Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's an honour to rise to take a call in this general debate and like many of my other Auckland-based colleagues I will be speaking about Auckland / Tāmaki-makau-rau. It has been such a difficult time for so many in our biggest city. Much of the hard work of protecting New Zealanders has fallen to Aucklanders and while this may not be like battles we have faced in the past be in no doubt: it was a battle and still is. We have stayed at home. We have cancelled so many plans. We have worn our masks. We have walked the same routes in our local areas again and again. But most importantly we have gotten vaccinated: over 90 percent first doses and coming close to 90 percent second doses. This has been due to the hard hard work of so many health and community workers and they have my thanks.We've been in lockdown before of course most notably in March last year. However this time was longer and harder and the weather was so much worse. Also we had to come to terms with the difference that Delta has made and the move away from elimination all while fighting the virus at our front doors. I want to acknowledge how hard that has been and that I along with the MPs and the Ministers who are based in Auckland have walked this road with Aucklanders. I also want to acknowledge that for those people who had additional struggles who were already struggling within our community who had to close businesses for prolonged periods of time—I acknowledge the huge difficulty for those people and I offer my thanks for the huge sacrifice that they made to protect all New Zealanders.But there is light and there is life on the horizon. Today many primary intermediate and secondary school students return to school for the first time since mid-August—three long months ago. My eldest daughter is among them those many thousands of students returning today—pink rainbow mask on staggered pick-up and drop-off times classroom doors open and teachers vaccinated. Yes school will look different but many things will be the same. The care that the teachers have shown for their students will be the same. The work and indeed the learning has gone on despite the fact they haven't been there in person. I worked it out and I estimated that my eldest child alone has had approximately 221 Zoom classes throughout lockdown. What an effort by her teachers. I would like to offer our collective thanks to all of those teachers for staying the course for teaching in a different way sometimes with childcare responsibilities of their own at the same time and to thank all of those teachers who got vaccinated because our children cannot be vaccinated yet. I offer my genuine thanks to those people. I'm so pleased that the Government has announced a $15 million package to help students re-engage in school after a significant lockdown. A significant part of that money has gone to the 405 schools who are in the greatest need in the Auckland area.There is a proverb well known in English and te reo Māori: Mā ngā hua ka mōhio ai te rākau. [By its fruit the tree is known.] The success of this Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in the results for New Zealanders. Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level on record and there are a great many more people in work. There has also been a drop in the Māori and Pacific unemployment rates. Our work to support Māori and Pacific communities is working and the finance Minister has achieved all of this by recognising the needs of business and workers. But I want to note before I end that the most important metric of course when we look at the success of our COVID19 response has been that New Zealand has one of the lowest death rates and the lowest hospitalisation rates in the world. Of course this is the most important thing when we look at our response.So I like other Aucklanders am looking forward to the easing of restrictions announced today as our vaccination rate—not the virus—soars. I know the hardships that many have faced but business can have confidence that they will be reopening in an environment of economic growth and serving customers that have jobs and more money in their pockets. These are the fruits of the Government's action driven by absolute dedication to protect New Zealanders.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.