Kirkpatrick DanaDANA KIRKPATRICK (National—East Coast): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a privilege to rise and speak in the House on the local issues debate. I thought I'd take a slightly different approach to this: my local issue is that we need to change the dial. We want to change our media narrative—if you like—from the negative events and the tragic and awful circumstances that parts of my electorate have been subject to over the past year or two. So we're about to go on a whistle-stop tour around the East Coast electorate to talk about some of the great things that are happening.So let's start. I can't go past it without mentioning the cyclone of course but the cyclone has done something for us: it's created a catalyst. A catalyst for change and a catalyst for positivity and we are about that. The East Coast is ready to go. We are tired of being called resilient" and tired of being in clean-up mode so it's time to get cracking. We're going to start in Ōpōtiki the wonderful town which we visited not that long ago—and the Whakatōhea mussel factory the harbour entrance and the marina development: a group of projects that will absolutely change the way Ōpōtiki is and will be into the future. The brainchild of Whakatōhea and the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) bringing in jobs—they currently employ about 200 people—and the income diversity and the changing of how that will focus them into the future is a fantastic opportunity and one that we look forward to. Whakatōhea just recently also a finalist in the Ahuwhenua farming awards so they will be heading to the dinner on 17 May in Hamilton and we wish them all the very best for that.Raukokore a little place way up at the top of the East Cape—just went up there this week. They just opened a $10 million freshwater storage project which will unlock the potential for 300 hectares of horticultural land and provide ongoing diversified income for that iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and jobs for the future. No mean feat by them and a sensational project.Let's just go down the road a little bit to Kawerau. In Kawerau the mayoral task force doing incredible work getting our rangatahi and young people into work: 260 placements in three years of young people into jobs. This year's target was 38 people. They tell me they'll double that and yet their funding reduced every year for three years. Heartland Eastbay —Gloria and her teameeding people setting up courses rattling people's cages and getting things done. They're a fantastic bunch of people in there providing access to services and support for their community. Kawerau is the industrial heartland of the country and we look forward to the new development from Forrester: $300 million investment into geothermal and renewable energy sources. Fossil-free fuel to replace coal so we look forward to seeing what they can do for us.Then we'll move on—we'll go around the way a little bit to Murupara where Jamie and JDgiving their all for the rangatahi of the region and now working on a project to get all the families in Murupara to get a vegetable garden to learn to grow their vegetables and for the pakeke they are raised vegetable gardens so they don't have to bend down and get that. They believe that getting down there and getting into that dirt and that soil is great for them.A little further south in Minginui a movement afoot to get the remotest parts of the region connected to the internet. They did some work in Kawerau where they connected more than 1630 students and the whānau there paid for 1110 devices themselves with no-default payments. The students from Te Whata Tau o Putauaki in Kawerau taught themselves to build robots and won regional and national competitions and just recently placed second in an international competition where they built robots. And all due to being able to be connected to the internet.In Gisborne of course the Toha Network and the East Coast Exchangef you don't know about them look them up they are fantastic. These people are the future of climate change action and our communities—born out of the cyclone crisis and self-funded with significant private investment. Mr Speaker if you eat salad in this country it most likely came from LeaderBrand in Gisborne a fantastic organisation and just about to open their hectare environmentally sustainable covered crop production with help from the PGF. And of course the Mātai research world-leading MRI scanning leading the world in brain injury or concussion treatment.The East Coast has much to offer but I can't go past Whakatāne voted best small town for 2023; and Ōhope Beach the best beach in New Zealand. It's official it is absolutely the best electorate in the country [Interruption] and I won't take any argument from you lot on that one. Can I go past the parliamentary game just to finish off: parliamentary game in Gisborne Tairāwhiti on 25 May where the parliamentary rugby and netball teams will compete against Federated Farmers at the wonderful institution of the Ngatapa Rugby and Associated Sports Club."