Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): This is my first opportunity to speak in a general debate this year and can I say I'm immensely proud to be able to speak in this debate on the other side of the COVID-19 health crisis that we have seen the country guided through under the strong decisive leadership of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. I want to also acknowledge the team of 5 million New Zealanders who all made sacrifices in one way or another who banded together and knuckled down hunkered down in their homes in isolation to help fight COVID-19. And we have been successful in that if not the most successful country in the world to date. I want to push back on some of the comments that the Hon Nikki um—Hon Chris Hipkins: Kaye.JO LUXTON: —Kaye said. She talked about the fact that this Government has failed in terms of COVID. She said isolation and quarantine has been an epic failure. I'm not quite sure she understands what an epic failure is. I'm sorry but when we can have our businesses reopening our schools reopening we can socialise more with our families and our friends when we've got the economy back up and running that is not an epic failure. An epic failure is sewage in our hospital walls. An epic failure is children living and having to do their homework from a car. An epic failure is people living under a bridge. An epic failure is selling off our State houses when our most vulnerable people need them. So we have been hugely successful. This country of ours we went hard and we went early and we are seeing the fruits of that and the fruits of the sacrifices that every New Zealander has made in one way or another.We must remember as the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and the Hon Chris Hipkins have mentioned there is no playbook for this. We have not seen anything the likes of this before. What is most important is whilst there are bound to be things that crop up from time to time because there is no playbook—[Interruption] Jacqui Dean there is no playbook there is no rulebook and we are going to see things crop up from time to time. And what is most important about that is how we react to those things that crop up from time to time. We have seen decisive and swift action from this Government to deal with the issues that have cropped up in the last few days.What we know is that this COVID-19 disease is getting worse overseas and we are bound to see more cases at our border as Kiwis come home. And why wouldn't they want to come home? New Zealand is the envy of the world in the face of this disease absolutely. In fact I do recall seeing an article recently from—I can't think where I saw it. I read it online that we had actors here in New Zealand; I think Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. They said that they felt very lucky to be in Aotearoa during the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are absolutely the envy of the world.I just wanted to make mention also of the wage subsidy. That has been a lifesaver. We've had members opposite saying Oh you know the wage subsidy is for the employees not the employers not the business owners." Well actually that has allowed the business owners to continue to keep people employed so when we got to the position to be able to get our businesses back open they were able to have their staff come through those doors and carry on business as usual. There is no point in giving somebody $5000 when they come to a job and then $5000 when they stay on a bit longer if there are no jobs left. So by giving the wage subsidy to employers we have ensured that there are still jobs available for those employees when we were able to come back to work from this crisis. So I commend the Government on its response."