O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I'd just like to start by pointing out to New Zealanders that this weekend there's a Coast to Coast event the iconic Coast to Coast event which has been made famous by Robin Judkins. And I want to acknowledge Robin Judkins who started that. It's become an iconic worldwide event. Steve Gurney is again the legend involved at the moment. Good luck to those who are competing and who are actually organising that this weekend. But importantly what I'd like to do is use that as an analogy for where we find ourselves and how I relate that to the Address in Reply debate. Those who are training for this weekend are really training like anyone training for any sport—they're really training for that last 10 to 15 minutes. Most people can do half of whatever the event is—three-quarters—but training getting ready is about making sure you're in condition for the hard bit. The analogy I'd like to use for the Coast to Coast is COVID. COVID put New Zealand under stress. COVID has been the last 15 minutes of any big sporting event where we have to dig deep.We have succeeded in New Zealand by any measure. We have succeeded economically. We have succeeded by keeping the numbers the deaths down and by keeping New Zealanders safe. But importantly it's a time now to look at why. It is because we were match-fit when we went in there. And this is a time when we really have to do something we're not very good at doing in this House. Let's acknowledge our public services because one man Ashley Bloomfield was the public servant who was at the head of this with Chris Hipkins with the Prime Minister each day. But what he did was he represented a very well-trained professional Public Service. I am the member of Parliament for Ōhāriu and many of those public servants live there and I see them every day. Today I was in select committee and I heard people Ha ha!" guffawing when they saw that Government departments had had an increase in funding in the last three years as though that was a bad thing. It was a good thing and what we've seen with COVID shows what a good thing it was that we do ensure that our institutions of State are in good nick. And they were in good nick because we saw Treasury's response we saw the Reserve Bank's response we saw the Minister of Health's response we saw IRD's response. Education the Ministry of Social Development—I could go through the lot. And anyone will do—there were members opposite I know who sat on that select committee who grilled those public servants when they came through as part of the entertainment at 10 o'clock every morning during lockdown. Tell me what anyone who was an objective or subjective watcher of that would have seen—"Wow! Aren't our public servants pretty good? Isn't our Public Service pretty good?" So anyone who would dare to criticise the fact that we are rebuilding that Public Service we're making sure that those professionals who kept this country safe who when we had the leadership—we had the leadership of the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. But she like any leader is as good as the tools she has as the troops she has as the people she has and she showed and we showed and New Zealand saw that we have good people.That's why it's so important that when we reflect on what we need to do as a country it's when things get hard; that's when it's important. That's when we get down to that last 15 minutes of what we're doing. That's what our training is for. So what I would make a plea to those—and yes I accept that the Opposition have got a job. The Opposition have got a job to do—to keep us honest to make sure they ask the hard questions—and they do it well. But I'd say to the Opposition and to all the Opposition parties next time you're actually in select committee in particular when you see those extremely professional public servants that come in there that do mean well that are actually there doing the job—and when they were tested when their moment comes when they were 15 minutes from the end of the game 15 minutes from the end of the Coast to Coast 15 minutes from whatever endeavour they were they showed that they were match-fit. So while we've got our team of 5 million there's an old saying: success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan. Well in this case success has a thousand fathers—and mothers I should say; I'm in the modern age. What we can now look at as New Zealanders—don't just look broadly; look at why we succeeded and make sure we don't risk ever losing that. We have a great Public Service. Let's maintain it. Let's keep match-fit so that when I and many other competitors are getting to the top of Goat Pass over the weekend we've got the match-fitness to make sure we will finish. We'll finish hard we'll finish strong and we'll be successful. Thank you Madam Speaker."