Leavasa Dr Anae NeruDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Thank you Madam Speaker. Kia ora koutou katoa. Talofa lava. I take this opportunity to take my first call ever in the House. Again I want to say thank you to my electorate of Takanini. To stand here and speak in the House is a privilege and honour and one that I'm sure all the members across the House do not take lightly. On this particular special debate or discussion as the last member has mentioned on the aid to the Pacific I'd like to say again: thank you to the committee for this report. Looking at the report itself the key things I took out of it was to strengthen and deepen the partnerships that we have with our whānau in the Pacific and also the resilience part of it.I also look at the types of aid that we provide to the Pacific and one of them is humanitarian assistance as well. I would like to speak to that because I've had firsthand experience in terms of seeing that aid welcomed in the Pacific. Almost 12 years ago in September 2009 there was an 8.3 magnitude earthquake that hit 200 kilometres off the coast of Samoa and a huge tsunami hit the Pacific Islands especially on the southern end of Samoa itself. I remember being in Middlemore Hospital as a young house surgeon and after my rounds hearing about the news and then deciding with my family to rush over to Samoa to volunteer in their efforts but also to accompany some of the teams from New Zealand to the Pacific Island.It was where I saw a lot of the villages on the southern end—Lepa Lalomanu Fagaloa. Some of these villages are where I saw families were displaced loved ones were lost and we felt the fear and anxiety of local villagers. Families had fled to higher ground out to the mountains where us and our Red Cross team had to move with the families. A lot of them scattered across the coast and there were aftershocks. So being up on the mountains and inside the bush area these aftershocks gave us—I guess shocking to us as a team as well. We were always on the comms waiting to see if there was another tsunami hitting the coast. What I saw first hand was the aid provided and a lot of the New Zealand teams across there were really well welcomed. It was great to have a Pacific team go over as well to speak the language to be able to hold their hands because a lot of them needed that. People had hope. People had a hand to hold on to and to be lifted up out of what was devastating.In more recent times we look at the measles outbreak. In 2019 we saw it hit New Zealand as well and then it moved to the Pacific—Samoa and Tonga as well. Again I went across with a volunteer team to help out the local hospital and we saw the nurses there—the local nurses the local doctors—that were really hanging in there. The rosters were full but they were really welcoming the aid that we provided to give them a bit of a rest and to be able to get the vaccinations out into the neighbouring villages.Now we look to COVID-19 and it is really important that we get things right in this current environment. It is true that what happens here has an effect in the Pacific. It's always great when I see our Pacific teams move and mobilise over there so I commend the many teams that have left our shores to go and help out not only in Samoa but the other Pacific Island nations to support and encourage them in the work that they do.What we saw in Samoa when measles hit their shores was devastating. I think it was about 83 children and adults who passed away during that time. So it was really tough to see our Pacific whānau my whānau as well being hit with such an outbreak. So COVID19—and I'm pretty happy that we do have a plan where Cabinet agreed to earmark $75 million for the assistance for the COVID-19 vaccines. So that's why I'm pretty pleased—really pleased—about this inquiry report. It will help to for the future strengthen and deepen our relationships with our Pacific whānau and that's why I commend this inquiry to the House. Fa'afetai lava.