Speech
NBR Chambers of Commerce New Zealand Business Hall of Fame
Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.
Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and (Sign)
Greetings specifically: Tony Caughey, Chairman of the Enterprise New Zealand Trust; John Lindsay, Chairman of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce; Brett Thompson, of the National Business Review and Nevil Gibson, Editor-in-Chief; the Hon Dame Catherine Tizard; Dame Malvina Major; Laureates; Ladies and Gentlemen.
This is the third time in the last nine months that I have had the privilege of speaking with the Enterprise New Zealand Trust.
The first was in Wellington at the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme National Awards function in November last year and the second at the Enterprise New Zealand Trust Dinner, also in Wellington, in May this year.
That dinner served as an opportunity to acknowledge the role that the Enterprise New Zealand Trust, and particularly the Fletcher Trust, have played in helping educate young New Zealanders of the value of enterprise, and in nurturing the future entrepreneurial leaders of New Zealand.
In this, the third of my formal engagements with the Enterprise New Zealand Trust, I have the opportunity to acknowledge those New Zealanders who have already made—and continue to make—an extraordinary contribution to our nation's economic and social well-being.
The six laureates have each demonstrated the capacity that one individual has to change the lives of many.
They have shown exceptional strength and ambition in their person, they have displayed tenacity and unusual skill in their field, and they have provided leadership to those around them.
Their efforts and corresponding success in industry, in commerce, in entrepreneurship and innovation, have helped our country realise a more prosperous and healthy future.
And they have inspired others to take up their mantle of achievement. In this sense then, perhaps the most important quality each has displayed in their lives is leadership.
Their leadership has ensured they have shared their special qualities and ambitions with those around them, thus the good they have done is greater than could have been achieved alone.
The following comment by the late Dame Whina Cooper, on mana and the responsibilities of leadership, captures this sentiment well:
I can't sleep at night, because even at night I'm worrying about things and planning things. It's the mana, you see. If you've got it, it never lets you alone. You have to be thinking about the people and working for them, all the time.
Tonight's laureates, and those who are here on their behalf, should be extremely proud of what they have achieved. They represent the very highest standard of excellence in their fields and they have helped shape a better future for all New Zealanders.
I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages. May I close by speaking in Maori, issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.