at the National Energy Research Institute conference here in Wellington a fortnight ago. 

Kia Ora. Thank you for inviting me here today to celebrate the newly developed South Waikato Health Centre.

It’s a great privilege for me to join you today.

The South Waikato Health Centre co-locates a number of health services here onsite at the Tokoroa Hospital.

Utilising two unused wards, the site has been transformed into modern facilities. 

Introduction

Thank you for that introduction, Arlene.

It is my pleasure to extend to all the delegates a warm welcome to New Zealand, and specifically to Christchurch.

Christchurch is one of New Zealand’s largest cities and has a rich and varied history, including becoming New Zealand's first city by Royal Charter in 1856.

Since the major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 and the thousands of subsequent aftershocks Christchurch has re-emerged at the forefront of New Zealand’s economic recovery.

(delivered by Tim Macindoe MP)

Thank you for the opportunity to open your fourth national conference, today here in Hamilton.

Having studied your programme, I can see this conference will be a great opportunity to share ideas and to hear evidence about advanced practice by Allied Health Professionals.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my great pleasure to be back in Colombia.

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

Thank you Pamela, and good morning to you all and welcome to the 2014 PreFabNZ conference.

I’d like to extend a special greeting to delegates from overseas, welcome to Auckland.

Putting together conferences like this takes time and energy.

I would like to start by acknowledging Pamela Bell, PreFabNZ chief executive, who has done so much to make this event possible.

Good morning. It is great to be back in Chile. This is my third trip to Latin America in just over a year, and my second trip to Chile and to this beautiful region.

The last time I was here I accompanied our Prime Minister as part of a broader trade mission across Latin America. This time I am joined by our trade Minister Tim Groser, and a 14 strong New Zealand business delegation.

This delegation includes some of the best of New Zealand's agribusiness, agri-tech, and agricultural training expertise.

I have to admit to a great sense of excitement about the purpose of this smokefree summit.

The driving force behind this summit is to kickstart a revolution - the smokefree youth movement.

It is a revolution dear to my heart.

While the purpose - to eliminate tobacco from our lives is laudable - the really remarkable feature of this Summit is that it is your momentum, your inspiration, your leadership that is making it happen.

It is about you standing up for the kaupapa - telling the world that tobacco is not your future.

Good evening and thank you for the invitation to talk about the work we are doing to improve the public health service in New Zealand.

Good health is hugely important to New Zealand families. A strong public health service gives families peace of mind - knowing that the care they need will be there, when they need it.

And that's the priority of our government too. Protecting and growing the public health service for New Zealand families.

And with your support, the public health service is making a lot of progress.

Good afternoon and thank you the opportunity to speak at this event today.

Thanks to Dr Tutone, and Nora, for your speeches earlier, and a special thanks to Kim for sharing your remarkable story about your own journey as a kidney donor.

There are also a few other acknowledgements I’d like to make before I begin;

I am really pleased to be with you this morning at this National Tamariki Ora conference. It is a perfect opportunity to be able to recognise the contribution that Well Child Tamariki Ora makes to the health and wellbeing of our tamariki mokopuna.

Throughout the course of this week, as well as here in Heretaunga, I will be in Ohakune, Palmerston North, Wellington, Upper Hutt, Auckland, Waitangi and Waiheke Island before finally on Saturday I return to Whanganui.

There are some days that stand out above the rest. 8 November 2010 was one of those days.

That was the day Les Hokianga and his dozen champions biked to the Beehive – having cycled almost 300km, competing against headwinds, and freezing southerlies.   These weren’t professional cyclists – this was simply a team of men – very big men – who decided they wanted a better future for their whanau. 

Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning.

Thank you for this – very timely – opportunity to speak to you this morning about the Government’s reforms of New Zealand’s family justice system. Yesterday the Governor-General signed an Order in Council, setting 31 March as the day the new system comes into effect. And later today the Ministry of Justice will launch a new Family Justice website, and begin a public awareness campaign.