Little AndrewGENERAL DEBATEHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business.This Government in the last five years has faced some of the biggest challenges that any Government in any time in our history has faced. If we think about dealing with our end of a global pandemic that has been challenging enough. When we think about dealing with a terrorist attack on a minority in part of New Zealand that has been challenging enough. When we think about dealing with a national tragedy like Whakaari / White Island that has been challenging enough. If we think about dealing with the growing frequency of serious weather events that are causing major damage and trauma to many of our communities that is challenging enough. But nothing has been as challenging as dealing with the utter mess this country was left in by the previous Government that we've had to step up and deal with. When we think about a health system suffering from years of underinvestment and struggling to be consistent but most importantly equitable across our country. When we think about a mental health system that was just literally ignored and neglected because we had a Government that did not care about people who needed that help. We think about an education system that was struggling to do its job of consistent education good literacy good training and a good environment for our children across the country. Classrooms that were leaking—classrooms and facilities that were desperately short of what was needed to keep our children in a good environment. We think about regions that were desperate for investment desperate to keep their people desperate to keep their businesses. We think about a police force that was understaffed and under-resourced and a former police Minister who signed off on a reduction in the police force in 2016. We think about a social support system that had been set up to punish and stigmatise rather than support and transform which is what we have now. And we think about a drinking water a waste water and a stormwater system that was struggling to cope has been underinvested in for far too long and to which the previous Government simply turned a blind eye. Everywhere you looked everywhere we looked we saw neglect we saw cans being kicked down the road and a Government that just gave up. But then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern turned up with this Government and it all changed and it has all changed. We've got on with dealing with those hard intractable nearly impossible issues. All those issues we've been dealing with: health education welfare all those things. What have we done? We've lifted incomes. We've got people who were on benefits working. We've lifted incomes in the last year alone on average 8.8 percent—that's the lift in incomes that New Zealanders have enjoyed. We've lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty through better income support and through the school lunches programme. That's a testament to Ministers like the Hon Carmel Sepuloni the Hon Chris Hipkins and of course our Prime Minister in her capacity as Minister for dealing with child poverty. We've got more young people in apprenticeships than ever before—more than 50000 young people in apprenticeships. That's thanks not only to people like Carmel Sepuloni again but to Willie Jackson with his Mana in Mahi programme and He Poutama Rangatahi programme. We've got more police—1600 more of them. And what we now know is that more crime is being resolved; people who commit crimes now have a better chance of getting caught than ever before. And of course we have the huge challenge of waste water of drinking water and stormwater because we're not kicking the can down the road anymore. I pay tribute to our colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta for the incredible work that she has done to face up to that challenge and actually do something about it. Because on this side of the House we have a Government with Ministers who are focused on the task. Forget about the noise. Forget about the people opposite with no plan with no idea with nothing but chipping away. This is a Government that is getting on with the business. A stable Government with stable Ministers focused on the task at hand knowing what New Zealanders need and delivering on that promise. And we're doing all that stuff looking after New Zealanders while also responding to a global pandemic that has seen billions of people around the world shut in their homes and shut in their cities. We've done this because this is a Government that has given priority to the stuff that matters to New Zealanders.