Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): Mr Speaker thank you very much. It's a great pleasure to take the baton from my colleague Kelvin Davis after his precise commentary of the troubles of the Opposition to talk about what New Zealanders actually care about and that is the positive direction of our country.I would like to start with a number and that number is 4.7. No that is not Simon Bridges' self-assessment of his soon-to-be-released book; it is the unemployment level of New Zealand which went down 0.2 of a percent last week. What that is showing is that the efforts of this Government to make sure that our economy is ticking—keeping people in jobs and making sure that people can pay their bills—are paying off because at 4.7 percent—15000 people more in employment—well ahead of our OECD comparators at 6.7. We don't like to compare ourselves to Australia too much but their unemployment rate at the moment is 5.6. So unemployment heading down and more New Zealanders in employment is a real indicator that this Government is focused on what matters to New Zealand and that is making sure that we are keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID. We're making sure that our economy is recovering and that we are focused on the future and things that will set up a positive future for New Zealanders as we go ahead and work ourselves out of the ravages of COVID. I'd also like to mention something else and that is Aaa—again not Simon Bridges' self-assessment of his soon-to-be-released memoir but the rating that Standard & Poor's have given New Zealand. That is an upgrade for New Zealand post-pandemic; the first country to get an upgrade post-pandemic and our first upgrade since 2003—another indicator that the decisions that this Government is making and the leadership of our Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson are working and making sure that in the midst of a global pandemic our economy is strong and we are supporting New Zealanders to make sure that we can have a better future. And it doesn't stop there with Standard & Poor's because they went on to say and I quote we have very strong institutions and policy effectiveness"—the Government will take credit for that along with our "robust fiscal position when compared with its peers". And that again goes to the discipline that we have showed over the last 12 months in making sure that we are supporting New Zealanders and their companies and their employers in the job with the likes of the wage subsidy to make sure that our economy is ticking. But we are not out of the woods yet. If anyone opens the paper or if they watch the news at 6 o'clock the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage. We are in a very privileged position to enjoy the settings that we have got now but that comes with difficult decisions. We did make the decision to close our border on 20 March last year and at a time between then and now we would usually have let about 7 million people arrive in our country. The latest figures that I have are that we've let in just a little over 220000. That has obviously had an effect and caused difficulties for many sectors and for many families but it is our best line of defence to make sure we keep the ravages of this pandemic outside of New Zealand. We've set up managed isolation facilities and again I want to take my hats off to those in our Cabinet and in our caucus who have set up these institutions to make sure again that New Zealanders who want to come home can and that they can do it in a safe way. I want to address one of the difficulties in amongst that and that is the inability of some families to get together and reunite because of our border closures. There will be a protest coming to Parliament tomorrow. I want to acknowledge the difficulties that that situation with the massive drop in arrivals has created for some families and also for some sectors. But we have over the last year made sure that critical workers can come into New Zealand—whether they be critical health workers the likes of Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers—the primary industries and building construction have all had critical workers come into New Zealand because we have taken decisions to keep our economy ticking. That's because we are focused on making sure we are keeping New Zealanders safe. I think that you saw the decisions that we made before the election and the trust and confidence that was put in us in and at the election and made sure that we are in this very privileged position. But again I do not want to say that we are out of the woods. In the last seconds I want to make a personal note of tribute to a former colleague of mine Andy Gibb from TVNZ—a top-class editor a world-class editor who we farewelled. My love to Liz and the family. He was the best of the best at TVNZ and we will all miss him."