Mallard Trevor; Ardern JacindaADJOURNMENTSPEAKER: I think we can now say normal transmission has resumed.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): I move That the House do now adjourn.Mr Speaker friends colleagues one and all: for New Zealand it's been quite a year. In amongst Aotearoa's highs and our lows for me it has been our people who have stood out all the way through. And those people—they are ultimately embodied by the people who are present in this place. So as is tradition and as is only right I am going to commit the first few moments of my words this afternoon to acknowledge those people who are often our unsung heroes in this place.Of course Mr Speaker I should start with you our referee our adjudicator our tennis coach—of sorts; 5-love—except in tennis you can't deduct points in the way that you are able to. Mr Speaker your job is not an easy one but we appreciate the role that you play in this House and in this precinct and I want to pay special tribute to what you've tried to embody in this place through simple acts like putting a slide on the forecourt of this Parliament which I think speaks to the kind of place we wish to be in the world.Right through to for instance our parliamentary security—who have a difficult job at times but hide from us the worst of their job and always undertake it with a smile; to the Chamber and meeting support staff who are always attentive and kind; to the cleaners who are here in the wee small hours often passing us as we exit and entering for their night's work; to the catering team who provide for us a home away from home in many ways reflecting the kinds of meals we would otherwise serve ourselves except the quality of the toasted sandwiches is probably better; to our parliamentary librarians who deal with sometimes random requests for information; the tour guides who make this place sound much more exciting than it probably is in reality for the visiting public.The Cabinet Office—they are unseen but unsung heroes in my book; the Office of the Clerk the seen heroes of this Parliament and debating Chamber; Ministerial Services; Parliamentary Service; the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet—my personal gratitude to them for the work that they do servicing me and my needs; the Ministry of Arts Culture and Heritage and the child poverty teams again—selfishly I acknowledge you; VIP drivers which I know both sides of this House would care to acknowledge for their selfless professionalism and for always providing company and a smile; and the Diplomatic Protection Squad who do have from time to time a difficult job but who always perform it with courtesy and respect.To those who work in our electorate offices who are the face of parliamentarians when we cannot be present and who do at times the most difficult and the most trying and the most traumatic work on behalf of New Zealanders every single day; to the Prime Minister's Office; to the staff who work in Premier House; and to the gallery who provide an incredibly important role in our democracy—to everyone who makes this place work makes this an institution we can be proud of we all I'm sure say thank you.And I ultimately believe that no matter what side of the House that you're on or no matter what role you play in this place we are essentially motivated by very similar purposes. We have an ambition that we want New Zealand to be even better than it is today than it was yesterday and even than it was the year before that.And we of course have a special insight into some of the people who on a day-to-day basis do that job themselves and so well. I can't help but reflect on the extraordinary insight I've seen in particular into our front-line public servants during events like 15 March and more recently Whakaari / White Island—again testament to the extraordinary people who work in our health services: our ambulance drivers our doctors our nurses. No two days are the same for those people and yet they bring with them a huge amount of humanity and empathy and professionalism. To our firefighters who have been working abroad in Australia in recent times and in our own tragedies in New Zealand and extraordinary events—right through to of course our police those on the front line and I do want to add those who work in our marae our iwi our hapū who in times of trial have been right there making themselves available and opening their doors.In every regard I have seen brave courageous professional humans representing the very best of New Zealand and as a nation full of ordinary people who do extraordinary things they deserve the best place in the world to live to work to raise their children and it is the ambition of this Government on this side of the House to provide that. So this has been our unashamed year of getting thing done for them and so I'm going to start canvassing what some of that year has looked like. I'm going to start at the very beginning—a very good place to start; I can assure you that will be the only Sound of Music reference that I will make for the course of this although I'm sure the team could pull it off. I absolutely believe that Kieran in particular would look excellent in a set of curtains—not least because I've seen him in elf tights and if he can pull off that he can pull off anything. But we won't do it with song because I've heard Grant Robertson sing.If we can start at the very very beginning—I want to start actually from December because even before we came into the new year one of the incredibly important things we did was make sure that people experience in New Zealand cheaper doctors visits. Those cheaper doctors visits have rolled in through this year and have meant that 540000 people on community services cards have paid $20 to $30 less to go to the doctor. A recent survey has shown us that more people have been able to afford to go to their doctor as a result—57000 people have said they haven't put off that important visit because those visits are cheaper. The same with prescriptions: more people are picking up their prescriptions because of the work that we have been doing.If we come into April we lifted the minimum wage—up to $17.70 and over 200000 people with a boost directly to their income and higher wages. In May we scrapped NCEA fees we increased funding for schools so that they didn't have to charge school donations—all of that making a difference to parents' back pockets. And in the Budget who could forget the landmark Wellbeing Budget where we increased the biggest boost in funding for mental health this country has ever seen? And it wasn't just about the cash; it was the services it brought. We already had Mana Ake a service in schools for all of the young people and children in primary and intermediate schools in Canterbury and Kaikōura to deal with the devastating after-effects of the earthquakes. We already had counselling services for under-25s in this region but what we have now done is begin the national roll-out of primary mental health services for all New Zealanders throughout the country. It will take time but the impact of that more than $1 billion investment will be long-lasting and huge.Alongside that Housing First places have increased and I want to acknowledge that's alongside a big increase in State house building—more than 3000 houses more than 2000 being built as we speak; the impact has been incredible in housing. We are building KiwiBuild houses and we will keep building KiwiBuild houses because we know there is more to do on housing supply and we will keep going until we address those issues.Mid-year: we heard the people who said get rid of single-use plastic bags but we've done more than that; we've started investing in improving our waterways fencing riparian planting planting trees around our important catchments—Kaipara is one area we've started directly supporting community groups there and we're working on standards to improve the health of our waterways and stock degradation.A hundred and forty nine million trees have been planted. We've passed the historic zero carbon bill. We have an historic agreement with our primary sector to make sure that we address emissions. As we roll into the end of the year $400 million is already going into our schools to improve property. Eighteen hundred police have been trained. We've increased Gateway places and Trades Academy places. Mana in Mahi. We've recently opened the Suicide Prevention Office. The Cancer Control Agency. Today another increase in the minimum wage was announced for April next year. I could go on.It is clear—in the short time that I have available—that this has been the year when we've been getting things done. Now we will never claim perfection but we will always claim progress. I can guarantee you this: we will be back in 2020 better than ever ready to fight an election and ready to keep on going. We are ready to win in 2020.