Paul was our Labour M.P. from 1990 to 2008 and a Cabinet Minister between 1999 and 2005. His address was on what he has been doing since his parliamentary career ended. It, his parliamentary career, ended on a high note, as he quoted John Major, Prime Minister of Britain, "Better to go when they want you to stay than to stay when they want you to go". Paul's address was in two parts.
Part 1: "What I have done in my spare time".
Part 2: "What I have been doing" since 2008."
Paul has been a member of the Wellington Regional Council between 2010 and 2019. He has been a Crown negotiator for Treaty of Waitangi settlements, a guest presenter at Victoria University of Wellington, Deputy Chair of the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust, and runs his own consulting company. Inter alia he also drives a taxi in the Hutt Valley and an Uber in Wellington.
One of Paul's companies was India Horizon, helping NZ businesses do business with India. It was hoped there would be a free trade agreement with India. This proved fruitless however because of the dairy issue. The average herd size in India is seven and the Indian government feared competition from Fonterra. As a crown negotiator for Treaty of Waitangi settlements he visited maraes all over the country with Chris Finlayson. Paul was also involved in the enquiry into the treatment of crews on foreign fishing vessels. They had been badly exploited by the vessel owners which meant, in addition to the humanitarian concerns, that New Zealand fishing firms could not compete. The issue was resolved by legislation that all crews of vessels fishing in New Zealand territorial waters were subject to the relevant New Zealand labour laws.
While on the Wellington Regional Council Paul had become concerned about the water issues and believes these problems are simply too big for local councils to manage on their own. He has also been involved in the Riverlink project; in getting new trains for the region and replacing the old trolley buses when the necessary maintenance of the old wires became prohibitively expensive. Incidentally 25% of Wellington's buses are now electric, using batteries rather than wires. Paul has also been involved in several government reviews, including of the 111 emergency system, the Waterview Tunnel. He chaired Fire and Emergency NZ which succeeded in all but the impossible task of successfully combining the urban fire services with 2000 paid and 8000 volunteer firefighters with the rural fire services with 3000 volunteers. Paul fills the hours between these and similar roles by driving taxis and Uber. He feels that Uber, or similar app-based systems, is the way of the future and that the traditional taxi service is kept alive by mainly serving customers with mobility issues who receive discounts on taxi fares. He especially enjoys this driving as he meets all sorts of interesting people.
In answers to questions Paul said he applauded Labour’s idea of the "Three Waters” but the government botched the sales policy. He also felt that the housing issue was one of the greatest social issues facing New Zealand, but successive governments have allowed it to become simply huge.