Parliament will have a different look this year as 34 new MPs take their seats. Patrick Gower continues our series of pen portraits based on their maiden speeches
KEY POINTS:
John Boscawen
Millionaire Act MP John Boscawen learned the value of thrift by saving what he could of the 25c pocket money his mother gave him each week.
Whatever he had left when next pocket-money day arrived his mother,
Beverley, would double - and the
young Boscawen soon worked out that 100
per cent interest was a good return, as the passbooks show he often banked the maximum 50c.
He also learned the value of entrepreneurship by cycling around the streets of Papatoetoe and Otara collecting beer bottles that were returned for cash.
Mr Boscawen, unsurprisingly, became an accountant. But by age 30 he
had lost everything after borrowing heavily to invest in the stockmarket before the 1987 crash.
He was insolvent for five years but got back on his feet with the support of his parents, bouncing back in 1992 with the fully debt-
funded development of the K-Mart Plaza in Hastings.
Mr Boscawen's maiden speech to Parliament contrasted his revival with
those New Zealanders in their 60s, 70s and 80s who had lost all or part of their life savings through finance company failures and would not have a chance to rebuild.
"The fact that so many can lose so much, with no Government intervention, is a national disgrace." He praised Michael Cullen's
KiwiSaver scheme and hoped it would become compulsory.
Mr Boscawen said his wealth allowed him to travel throughout the world, support philanthropic causes and "devote considerable resources" to Act. He was a leading campaigner against the Electoral Finance Act
and noted that he would now be able to vote for its repeal.
He also spoke of another electoral issue he believed was anti-democratic - the 1995 legislation making it illegal for political parties to use their own money to buy broadcast time. With free time divvied out according to party size, Mr Boscawen said the Greens and Act got only a fraction of that given to National and Labour.
He praised his former school, Otahuhu College, of which he is the second
student to become an MP, after former Prime Minister David Lange.
Mr Boscawen's father, Owen, had an unparalleled connection as head boy, teacher, Fulbright scholar, then principal in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mr Boscawen was elected number four on Act's party list. He is on the
finance and expenditure and commerce select committees. He is Act's
spokesman on housing, transport and ethnic affairs.
Clare Curran
Labour, Dunedin South
Vital statistics:
Aged 48. Won electorate by 6449 majority. Member of commerce select
committee. Spokeswoman for communications and information technology.
Background:
Communications specialist whose clients have included unions, environment groups and government agencies. Grew up in Dunedin and attended university there, but spent many years overseas.
Personal:
Won the Labour Party nomination for Dunedin South off sitting MP David
Benson-Pope. Was involved in controversy in 2007 when appointed to the Ministry for the Environment communications department despite her
Labour ties.
In her own words:
"I spent the 1990s in Australia, and witnessed the rise of the Howard
Government, a period of great internal upheaval ... I learned about the politics of dishonesty. And the politics of fear. I do not want those sorts of politics to emerge in New Zealand."
Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi
Vital statistics:
No 38 on National's list. Stood in Manukau East, losing to Labour incumbent Ross Robertson by 12,445 votes. Member of government administration and justice-electoral select committees.
Background:
Born in Delhi, Mr Bakshi moved to New Zealand in 2001. He is deputy chairman of the India Trade Group, on the executive of the Auckland Indian Association and secretary of the Auckland Sikh Society.
Personal:
New Zealand's first Sikh MP. Embroiled in an immigration row just before the election when he was accused of making questionable job offers to Indians seeking residency. Denies any wrongdoing and investigation is ongoing.
In his own words:
"After the free-trade agreement with China and given that talks are in
progress for a free-trade agreement with the USA, I think it is time to turn our attention to India, one of the biggest democracies and the
fastest-growing economy in the world."