Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to begin my call by actually clarifying something that a colleague of mine said in his general debate speech just a short while earlier. My colleague Michael Wood talked about the fact that he went to Napier and he determined that there were no vampires loose in Napier. Look I can attest to that because I went with him. He also mentioned something about cougars and I just wanted to clarify—before there were a whole series of tweets from the opposite side; namely Judith Collins—that that wasn't me. That wasn't the cougar—I wasn't the cougar that he was talking about. Hon Peeni Henare: Are you sure? PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: I'm absolutely sure. In this climate of fake news it would be disastrous if I let that go and there was a whole news story about that. SPEAKER: The member's too young. Move on. PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: What I'm going to talk about though is what this Government stands for. We've talked about the fact that this Government stands for a fair go for everyone but what does that really mean? It means—and we've heard it before—equitable access. It means that all of us can have a warm dry affordable home. It means that we get good quality healthcare when we need it. It means that we have an excellent education system and the best start in life for every child in New Zealand. It means that we have decent secure work that allows all of us to lead a life of dignity. But what have we seen? What has this Government inherited that we've got to fix? I won't go into a lot of detail because I think we've heard that in the House before but there are a few aspects of changes that have come about recently that I'd like to focus on.Let's talk about the fact that on this side of the House we want to stop our Kiwi homes being used as gambling chips by wealthy foreign speculators. We're in the midst of a housing crisis. Over 70000 houses—that's the shortfall that this Government has inherited. Record homelessness the fact that rentals are too high the quality of homes that have been inherited—and yet what are we doing? We're allowing people who just want to gamble with our houses to buy them.On the opposite side of this House members said that we couldn't do that—they wouldn't support this—but we're doing it. We are ensuring that our society is fair for everyone. We're an inclusive Government—that's the other point that I want to make today. What does that mean? Our Families Package that this Government passed will ensure that 380000 families are better off and that low and middle income families have a boost. We decided collectively that tax cuts for the 10 percent at the top is not what was a priority. What was priority for us is that everyone gets a share of the prosperity. The Best Start payment that will ensure that every child has the best start. The winter energy payment ensures that our senior citizens can actually afford to heat their homes. How many times have we sat in the living rooms of constituents who tell us that they pile on layer after layer and that they have to dry their clothes inside because the place that they lived in didn't have—this is an actual example; I was sitting with somebody. They didn't have an outside space and had to dry their clothes inside. In winter that added to the cold damp house that they were living in and they fell sick. That's what an inclusive Government does.The fact is that we want to and we will close the gender pay gap. The fact that we are adamant that everyone will have the opportunity to be in leadership roles should they choose to—and that is important because a number of the ethnic communities that I work with and that I engage with feel and have been very vocal about the fact that we are under-represented at every level of decision making. From the school board through to local government and central government if we're not at the table—if our people don't have the opportunity to sit at that table—they cannot continue to be part of the conversation that shapes our country that is growing in diversity. That is why promotion of fake news is such an issue because those websites promote anti-Islamic anti-Semitic nonsense stuff that is racist—just news that is untrue and that threatens the fabric of our society and the very fabric of our democracy. That's why it's important to stand against that when we want to ensure that everyone in our society has the information they need to be able to participate. Thank you Mr Speaker. The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.