Wood MichaelMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): I want to stand with members on this side of the House and thank the Hon Judith Collins this week for bringing to the attention of the people of New Zealand the important news that is broadcast through the YourNewsWire.com website. And while it may be the case that the absurd suggestion that France was altering its child rape laws has been disproven there is other very important news that members of the House and members of the public should be aware of.The one in particular that I want to draw people's attention to is the extremely alarming piece which is titled: Real Life 'Vampire Outbreak' Reported In New Zealand". It goes on to say "Two women from Napier New Zealand have been arrested after it was revealed that they each performed separate vampire attacks over the weekend." So alarmed was I by this news that came through to me through following Judith Collins' Twitter feed that I actually visited Napier on Monday and I can safely report from a stroll on the town on Monday night that while there are some dangerous cougars on the prowl there are definitely no vampires on Marine Parade so we can put that one to bed as well.I want to move on to some more positive matters and some of the ways in which this coalition Government is delivering some real wins for New Zealanders. This week I want to take my hat off and acknowledge in this House the incredible work of our beautiful men and women in nursing up and down New Zealand—those people in our hospitals and our medical system who put their skill and their care into caring for our fellow New Zealanders when they are not well. They do such an incredible job such an incredible public service but for years and years they have been undervalued they have been underpaid and they have not been listened to.Nine long years of neglect and this week this coalition Government after a year of negotiations was able to sit down with our nurses and get a fair pay and employment settlement that starts to get us back on the track of properly recognising the incredible work of our nurses in New Zealand. They deserve it as do our other public servants and we are going to sit down with them—the teachers the nurses the police and all of those other men and women that we rely on in this country to deliver those public services—and we are going to start to undo that nine years of neglect that they had to go through while continuing to deliver those public services to New Zealanders.It's just part of a package of good news about the rising wages that we are seeing under this coalition Government. We only have to go back about a month for the good news about our mental health support workers being included in the pay equity settlement—the pay equity settlement that has been fought for by E tū union members and brave people like Kristine Bartlett. This Government is commencing the work of bringing more people in those caring professions and other professions into pay equity because they deserve fair pay and fair recognition for their care their mahi and their aroha for the people of New Zealand.Yesterday I noted the exciting announcement that the workers of Bunnings up and down New Zealand have achieved a living wage by sitting down with their employer and negotiating that. I want to congratulate them their union and Bunnings for that. It's part of a broader movement that's happening under this Government to ensure that working New Zealanders are paid fairly and can live in dignity when they go and do a fair day's work.Last month I was very proud to be part of this Government which fulfilled one of its pledges by ensuring that all our core Public Service workers are paid the living wage. I don't think there is any case to say that a person in this country who goes to work who puts the hours in should be paid less than it costs to actually live on and that is why this Government is very very proud to support the roll-out of the living wage to more and more New Zealanders—something that that side of the House has always been hostile to.At the same time as this is happening unemployment is heading down: 92000 more New Zealanders employed as of June this year compared to June last year. The economic fundamentals are good; investment is strong. We have strong fiscal surpluses under the very good management of our Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson which means that we could do things like respond to Mycoplasma bovis when it arose earlier today. Is it any wonder that New Zealanders are feeling positive about the future and positive about this coalition Government?We contrast that with the other side of the House who are obsessed this week with a bizarre right-wing social media feed. Their own leader couldn't even put the Hon Judith Collins right about that. That's the state of disarray that they're in. That is the lack of leadership on that side of the House. On this side of the House we are getting on with delivering wins for New Zealanders to make this a better and stronger Aotearoa for all of our people and I'm very proud to be a part of this Government."