Rurawhe AdrianMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I know I only have five minutes but I want to say a couple of things starting off with a big thankyou to our Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who has basically had everything thrown at him from the very first moment he started off in his new role a mere six weeks ago. So I stand here in support of the Prime Minister's statement and the vision that he laid out in the House. As this is my first contribution for the year I also would like to pay my respects to Jacinda Ardern for the role that she has played in navigating New Zealand and New Zealanders through the many challenges that we've faced over the last five years. I was part of a New Zealand delegation in 2019 in April to the Inter-Parliamentary Union the global organisation of national parliaments and it was really moving to have every delegate from every country that attended come up to us and express their admiration and gratitude to New Zealand for its leadership in the response to the 15 March attack. Jacinda Ardern of course also earned the world's respect for keeping New Zealanders safe during the worldwide COVID pandemic and we had the lowest death rate in the OECD. So I am proud to now stand here with a team that was united and showed unanimous support for Chris Hipkins to take on the role of Prime Minister six weeks ago. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has dealt with the challenges that immediately upon him taking on the role were thrown on him and I am extremely proud to be part of a team with such amazing leadership. The challenge the Prime Minister has had to deal with is now described as the worst weather event of this century. The effects of the weather events in late January followed by the cyclone and more rain again are absolutely devastating and I do join my colleagues from around the House who have given us the comment that they wanted to express their thoughts to all of the emergency services who have been working so hard all around the country to keep people safe. I also want to put on the record my condolences to those who have lost family and lost friends and who have suffered damage and losses that will be felt for a very long time to come. The Prime Minister and colleagues like Minister Barbara Edmonds and several other of my colleagues like the absolutely amazing Vanushi Walters have visited the community of Muriwai after the tragedy. They met with the fire brigade members at the station who are grieving the loss of two of their colleagues—their brothers—and my condolences go out to the family friends and colleagues of volunteer firefighters Craig Stevens and Dave van Zwanenberg. On the other side of Kaipara ki Mahurangi the communities were hard hit too when the cyclone hit and the flooding started. In the North we were cut off for days from going north or south as the roads had all closed due to slips and the floods. There was no power. For many on tank water it also means that they have no flushing toilets. No water no internet and no phone coverage and it lasted for many days. It was great to see how the communities get together in times of adversity and it was a privilege last week to host Ministers Sepuloni and Edmonds up in Wellsford and to host a morning tea for our many volunteers who kept the Wellsford emergency centre going all through those three weather events. So a shout-out goes to Deejay Justine Leeanne Jolene Melissa Tanya JK and to Ant the police officer and Christine. I want to express as many of my colleagues have my thanks and gratitude to all those many volunteers who were showing everyone who came to the centres their manaaki. People who were stranded whānau ordered to leave their homes because they were not safe strangers and neighbours—and everybody was safe. But as the Prime Minister has said the scale of the task ahead of us is significant. We're up for it and our commitment to rebuild the network of devastated areas means that we're standing with those communities and making sure that this will be a locally led response. The recovery will cost billions but we are in a strong financial position with some of the lowest debt in the world on a per capita basis. Our Government is committed to doing what they can to get people back on their feet and that's why we've rolled out immediate support like the $50 million to businesses to deliver locally led interim emergency business and primary sector support. To support farmers and growers as they rebuild from the cyclone we're providing further funding to help them get back on their feet taking our total primary sector package to $55 million so far. At the same time as we respond to the immediate challenges around homes roads power and communications we also look to the future building resilience to respond to unexpected events and to ensure our communities are safe. We've made a start on addressing the cost of living pressures by extending fuel excise restrictions and half-price public transport and we heard from my colleague previously that it's a really good deal to take advantage of those half-price deals. I recently took the bus from Wellsford to Warkworth—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.