gathered here today. To the host gathered here today. To the host
tribe. Greetings to you all. And
to the many people gathered here.
Greetings to all. I congratulate you
Greetings to all. I congratulate you
and I look forward
to your guidance in this House. I acknowledge
also that we stand on land that was never
seeded so I
that we stand on land that was never seeded so I have
acknowledged Tangitawhenua. I
Tangitawhenua. I begin by acknowledging what an honour it
is to sit among this Green caucus. It
is a dream. I also acknowledge those
who have sat among you before now,
in particular Catherine
Delahunty and Keith Lock. You
spoke to injustice wherever it happened
and to someone like me, that meant a
lot. Mojo Mathers,
you taught me and us all, that we are far more than
lot.
us all, that we are far more than our labels. And Metiria Turei, for
bearing your scars to highlight the
pain of others, I thank you. I also
want to acknowledge those who tell
me every day that I don't belong
here, that I should go
home where I me
here, that I should go home where I came from. That
I should have been left to die. That I have no right to
criticise any politician in
this country or take part in public life
because this isn't my home. Mr
Speaker, some of them call
for rifles to be loaded. It
gets frightening. I am numb to it
because that actually is the realty for
those of us in this country
from minority backgrounds if we do stand
up and become visible but I want it
noted that it is also the
consequence, every time
someone in this House scapegoats
migrants, every time a TV
presenter is allowed to ask the PM
when our
Kiwi and sound like a Kiwi and that PM just laughs, every time we call
refugees the leftovers
from terrorist nations for our political
terrorist nations for our political
gain, we feel it on the streets. We
can't shed our skin.
gain, we feel it on the streets. We can't shed our skin. Patriotism that
seeks to quash dissent and divide us
as archaic, it is dangerous for
our democracy. We can't tolerate that.
democracy. We can't tolerate that. It is antithetical to our culture. I
love this country but a love of
this country, patriotism,
country, patriotism, means expecting the very best for her. It means
fighting for the country
we know is possible. I criticise leaders who
fall short. I protest, I fight for
equality and justice because that is
fall short. I protest, I fight for what love looks like in public.
what love looks like in public. That's Dr Cornell West, it's not
me. So today I stand here proud
and determined because today is about
democracy and equality, values that
New Zealand embodies, stands up for
so boldly. Mr Speaker, I am a
child democracy
so boldly. Mr Speaker, I am a child of revolutionaries. My parents faced
tanks for democracy at
gunpoint fought for human rights
and they faced torture to take back
their country's resource, back from
imperialists,
imperialists, from dictators, from corrupt corporate interests and put
imperialists, from dictators, from it back in the hands of the people.
The Iranian revolution was one of
the biggest popular revolutions in
modern history. Everyone was out on
the streets
modern history. Everyone was out on
socialist, Islamists, fighting against inequality. Their
revolution was hijacked and my life
was shaped was hijacked and my life was shaped
by one of the
most repressive regimes in modern history. Everyone
knew someone who 'tissa peered
into a torture Chamber for speaking out
and everyone knew a woman flogged
for not wearing Islamic dress.
Everyone feared their phones
being tapped. That was my childhood but it
was the backdrop to a bloody
war we fought against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. I remember
the bombs and the sirens, running to a
basement and just waiting. But
mostly, I remember kids my age who
stopped talking from the
shell shock. I still don't know
what happened to them. Then scarcity
set in because America was on Saddam's
side and we were sanctioned. We had
to use coupions to buy food. Years
later we realised that the
West had backed both sides of that war, sold
weapons to both sides. That is what
refugees are made of. So I feel a
kinship with First
Nations people with tangata whenua because we
too have been alienated by our land and
resources by imperialism,
by wars that we did not profit from. We
share the same degradation
and prejudice. I want us to work
closer together.
prejudice. I want us to work closer together. Migrants,
together. Migrants, refugees, Pasifika people, tangata whenua,
we have far more that unites us that
is between us. I want the
te Waitangi to be a leading document in this
country, even on immigration.
to be a leading document in this
Tiriti Waitangi. My mum was a child psychologist but she never worked
psychologist but she never worked
because she didn't believe in
taking religious exams. My dad was an
religious exams. My dad was an
agricultural engineer. We worked on
research trying to extract
energy from plant sources. Greene
to the core.
from plant sources. Greene to the
remember that our values exist in all cultures. The Middle East, just
like the West has fierce
feminism, environmentalism,
environmentalism, Governments selling us off the multinationals
and religious fundamentalism. I want
us to amplify the voices in all
us to amplify the voices in all
cultures who speak of democracy and
equality above those who would
silence them.
equality above those who would silence them. When that
repression got too scary, my family and I fled.
We landed in Auckland
Airport and the fear was palpable. I can still
feel it now. I was 9 years old.
We didn't know what would happen if we
were sent back. But we weren't. We
were welcomed here. So, Mr Speaker,
that warm welcome is any first
memory of my homeland. New Zealand
that warm welcome is any first recognised our rights
and our humanity, that's what that was,
humanity, that's what that was,
though I didn't know it then. My
second memory is that this country
was so Green. Those two vivid first
impressions are going to lead
my work in this House.
impressions are going to lead my work in this House. So, Mr Speaker,
I became a lawyer, never
intended to do, that but I wanted to make
human rights enforceable. The criminal
justice system leads on
human rights in our system. The
most frightening thing that I've seen in about
15 years of being a lawyer all over the
world is the sight of a
child sitting behind a very large table awaiting his trial for
murder at the Auckland High Court. I
was part of his defence team. He
had thrown a rock over
an overbridge, tragically taking another young
life. He was tried as an adult
because our system requires it. He
suffered from mental illness,
as do suffered from mental illness, as do
most people that come through
our justice system, he was brown and
most people that come through our from South Auckland. His
family was so poor that
they shifted houses every so often just so they
could have electricity for a while. He
didn't have a lot
of schooling because of that and his file was the
the stuff of nightmares. The front lines of our justice
system was where I learned
about unchecked prejudice and that is what turned
me into a human rights lawyer. I
focused on children's rights. It
was living in Africa working on
genocide trials for the UN where I learnt how
prejudice turns to atrocity.
It
It starts
It starts with dehumanising language in the media, it starts by
politicians scapegoating groups
as groups for social ills.
I think that every time I see it happen here. I
saw it in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and
when I prosecuted the Khmer
rouge in Cambodia. Holding
Cambodia. Holding politicians and armies to account for abusing their
power and giving voice to women
and minorities, because we are always
most viciously attacked by abusers.
most viciously attacked by abusers. These experiences have
instilled in me a commitment
to human rights which I first got as someone who
has seen the world without them. Human
rights are universal. We don't
have fewer rights because of
our religion, because of
where we were born or who we love. We
don't have fewer rights because we had our
children ow of wedlock
or because we've been charged with a crime. We
don't have human rights because
we are good, but because we are human.
There is no such thing as the
deserving poor. Or
the good refugee.
Human rights are indeviceable. We have a bundle of rights. You
can't realise one without the other. You
can't say we have a democracy or
free speech unless we also have the
right to education and we don't have
the right to education unless the
kids we are teaching have
food and homes. For too long, for about
10 years now in New Zealand. Our very
democracy has been
undermined because too many of our rights
been breached. I want to entrench those. Finally, and of
most interest to this outs human rights are
enforceable against Governments. These are our obligations. This
is our mandate to govern. We can't
privatise them away. They
are not charity, people don't have to beg. I
want New Zealand to get to a
back to a curl tour of expecting this
back to a curl tour of expecting
this from us. None of that is protection of the environment
protection of people and nature's rights are linked. Ask the
people of Pacific
rights are linked. Ask the people of
homelands are being drowned out because of waste, pollution,
consumption that they have not
participated in, or benefited from.
One of the greatest threats to
both human and nature's rights right now
is subjugation of our democracy to
corporate interests. A
rampant market on a
finite planet cannot exist. New Zealand must lead
by example on this, as we've
done before. We've stood
up against status quo interests on the world
stage and I want us to be
that rightous little nation again. Mr
Speaker, I never intended to
run as the first ever refugee MP. But
I quickly realised that my face and
my story means so much to so many. So,
my fear of tokenism dissipated. I
had such an
outpouring of support from all
had such an outpouring of support
remembered getting notes and emails from
remembered getting notes and emails
UN, telling me what it meant to them to have someone
like them forging that path and some of them
are carrying that mantle now. I realised
then that it was important for
that process to have a former victim of
governance by repression and mass
murder stand up in
those courtrooms that are normally dominated
by Western men. So, this is
a victory for a
Western men. So, this is a victory
it is also a victory for everyone who has ever felt out of place. Who
has been excluded. Or who's been
told that she has limits to her
dreams. For getting me here I
thank the voters. You have humbled me
forever. You voted for
diversity and fairness and nature, the selection
when you voted Green. I thank our
Green activists and
our staff, especially our Auckland staff. You
worked harder and harder as
things got harder this election. You
will inspire me forever. My
campaign team
second political family, the Charmers
second political family, the
here. Your support is life affirming to me. My parents. Both strong
Iranian feminists, you
lost everything. You lost your friends,
your family, your professions, and
your language because
weren't willing to raise a little girl
in oppression. Thank you.
willing to raise a little girl in oppression. Thank you. To maybe the
most political person I know,
although a very large loud white
lifetime ago when I was lamenting the loss of
activism in politics and some of my favourite MPs, who is
going to be a
candidate that will stop up to the GCSB, who will be
the candidate who will be the new Keith
Lock. And you said,
candidate who will be the new Keith
We are both political. We are both adventurers
adventurers but you are also patient. I thank you for that. And
for love. But mostly courage on that
day and every day. Mr Speaker,
I stand here as a child
of revolutionaries, as a
child of asylum seeker, as an international
human rights lawyer, as an
activist, as a Green, and my standing here
proves New Zealand is a place where
a
proves New Zealand is a place where
Parliament. It proves the strength and the goodness of
New Zealand's values.
values.
wellbeing of people brings wellbeing to all. Greetings, greetings,
.
. Order!
.
. Paul
. Paul Eagle.
upon the sand of the ancestral area. I listen to the sound of the ocean.
It is life. Ti Nui is my ancestral