Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Thank you very much for this opportunity to contribute to the general debate. We've heard 15 minutes from the National Party of no solutions and while I applaud the enthusiasm of some of the members I cast my mind back to when I was in Opposition and how despite all the enthusiasm in the world a stark reality soon kicks in that you've actually got to come up with solutions. So I encourage those on that side of the House who haven't been in Government to lean forward and speak to Mr Mitchell or others who have had the experience of actually having to do the hard work to meet the needs of our country. I am really proud that on this side of the House we are getting the mahi done. Sadly though today in the official death toll of those who have passed away sadly due to COVID-19 we have just passed 1000. Now that's a grim number and I'm sure the House will continue to express our condolences and our support for the families during this time. But I can only imagine how much higher that number would have been had we not invested like we have on this side of the House into the services that matter to our people. As an Associate Minister of Health when I looked across the Māori health provider network in this country I was blown away at the work that they did. But what was interesting was the work that they did; they did it literally on the smell of an oily rag. They were borrowing money or asking for money from the community simply to travel up the coast to deliver vaccines. That is a sign of under-investment in an important part of the health sector. Under this Government I'm proud to say that there has been record investment in Māori health providers up and down this country. The feedback from those providers and the communities that they serve has been hugely positive. I'm ashamed to say that it's taken COVID for us to get there but what I am proud to say is that as we build the health reform and the health sector that our people deserve there is going to be more opportunity for services to be delivered in our communities to the people who need it the most and the statistics are quite clear: our Māori population needs that support. When I look towards the remote places in our country—a beautiful place like Te Tai Rāwhiti and beautiful places on the west coast in Taranaki—housing has become clearly one of the biggest challenges in those regions. As a housing Minister I'm really proud that the announcements we've made recently with Ka Uruora and Te Toitū Tairāwhiti will look towards providing over 400 homes in those places. Now many of us travel around the country and I can tell you that when you drive through small towns like Tikitiki or Ruatōria it's very rare to see a new house. It's rare to see a new build and I'm excited that we've enabled by Māori for Māori solutions to be able to build new homes in places like Ruatōria Tikitiki and Ōpunake. In fact one of the locals in Ōpunake said to me that the only new homes that go up in Ōpunake are multimillion-dollar holiday homes. Well what our housing programme does with Māori iwi and hapū is deliver housing to the people who need it the most and in places where it's needed the most and I'm really proud of those particular investments. That's because this Government invested $730 million in the Māori housing sector which has been ignored for far too long. For far too long we've relied on big developers to make sure that they can meet these needs these local needs of community. I'm proud that we're developing that particular sector with the Māori population. We talk about mental wellbeing. Mental wellbeing: many in this House will know Te Whare Tapa Whā. Sir Mason Durie provides the blueprint for wellbeing not just for Māori but for everybody in this country. I'm really proud that just the other day I launched alongside Mr Mark Kopua and Dr Diana Kopua a programme or a kaupapa called Mahi a Atua. That builds on mātauranga Māori for the spiritual wellbeing the cultural wellbeing and the mental wellbeing of Māori communities. This is something that has been ignored for far too long. Developing and using mātauranga Māori as a way to heal Māori population and indeed the whole population I think is an important part of our future. Just finally from me: very shortly we will be celebrating the first Matariki weekend. It's absolutely awesome and everywhere I've been around the country over the past few months communities are saying to me how excited they are to welcome people into their homes to celebrate Matariki. But more importantly they are super excited about learning about Matariki and what that means for us as a country and I'm proud today to stand alongside my colleagues here and I look forward to sharing that time with our people across the country.