Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister for Whānau Ora): Tuatahi ka tahuri ōku mihi ki tōku tuahine ki a Soraya Peke-Meihana kua tīmata mai ki roto i tēnei Whare.[Firstly I wish to acknowledge my sister Soraya Peke-Mason's commencement in this House.]It's a real special occasion to acknowledge her and of course her entering into Parliament at a very significant time. The numbers have already been raised about how a fair representation of wāhine in this Whare has been reached but it can't stop there. It's an ongoing challenge to this House not to settle for 50 percent but to continue to support and tautoko wāhine into our House of Representatives. I want to acknowledge the new member because she certainly has a big job ahead of her but I know that she's cut out for it.It's really hard to articulate as well as the Hon Michael Wood just exactly what's going on here with respect to those who are on middle to low incomes here in this country. But what is clear is that on this side of the House we're supporting them. I want to lay out in my contribution here in the House just exactly how we're doing that and perhaps some tips for members on the other side that actually there are ways and means in which we can do it here in New Zealand.What we hear from the other side of the House is that immigration is the answer to everything. Well on this side of the House we agree that immigration does play a role actually in the way we might support our labour market. We have obviously looked towards the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme to make sure that we can get whānau in here to do the work that needs to be done here in Aotearoa.But I'm proud of this Government's record and I want to highlight to the other side of the House that here's a novel idea: let's invest in our own people. Let's make sure that we can train our own people here in Aotearoa to make sure that they can meet the demands of the labour market of the day.It's no coincidence that in the 1970s there was a housing boom in this country. Large numbers of houses were built. Like I say it was no coincidence that Māori trade training was a huge success through the 1960s and 1970s that saw all of those who were able to be skilled and upskilled into the trades seek the opportunity and contribute to the housing boom that we saw during that time.On this side of the House I'm proud that this Government has supported over 50000 apprentices into training to make sure that we can rise to the current challenge that we have with housing now—and rising they are. In fact from the start of our time as Government and the introduction of apprenticeship schemes I have spoken to a couple who have already passed through their apprenticeship are now business owners in this country and are looking to make sure that they play their part to repay the faith and trust that this country had in them to rise to the challenge to become builders to become business owners and to build houses for this country. It's really exciting to know that in a hard time like the pandemic that we've had the Labour Party is supporting those here in this country to upskill.We're also supporting them with respect to the minimum wage. Now I want to give a big shout-out to lots of good employers in this country—and there are many; there are many. I think of my own electorate in Tāmaki Makaurau. I've met with some awesome employers who despite the pandemic paid their people above the minimum wage. They went to a living wage. They went to support their families that support their businesses. That's really important to acknowledge those people.Sadly though that isn't always the case when we look towards our low-income earners and our medium-income earners. So this side of the House has made it clear that we will focus on lifting them. Minister Wood has already outlined what this side of the House is doing. I want to acknowledge that despite the attempts from this side of the House to continue to lift the minimum wage to support workers to support new parents who are looking towards supporting their whānau in those early formative years of their tamariki sadly the other side of the House continue to block our attempts.But I'm proud—I'm proud that on this side of the House we continue to push on despite the negativity from the other side that looks towards solutions that aren't actually fit for purpose here in Aotearoa. So I'm proud that on this side of the House we are focusing on what we can do for low to middle income earners.But it doesn't stop there. We know we have challenges ahead of us. We know that for many of our whānau out there living is a challenge at the moment and we have supported them in many ways and we will look to continue to support those families into the future to make sure that when we emerge fully from this pandemic—because it's a rather convenient lapse of memory on the other side of the House that there was all of a sudden no COVID-19—that we will be stronger and more resilient into the future and they will know that this Government backed them.