Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Civil Defence): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. I te tīmatanga ka noho au ki Te Reo Māori ka mutu ka huri atu au ki te reo Pākehā. Tuatahi māku ka tangi mōteatea ki ngā mate huhua o te wā. Ki roto i ngā wiki me ngā marama kua pahure ake nei kua rangona e māua ko taringa i te tini kua riro atu ki te pō. Nō reira kotahi tonu te kōrero ki a rātou haere mai haere. Ka whakahokia mai ngā rārangi kōrero ki a tātou me tō tātou Whare e tū nei. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Greetings Mr Speaker. I will begin in Māori and then deliver in English. Firstly I mourn tears of sorrow to the many who have passed on. In the weeks and months that have passed word has reached my ear about the many who have gone to the night. Therefore I say only one thing to them return in spirit but go in peace. I will now bring my speech back to us to those in our House. Greetings one and all.]As I often do in this House I like to start my contributions in Te Reo Māori and my contribution given its being the first since the lockdown—so it's been a number of weeks or a couple of months since I've had the opportunity to speak in the House—I want to start fittingly by observing a farewell to those who have passed on during this time. I want to acknowledge just how hard it has been for whānau right across Aotearoa during these particularly unknown times in our country. I myself: my father's sister passed away during this time and we stuck to the guidelines. She passed sadly on a Monday morning unexpectedly and she was buried Monday afternoon robbing my family and I of the opportunity to express our love our gratitude and farewell her appropriately while also supporting my cousins and our whānau during that dark time. So I want to acknowledge the whānau across the country who are enduring times like this and I want to say to them all: we've heard them.In the past half hour we've made the announcement that we have reviewed the tangihanga and the funeral guidelines. We have heard the voices of the many people across Aotearoa New Zealand who have expressed how hard it has been for them. We have spoken to funeral directors in the past 24 hours. We have spoken to iwi leaders in the past 24 hours. We have spoken to many whānau as individual MPs in this House and I think we've made the right decision that with strict guidelines and strict health rules around the ability to mourn for a loved one we can continue to proceed to have 50 people attend a funeral. We've worked closely with funeral directors to make sure that those guidelines are very clear to our whānau so that they are able to mourn for their loved one who has gone on to the night. This of course proves rather difficult in some instances—for marae who I want to congratulate for doing a fantastic job at responding during COVID-19 to the needs of our people while keeping them safe. But for somebody like myself in the electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau many of those whānau will take their loved one home. So I want to make sure to those whānau that the guidelines are very clear and myself and my colleagues on this side of the House—and indeed no doubt across the House—on such an important issue will continue to communicate those guidelines to our constituents and our people right across the country.On this side of the House I am proud. I'm proud of the work that this Government has done with our coalition partners New Zealand First; our supply and confidence partners the Greens; and the stewardship that we've been able to lead our country on. We have navigated dark times for our country. We have now come to a point where in the words of my grandfather we have come too far not to go further and done too much not to do more. It's important that we remain vigilant and I believe that the work that we're doing on this side of the House not only continues the good work that we're doing but also has an optimistic outlook for the future of our country. The other side of the House will continue to say that this is doom and gloom; on this side of the House we say: we have a plan. I'm proud to be working alongside my colleagues of all three parties on this side of the House. I'm proud to work alongside the Māori caucus the Māori Ministers and their members who in their regions have worked hard to make sure the voices of their people have come to the fore in decision making and in the pathway that we carve ahead for ourselves.I do want to acknowledge our whānau at home. I myself have received some criticism that I haven't been here to voice the concerns of my electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau. In order with your guidance Mr Speaker you made it very clear that the rules in this House require only a certain number of MPs and Ministers—I'm happy now to say that I'm here. Their voices while even in my absence continued to be heard during the decision-making process will now be heard even louder in the corridors of Parliament.In conclusion once again I remember those who have passed on and in my final words say: let's do this Aotearoa; we've come too far not to go further and we've done too much not to do more.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.