Ardern JacindaRt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): I do want to begin by acknowledging all the new members who have entered into this House and the extraordinary privilege that I know you are feeling as the opportunity to represent New Zealand dawns on you and you enjoy that new experience. I extend that to every new member. To those parties that have grown—I acknowledge the ACT leadership I acknowledge my colleagues in the Green Party where we have a cooperation agreement and I acknowledge the new members of the National Party who have joined this House this day. I also acknowledge the Māori Party as well.The Leader of the Opposition of course stood up and acknowledged it's not the size of the intake reflecting on her own history and the fact that in her intake there were three National party leaders within that cohort—perhaps foreshadowing the leadership prospects that sit within that new cohort that are coming today! I'm not sure if that was the intent but I wish you well none the less.I wish to reflect on first of all if I may the speeches in which we began our debate in this House today and I cannot imagine better speeches to set the tone of this new term of Parliament and I want to particularly express the pride that I have in Ibrahim and Arena. They as you will have seen for yourselves are extraordinary individuals but I would say that of each of our new MPs. I'm extraordinarily proud to be the leader of the Labour Party.This is in this 53rd Parliament the most diverse Parliament we have ever had and that's because voters—that's because ultimately New Zealanders—have chosen to reflect who we are as a nation in this House of Representatives. I can speak of course for the Labour Party when I say we have teachers we have social workers we have a midwife—quite lucky in our case to have that in our midst—Hon David Bennett: Any farmers any business people?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —we have doctors we have journalists we have unionists we have one ex-diplomat we have lawyers we have environmentalists—obviously on that side there are old hands. We have tax specialists equal pay advocates we have people who have farmed grown run their own business.Hon Member: No you haven't—Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We have different languages we have ethnicities—Hon Member: Point them out.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We obviously have more respect. We have the largest Māori team we have ever had in this party. We have New Zealand in this place.Now as I said while parties play a role in that it is ultimately the public that decides who is elected. So I want to begin my acknowledgment in this House my speech in this debate by thanking New Zealand for the honour and the privilege of being back here and forming a Labour Government. The support we received was diverse. It came from rural communities it came from urban towns cities and with that rightly comes a responsibility that I know every member on this side of the House and up into that side of the House—that all of us—feel strongly. I have said before and I recommit again we will be a Government for all New Zealanders not least because that is what is needed in these times.I have stopped saying that these are extraordinary times. COVID has meant that we've had to find a dramatic new normal. At the beginning of 2020 which feels for all of us like an absolute lifetime ago we saw the pandemic emerge on the other side of the world. By the end of February New Zealand had its first known case and what quickly followed was unprecedented moment after unprecedented moment: the closing of our borders first selectively in small part then there was the asking of everyone who came here to quarantine for 14 days. And I recall as we made that decision I felt at that time that I was essentially closing off our borders and shutting down the hospitality that we pride ourselves in providing. And then we closed it completely. Of course we've had limits on gatherings. We've had a complete lockdown. We've had the introduction of quarantine. We have had first after first but all of it has been necessary.In amongst all of this it's never been the decisions themselves that have necessarily stood out the most to me; it has been New Zealand's response to those decisions. New Zealand has taken everything in its stride. That is not to say that it hasn't caused pain. Now when we made that decision to close the borders we knew what impact it would have on some of our regions. We knew the impact it would have on places like Rotorua and on Queenstown and we felt that acutely but we knew what was required. The collective action of New Zealand in support of those actions has been probably one of the most humbling experiences of my lifetime.Now this Government does not take that sacrifice for granted and that is why we owe New Zealand not just our gratitude. We owe them our ongoing action to make sure we preserve the gains that every single New Zealander contributed to that every business that openly closed its doors when we asked that cancelled a wedding or a celebration that didn't have a tangi or gather in a time of grief—we owe every single one of them to fight every day to preserve the gains that they fought so hard for too.That is why there are three priorities for this Government. You will have heard them from the Speech from the Throne but I do want to take this opportunity to say them again. Each of them centres on the same wellbeing approach that you saw us take in that first term that was grounded in the work of the Wellbeing Budget of saying that there is more to governance and to progress than GDP. And those three priorities for this Government are the following: to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 to accelerate our economic recovery and to lay the foundations as we said in that speech for a better future. There is no doubt that as long as COVID is in the world we must maintain our absolute focus on our health response; there is no question. We have always maintained that the best response for us was one that put our people first. And I remember some of the discussions we had as we watched other countries around the world deliberate on the options in front of them. We heard the debates about plunging into the idea of herd immunity. We heard the discussion about some countries that said that they would rather keep their borders open and learn to coexist with COVID and make it their new normal. Well that wasn't right for us and the reason it wasn't right for us was because we knew that we had health inequalities in our country. We knew the capacity of our health system which is excellent but no health system in the world is built to deal with a global pandemic of this scale and we knew what flattening the curve meant. Flattening the curve meant that we would not have the capacity to cope with everyone who needed hospital care. So we deliberately decided on a strategy of elimination. Not everyone has supported that move but as long as I live I will stand by the decisions that we collectively made to do that. The strategy of elimination means that any time COVID emerges we stamp it out. It's a strategy that we have evolved and we have refined because there are very few countries who have adopted that approach. The premise is the same though. We will not coexist with COVID amongst us because that means coexisting with restrictions all of the time. It means coexisting with economic hardship consistently. And it means accepting an inevitability around loss of life and we do not. But that vigilance around our health response means we all have a role to play and everyone in this House has a role to play. For us as Government it means making sure we continue to manage our borders. That is our first line of defence. It means making testing widely available and accessible. It means supporting people to isolate if they are unwell. And at the heart of that of course are our moves to extend sick pay in this country to make sure we have the legal basis that supports our response to the pandemic. It means having an excellent contact tracing system and making sure we're using technology in that as well. But for all of us for every single New Zealander it means staying home when you're sick it means getting tested it means keeping a record of where you have been at all times and it means things like mask use on public transport. Now that list may sound easy but we all need to make sure that we create the environment where the public feel like they can undertake that response too. If we create an environment of blame of judgment where we publicly crucify those who may contract COVID-19 we fundamentally disrupt our ability to respond to this virus. We will only be as successful as a New Zealand public who are willing to get themselves tested are willing to say if they're unwell that they will stay home and that means we cannot stigmatise; we must support. So that is my message—as Dr Bloomfield said People are not the problem" and it is up to us to make it so. Ultimately this is a formula that can save lives and support our economy and it's a formula that has been endorsed. I note even this week Bloomberg has listed us as number one in terms of our resilience to COVID-19 and in that measure they've looked at our health response they've looked at our ability to make sure that we've reopened our economy. It is an endorsement of the team of 5 million's work and I acknowledge that. On the Opposition side I absolutely understand and expect that they will play their role in holding us to account in our health response to COVID-19. The one thing I will ask them to remember is the alternative—there is no such thing as a cost-free response to COVID. No country in the world has experienced a response that is not coming at a cost in some form. Our view is that we have chosen the path that allows us to avoid the greatest of costs and that is the human cost. The natural question though that everyone will be asking is: "How long for? How long will we be living in these unprecedented times with these extraordinary moves? How long will we have to be in this form of new normal?" Next year there is a clear path for the globe around the response in the form of vaccination but we must be realistic with everybody—not just in New Zealand but globally—that there are hundreds of vaccine candidates. Not all of them necessarily will meet the needs of our population base. We will need to sequence as these vaccines roll out the immunisation of our population. It will not happen en masse it will not happen quickly and we'll need to sequence that vaccine protection with changes in our border settings with top of mind the safety of our public and our community. Next year does present opportunity but it also presents risk. We as a Government undertake to communicate clearly with New Zealand what that path around vaccination will be and what it will mean. We will keep focused on looking after our people.In the meantime recovery has already begun. We've always said the response and the recovery must happen at the same time and we already see the signs of that recovery. There were predictions early on even at the Budget that we would be facing unemployment levels up around the 10 percent mark. We in the last quarter saw unemployment at 5.3 percent. Now we don't celebrate any level of unemployment—we are the Labour Party—however what we are seeing with more than 230000 more in employment in September than predicted is that the response we have chosen is cushioning us from the harshest edges of this pandemic. But this has not just been through good luck; it has been through planning it has been through policy it has been through a concerted effort to focus on protecting livelihoods and we must continue with that.At the election we presented a plan that New Zealanders endorsed. It includes investing in our people to stay in work or to get work supporting small businesses to thrive job creation initiatives programmes to bolster our exports and preparing for a sustainable future. When COVID-19 struck—and I will always remember this very well—the Minister of Finance very very quickly identified the need for us to keep people linked to their work and the dignity of their work; 1.7 million people were supported through the wage subsidy. Now key for us in the delivery of that programme was speed and to any worker from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD)—and I acknowledge you Minister Sepuloni—who is listening to this I thank you for the role that you played. Only a week ago I met someone from a small business who said "I remember filing for my application for the wage subsidy on a Friday and going into the weekend and wondering if I would be able to keep my staff my family—and that payment came through that weekend." And that was because an MSD worker was working through every hour that we had to make sure we delivered for every business that needed that support and I acknowledge them.But some have been displaced. We know that disproportionate impact that we see on women on Māori on Pasifika on young people. Now while in some of the statistics we are starting to see job growth back in those areas where traditionally we do see women for instance it is not enough for us simply to sit and wait for that return. We want to invest in our people and provide new pathways and new opportunities. That has meant for us looking on the lessons of the past. When we last experienced the global financial crisis we know the area that took a hit particularly was vocational training and apprenticeships. It is completely understandable that when an employer is thinking about how they will survive an economic downturn they will inevitably look to release those team members who are their newest their most inexperienced and who they may still be training. They are our apprentices and they are the very people that we need for our rebuild. We moved quickly on a wage subsidy scheme to support employers to keep their apprentices on and they are. But more than that we also looked to encourage more people into apprenticeships so we made them free. That simple act of sending a message that there is no barrier to training has meant that this year we have doubled the number of apprentices on last year. We have 14000 and amongst that 5000 women but more needs to be done. I want to just acknowledge that we have also made vocational training in targeted areas free that includes in parts of our health system. This is about trying to bring more diversity into vocational training and education and that is something that we will keep working very hard on.We also know that we need to do more to support our sole parents more to support those who are carers and those who are on support payments in our system. That is why we've committed to reinstating the Training Incentive Allowance so that single parents those with disabilities or who are carers can aspire to degree-level training. It is something that should never have been removed—people in this House have benefited from that. It means lifting the abatement rate as we intend to do and extending the Flexi-wage scheme to support those who will be and have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.But all of this requires of course our trainees those who are supporting themselves into new opportunities to actually have jobs to move into. Now in some areas we have work; we just don't have the workforce. Our seasonal workforce is one of those areas. Now whilst we are working very hard with the industry and I acknowledge in some of those industries they have worked to make sure that they have wages that are decent and conditions that are good—but to everyone I implore you: this is a chance for us to make the changes we've been talking about for years to recruit New Zealanders into this work through decent wages decent conditions and decent opportunities. I thank those in the industry who are doing just this and I implore the rest to come along with us.The same goes for the areas we invest in to create opportunities. We want meaningful work that leaves a lasting legacy for New Zealand. In February—again approximately a lifetime ago—we announced the New Zealand Upgrade. At that time we thought it represented the biggest upgrade spend that we would see in New Zealand. It included decarbonisation of parts of our public sector investment in projects for every single State school in the country massive transport upgrades that include public transport walking and cycling and that it is the difference between us and the last National Government—we want people to have choice in their transport options and our transport projects are not press releases; they are projects that we fund.But then of course we saw COVID hit; we knew we needed to invest more. It was an opportunity to stimulate the investment in our communities that isn't about those large-scale projects but is as meaningful in its impact. Community ventures like libraries like surf lifesaving clubs community pools and creative spaces—we have invested in them all. I will always remember one of the projects I had the chance to announce. I was in Tai Rāwhiti—Hon Kiritapu Allan: Yeah.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —for a very—I always know that there will be a positive response when I mention the East Coast in this House. I now expect likewise for many other parts of the country.Kieran McAnulty: Give it a go.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I was in Tai Rāwhiti some distance from the Wairarapa and they had been working for years to upgrade that community pool. They in that area have a well-utilised and well-loved olympic pool complex but simple things like the fact that the changing rooms are not directly connected to the pool so in the wintertime you have to make a mad near-naked dash from the changing room to the pool—simple things that mean that that well-loved facility didn't look as well-loved as it could be. Now that is a huge ask for a council with a rating base that was not growing. So that was an area where we knew we could create jobs but we could also invest in community by partnering to deliver that project. Now when we announced both Midway Surf Lifesaving Club's upgrade and the olympic pool complex people cried. We should never underestimate the impact of these projects and the legacy that in a way COVID will leave our communities because these are investments for jobs and for infrastructure and for legacy.We have the opportunity to do the same with public housing now. I will for ever find it galling to be lectured by the Leader of the Opposition who left us a housing crisis denied it was a housing crisis and I have to say whose major response to that housing crisis—their major response to the housing crisis—was to sell State houses to cut the public housing waiting list and on the one thing that apparently would make all the difference planning they did absolutely nothing—nothing. So I do find it galling and a big difference between this side of the House and that side of the House is we do not believe that escalating house prices are a suitable part of an economic plan for growth. It is not—it is not. That is why we are not content with the experience that New Zealand is having right now. We will keep working as we did in the last term. We closed tax loopholes we stopped foreign buyers we started our plan and we are on track to deliver more than 6000 State houses. We have more consents that are being issued in Auckland since the 1970s and more houses than any Government has built since the 1970s. The sad fact is that if that National Party when they were in office built public houses at the rate we are we would not have a housing waiting list right now. So we will continue that work on public housing. We will continue the work that has led to first-home buyers making up 25 percent of the market. But we are not content with that so we will keep going.We also have an opportunity in areas like for instance waste management which will contribute to our climate goals; investment in water treatment because in New Zealand it is a national shame that we don't have safe drinking water everywhere; and of course the ongoing rebuild of schools and hospitals.Small business is squarely part of our plan as well. During the election campaign I remember the Leader of the Opposition dismissing taking action on things like merchant service fees. That just tells me a conversation has not been had by that leader with a retailer. This is a significant bugbear. It is not the only thing we will do but it's not something to be trivialised. We will progress prompt payment we will keep rolling out Business Connect and the technological advancement we saw by our small businesses that adapted so rapidly in lockdown—we'll continue with those digital technology vouchers in the next term.The same for our exporters. Already of course we've invested more than $200 million to support our exporters into markets while our borders are closed. Our borders may be closed but we want our goods and services to continue moving. I must acknowledge the work that as trade Minister at the time Minister Parker did to make sure that those trade flows continued. We are seeing growth in our export markets. Dairy beef fruit—kiwifruit is booming. All of that makes a huge difference right now when we are in the throes of recovery. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership of course will be an important step. The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus will be ratified. The European Union free-trade agreement is clearly in our sights as is an agreement with the UK. And our agreement on climate change trade and sustainability and our chair of APEC all present opportunities.The last point I wanted to reflect on is that idea of using this opportunity to prepare for our future. We don't trade on our products alone; we trade on our brand. We trade on notions of trust on quality and on the environment. If we don't demonstrate that we understand the principles of kaitiakitanga we suffer from that economically—not to mention the moral issue that we leave the next generation. Our response to COVID is an opportunity to hasten the pace on our environmental challenges. We already had an agenda for the restoration of our waterways we're rolling out our Essential Freshwater programme but our Jobs for Nature package helps us to hasten that and support our primary producers and communities as we go with riparian planting working on sedimentation and even supporting with pest control. At the same time this is our chance also to expedite our work on climate change. We have said of course that the progress we made in the last term laid the foundation but the job is not done. We stand proudly on a record of the zero carbon legislation the Climate Commission and the carbon budgets they will produce the ban on offshore oil and gas permits into the future the establishment of a hydrogen road map record investment in public transport and He Waka Eke Noa our historic agreement with the primary producers on our pathway to properly price emissions in the future. That was a foundation and I acknowledge the huge role that the Green Party played in the last Government in laying that foundation. Next more progress on transport: vehicle emission standards zero emission buses bringing forward our goal of 100 percent renewable. We are not done. Our next generation cannot allow us to sit still when the climate crisis continues to move at pace—but more on that next week.I want to finish on the issue of child poverty. I have to say in the last term the most frequently used statistic to attack us in this House by the Opposition was actually the poverty statistics for the National Government's time in office. We still have not had the household income surveys that show the full impact of the Families Package but undeniably—undeniably—that increase in the family tax credit undeniably the introduction of the winter energy payment the first return of a universal child payment a general increase in benefits—not just one for families with parents and children which is what the last Government did but a general benefit increase—undeniably have made progress. But it is not enough; we've always said that. We have to keep going. Our children require it of us. So you will not hear satisfaction on this side of the House until you see us reach our goals around child poverty which we are so committed to we legislated for them. But you will also hear us stand proudly on that record of progress. We will have an unrelenting focus not just on material hardship but on incomes which the National Government refused to focus on.These are some of the harshest times for this country but as was said in the Speech from the Throne this is also a time for unrelenting focus on consensus and change bringing New Zealand with us as we face the challenges of tomorrow. I am confident that we can leave this place having made it better than we found it and that is what we intend to do."