SpeechDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. A couple of years ago on New Year's Day I woke up to find the sky glowing orange and there was a smell of smoke in the air and it was the impact of the Australian bushfires coming across the Tasman. A couple of months later we found ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic and I think back then it would have been hard to think—fast-forwarding for two more years—that we'd find ourselves with the war in the Ukraine and the devastating impact that that's had on communities there. But we're also seeing some of the impacts of the heatwaves happening in Europe and looking at the artefacts that are now rising out of the rivers because there's been no rain in the heat. I think that all of those things seem really really far away to us here in New Zealand and yet all of them are having their impacts here with basically the rising cost of living with fuel prices and food prices and the impact that it's having on families' budgets. So I'm really pleased to be part of a Government that's taking steps to help people through.I think about some of those immediate measures that we've put in place in the last little while. Fuel: filling up the petrol tank is a huge cost for many families. So we're seeing the cuts to fuel excise tax and to road-user charges but also the half-price public transport which has made a real difference in terms of people commuting and getting to work. Looking at the cost of living payments that have been coming into people's bank accounts and just making that small difference so that people can get ahead I also think back to the situation we would have found ourselves in if we hadn't been putting in those things that we've put in place over the last five years to help those on lower and middle incomes. Prior to coming into Parliament my role was around advocacy for children's health and child poverty and one of the things that we learnt was that it wasn't one single policy measure that meant that we had the higher child poverty rates that we had but it was a series of decisions made over many many years with each one having a cumulative effect taking that little bit away from families and their ability to make ends meet. Looking back to when we first came into this House as a Government back in 2017 I was so proud to be sitting in the House just before Christmas that year when we put in place the Families Package when we increased Working for Families. But we also introduced the winter energy payment so that families could afford to turn on the heater during the winter for those on superannuation and those relying on a benefit. But it's also really exciting. We've got a baby in the House today but seeing the Best Start payment—back then it was $60 a week for newborn babies in the first year going through to the first three years for those on lower to middle incomes and that's been increased to $65. So we're going to have families being able to have that little bit of extra support so that they can make those choices about whether they can stay home and care for their children in their early formative years or whether they want to go out to work. That's where again we extended paid parental leave and provided that extra support for families so they've got those choices. But then as children grow up we were also thinking about the costs that come in there and so what we've got is we've got the free school lunches. I know that in our community we've got many schools benefiting from those with many parents now being able to send their child to school knowing that they're going to get a healthy lunch. But also period products: this is a very big expense for many in their teenage years—again being able to know that you can turn up to school and those things will be provided. Low-cost doctors visits: again back when we first came into Government there was a real issue with the affordability of primary care. So what we've done there is make sure that those on community service cards have low-cost access to GPs because many of those things that you put off and put off end up with potentially a hospital admission whereas you can see your GP early if you're not worried about that cost. The other thing that I think was really significant was the increases we've made to benefits. This is something that underpins some of our historical trends in child poverty rates. We saw these big benefit cuts back in the early 1990s so it's wonderful to be seeing the increases that we've had to benefits—particularly even this year when they've gone up significantly—and also just the rises in superannuation as well that came in this year alongside those and also indexing benefits to the average wage so that families relying on benefits don't fall further and further behind. We're also increasing the minimum wage significantly so that gap between the minimum wage and the living wage has now narrowed significantly. So there are a lot of things we've done there which mean that as we move through these cost of living increases we've got families that are much better prepared because of all those things that we've put in place over the last five years. The more recent things are really great as responses for now but the things that we've put in place over the past five years will make a real difference moving forward. Thank you Mr Speaker. The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.