White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): I'm proud to rise to talk in this debate today as somebody who has been locked down in Auckland for many weeks. I want to speak actually very much in opposition to Simon Watts' speech because I want to focus on the unity.SPEAKER: I think that's Mr O'Connor.HELEN WHITE: Sorry; Simon O'Connor's speech.Hon Member: Same thing.HELEN WHITE: Same thing.SPEAKER: Hard to tell with the mask you know?HELEN WHITE: I apologise—because I want to focus on the unity that I've seen in that experience that I've had. What I would acknowledge is that this has been an extremely difficult experience and many of the things that were just listed are actually tragedies that would have occurred in a pandemic and what we would have had in addition to that if it wasn't handled in the way it has is many many many more tragedies—many more serious tragedies. We would have had many more deaths.What we have had is a Government that recognises how important it is that we value people even the vulnerable ones. That is how we've ended up with a system that is basically caring. And one of the things that is most interesting about that experience that I've had is that I've been on something called a rough sleeping steering committee. And this group called the rough sleeping steering committee is actually an honour to be on because what it is is it's a group that meets—it involves things like the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development but it also involves a lot of the NGOs that are doing the work with some of the people who are so utterly alienated in the last decade or more in this country so that they have experiences of precarious living and homelessness. So those groups at the moment are wrapping around those groups that have been you know really in precarious housing and making sure that they are vaccinated and supported during this time. That involves some really gnarly problems. They're not easy to fix but the groups are working together and those networks that have met together and meet actually every Wednesday at 8 a.m. and sometimes twice a week—those groups all know each other now and they all actually have formed a trust. But they also know the people they need to help and that's an incredibly important thing that they're doing in Auckland. It isn't one thing alone; it is many things that are going on like that and I want to talk about some of those others. I was involved in a vaccination event that happened on Super Saturday and it happened with SkyCity who came forward because I had done a Zoom with SkyCity and Westpac which had already worked really really hard to get the populations of their own workers vaccinated by inducements by petrol vouchers by time off work—by a whole range of things. They had managed to get a very high vaccination rate. Then they extended it out to the groups that they were involved with and the networks they had on their databases. So on Super Saturday we ran an event at SkyCity where you could drive through and a whole lot of businesses supported that with gifts so that everybody who came in got a double pass up the Sky Tower. We had people who would have never otherwise turned up.There were some really really lovely scenes that day and I was there with—actually Michael Wood came down and he just directed traffic for several hours and he worked pretty hard and the mayor came down and the councillors came down and that event was a huge success. But what I remember most is seeing a woman who was absolutely terrified of that vaccine. She was shaking in her car and she got through and the amount of wraparound nurturing that went on with her in that situation—she actually that day got vaccinated when I doubt she would have otherwise. But she also learnt a lesson about the Auckland community—that we'll stand up and look after you and I think that's one of the real wonderful things that has happened. So rather than a litany of negatives I would suggest that it is time for the Opposition to actually start to think about the mistakes that were made and the repairs that need to be made and the healing. I think we are well under way in Auckland doing that.Now I think it would be remiss of me not to thank my staff who helped me enormously during this period and I want to do that. I also want to stretch out to the hospitality community before I finish this speech because they have had a really hard time. But I have been in constant contact with Marisa Bidois who's actually made real efforts to link in and make sure that I know what she needs so I can pass it on. Thank you sir.