Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Madam Speaker I feel very honoured to be able to speak and stand in the House this evening to be able to give my reflections—or my contribution rather—on this Appropriation (2020/21 Estimates) Bill.It was not even six months ago I think that anybody in this House could have envisaged what 2020 would bring us. I know that this Budget is probably not the Budget that we thought we would be all debating in the final week of this House sitting before the end of this 52nd Parliament rises but here we are. Here we are in the oddest year that has been 2020 and we are now—like the world has globally been—forced to quickly and fundamentally shift ourselves as a nation.Now I want to thank first and foremost every single person that has worked tirelessly in Aotearoa New Zealand to get us to the position that we are in today to be able to say that here we are this team of 5 million. Collectively we will be leading New Zealand through our COVID recovery. Collectively we will be building back our economy. Collectively we have put ourselves into a position that is the envy of the world. It is something that wherever I go in our electorate of the mighty East Coast—and I'm sure that wherever any member of Parliament in this House goes in the places that they call home—whatever ilk that people are whatever colour that they adorn on their chest people are proud of the way that we have responded. People are cognisant of the privileged position that we are in to now turn to building our economy and I could not be prouder of the plan that this Government has to keep New Zealand moving. In March it was about responding to the unfathomable and we did that. That was through two different lenses. The first was the health one as we've discussed. But for us in Te Tai Rāwhiti we started to see the economic impacts of COVID-19 a lot earlier than the rest of the country because we were heavily dependent on forestry export. Almost one in every four families in Te Tai Rāwhiti had their incomes directly or indirectly impacted by forestry and the fact that China was starting to shut down—it didn't need our logs and it started to shut down. Our community rallied and we were supported by this Government. We were supported by the Hon Grant Robertson. We had the Hon Phil Twyford come up into our patch. He met with the people. He could see the desperation the looks on our community's faces when it was very apparent that we were going to face some economic turbulence well before we went into lockdown.We were the first cab off the rank to secure a regional COVID-19 economic recovery package of $29 million. That is something that really leads into the way that our Government has responded because that led to the recovery which leads to our rebuilding. Now there are five key areas of our fundamental economic plan. We are investing in our people—investing in our people. Our Government has invested $1.6 billion into training. We are investing in those people that want to and need to—out of necessity because of the situation that we collectively find ourselves in—retrain and be redeployed. If you want to become an apprentice in this country we have the opportunity to do that completely for free as a consequence of this Government's investment. Whether that's being a tradie whether that's being a sparky whether that is working in an area that has been completely under-resourced—mental health support whatever it is—we are providing that resource.Now last week or the week prior we had some big flooding up in Tolaga Bay up the East Coast. We were up there assessing some of the damage. I was actually meant to be up there looking at some of the investment from last time: in the 2018 floods the Provincial Growth Fund invested over $30 million to building and strengthening particular structures up some of our most flood-prone roads. I was supposed to be looking at that but we had another flood. Now one of the chaps that I had the opportunity to meet—he was a young fella. His name was Angus and he was the first point of call as we sort of went up into the dangerous area. Angus was a young gentleman. I'd say he'd be no older than 22 23. He was in his young 20s. He had just completed a three-week course: Wheels Tracks and Rollers. It was a three-week course that was a recipient of funding that came from our COVID recovery funds to enable retraining and redeployment. Now after his three-week retraining course to get him up into the civil engineering type of work a local chap by the name of Kim Cranswick—he is a founder of one of our local companies up there Cranswick Enterprises. Well Kim had taken on just the week prior to the floods about six new grads who had come off this course. Locals employing locals who had been trained locally to work in our patch—that is a story that is familiar for over 400 young locals up in our patch. They had been picked up retrained redeployed into areas that we need. Now I could not be prouder to see that level of investment into a region like ours. I heard just prior quite a derogatory framing I thought of a fund that has been transformational for rural and provincial New Zealand. I heard them refer to it as something like the poaka kete—the pig basket fund. How derogatory because if any of those members would like to come up to a place called Ōpōtiki—I would love to invite you all to come up to Ōpōtiki. This is one of the centres of our universe. Now this used to be a thriving incredible town. It's been a little worse for wear—DEPUTY SPEAKER: As much as I enjoy the member talking about my electorate it would be really good to focus on the Estimates just for the last couple of minutes.KIRITAPU ALLAN: The Estimates have a substantive—over $3 billion was invested into that fund that has invested in your electorate the mighty East Coast. Your electorate of the mighty East Coast has been a benefactor: $236.5 million on the Tai Rāwhiti $228 million into the Bay of Plenty. That funding has not gone to pork-barrel politics and we both know this. It has gone into fundamental investment in our people.Last week I was sitting literally with 80 young people—young old people—from our community that had been employed in a local project. It was the Whakatōhea mussel factory a massive big development. It has been invested in by this Government as a consequence of this Government's commitment to rebuilding our regions investing in our people and that is something that has been neglected for far too long. Now as we find ourselves on the precipice of what could be a gravely challenging economic environment ahead I am heartened. Just earlier I saw Sir Michael Cullen sitting in this House for some valedictories of some of our good friends. I reflected on his foresight in terms of thinking far beyond a three-year political electoral cycle. It's that type of vision that I see emulated in the Hon Grant Robertson and in these Estimates that we are debating here today. We have a critical economic situation—the globe does. So what he has done and what this Government's done has looked at the long-term future. We are investing in tomorrow's economy whether that be through over $1.1 billion that was invested into sustainable jobs—I'll acknowledge our friends over there in our team Kākāriki: it was $1.1 billion into nature-based jobs. That is about investing in our land and our young people and again Te Tai Rāwhiti has been a massive benefactor. I want to acknowledge the work of Rena Kohere and Charles who have secured substantive funding for over 60 young locals to plant trees and to do pest control up in the backblocks—for 60 young people that haven't had the opportunity to work on their land. I want to conclude with the words of the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern: We are focused on protecting jobs and creating new ones on upgrading our infrastructure and putting people at the centre of our recovery. We're focused on keeping New Zealand moving." and that is this—[Time expired]"