Wood MichaelHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Sir Winston Churchill once said History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." And for the National Party in terms of their reputation in the years to come that's about the only chance they have at the moment. Today we caught an insight into the inner workings of the National Party and their total inability to focus on anything that actually matters to New Zealand with their leader's focus on the siting of artworks in the parliamentary corridors. But what was more concerning for me today given the shift in the balance of power on the political right was actually not what the National Party has to say because from day to day their attempts to stir up rancid little culture wars have just kind of become the noise that we all hear for a few seconds and then block out—what was more concerning to me today actually were the comments of the ACT Party in response to our Government's work to lead a responsible discussion about how New Zealand reconnects to the world in the time of COVID.What we heard from the ACT Party is in fact what we have heard all the way along from them which is that we should just put the evidence the science the focus on the wellbeing and the health of people to one side and just open up and risk it all. And what New Zealanders can see very clearly there is what it would be like under a Government of the right in this country. We would have a National Party weakened and shrunken obsessed with trivial side cultural issues and an ACT Party that would throw us open with the free-market zealotry that was so resoundingly rejected by our country after the experiences of the 1980s and 1990s. That would be what New Zealand would face under a National-ACT Government and that is what we definitely do not need at this point in time.This is a Government on the other hand that is focused on delivering on the things that really do matter for New Zealanders and what can be more important in the world today than New Zealanders knowing and trusting that they have a Government that will continue to be vigilant that will continue to keep them safe from COVID and that will continue to listen to the experts and the science and put the health and the wellbeing of people first. Because from that side of the House time and time over the last 18 months we've heard it from them: we should do what they're doing in Australia we should do what they're doing in Sweden we should do what they're doing in Taiwan in Vietnam. And time and time again it has been the proven approach of this Government in putting the wellbeing of New Zealanders first that has paid off and the good news is that not only has that ensured that New Zealand has preserved its COVID-free status one of the only countries in the world to achieve that—and just look across the Tasman at the struggles that our Aussie cousins are having at the moment to know the strength of our approach—but at the same time as we have achieved those outcomes at the same time as we have kept our vulnerable people safe and healthy during the greatest public health challenge of the last 100 years we have proven that in prioritising the needs and the wellbeing and the health of people we can actually look after the other things that are important as well.This is a Government that is also delivering in terms of the economic rebuild from COVID—rates of growth as high as we had pre-COVID almost record-low unemployment of 4 percent hundreds of thousands of people getting back into the labour force tens of thousands of young people taking up the opportunities of free trades training and apprenticeships to get jobs and build skills and make sure that we are set up to deliver the infrastructure that our country needs in the future. Things in New Zealand are going well but these are challenging times and New Zealanders do need to know that they have a Government that is focused on these issues and not the sideshows of the Opposition.We are delivering in transport as well and over the last couple of weeks I have been very pleased to see the progress all around our country. Over the parliamentary recess I joined with colleagues to open the new Puhinui interchange a wonderful new train and bus station in South Auckland that will give Aucklanders the opportunity to use public transport to get to our airport. We dug the first sod on the Northwestern Busway. After the National Party widened the Northwestern Motorway didn't put any public transport capacity in we're coming back and giving the people of the north-west the ability to take public transport around their city. On Friday I'll be opening up the Awakino Tunnel a part of the investments that we are putting into the regions to make sure that people have safe and fit-for-purpose transport infrastructure all around our country. And do you know what? In the first months of its operation in July the clean car discount saw 2000 Kiwis buying new clean cars—a record month the best we have ever seen.This is a Government unlike that lot that is focused on what matters: keeping New Zealanders safe advancing our economic recovery and building the infrastructure of the future for Aotearoa New Zealand."