Prime Willow-JeanWILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour—Northland): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Tuatahi māku e mihi kau ana ki a koe mō tō tūranga hōu. Nō reira tēnā koe. Otirā tēnā tātou katoa. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa ngā mema Pāremata i roto i tēnei Whare. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou.[Greetings Mr Deputy Speaker. Firstly I would like to acknowledge your new role. Congratulations. Greetings to everyone. I would like to acknowledge all of the members of Parliament in this House today. Warm greetings to you all.]Mr Deputy Speaker congratulations on your appointment to your new role. Welcome to everybody here in the House the members of Parliament. As this is my first time speaking as the new MP for Northland I do want to take the opportunity to thank Northland. I am humbled by their support to be the MP for Northland and it is an absolute honour and privilege. I also want to acknowledge all New Zealanders who voted for this Government. We are humbled to be the first majority Government under MMP in New Zealand. New Zealanders voted for stability and certainty at the election. We know it is a COVID election and we know that this comes with huge responsibility. In the middle of a global pandemic New Zealanders have put their trust in us to make sure that we continue to protect the lives and livelihoods of New Zealanders.I want to reflect on the speech just prior to mine where there was a reference made to how we are going to pay for the borrowing that we are doing. If the member had listened to the Speech from the Throne he would've heard that we have three overarching objectives and in there in accelerating our economic recovery there is a significant spend on infrastructure investment which is deliberately to create jobs. Those people who will remain in employment will in turn be paying taxes which will continue to accelerate our economic recovery. So how they cannot connect those dots I don't understand.But if I can say our three overarching objectives from the Speech from the Throne and the Prime Minister's Address in Reply speech were to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19. Thank you to the team of 5 million for the work that we have done so far. If I can just say as we head into the Christmas period and the summer holidays if everybody can continue to remain vigilant continue to do the contact tracing use the apps continue to stay home if you are sick to protect your loved ones because we have already done so much work. Our teams at the borders are doing a phenomenal job constantly adapting to the new challenges being presented and because of that we are able to now bring more people into the country to support in other areas. So continue to keep New Zealanders safe.Secondly to accelerate our economic recovery with a real focus on investing in important infrastructure for our future and the ability to build back better we have a five-point economic recovery plan which focuses on jobs and people positioning us globally but also laying the foundations for a better future. In terms of that I want to talk about laying the foundations for a better future. Wellbeing will continue to be the priority for the Government this term with a focus on reducing child poverty tackling climate change and addressing the housing crisis. In laying foundations in these areas we will be guided by our values and by our commitment to the wellbeing of our people looking beyond GDP as a measure of success.I want to highlight child poverty an issue that is very dear to the Prime Minister's heart also dear to mine and I'm sure others in this House. We have said in the Speech from the Throne that we will continue to overhaul the welfare system that we will extend the free and healthy lunch programme to cover over 200 students that we will improve access to free oral health care for our children and young people by adding an additional 20 mobile dental clinics including into rural areas like Northland. We will roll out mental health support to our primary and intermediate students and continue to roll out nurses in secondary schools.Finally in the short time that I have left I want to say what a huge honour and privilege it is to be the co-chair of the largest Māori caucus within the Labour Party. We will continue to strengthen Māori-Crown relationships and ensure that the Crown is a better Treaty partner. With 15 members in our caucus—six Ministers five in Cabinet one under-secretary and a number of members available to be on all of the select committees—we know there is a huge expectation and obligation on us from Te Ao Māori to deliver for Te Ao Māori and that is something that as a Māori caucus we feel that weight of expectation and we are absolutely committed to giving it our all to ensure that we deliver outcomes for our people. Kia ora.