Our final speaker for 2019 was the Right Honourable Grant Robertson. He began
by acknowledging the generosity of Mark Dunajtschik, who attended as a guest of Bill Day. We look forward with interest as the Children’s Hospital takes shape. He also acknowledged the huge contribution Dawn Sanders makes to young people and young leaders across New Zealand.
The Minister referred to a number of highlights of his year. Wearing his Minister of Sport & Recreation hat, he attended the Cricket World Cup final – “we didn’t win but we definitely didn’t lose either”. The following day he was there to support the Silver Ferns take out the Netball World Cup. He considered this game and outcome was the highlight of his year – to see a team come from so far behind with the right leadership, to achieve such an outstanding performance.
A negative was the horror and tragedy of March 15 in Christchurch and it caused him to reflect on, as a country, we can never be complacent of the ills of the world not coming to New Zealand. As Minister of Finance he has been particularly challenged by how we are affected by the rest of the world’s financial downturns and conflicts.
But what the Christchurch mosque attack and the Whakaari White Island tragedy demonstrated is that under impossible circumstances New Zealanders have the ability to come together in adversity where ordinary people do extraordinary things for others. As he said, that’s what Rotary does - Service Above Self
Despite the challenges of the year he reports the country is in a better place financially than it was earlier in 2019 and is still doing as well or better than the countries we compare ourselves to. His financial highlight was delivering a wellbeing budget – changing the way we do budgets to look at more broad measures, ensuring prosperity and looking after New Zealanders are included.
Brenda Lazelle
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