Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Can I thank that member Andrew Bayly for his volley of contradictions. What I heard from that member was running down local councils for their poor handling of their assets and fouling our waterways and then in the next line having a go at the three waters proposal. That proposal is to make sure that those assets are managed in a way that benefits our country as a whole. The other contradiction was—he's clearly against the raising of the minimum wage yet his deputy leader is in support of raising the minimum wage something that will see families around this country see an increase in income and that always leads on to increased spending in their community. That is good for business that is good for our community and that is good for our whānau wherever they might be.If one listens to that side of the House you would swear it was a picture of doom and gloom. The ACT Party today has just got up and said that they would look towards a huge policy reform where—well a quick look at their policies will help one see that actually they only mention the word inequity" in their health policy once. And that's because they think it only applies to rural centres and Māori that live in those rural centres. It does not acknowledge that most Māori live in an urban centre. It doesn't acknowledge the conversation I had with a wahine in Paihia a couple of weeks ago—Pākehā wahine—who said to me "You know what Minister Henare? I got my vaccine first dose second dose and the booster from the local Māori provider the Ngāti Hine Health Trust. Why? Because our GP services don't cater for us so I go to the Māori health provider who is providing more in rural communities than any of the other GP services." And yet you just have to quickly look at the health policies from the ACT Party and you'll see a step backwards.Our Prime Minister in her statement this year made it very clear that together as a country we have overcome many obstacles—obstacles that were there before COVID-19 and obstacles that came about because of COVID-19. We did that with strong leadership. We did that with a focus on the wellbeing of our people acknowledging that the wellbeing of our people makes for the wellbeing of this country. I agree with the sentiments of my colleague the Hon Damien O'Connor: he tangata he tangata he tangata. This Government has done a fantastic job. If we look across our record it's easy to compare the statistics with other countries overseas that show just how well we've done: such a low death rate high vaccination rates. I recall after the announcement of the Delta outbreak the other side of the House claiming "Why should Māori get preferential treatment for vaccination? Why should they get extra funding?" We now have an eligible population of over 12 years-plus with a vaccination rate amongst Māori of over 90 percent. We were told that was unachievable. We were told there was no way you were going to encourage Māori people to get their vaccination rates up so high. I'm proud. I'm proud of the leadership from this Government. I'm proud of the leadership and hard work from our Māori health providers right across the country.A quick look at some of those statistics will show that some of our larger Māori health providers in fact almost 65 percent of the vaccinations they delivered were to non-Māori. That is because Māori take a he tangata he tangata he tangata approach despite the assertions from the other side of the House that we are walking down into a divided State that we are seeing separatism. That's absolute rubbish. A quick look at those vaccine numbers will tell members on that side of the House that Māori providers cater for all of our people. That's a simple suggestion to say that what's good for Māori is good for the rest of the country. And you'll see that in the health reform agenda that our Minister the Hon Andrew Little is progressing for our country. You will see the establishment of a Māori Health Authority something I am extremely proud of so that we can turn around the entrenched inequities that have seen Māori health statistics continue to head downwards—something that I'm sure everyone in this House will agree with but the difference is this Government's doing something about it. The other side of the House is quite happy to run down Māori efforts or even personal responsibility for the fact that our system has been actually established to run against them over many many decades now. This Government is taking the opportunity to fix that.The Hon Andrew Little is right. It's going to take some time. And I'm proud that in a short period of time he has led our health reform work that will see on 1 July the lights on for the Māori Health Authority and Health New Zealand. When we announced that policy on 21 April last year everyone laughed and said that it couldn't be done. Everyone laughed and said "You can't disestablish DHBs create a Health New Zealand create a Māori Health Authority within the space of just over 14 months. You can't do it." I'm proud to say we're well on track. We have our interim boards in place. Just recently in fact yesterday I was privileged to be a part of the pōwhiri for the new interim chief executives for both Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority. We look forward to continuing our work with them to make sure that come 1 July this year it's lights on. But like the Minister said that's just the start. We need to continue to support the aspirations of our communities their health aspirations and their wellbeing aspirations to make sure that as we continue to develop our health reform work and our health sector it matches those aspirations.As we look towards our COVID response I've talked about vaccination numbers we now find ourselves in the onset of Omicron and are shifting to phase 2. We're unapologetic about the plan that we established for making sure that our community continues to stay safe during the Omicron outbreak. Phase 1 was about continuing to push the message for boosters and vaccinations continuing to drive paediatrics roll-out for the vaccine. That was important because we know the science is very clear: the vaccine will continue to support and protect our communities. That is the important message that we continue to espouse in our communities and make sure we can give our people the best chance for protection. But as we look towards the onset of phase 2—that's about working to minimise the disruption of Omicron while also protecting our most vulnerable—there are going to be some changes around the way we isolate and also the testing regimes that we use.In my contribution as well today I want to say to our whānau out there: do not be afraid. Our Māori health providers our health providers and our health sector our community leaders have been well briefed with respect to this particular plan and how we deal with Omicron in our community. I encourage for those whānau who are feeling a little bit nervous about Omicron coming into their communities reach out to the whānau reach out to your Māori health provider reach out to the health sector who can support you to make sure that as Omicron continues to sweep across our country you are in the best position to keep you and your whānau safe. That's the message we need to make sure our people hear: not the message from what we're hearing on the forecourt of this Parliament but the message that we can do this and we can do this together. We've proven over the past two years that our response to COVID-19 is world leading and we can continue to make sure it's that way as we look towards the future and what comes. I've talked about the health reforms. There is so much going on in the reform space that our people are excited and optimistic about what that brings. In my final minute and a half I want to just say thank you. Thank you to the team of 5 million. Thank you to our hard-working health sector. Thank you to our hard-working health workforce. Thank you to our Defence Force personnel. As Minister of Defence I know that they've worked hard in our managed isolation and quarantine space but they've also been agile and responsive to the needs internationally and domestically. I want to say thank you to our community leadership who continue to support our communities our families despite the challenges of disinformation and misinformation that is being fed to them constantly. I want to say thank you to every mum and dad who has encouraged their child and taken them along to be vaccinated because we know vaccination and being boosted will give you and your family the best protection as we look towards protecting ourselves beyond the coming weeks and into the months ahead with respect to COVID-19.I also want to say and it's unlike us but I want to say thank you to my colleagues the leadership from our Prime Minister the leadership from our Ministers fellow colleagues right across this entire Government who have worked hard to continue to support our communities while also coming here to do the mahi where our people expect them to be to make sure that their voices are heard here and in the responses and policies that this Government put in place to protect our whānau. A big thankyou to one and all."