10. Question No. 10—Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic CommunitiesVANUSHI WALTERS (Labour—Upper Harbour) to the Minister for Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic CommunitiesQuestion No. 10—Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic Communities10. VANUSHI WALTERS (Labour—Upper Harbour) to the Minister for Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic Communities: What actions has the Government taken to support our ethnic communities to get the COVID-19 vaccine?Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic Communities): Thank you Mr Speaker. This Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in New Zealand is supported to access the COVID-19 vaccination. We know that communities access information differently have varied needs and that a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. So amongst other actions the Government established two funds that support ethnic communities to both access information and the vaccination itself in ways that are relevant to them. We established the Vaccine Uptake Fund to provide support for activities aimed at increasing vaccination particularly in our harder to reach ethnic communities and that has so far been accessed by 51 groups. This is in addition to the ethnic communities communications fund which supported 71 initiatives aimed at eliminating barriers and countering misinformation faced by our ethnic communities.Vanushi Walters: Why is this funding important?Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Our ethnic communities make up a significant proportion of New Zealand's population—close to 20 percent to be precise. Since we know that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect ourselves and others it's important that we support communities to get the information they need to get the vaccination. It's also important that we support communities to lead those efforts as they are best placed to be able to access harder to reach groups within their own communities. Our ethnic communities have told us that for example being able to provide things like transport interpreters and collateral in their own languages makes a real difference in order for them to be able to organise vaccine drives that are culturally appropriate. That's why we created those funds to be able to support community organisations directly with this. I want to acknowledge that vaccination rates are high across ethnic communities as a whole but that doesn't mean that our work is done. We will continue to support everyone who is eligible to access the vaccine.SPEAKER: Right I'm going to allow another supplementary but the answer must be much shorter than those two.Vanushi Walters: What other work has been under way to support our ethnic communities to get vaccinated?Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: The Ministry for Ethnic Communities has been working closely with key stakeholders in communities DHBs and in the public sector to boost vaccination rates. Amongst other things they've held information sessions and Zui with communities across the country produced over 40 videos in over 20 languages with specific information hosted vaccination days for ethnic youth and also connected communities with relevant DHBs to help them organise over 16 tailored vaccination drives. I'm incredibly proud of a huge amount of work that has gone into this—SPEAKER: Order! Order! No we can tell the Minister's proud but—No. 11 Simeon Brown.