Coffey TamatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Mr Speaker thank you for letting me have a five-minute shot at being able to talk about some of the awesome stuff that's happening over on this side of the House and steer away from some of that negativity that the Leader of the Opposition" is talking—oh sorry not yet. He's not the Leader of the Opposition just yet but if you believe everything that's going on in the media at the moment well it's not far away.I'd like to first of all acknowledge the strength of our Māori Ministers that are inside our Cabinet and out there on the front line every single day fighting for Te Ao Māori every single day up and down the country. So having somebody like the Hon Kelvin Davis in charge of reforms around Oranga Tamariki reforms around the Department of Corrections and making sure that Māori that are trapped inside that system are looked after the best that they can. Historically we haven't done well by looking after those particular cohorts the young people in Oranga Tamariki and all of our people inside the corrections net—I'll say "net" and I'll say that purposefully as well.I want to also acknowledge Minister Nania Mahuta for the work that she's doing—our first Māori Minister of Foreign Affairs and isn't that a great thing? But on top of that she's also leading reforms that Christopher Luxon the previous speaker alluded to: the three waters reforms that—SPEAKER: I'm just thinking Winston Peters.TĀMATI COFFEY: Oh yeah. The first female Māori Minister of Foreign Affairs—there you go. But also just talking about the leadership that she's showing in the three waters reform. The Hon Peeni Henare: what he's doing in Whānau Ora making sure that our grassroots organisations that are out there at the coalface are being looked after as well. Our Minister for Māori Development the effervescent Willie Jackson—he is a character but he gets the job done. This time around he's doing some great stuff and I'm looking forward to those announcements tomorrow as they come out in the Budget. I want to finish by talking about the Hon Kiri Allan who is one of our team and we're sending her lots of love at this time. We know that she'd love to be here but she's on a journey of her own and she's got all of our support back here. The Hon Meka Whaitiri Rino Tirikatene—the work that they are doing is also to be held up and to be used as an example. Last year we delivered the Labour Māori manifesto talking about what we were going to do and in the six months since the election we've done a lot. I know I've only got a short time left but I'm going to try and peel through some of this stuff. The number one thing that I go home and talk to the whānau about is the establishment of a Māori Health Authority an independent voice to grow kaupapa Māori services and improve the health of this and future generations by providing effective leadership and partnership right throughout our health system. It's long overdue. I also want to acknowledge Minister Nania Mahuta's bill to remove the 5 percent poll provision which was a barrier to councils being able to create Māori wards. I hear—hot off the press—that Hamilton have decided to enter into Māori wards so congratulations to them. Tomorrow the Whakatāne District Council get to have that decision and I look forward to a positive result there. On Friday back home the Rotorua Lakes Council will also be having that discussion and again hopefully we will be creating these opportunities to have Māori at the decision-making table. We've done that because we've been focused on changing the outcomes for Māori which is a huge part of Budget 2021 making sure that we're continuing the good work that we're doing supporting Māori and Pacific incomes skills and opportunities. This is going to be a balanced Budget it's going to be very much a COVID Budget as well. We're not out of the woods on that front yet. We're still dealing with the effects of COVID-19 and the pandemic still looms large over all of us. But we agree that the first response is to look after the health of our people and for that reason New Zealanders are behind us on this. They were behind us when we made the decision to open the borders to go to Australia they're behind us as we've opened the doors to go to the Cook Islands and there'll be more opportunities coming in the near future. As well as lifting Māori and Pacific income skills opportunities we're also going to be making sure that we're moving towards a low-emissions economy we're reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing and also supporting physical and mental wellbeing for all New Zealanders and keeping COVID-19 out of our communities. Budget 2021 will still be a COVID Budget but also a recovery and a wellbeing Budget. It's for that reason that there is going to be much to celebrate tomorrow and there's only one more sleep to go. As we keep telling the Opposition who are desperate to hear what's in the Budget they just need to wait one more sleep because tomorrow all will be revealed. While we have our own tikanga and our own processes around what Budget looks like here in Wellington all around the country the Budget affects everybody. So tomorrow is a day for all of New Zealand and I look forward to being here and being part of it. Kia ora."