Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): E te Māngai tēnā koutou katoa he mihi mahana ki a koutou.[Mr Speaker greetings everyone warm greetings to you all.]I'd like to take the opportunity of stating that these are indeed hard times for New Zealand and New Zealanders but we have never seen us working together as we are right now. That working together comes in many different forms with people playing their part in different ways. Whether that's going to get your vaccination whether that means staying home whether that means being an essential worker everyone in New Zealand is currently doing their part and what we are seeing is community and Government working hand in glove working closer than we've ever seen before to make sure that the needs of people are met and to make sure that the mahi gets done where it has to be.I'd like to mention up front Auckland right now Auckland at the front line of our COVID response and Auckland which has been doing the heavy lifting as part of our response to COVID-19. I'd like to acknowledge that it's difficult for families who remain in level 4 right now. I can tell you myself that trying in a day to complete home-school learning cooking cleaning working from home and keeping the household running is no easy feat either time management - wise physically or mentally and I'd like to acknowledge all of those parents and families in Auckland who continue to do that hard work every single day. But it's even harder on New Zealand businesses and at that point I think it's important to acknowledge not only all those businesses in level 4 in Auckland but all of those in level 2 such as hospitality who continue to have to operate but with limited capacity. Again we have the Government working closely with our community to make sure needs are met when we need them to be. The wage subsidy has been a lifeline as it was in our previous lockdown as it is now. I'd like to take the opportunity to make it clear that those businesses outside of level 4 are still eligible to receive the wage subsidy. I know there have been questions in my own area but just if Wellington region is in level 2 if businesses are able to demonstrate that 40 percent decrease in revenue they are still eligible for the wage subsidy and should continue to apply. The resurgence support payment is also in place and that enables those who have shown a 30 percent decrease in revenue to also receive additional support. On top of that we have the Leave Support Scheme and also the COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment to help businesses keep running and to keep staff being paid when they need to be. But where there are still gaps—where there are still gaps in our community that need to be filled—what heartens me the most is how we have networks of people coming together to make sure families are fed and that's where I see the real community work being done on a daily basis. Back on 28 August we saw that the Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni announced a $7 million boost for strengthening food security networks right across the country under level 4. The extra funding helped to distribute food for another 60000 food parcels and 10000 wellbeing packets and those providers and those community networks helped to distribute those to where the need was met. It was really important to see that lessons were learnt off the back of our last lockdown. Those community groups whether they be marae Salvation Army community providers or food banks they had established food networks and worked together in order to distribute to those families where they needed it and they knew where their people were. So it's been heartening to see in the Hutt Valley where I see Kōkiri Marae we've seen Ōrongomai Marae we've seen the Salvation Army we've seen the Lower Hutt food bank and also fantastic work done by Common Unity in Waiwhetū—the work that they do to provide packages and get those out to people in need. It's important to note too that we still have families in emergency housing those in facilities where they do not have cooking abilities at times so having those community groups who prepare food and bring it out to people enables families to continue to be fed at times when it's uncertain what the levels will continue to be. It is a hard time for New Zealand but I'm heartened by the level of close community work hand in hand with the Government to make sure our people are looked after to make sure businesses are receiving the support that they need to keep going and to make sure that people continue to be vaccinated because that is our way forward from here. Tēnā koutou katoa.