McLellan TraceyDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Mr Speaker. I must start by saying that the contributions from the Opposition today and in general over the last wee while remind me somewhat of Winston Churchill and not in a good way—not in the statesmanlike way not in the profound way but in the way that they just ooze pessimism and I'm sorry for that visual. The contributions were delivered by an Opposition with an unfortunate pessimistic disposition and when I see that unfortunate pessimistic disposition and hear it in this House I'm reminded that it was Winston Churchill who once said A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." We know on this side of the House that the Opposition are simply on the wrong track when they have to resort to that sort of pessimism and talk down our economy talk down our future simply to make their point.The reality is that there is a really strong cause for optimism in New Zealand. New Zealanders are hard-wired to be more optimistic than not. It's how we work. It's how people work. It's functional it's adaptive and it's the way things go. New Zealand has cause for optimism because we share three main advantages and they are our people-first COVID response our strong economic position and our proven team. Let's just go back through those three things in a little bit more detail. Let's go firstly with our people-first COVID response which we know saved lives and protected our economy. But more important it also demonstrated the values of this Government—the fact that if you put people first always good things happen. People are the heart of our economy and that is always the right way to conceive of these issues.The second thing is our strong economic position. It was by design; it certainly was not by accident as is often insinuated and it sees us starting the next phase of our economic recovery in a much stronger position than many others that we might compare ourselves to despite facing the very same global issues and the very same global cost of living pressures that we all find ourselves facing at the moment. But what we do know is that people's incomes are growing at the highest rate since records began. More homes have been built in the past year than since records began. The size of our economy is larger than what it was pre-COVID and our Kiwi exports are in demand. We're in demand. It doesn't seem that long ago that I remember New Zealand Prime Ministers having to pay to get on American talkback shows. Now we have world looking at us. We are in demand we are on that stage and that stage means something.The third thing is our proven team—the same team that got us through COVID-19 is now using those same smarts to get us through the tough times we're now facing and we are facing tough times. No one denies that. There's no easy fix but at least we're taking some action to ease those pressures and the National Opposition can guffaw but their record is to simply vote to not support Kiwis. They've voted against the wage increases. They've voted against the cost of living assistance. They've voted against the winter energy payment and increasing benefits. They've got no answers unless you conceive of ill-focused tax cuts to the wealthiest with a $6 billion price tag that either means that we're borrowing more money or presumably given recent announcements in that direction that they're simply slashing more services. That's their answer.New Zealanders as I said are hard-wired to be more optimistic than not. It's adaptive it's functional and it's how we work. It means that when hard times come and they do—hard times come and go—we understand as people who are destined to be optimistic that these things are temporary. They don't last forever. They're not permanent. We get up we get on with it and we look to the future with that optimism that our Minister of Finance has so ably couched his opening contribution in today.We are a country that is in demand as I said and that's no small feat. We're ready with I think one of the best Governments in our history in place to tackle whatever the world throws at us next. We're full of optimism full of pride and full of all the thankful and prideful things that we should remember from the last five years. Thank you."