Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. As I generally do in these forums and in the general debate I want to take the opportunity kia tangi atu ki ngā mate nui o te wā. Ki te rangatira ki a Tā Michael Cullen ki te rangatira ki a Des Ratima ki te rangatira ki a Royce Te Rangitautahi Ponga koutou katoa o te pō haere haere haere atu rā [to mourn the recent loss of some important people. To the esteemed Sir Michael Cullen to the respected Des Ratima to the venerated Royce Te Rangitautahi Ponga to all of you who have passed rest in peace].I generally open my contributions in this House by acknowledging those who have passed on and I want to in particular pick a couple of those people because I think they've put this country in good stead and that good work has continued by this Government—of course Sir Michael Cullen a former Minister of Finance who did a fantastic job to make sure we had a strong and resilient economy despite the challenges of the time. I now look at our Minister of Finance and want to congratulate him for the hard work he has done to continue to ensure that our economy remains resilient during this pandemic and during these challenging times. The Minister of Finance has done a fantastic job to make sure that whānau continue to be supported communities continue to be supported and where we can despite the lockdowns continue to support our businesses.I also want to talk about Mr Des Ratima. Des Ratima was a man who was a champion for whānau. He was a man who made sure that even those whānau who had nothing knew they had support from a person like Des Ratima and the services that he ran. I want to acknowledge him because he is a leader and a pou of Whānau Ora and the support that we've been able to give to communities across the country. That man will be sadly missed in Ngāti Kahungunu and sadly missed by Māoridom. It is the work that he did that's made Whānau Ora the success it is today. I want to heap praise like my colleagues on this side of the House have on those providers those whānau who continue to do the hard mahi during these times. I want to add to their list a particular thanks to the New Zealand Defence Force. When I think about how good our New Zealand Defence Force are I'm filled with pride and joy and humility when I witness all that they are capable of. Let me run through a very short list over the past two weeks. They continue to support our efforts in the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities. They are there and they have been for a long time. They support the security of our borders by supporting those who enter into the MIQ facilities. They bring a mana and an integrity to that system that you can't find elsewhere and I want to thank them for that. Can I also thank them for their operations in Afghanistan. Their nimble and capable operability that allowed us to send a deployment to Afghanistan is once again testament to the importance of our New Zealand Defence Force. Just recently the floods in Tāmaki-makau-rau the Defence Force came out again to support those people in West Auckland to make sure despite COVID they were supported during a challenging time which was the flooding in West Auckland. I want to thank them for that. And then of course now as we've shifted alert levels I want to thank them for the support that they offer to the border support that's taking place right now to the south of Tāmaki-makau-rau.To our whānau in Tāmaki-makau-rau yes this has been a hard time. We want to thank you for the work that you do to support people in the community of Tāmaki-makau-rau and to continue to keep yourselves safe during such trying times. The one message that I continue to promote amongst the Māori communities is the vaccine. I have done this since March and I will continue to do it today. Over the past two weeks we have seen an exponential increase in the uptake of the vaccine by the Māori community. We need this to continue. Minister Hipkins has already spoken about the approach that we've taken towards the vaccine roll-out and that is the whānau approach. We've done that from the start and I want to continue to express to our whānau that we need you to come forward to make yourself available for the vaccine. Today 1 September the eligibility opens up to all of our whānau who are aged 12 and older. Please whānau wherever you are in the country make yourself available for the vaccine. We're working hard with Māori health providers and general health providers to make sure that the accessibility is in our community and in particular in our rural and remote parts of Aotearoa New Zealand and we want to continue to support that so that wherever our whānau are they have access to the vaccine.There have been a number of quite witty puns and use of language to explain the vaccine to my people in particular to the Māori people. Some of them I want to repeat here today. One such as: be a doer; don't be a hua. I think that message is important. Another one is Be a doer! Karawhuia!". And if there's one thing I can say to our Māori whānau who are out there listening: make yourself available for the vaccine. Kia ora tātou."