Lubeck Marja; Dean JacquiMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Like those before me Mr Deputy Speaker I would like to congratulate you on your elevation to Deputy Speaker the other presiding officers and also all my new colleagues—in particular the two members of Parliament north of the bridge Vanushi Walters and Shanan Halbert who both won their electorates and I'm looking forward to having some more troops in that area of the country. I know there's something about reflecting at the end of the year and as I'm sure we all do at this time we are thinking back on 2020 and how tough it's been on many people.So as these are my first words back into the 53rd Parliament I would like to use the opportunity to thank our essential workers who kept New Zealand going under the most stressful of circumstances. I'm talking about our cleaners our supermarket workers our health workers our security guards our rubbish collectors our bus drivers and many many others. Also of course the businesses and the workers who had to go through the most challenging circumstances to keep themselves going in a changed world. A special thanks also to all of our flight crews our cabin crew and our staff in the isolation facilities. Now they have been mentioned before but these groups of workers make a lot of sacrifices to keep us New Zealanders and also New Zealand safe. They follow the protocols they are isolated from their family and from their friends they have more tests than the average worker out there while they're waiting for the results they have to distance from their family and from their friends. Yet many of those workers feel demonised by the community. So I would just like to acknowledge the sacrifices that these people are making.At a time when other countries are still reporting thousands of COVID-related cases every day and many many deaths we are here able to pretty much lead normal lives. We saw it when we had the Speech from the Throne we're all sitting together in this room we hug each other when our new colleagues are doing their maiden speeches. This is something that many many other countries couldn't even dream of. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I worry about my family on the other side of the world in the Netherlands where COVID is still claiming so many lives every day. Nine thousand people have died so far in a country that's the size of Northland; it's only about three times the population of New Zealand. So we should really be counting our blessings.Now when we look at the three objectives that my colleague Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki mentioned beforehand this is very much in line with keeping New Zealanders free from COVID-19 as a first objective. We went hard and early with our health response and that basically gave us a really good opportunity to kick off our economic response. That gets to the second overarching objective which is accelerating our economic recovery. But that recovery plan is not really just about getting back to where we were before but about building back better. It's also about addressing some of those long-term challenges that we have had in New Zealand and that plan is already under way. It's based on five core points. It's based around jobs it's based around people it's based on preparing for the future by taking on those challenges that I mentioned so that we can build back better. It's about supporting small businesses about supporting entrepreneurs and it's also about positioning ourselves globally so that this is a place that people want to invest in and trade with.The global economic impact will be felt through New Zealand but we are placed very well because as our finance Minister explained previously we started paying down debt and running surpluses from the very moment that we came into office. That's given us a head start and so we are able to keep accelerating our economic recovery.That really brings me to the third objective which is to lay the foundations for a better future. Minister Robertson mentioned this in the Budget speech and he mentioned it in his speech just earlier on when we kicked off this part of the debate. He said the sentence—and it stayed with me because it really goes to the core of what we're about and it talks about a glimmer of silver lining on the darkest of clouds" and that is about our country having an opportunity to build back better. What our response to COVID-19 does is give us exactly that opportunity.Now New Zealanders voted for stability and certainty this election and it's absolutely humbling to be part of the first majority Government under MMP in New Zealand which obviously is led by a Prime Minister who unites and has led our country through so many crises and tough times this year. We won't solve all of our problems overnight but what we have done is we've laid the foundations for change in our first term and we are heading in the right direction. Thank you Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I call Melissa Lee—five-minute call."