Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for Godot because there's no plan coming from the other side of the House. I was hoping they were going to talk about their fantastic tax cuts for the rich the ones that would give Christopher Luxon $18000 should he become the Prime Minister and yet give a cafe worker $2 a week difference in their tax. But no they didn't even go there. All they did was nit-pick complain grumble and be sad sacks about what this Government has been doing to make things better for New Zealand. The reason I wanted to hear a plan was because I want to know what they plan to do for women. What does the National Party plan to do for women? I haven't heard a single idea. And I'm not expecting much either because when I look at the opposite side of the House I don't see much diversity. Fifty-four percent of our members are women. So we have an opportunity to make a difference and boy have we been using it. We have got the record number of women in Cabinet positions. We've made huge differences to women—to mothers and to working mothers. We've got the Best Start payment providing an extra $65 a week for the parents of newborns. We've recorded the lowest gender pay gap in recent history. We've introduced a $5.5 billion package for families. We brought free and healthy lunches into schools. That is the stuff that women care about.We have expanded school-based health services and are making doctors visits free for children under 14. We've reduced the compulsory school fees—oftentimes that is coming out of the budget that women use to run the house. We have delivered the largest ever funding boost for primary maternity services. We've extended paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks. We have increased abatement thresholds. We've strengthened equal pay legislation and delivered record pay settlements in the feminised sectors. We've ensured free period products for all primary intermediate and secondary schools and for kura.We've increased leadership in the public sector. We're reducing the gender pay gap as I said. We've passed world-leading legislation that is giving women leave if they have a miscarriage—that is a world-leading piece of legislation led by friend and colleague Ginny Andersen. We have more women on public boards than ever. We have employment action programmes tailored specifically for Māori Pacific and Asian women who experience the largest pay gaps. We have women who've been targeted with COVID funding. We've removed abortion from the Crimes Act—it is now being treated as a health issue. I still don't know what the Leader of the Opposition's position really is on that. One minute he votes one way another minute he's not ruling out which way he's going to vote—we don't know as women what National is going to do in the space of women's reproductive health should they ever get into Government.Now last night we passed the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. That is going to make a difference for 28000 women who have never been able to access ACC in one of the very critical areas around maternal health and I am so pleased that our Minister Carmel Sepuloni has seen that through. Now what have we had from National? Well nothing—not even tax cuts. They haven't even mentioned tax cuts today. I don't feel comfortable and confident as a woman that they will be there to look after me to look after my sisters to look after my mother to look after my daughters. They don't have a plan. They've been miserable. They've been pessimistic. They've made us all feel quite depressed.You can bet your bottom dollar that with the lack of diversity that we see and their lack of interest in these issues when they make all the cuts that they say they're going to—when they stop spending—it is the women who will suffer first. That is always what happens. And so I invite people listening to this debate I invite people sitting at home thinking about how their world is looking at the moment—don't get sucked in to the pessimism from the other side. If you're a woman think very carefully about who is going to be looking after you going into the future—this Government that has delivered for women that has delivered for children that has delivered for minority groups for people who don't sit squarely in the mainstream; or are you going to go with an Opposition who normally advocate tax cuts for the rich but perhaps because it's Wednesday perhaps because they're tired haven't even come up with a single plan for economic recovery.This side of the House is doing well by the economy. I want to thank all New Zealanders for their part in it and there is good cause to be optimistic.