Plunket Conference opening

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is evening (sign).

May I then specifically greet you: Carol Becker, National President of the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society and your fellow board members; Jenny Prince, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Society, life members, and staff and volunteers; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Steve Chadwick, Member of Parliament; Kevin Winters; Mayor of Rotorua, and Mrs Winters; Ladies and Gentlemen; Children and Babies.

My wife Susan and I are delighted to be with you this evening for the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society's biennial conference, the first joint conference of staff and volunteers since the organisation celebrated its centenary.

As the Governor General of New Zealand, I am patron of quite a large number of organisations.  But the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society is one with which both Susan and I both have a strong personal association.

I was certainly a ‘Plunket baby' - more so than most perhaps because my mother had been a Karitane nurse, so the precepts of the Plunket movement were very close to her heart professionally as well as personally.

While Susan was not a Plunket baby, having been born in Australia and came to New Zealand as a child, she made up lost ground when we had our three children.

They were all Plunket babies - and Susan became the president of the Rose Road branch of Plunket in Auckland. 

My father was also a doctor in Auckland, dealing with large numbers of parents and children, he also had a working relationship with the Plunket movement.

Since being appointed Governor-General in August 2006 and taking up patronage of your organisation, it has been a pleasure to maintain an association with the Society's work.

I spoke to the Society's centenary conference in Dunedin in May 2007 and in November last year formally opened the Canterbury Plunket Centre and hosted a family day at Government House Auckland to mark the centenary of Auckland Plunket.

Through more than a century of service Plunket has made a massive contribution to the health of the nation, giving hundreds of thousands of babies a good start in life, and a great deal of comfort and support to their mothers.

During that time New Zealand society has changed in ways that were unforeseeable when Dr Truby King was doing his pioneering work at the turn of the last century.

One of the great strengths of Plunket has been the way the organisation has been flexible enough to adapt to social change. 

Plunket has broadened its role in recent years.  It has not only become the largest provider of support services for the development, health and well being of children under the age of five, but a leading advocate for their needs.

I think it is fair to say too that Plunket has become more relationship-oriented than it has ever been, by reaching out to other organisations in the field of parenting and family education in general.

The theme for this conference: "Y2012, working together - transforming the future" carries that message.  This theme incorporates the Society's aim of making a real difference for New Zealand children and their families by 2012.  But it also incorporates the concept of achieving this by working cooperatively both within the society itself and with other groups and the community.

Plunket's vision puts it, ‘Ma te mahi ngatahi, e puawai ai a tatou tamariki' which translates as ‘Together the best start for every child'.  I believe that being able to work together for the good of our society is the great challenge of the new millennium.

This vision has been given added impetus by the economic difficulties facing both New Zealand and the wider world.  According to many economists, New Zealand and the world are entering one of the most difficult economic periods since the time of the Great Depression of the 1930s.  A malaise that was originally centred solely on the financial sector has spread far further.  Earlier this year the World Bank suggested the world economy as a whole would shrink for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

Unfortunately charitable organisations such as Plunket are not immune from this economic turn of events.  Indeed, you inevitably face a double bind. 

Like almost all of the organisations of which there is Governor-General Patronage, Plunket looks to charitable donations to assist it in improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealand's most vulnerable members, its children.  But at times when those funds are increasingly scarce, you will inevitably face a greater demand on your services, as the stresses of the national economy are played out in the family home.  Just as Plunket is not immune from these difficulties, neither are our children.

There is a saying in management speak that in tough times, organisations need to "work smarter, not harder."   I suspect organisations like Plunket will have to work both harder and smarter.

Thinking innovatively, will require Plunket to look beyond monetary donations to the skills, time and effort that members of the community can also provide.  By working collaboratively with other organisations involved in child and family welfare, Plunket may be able to fashion responses and initiatives that are more resilient.

There is an apposite Māori proverb that makes this point well: ‘Haere te torino whakamua, whakamuri' which translates as: ‘At the same time as the spiral is going out, it is coming back.'  This carries the idea that it is by reaching out and helping others that we are equally strengthened.

The whole of New Zealand society is enriched by Plunket's initiatives. And the Five Years for Under Fives initiative is a call for all New Zealanders to ‘step up' and focus five years on our youngest citizens.

I am told that Plunket has started to trial its new Well Child to Well Family programme.  This programme offers a dedicated facilitator with the time to connect with a family, evaluate what is needed, provide information, put them in touch with other services and follow up to make sure that families get what they need to give their children the best start in life.

As well, Plunket's Tots and Toddlers programme is being adopted by many schools, with more than 3000 students taking part this year. And I understand that the aim is to have parenting programmes included in the curriculum for secondary schools by 2012.

And the society is also working towards having a Well Child database, a national database of every child born in this country.

These three things show Plunket has entered its second century committed to meeting the challenge of offering services that are relevant and work in real terms. With 2012 marked out as a sort of year of reckoning, the society is working hard and fast to achieve its goal of "the best start for every child".

How to give a child the best start in life is high on the agenda again in my own family. Susan and I are now in the happy position of being grandparents to both a new grandson and a new granddaughter, and we are finding our new role enormously enjoyable and fulfilling.
 
On that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language Māori, by offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours. 

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.