Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa, nga whānau Labour.

I am proud to be here today, at our annual Labour Party Conference, as your Deputy Leader, a proud Pacific woman, a daughter, a sister, a mother and a nanny.

Some of you, my close friends – and the thousands of people on my Facebook and Instagram – have seen many of my photos and know that I am now a proud, a very proud nanny to two beautiful moko. It is the greatest promotion I have ever had. Don’t tell my boss!

But it got me thinking. That coalition of chaos government, they need a nana, tīna, or a kuia.

In the tradition of deputy leader speeches, I’ll get to the gags... but in my way.

Picture this.

Christopher Luxon and David Seymour are sitting as far away as possible from NZ First and negotiating their coalition deal.

David wants all the toys.

Christopher gives him an 18-month stint as Deputy Prime Minister, a handful of Ministers, his charter schools and a whole regulation ministry.

But that is not enough for Seymour; he wants a Treaty Principles Bill, a chance to rewrite Te Tiriti o Waitangi into language that better meets his needs – you know, to create racial division and headlines to appease his voter base.

Christopher Luxon is about to say yes – because he’s a great negotiator – but if there was a kuia in the room she would’ve piped up and told Seymour:

“I don’t know who you think you are young man but best you be grateful for what you’ve been offered – because actually boy, you have nowhere else to go.”

Just like that. She would have stopped this Coalition Government from making one of the worst decisions of its one-term life.

When they were all sitting round deciding to scrap fair pay agreements, the Māori Health Authority, support for disabled people, thousands of public services jobs, Te Arawhiti, the Pay Equity Taskforce, free prescriptions…

Imagine that grandma putting aside her knitting, stopping them in full flight and saying:

“Don’t touch things that aren’t yours, eh? Stop being petty and turn your minds to what you can fix, not all the things you can break.”

And to complete the picture. Imagine that tīna sitting about when Winston, Christopher and David were hunched over a desk, writing a mean letter to the Speaker about doing haka in the house.

Picking on Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, getting upset because Willie Jackson called David a liar – what if she got all of them by the ears and said:

“Hey, you made your bed and now you need to lie in it. Don’t ask for sympathy when you started that fight.”

Awoi, she would have shut that down quick smart.

Now back to reality… because in reality Christopher Luxon is doing the opposite of what that kuia would have done.

This week Winston Peters said National’s tax cuts had failed. David Seymour claimed he’s calling the shots in government. Christopher Luxon said... ahh wait I can’t remember what he said.

It’s embarrassing for Luxon, but actually scary for New Zealand.

Luxon is letting ACT re-write our gun laws.

These are the laws that were changed in response to the horrific massacre that happened right here in Christchurch on March 15, five years ago. National voted for those changes then, and now, just five years later, they’ve sold that out for one term in power.

Luxon has also let NZ First call the shots based on secret documents from the tobacco lobby.

If he wants his government to look shady then he’s finally succeeding at something. But my pick is he doesn’t. Every time Luxon stands there defending the decisions his government has made that have seen smoking rates increase, reversing our world first smokefree laws and giving a tax break to a tobacco company, he looks less and less like the person people voted for.

But whanau, it’s only been a year.

It’s been 12 months of a government not doing the things it promised – like helping with the cost of living. What can they do in 24 more?

We’ve seen promises broken. The one that made me particularly grumpy was their failure to acknowledge the hundreds of people they’d promised to fund cancer drugs for in their first Budget.

Making a promise like that, getting people for who this is life or death to vote for you, and then forgetting them.

But there’s also the Interislander ferries. Dunedin Hospital. Public housing. You can’t just keep saying you’re building hospitals and houses when you’re not!

The list goes on.

We have to make sure we are holding the government to account for the next two years.

Labour must organise, we must build on our solid platform of members – all of you – and build the movement.

We must stand up to them. Show them why they can’t change our gun laws and give tobacco companies our hard-earned cash – they certainly don’t need them.

Isn’t it interesting that despite the economic headwinds and fiscal austerity required to pay for tax cuts, the government was still able to give $2.9 billion worth of tax breaks to landlords.

Something I must mention is fair pay and pay equity. They moved so quickly to dump fair pay agreements and to disestablish the pay equity unit. Like they’re saying come on ladies, if you just worked a little harder, we could close that pay gap – there’s no role for government there.

So back to this deputy leader’s speech thing and the gags that come with it because phew… things got a little serious there.

This nanny has a few pearls of wisdom for that government.

Just stop. Give up. We’ll take the tough stuff off your hands.

Because Labour is the party that tackles the big stuff, we work together, and we take people with us.

One thing is certain. Chris Hipkins and Labour will not give tobacco companies a tax break or make guns more accessible.

Our Chris is empathetic, not entitled.

Instead of division, he brings unity. Hope, not fear.

And instead of soundbites, he will be the guy to drive pragmatic solutions to the problems we face today.

The first year after an election loss is never easy.

We’ve spent a lot of time this year listening, thinking about what went wrong and how we have to change.

Make it clearer than ever that we are the party that does stand up for working people. That works with our union whanau, that works with the business community, that reflects our communities and invests in our future.

To you, our members. Thank you for your steadfast support.

To our people, those who supported us and those who didn’t last time.

Haere mai. Come back, whatever the reason you turned away, we are still here and want to take on board you advice to make our party better.

Right now, we are in a very good place.

Our polling is going in the right direction. Chris Hipkins has represented us incredibly well in some big moments this past year.

In particular I want to tautoko his speech apologising to those who were abused in state and faith-based care.

Standing up for the disabled, the disadvantaged, Māori.

Because if Chris and we don’t, who will? Certainly not this Government.

As Chippy said on Friday, we come together one year on not to mourn, but to organize, for a purpose.

In reflecting on this past year and what it looks like to stay unified and focused on the challenge in front of us, I have to refer to the ‘out the gate’ experience this nan had this year.

You may have seen me on celebrity treasure island. I did my best not to embarrass my children and my moko and I certainly hope I didn’t embarrass you. There was one pivotal moment on that show that I think we the labour party can take something from.

I was put to an endurance challenge and was given the option to bow out by my team caption, but I said ‘no, I’ll do this bro’. I had my traditional Samoan tattoo on display. I was wearing the same earrings I wore on the day I was appointed deputy pm by Chris Hipkins, holding up a box with my legs alongside a young women who I trusted and knew had the same sense of service that I live by.

This nan did not want to lose the challenge and let my team down. I also didn’t want to disappoint my own Pasifika community, women and nans watching – wanting me to win it for them. For the first 40 minutes I was encouraging my much younger teammate to hold on. For the last 10, she pushed me to hang on in.

We had each other’s backs. the purpose was bigger than an individual win. After nearly 55 minutes this nan with her amazing partner, won that challenge!

That’s us – the labour party. In the testing times, we have to push through the difficult moments, back ourselves and each other, stay focused on all those we are here to serve and remember people are relying on us to win!

So, let’s rewind for a second, go back to the top.

I’m proud to be a nan of two beautiful mokopuna. And I am proud to be Labour.

My nanny behaviors reflect our Labour values, an instinct to protect and a commitment to whanau and our communities. A nan will fight for what is right – she can’t give up – too many people are relying on her. She wants her moko to live a world that looks after them, values them and provides them with every opportunity to thrive.

This nan is unapologetic.

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