United Future
Hon Peter Dunne

Life Education Trust conference speech

When anything great is achieved, there are two things that come before it: the second is hard work, sheer hard work; but the first Ė the inspiration for all great realities Ė is vision.

Now we hear the word nearly every day, and, yes, it is over-used, bandied around for the most banal and trite of causes, but bear with me as I go about reclaiming it for something that Iím sure you and I all share Ė a real love for our country, New Zealand.

Being Kiwis, it is often a quiet love.

Weíre not the most demonstrative people in the world; we donít do the flag-waving, ticker-tape thing that quickly or that easily.

Remember the classic Ď60s All Black, the Colin Meads-type, who would crash through for a try to be acknowledged by his team-mates with a nod, a manly slap on the back, but frankly, not a lot of song and dance Ö well, we might be changing, but thereís still a lot of that in us today.

But let no one ever doubt the passion and the heart of the average Kiwi for this country of ours, and today I want to talk to you from that heart and with that passion, simply as a fellow Kiwi:

"New Zealand - it's great to be home!"

We all know that feeling! The first time you returned from overseas, at the end of that venerable Kiwi tradition, the Big OE.

You touched down at Auckland, at Wellington, at Christchurch airports; you climbed off a ship. It doesnít really matter how or where or when, but the instant your foot landed on Godzone, thatís the moment!

It didnít matter where youíd been. You were home and home was the best place in the world.

And we all knew on that day of our lives that we were Kiwis and we were proud of it. And damn it, we loved this country.

Which one of us didnít go home and tell family and friends that we just didnít know how lucky we were; that we had the best little country in the world?

Well, thatís the moment and thatís the feeling that sums up United Futureís vision for New Zealand: "It's great to be back!"

And my view of this nation is encapsulated in our name ĖUnited Future.

We want a New Zealand that is not only united in family, and in community, but also in our vision for the future.

Our New Zealand is a safe New Zealand Ė yes, in the physical sense, but also in the way that home is safe.

Itís where we feel secure in our identity as Kiwis, in our opportunities to advance ourselves, in our opportunities to meet and greet our neighbours, and where everyone feels welcome.

So ours is also a welcoming New Zealand, a creative New Zealand, a New Zealand where fresh ideas are encouraged, a 'can-do' country where patriotism and a sense of nationhood are not emotions to be ashamed of or hidden.

Our New Zealand is positive, with an eye to what we can do, not defeated by what we canít; itís a place where people say, Ďyes, I am responsible for my actions, my future, my opportunitiesí.

Our New Zealand celebrates its successes with real pride, and just as importantly, it encourages, success wherever it occurs - in the arts, sport, business, in our schools and our universities.

Promoting our successes is the best way I know to ensure we have more of them, and to ensure that our families and communities prosper and grow stronger as a result.

In our New Zealand, tolerance is a virtue and diversity is celebrated, not condemned. It builds and strengthens us, it doesnít pull us down.

All of these are attributes we would want for our own family - not just for our country.

That is why it is our passionate belief that the family is the very cornerstone of New Zealand, and not because of some quaint attachment to family values - although there is nothing wrong with that.

No, this is about as real as it gets: strong, healthy families mean a strong and healthy New Zealand. If anyone has a better theory for building a society worth living in, then I have yet to hear it!

And strong, healthy families live in vibrant communities, and neighbourhoods that are alive.

And these are so much more than the dry economic statistics or the daily parade of health and welfare horror stories that we are constantly fed.

They are the reasons we will have economic growth and prosperity, not just a consequence of it.

They are rich in their diversity, bold in their willingness to take on new things, confident in themselves, but also places where all their members are nurtured, respected and encouraged.

So how do we make vibrant communities? What is the social recipe?

We make sure communities have the facilities that make them work, like schools, swimming pools, green parks and clean beaches, public transport and security.

Itís basic, itís simple, itís necessary. These are quality-of-life issues that we donít ignore, and which bring us together.

We encourage the essential volunteer groups that are the glue of our communities, through grants and other assistance programmes.

In that context, I want to congratulate the Life Education Trust, and specifically its 34 autonomous Trusts throughout the country for their absolutely, positively brilliant work among our young people.

 You are a superb example of how community volunteer groups make a massive, long-term contribution to the health of our communities.

And I was astonished to learn that you are privately and commercially funded Ė not one cent of Government funding.

Which is why I was so astonished at the recent attack on your organization by Education Minister Trevor Mallard because you received a few hundred thousand dollars from British American Tobacco to finance the operations of your national office.

I think the criticism was both remarkably unwise and hypocritical.

Unwise because your programmes clearly work and contribute to the long-term health of New Zealand society; and hypocritical because this is a Government that takes more than a billion dollars in tobacco excise and places only a tiny fraction of that into anti-smoking programmes.

Itís not good enough for a government to refuse your applications for funding and then abuse you for finding money elsewhere.

I can only think Mr Mallard has been struck by a random attack of political correctness and hope he will return to his senses shortly.

But I digress. Strong and vibrant families are the key to strong communities.

They are the engine room of so much of our economic and social development.

And that is why United Future will continue to champion the family in all its many and varied forms - because it is also the cause of New Zealand.

When you ask Kiwis why they come home, their reasons are invariably the same: it's where my family is; it's a neat place to live and raise the children; and it offers a great lifestyle.

Our country will succeed and prosper only when we make those objectives the end point of our policy direction, rather than continue to treat them as merely coincidental.

We have to turn so much thinking on its head and, frankly, we have much to do here.

Family breakdown is costing us billions of dollars a year.

We have the world's second highest rate of single parent families.

Divorces have doubled in the last 30 years, while marriages have fallen by 60%.

321,000 children - a third of all our youngsters - are raised on a benefit, twice what it was 15 years ago.

Child assaults are up almost 200% in the last decade and 40% of our criminals are aged between 14 and 18.

Itís numbers like that that lead me to congratulate you for doing your best to turn them around and that led United Future to push for a Families Commission as outlined in yesterdayís Budget.

We have no doubt that the Commission will, over time, provide the factual ammunition that will allow agencies like the Life Education Trust to refine their work.

The work you do strengthens our families. We support you because we put families first, not because it feels good, not because itís a cuddly, fuzzy thing to do; we put families first because it is the only way to drive this country ahead.

For too long, when change has happened in this land, no one has even asked what is it doing to our families? What are the pressures that are being put on them? What do we expect them to cope with and yet still produce healthy, happy, balanced kids for the next generation?

For too long, Kiwi families have survived Ė although, tragically, too often theyíve not survived at all Ė in spite of government, and not because of it.

Politicians donít make families work, we canít fix everything, but we can and will give them the environment Ė through tax change, through real commitment to health, to education, to community Ė in which to grow and thrive.

All Iím saying is that itís time we got our priorities right as a nation and look to what made us strong in the past for what can make us strong in the future.

It's time to stop wallowing in the mire, and celebrate afresh what makes this country great and why Kiwis are proud to come home to it.

They say nothing promotes success like success. Now is time for us to live that.

That is United Future's vision for New Zealand and I am determined to provide the leadership to achieve it.