Sepuloni Carmel; Rurawhe AdrianHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I'm not going to lie: I breathed a sigh of relief when the household labour force survey was released today and we saw that yet again unemployment has dropped and we are now down to 4.7 percent. These are not easy times globally and many countries are struggling with respect to job losses businesses are struggling with the pandemic around them and of course that creates a range of other social issues. Earlier last year when we were first hit with this pandemic we had an incredibly bleak outlook. I think at its worst it was forecast that New Zealand would experience benefit numbers up to 490000. But instead what we've seen already is since mid-January those numbers on benefit have dropped by 30000—from 390000 people on benefit to 361000—and we will continue to watch that space. But as my colleague who spoke earlier said this is not by accident. Every action that we have taken as a Government has been deliberate. The wage subsidy that we were able to roll out and get to businesses I think within two weeks of announcing it saved so many businesses. It was a lifeline to so many businesses and we hear that when we're out and about and we're talking to businesses. Of course that meant that as a consequence it saved so many jobs and so that initial action that early action made a difference. Whether it be the resurgence payment or whether it be the investment into infrastructure and the investment into upskilling and training opportunities all of that has been deliberate. I do need to say that yes there have been challenges with COVID but many of them were actually pre-existing challenges that were exacerbated by the fact that we were hit with the pandemic. It's not new that Māori and Pacific whenever there is a crisis are disproportionately impacted with regards to job loss. That's not new. It's not new that there are inequities within our health and education systems and all too often again it's Māori and Pacific and disabled people can I say who are disproportionately affected. So many of those issues have been exacerbated because of COVID and our response was yes in response to COVID but bigger than that—this is an opportunity for us to do a bit of a reset. As has been said so many times before it is about building back better. It is about looking at some of the pre-existing challenges that we faced whether it be housing whether it be child poverty whether it be inequities in our health and education system or whether it be disproportionate numbers of Māori and Pacific that are unemployed or disadvantaged in the labour market. It is about a reset so we can build back better. This has provided us with an opportunity and an opportunity that this team of 65 on this side of the House is very very cognisant of. There is more work to do and we haven't shied away from that but what I will say is I'm very proud of some of the programmes that we have implemented. I'm very proud of the focus on trades and apprenticeships. I'm proud of that for a number of reasons: one because if we look back to the global financial crisis where there wasn't this investment we ended up with a whole lot of workforce shortages because of the fact that the previous Government didn't think to invest there. But also it will mean for those New Zealanders that get a chance to upskill and train so that in the longer term their employment prospects are so much brighter and they are also in a position where employment is more sustainable and more likely to be secure and they're able to earn more money for themselves and their whānau. I have said on so many occasions that when we look at something like employment it's not just the Minister for employment's responsibility or even the Minister who takes charge of the economy and has done such a good job—our Minister of Finance. But we have a team on this side of the House a team of Ministers that have been committed to this space. Whether it be the Minister of Education the Minister for primary industries looking at what's needed in the horticulture industry the Minister for Economic and Regional Development the Minister for Pacific Peoples or the Minister for Māori Development all of us have been sitting at the table and thinking and working strategically to make sure that every action we take leads us to a place and that we do not end up in that very sad position that the forecasts had predicted but that we actually end up in a place where we build back better and New Zealand and New Zealanders—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.