Boyack Rachel; O'Connor GregRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call tonight on the Prime Minister's statement and like other members in the House may I begin by acknowledging the three former members who have passed recently. I do want to just pay particular note of Chester Borrows actually who I first met as a young activist around 15 years ago when the section 59 law change was happening. I just want to particularly acknowledge the principled way that he approached that law change and how much I valued the small time I got to spend with him. Our thoughts go to the friends and family of all of the former members who have passed recently. Like many members as well I'd like to also acknowledge the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on our friends in the Hawke's Bay in the Coromandel in Northland and in other parts of the North Island. In Nelson we understand the impact of severe weather events only too well. Recently we've had flooding and about two or three years prior we had severe fires in the region. But what we've seen through Cyclone Gabrielle is another whole scale of natural disaster. It's had a whole other level of impact on the community and on the land. We as a Government are committed to supporting the region to rebuild to get through this and also to learn from our rebuild of this area and what that may mean for other parts of New Zealand particularly as we adapt to the significant impacts of climate change.Can I acknowledge civil defence the National Emergency Management Agency all of the first responders the firefighters all of our health workers all of the volunteers our marae and everyone who has been involved in responding to the situation in the North Island.I am proud to be the member of Parliament for Nelson in a strong Labour Government and we are supporting New Zealand families and businesses through difficult economic conditions. We're continuing to invest in healthcare education transport and infrastructure projects so that we have a strong economy that supports good quality well-paid jobs.Today is International Women's Day. We as a Government have a commitment to addressing pay equity issues. We are lifting up wages and incomes for our lowest-paid workers many of whom are women. We are taking other steps as well to address cost of living challenges and the economic pressures that families and individuals face.Two particular initiatives I want to mention today. One is our move to increase the dental emergency grant from $300 to $1000. A couple of weeks ago I was at an event in Nelson and I spoke to some dentists who told me that they are seeing an immediate impact from the increase in that grant. They can do more dental work they are able to support people better and they're seeing better outcomes for people who need support with emergency and immediate dental treatment.The other big policy that we've introduced that will be significant for many people in my electorate is the introduction of fair pay agreements. I do want to acknowledge FIRST Union who I used to work for who have initiated for a fair payment for supermarket workers. It's something I've been advocating for a very long time. It's something I've been advocating for for a very long time so that we can have an increase in wages for the workers who work at profitable supermarkets around New Zealand but many of them are on the minimum wage and deserve to be paid properly.We have a number of significant investments and projects in Nelson that have been worked on over the last couple of years but that are continuing to be rolled out and I want to mention a few of those tonight. The most exciting of all of them is the investment in the new Nelson Hospital. Nelson Hospital is earthquake-prone. It's very well known that it is earthquake-prone and when one of our former health Ministers Dr David Clark did a stocktake of hospital buildings across the country it was found to be the most severe in terms of the state of it and the need for it to be significantly rebuilt. It will be the biggest capital project in a generation. It will employ thousands of locals and people from around New Zealand.Last year we secured the first piece of funding in Budget 2022 as part of the Government's $1.3 billion spend last year in capital infrastructure in health. We will be seeing over the next few years the rebuilds of Nelson hospital and the removal of the George Manson block which is earthquake prone. As part of that we will have a new energy centre which will replace the outdated coal burner which is something that members of that Nelson community have been pushing for for a number of years so I'm very excited about this project.What's coming this year—which is very exciting—is on 1 July we will finally have some significant improvements in public transport in Nelson. When I moved to Nelson 14 years ago as student president I discovered that many of our students were unable to catch public transport into the polytechnic and were using their own vehicles at significant cost and having trouble finding car parking and also contributing to congestion in Nelson. We have been advocating for improved public transport in Nelson for a significant period of time and I'm very excited about the changes that are coming. We will be increasing the frequency of public transport in Nelson which is the biggest barrier for people to use it. Whenever I have posted about our half-price public transport fares that response right back is that people want to see more buses and it would be easier for them to use those buses. In fact Nelson City Council's own survey have found that 60 percent of people would use public transport more if it came more frequently. We will be having buses to Motueka at only $6 each way and $4 if you use your Bee Card. So it will be very affordable for people to be able to take the bus from Motueka which is normally a 30- to 40-minute car drive. We will have a bus to the airport which people have been asking for for a long time. The buses will all be electric and Nelson-Tasman will have the biggest regional electric bus fleet in New Zealand. These changes are coming on 1 July people are excited about them and I look forward to those changes.We have been investing in public housing and community housing in Nelson. Kāinga Ora have announced 18 more homes in Richmond this year which is an area with a low number of public houses. Kāinga Ora have purchased the former Masonic lodge on Nile St where they're building another 15 to 25 houses. We are upgrading former Nelson City Council flats in Stoke and Tahunanui and the people living in those flats have told me that their health has improved as a result of the improved insulation and upgrades of those homes.Through the sale of those homes from Nelson City Council to Kāinga Ora Nelson City Council is investing in community housing with organisations like the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust. Habitat for Humanity is building homes using our progress homeownership fund. We are investing in an affordable housing fund in Nelson. Finally $35 million is being given to Nelson City Council for our infrastructure acceleration fund so that people who want to build up in Nelson which is desperately needed will be able to do that and increase the number of people living in our inner city so that inner-city Nelson can thrive.I want to finish by just making some quick notes about climate change. Last week I joined the students of Nelson who participated in the School Strike 4 Climate in Nelson. Climate change continues to be the most serious threat to our globe today. New Zealand must play our part to reduce emissions not only for ourselves but for the world and particularly for our neighbours in the Pacific who are most vulnerable to climate change events.Last year the Government—and I want to acknowledge climate change Minister James Shaw—released the climate adaptation plan. This is timely given the issues we are facing across New Zealand particularly in the Hawke's Bay but we are facing it in Nelson too. We will have to make some hard decisions at times about where we can develop where we may need to retreat from. What is important is that we do that under a proper framework with proper consideration to the criteria for that happening and that local communities can make those decisions under a national framework.I will finish by acknowledging our new Prime Minister and our new Ministers who alongside the rest of the Labour Government are working hard to both address the issues of the day like Cyclone Gabrielle and like the cost of living challenges we face while continuing our work to lay the foundations for New Zealand's future. I commend the Prime Minister's statement to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The time has come for me to leave the House for the dinner break. The House will resume at 7 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.