SpeechHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): As we were on our summer holidays earlier this year who would have been able to imagine what happened towards February and then March as the wave of fear and uncertainty spread around the world as we watched COVID develop. I could not be prouder of the response of our Government and of our team of 5 million. We did it together and up till now we've had a huge amount of success and we should be very proud of ourselves. What I was most proud of was the daily sharing of information. I know that following the series of earthquakes in Christchurch what people craved for was information because information is power. And every day we had our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern with the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield telling us all the facts answering the wide range of highly intelligent and probing questions from the media but sharing their information directly with the public. People were hanging out for 1 o'clock so that they could get their news and feel that empowerment that goes with information. The other part of our COVID response that I'm most proud of is that it's been very clear from both the Prime Minister but also the Hon Grant Robertson our Minister of Finance that we're not just putting back what we had before; we are taking this opportunity of such terrible circumstances to build back better and for many New Zealanders providing them with an opportunity for a better life that they have never had. What a great thing to do out of a terrible situation—build back better—and you can certainly see that in the many initiatives that have been announced since that first response started in the middle of March.People have been at the heart of our response. I haven't seen any other country with such a people-focused response a health response and economic response both based on the current and future wellbeing of our people. As my friend and colleague Aupito William Sio just said it's about jobs jobs jobs. There is nothing that gives people not only the ability as Aupito mentioned to put food on the table for your family but to give people the dignity of work. It's one of the first questions that New Zealanders ask each other: what do you do—what's your job? And it actually doesn't matter whether you're the Prime Minister or you clean the Prime Minister's office; you should have the dignity of a job with decent pay and that's another bit of progress that our Government's making. Preparing New Zealand for a better future; investing in the things that matter; investing in the things that were neglected for nine years under the previous National Government; supporting small business the backbone of the New Zealand economy. Everywhere throughout New Zealand we have small businesses that just work so hard to get by every day and we're backing them. The ambition and determination of our Government to build back better is just fantastic. Free apprenticeships in specified trades training areas for all those young people and older people who might have lost their jobs to be able to get on the rung of the ladder of being an apprentice; the investment in green jobs which I've heard the National Party mocking—for me it's a double benefit. Not only are we putting people in work that they're clearly enjoying and I've heard media reports quoting them directly the satisfaction they're getting from those jobs but we're doing good things for the environment whether it's getting rid of wilding pines or whether it's planting and protecting our wetlands and our rivers.I just want to also mention something. Despite being so proud of this Government's response—it's just been extraordinary—there's something that I want to mention that I'm not so proud of and this is one of my last opportunities to make this contribution. I have seen sustained and systemic attacks on individual members of Parliament which have destroyed their careers in this place and damaged their families their children their wives or their husbands. I think we can have fundamental differences of opinions in this place but I think it's within our hands to change our behaviour and not destroy families on the way through to pursuing our ultimate goal. We can do better than that. I think as part of our COVID response we should look at the leadership that has been provided by Jacinda Ardern and the better leadership we can provide on that issue in future.