Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise with a degree of trepidation to make my final contribution in the House for the year of 2021. I do so because every day this year that I've tried to take a day off something related to COVID-19 has happened and I've ended up having to come to work. I'm about to try and take two weeks off and I'm not sure exactly what that's going to involve but I certainly hope it doesn't involve having to come into work for COVID-19 because frankly I think New Zealanders all want a bit of a break over the summer and they absolutely deserve it.Normally I would engage in a bit of dad jokes and bad jokes like everybody else has done in this debate. You'll be relieved to know I'm not going to do that this year—Hon Members: Aw!Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: —because I do want—well there have been enough bad jokes already today. But I do want to spend my time with some very sincere and some very real thanks. So I want to start with some very real thanks to every one of the 90-plus percent of New Zealanders who has been fully vaccinated. This is the year of the vaccine and it has been the year of the vaccine. We have 90-plus percent of eligible New Zealanders fully vaccinated. If you'd told me that that was what we were going to end the year with back in February or March I would have taken it in a heartbeat. That is an incredible result. It puts us in a very very strong position heading into summer and heading into the new year. I want to thank Kiwis for doing their part in the fight against COVID-19.I want to genuinely say once again as I have done many times in the House already this year a very big thankyou to the people of Auckland. I could have made a lot of jokes at Aucklanders' expense perhaps in an end-of-year debate but actually Aucklanders have really taken one for the team this year. They have really done everything that we asked them to do and the fact that we are seeing those case numbers trending down now despite opening up and despite giving people more and more freedom that is a tribute to what Aucklanders have achieved and the entire country is indebted to the people of Auckland. We say thank you to them.I do want to acknowledge those New Zealanders who are abroad or whose families have been separated or who have been separated from their loved ones by the global pandemic. The global pandemic isn't over yet and I acknowledge that that is incredibly difficult. It is hard having people who you care about separated by border restrictions. It has been for the entire length of the pandemic and I acknowledge that during that time there have been a variety of competing complaints about the Government's approach: we've been too soft we've been too hard; we haven't opened up fast enough we've opened up too fast. There's been a whole variety of things. What I can say to those New Zealanders is that all of the way through the Government has tried to prioritise the public health of all New Zealanders.Speaking to New Zealanders abroad overseas I acknowledge the difficulties that the border closures have created for them. But I also acknowledge when I speak to them that they're quite proud of what New Zealand has achieved as a country when it comes to our response to COVID-19. They want to come home because they see this as a good place to be. If we had not had those border restrictions in place for much of the last year and a half or so then we wouldn't be in the position that we are in now. That has been one of the most difficult balances that we have had to face.The Leader of the Opposition said earlier on that members of the Government look tired. I can only speak for myself in that regard but yes it's been a very tiring year and I am tired and I am looking forward to some time off. Chris Bishop talked about the extraordinary powers that the Government has. Yes we do have extraordinary powers and I am the person who has to sign those. That is one of the reasons why I'm tired because I take that responsibility very very seriously. If you think that someone in this role should not be tired at the end of the year that we have had then you'd be thinking that that's not the sort of person that you would want in the job because I do think a lot at night about the people who are separated by the border restrictions about the people in Auckland whose businesses have been going to the wall. Those things have a very real consequence and I absolutely acknowledge all of those people.The final people that I want to thank because everybody else has gone through the catalogue but very few people ever stop and really spend time thanking the families of all members of Parliament regardless of what side of the House they are on. We get the bouquets the accolades the brickbats all of that feedback that we get; seldom do our family members get acknowledged for the enormous sacrifices they make so that we can do what we do. So I want to thank my own family for what has been undoubtedly an incredibly challenging year for us. Actually I won't say anything more about that but I do want to acknowledge the families of members of Parliament. We can only do what we do because of the support that they provide to us and I hope that they will enjoy the fact that for at least maybe a month or so we'll be around a little bit more and we will hopefully be able to give them the attention that they deserve.