Mahuta NanaiaHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Foreign Affairs): Listening to members of the Opposition it's evident that they're taking a leaf from the same post - global financial crisis playbook that simply pushed our country back in some fundamental ways. Tax cuts for high-income earners at the expense of investing in health in education in our hospitals and our schools and ensuring that our own people are skilled rather than immigrating people to New Zealand without thought for our own people being skilled into work and importantly not investing enough in infrastructure. Not to mention the fact that they really don't like talking about the Treaty or climate change to the degree where action must follow words.We're in a very different place to where we were two years ago before COVID arrived on these shores. As we move through our response to a global pandemic I want to acknowledge just how critical the initial judgment of putting the health of our people first as a crucial part of safeguarding our economic response. Those judgments mean that we're in a position where high rates of vaccination mean it's now safe to ease our COVID-19 restrictions and operate under our traffic light system. All of this wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and sacrifices of New Zealanders in our communities and across essential services; we thank you all.Sadly lives have been lost during this period of our COVID response and as a direct response of coronavirus and its variants. However comparatively we've experienced the lowest numbers of cases and deaths in the OECD for the last two years. This experience has put us in the best position now to focus on our economic recovery plan. Our economy is now larger than pre-COVID levels. Unemployment is at a record low of 3.2 percent. Exports are up and GDP is growing. Comparable with many other countries such as Australia the US and the UK—our debt levels are lower than those countries. Tourism is reopening with travellers now being welcomed to our shores and we're in a strong position to accelerate our economic recovery plan by putting the health of our people first while investing in critical parts of our economy ensuring that we can recover faster than anywhere else in the world.But we remain in challenging times. Global inflation is taking hold on every economy. For New Zealand inflation stands at 6.9 percent compared with 8.5 percent in the US and 7 percent in the UK. Much of this is due to global factors impacting on fuel and food prices.The impact of global inflation will bear down on Kiwis and we acknowledge that the cost of living pressures are real and being felt at the petrol pump at the supermarket in the pockets of those on fixed incomes and those that are most vulnerable. That's why we've set out to address some of those urgent challenges. We've cut fuel prices. We've helped people where it matters: supporting public transport including subsidising the cost of fares by half across the country; providing more relief with increases to Working for Families and superannuation; lifting the minimum wage; providing more lunches in schools; cheaper doctor's visits; and continuing the winter energy payment during these cold months. We know there's more to do and we'll keep going on—not just working on the immediate needs but also on our long-term future.I'm really pleased to see the recent release of the Te Waihanga report New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy 2022 - 2052. The signal that a more strategic approach to the challenge of funding financing and integrated planning of infrastructure projects will vastly improve our country landscape and further leverage growth and development objectives for the next 30 years.On that front it's exactly the context for which the reform of three waters should be considered. The status quo is clunky and inefficient: 67 councils delivering water services with their own procurement pipelines—often not integrated in any way to the broader regions; no integrated planning either—are just some of the inefficiencies. And there is deferred investment over the past two decades which has meant that ratepayers have been experiencing burst pipes aged infrastructure especially of waste water treatment plants and polluted harbours and waterways.We're committed to ensure that we're fixing this broken infrastructure network which is in so dire need of change. The changes that we're making through our economic recovery plan require an active Government doing its part but ensuring that for the short and long term we're making differences for all New Zealanders every community in very real ways.