Russell Deborah; Salesa JennyHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Minister of Statistics): As so many speakers have already done I wish to talk—as the Prime Minister did—about the effect of the recent weather events. In particular I want to focus on my electorate.The extreme rain event started in Auckland on Auckland Anniversary weekend. I was at home in Titirangi and watching the rain just pouring out of the sky. It was an extraordinary amount of rain. That Friday night my husband and I were evacuated from our house. There was a knock on the door at about 10 o'clock—Could you please go and stay somewhere else for the night?" We were fortunate—we called friends and went and stayed with them.The reason was a slip down the road—a slip which has resulted in three of my neighbours' homes being red-stickered. Further down the road another set of houses were red-stickered; further down again more houses red-stickered. Right through my electorate there has been that kind of response. Now this happened before Cyclone Gabrielle.The extraordinary thing was seeing all the damage but then seeing my community turn out to help each other. As Michael Wood said it's "we" not "me" and that was so obvious in my community. The Titirangi Volunteer Fire Brigade was getting out there and delivering water to homes where there was no water. Of course they were doing this in the midst of the sadness and worry waiting to hear about their colleagues in Muriwai—had they survived? How many were dead? So our volunteer fire brigades right across my electorate and out through Auckland played an extraordinary role in helping people that first weekend.But there's someone else who played quite an extraordinary role in helping people that first weekend and that was our Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni who when an evacuation centre was stood up at St Leonards Road School on the Friday night got there herself got the centre running found clothes and bedding for people and spent the whole weekend there helping.She had a whole swag of former All Blacks there helping led by Sir Michael Jones and Maliena Jones. But when I say "swag" there was not a swagger amongst them. They were there to serve and to help as was all of my community. It was the extraordinary thing during this time.But then of course carrying on from the floods which left devastation we had the cyclone blowing through as well. Between the floods and the devastation I think there is not a single area in my electorate that has not been affected. Houses were yellow-stickered in Glenhaven down on Margate Road houses have been red-stickered and yellow-stickered in Green Bay along Cliff View Drive. Houses in Titirangi have been destroyed roads have been taken out.Houses in Laingholm have had slips destroy their access. The road access is destroyed after Huia and more houses have gone. Karekare is heartbreaking: the road down there is still rated for emergencies only and residents only—and even then only those residents who need to get up and down. I have been taken down and around Karekare twice by residents so that I could talk to the community groups on the ground to find out what they needed. All part of that community response. I'd especially like to refer to Shalema and Becks to Sarah to Jenny and Kim who've been leading the community there in their response.In Pīhā houses are red-stickered. The road into Pīhā is fragile. The water and power there have been out for extraordinary lengths of time. They're getting back on now. But the children now have a terrible problem getting to school because they can't get across the roads—can't get there safely. Big shout-out there to Jenene to Lethi to Amber and to others who have led the community response in Pīhā.In Waiatarua the roads have been taken out. In Te Henga Bethells access over the roads is really really difficult and houses have been red-stickered. Big shout-out to Mark Allen there who's led the response. In Henderson people have been flooded and around the Swanson Road area the road is closed because of slips. The damage is extraordinary.I would like though to praise the team effort by all the people there who hold elected office: MPs city councillors local body members—of all political stripes. Everyone has helped and it has been great to see it happening. The need is ongoing and I'm very grateful for this Government's response and the work that has been put in by this Government—and of course by others—to support people to support business to support community. I particularly note the new role of the Minister for Auckland and how that will help in the response to this extraordinary event.So this is an extraordinary time and one where our Government will be doing its utmost to support those who are affected and of course not just in my electorate but through Hawke's Bay and Gisborne and the East Cape Wairoa.Of course while all this was happening—this extraordinary event which the Government has responded to—the ordinary work of Government has carried on. And part of the ordinary work of Government—even though it occurs only every five years—is the census. The census has had to carry on.I'm pleased to report that today nearly 2.6 million individual forms have been returned. That's not counting any paper forms—we'll only get the paper forms in a week or so; we'll only start to get at an initial feel for the size of the response by early to mid next week. This Government has led a whole lot of work to make sure that groups that were not counted last time—that were under-represented in the count—have been counted this time. We've been trying to work particularly with our Māori and Pasifika communities where the undercount was really worrying last time.So this time around there has been an iwi-led response to the census in some areas—where the data collection is being led by iwi and then the data is turned over to Stats. So instead of Stats collecting the data and turning it over to the iwi it goes the other way around. That's one way of increasing the reach into some communities because it is done through iwi. In particular this has been rolled out in the East Cape and the Far North. And of course that's extraordinarily helpful at this time because people on the ground will have a better response. There's been a Te Ao Māori unit within census leading some of the work around designing the census. The census is available fully in te reo and census engagement groups have been at community events like Te Matatini encouraging people to respond to the census.The same in Pasifika communities. There will be census outreach officers at Polyfest and so on. Just last night I was out in Porirua at what was called Census Fest where Pasifika groups had deliberately set up—with the assistance of Stats New Zealand—to get a good response from Pacific communities. And Barbara Edmonds our wonderful new Minister says that 782 forms were completed at that event. So that's all under way.Of course because of the storms we've had to have a flexible response to the census—and the Government has been flexible and nimble in that regard. The time for collecting census forms has been extended and there will be more boots on the ground more people collecting the census for a longer period of time. People think that the census is just one day but the census actually extends over a period of weeks even months as we clean the data and so on. The important thing is that people do the census as at Census Day—or as it turns out the night of 7 March. So that is what we've done in respect of the census.Just one final thing I wish to address.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Oh please do!Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: I wish I had more time. I think I just want to turn very briefly to what the previous speaker was saying about inflation and saying that it was the fault of this Government. So Mr Simon Watts I want to say to you: how is it that the Government spending in this country is responsible for the rate of inflation of Australia of 7.8 percent? How is it Mr Watts this Government is responsible for the rate of inflation in the UK which is at 10.5 percent? How is it that this Government is responsible for the rate of inflation of the OECD as an average which is 10.3 percent?The rate of inflation in this country is 7.2 percent and we are not alone in that. There is a worldwide pandemic of inflation and this Government will be working hard to support New Zealanders to enable them to manage in what is a difficult time for the entire world. That is what lies behind the cost of living payment; that is what lies behind the increase in the minimum wage; that is what lies behind our efforts to help people; that is why fair pay agreements are so important: it is all about supporting the wages and the incomes of ordinary New Zealanders. And that is what this Government is committed to.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call the Hon Michael Woodhouse for five minutes."