O'Connor Greg; Rurawhe AdrianGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): It's been an interesting debate this afternoon or two debates actually. One of them was an urgent debate around Air New Zealand and now of course we're discussing the Budget Policy Statement. The two aren't very much related. There's just the mere fact that Air New Zealand is still flying despite the doom and gloom on the other side of the House. Even as a comparative with Qantas Air New Zealand continued to fly internationally but Qantas was grounded and for all intents and purposes remains so and that's something of a metaphor for New Zealand. Air New Zealand became a metaphor for this country—it actually continued to fly. Just to put in some context again if you sat and listened to some of the debate here you'd think things were going to hell in a handcart. I've just been fortunate over the meal break to be at a function for Business New Zealand: Kirk Hope and his team and a lot of small businesses in New Zealand many of them from Auckland. I was privileged enough to be moving among those people with my ears open to hear what they're really saying and just the mere fact that their function was able to take place—the mere fact we were rubbing shoulders the mere fact that we were able to cram into a room to hear the welcome from Business New Zealand—that too was a metaphor for the success in the context against which we are now speaking and which we are going into this next Budget round. For those listening at home what we are now debating is the scene-setting for the next Budget for the money that will be distributed to ensure that New Zealand grows continues to grow and thrives in the coming period. I think it's also really important that we just take a moment and sit and all think where we were this time last year in the surreal world we were entering where the world was closing down. New Zealand was closing down. Closing down meant different things to different countries. In New Zealand closing down came to a choice: we could either concentrate on our people—as Debbie Ngarewa-Packer the previous speaker has been talking about—or we could concentrate fully on the economy. Obviously the two are not mutually exclusive but in New Zealand and I would say people with a background like myself who's been quite reasonably heavily involved in business the concept of shutting down an economy for four or five weeks was a very scary thought. No one knew what we would end up doing and so as a result most countries weren't as courageous as New Zealand was. Most countries didn't go to the end and work backwards. Everyone in New Zealand knew what the rules were. As COVID cases started to grow—and it was interesting just checking up—we didn't quite get to a thousand cases. In mid-April we were at just below a thousand. We sat at home and we watched and we wondered had we done the right thing because our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern what she made a decision to do was to focus on the people not on the economy. As a result—and you've heard people talk about it and it's been mentioned oft-times in this House—and as it turned out the best economic approach was the health approach the people-based approach. As we moved through and as we had all the terrible doom and gloom and you could see in the Budget Policy Statement the projections that were being made of unemployment at around 10 or 12 percent an economy diving—nobody really knew. But what we did learn—and this is what I hope the uptake from this will be when we are faced with anything similar in the future—was that actually if you concentrate on the people the rest will follow. I think many a time we hear he tangata he tangata he tangata—it is people it is people it is people. So by doing that what we saw—and many times people have talked about economies. Have a look at the economies overseas that actually just focused on the economy. You know we had a President of the Free World" who denied it and said that it would go away and that the economy was more important and look at that—half a million. I haven't seen the latest figures. I believe they're up to nearly 600000 dead now with probably 400000 or 500000 of them unnecessarily because that was a focus that just left people out of the whole decision-making. The UK did the same thing. They caught up but that was what they did. By focusing only on the economy and by not shutting down they allowed it to seed. Ireland was very interesting. People talk about Ireland. In Ireland actually it did seed. Ireland's actually got pretty terrible. I've got a sister in Ireland who's been locked down for months and they still continue to do so. They're only just looking at maybe opening the pubs. So these are the things that are happening around the world. So go back and I'd ask you to please look at this as we go into this next Budget and you see what this Living Standards Framework is going to be about. It's a continuation. What we'll look at COVID as being is it will be a start. It's the way the world will refocus if we allow it to refocus. Now look I don't blame the people across the floor. They're doing what they're here to do—you know to destroy and to pull down. They don't believe—most of them—what they're saying but that's all right I say to those at home because they have to say it. What we have proven here—and this is the lesson I hope that will come out of this COVID—is that we should concentrate on the people. Look at the building sector. Now there's a very interesting stat out there when we're talking about housing. One of the most interesting stats around housing is we now have 21000 more people involved in the construction industry than we did in 2018. Now compare that with what happened during the GFC. There are many reasons why we have a housing issue but one of the reasons is we simply don't have enough people to build them because in 2008 in the GFC the first people to get laid off were the people we need now: the tradies. If a business closed down anyone who had an apprentice shut down. All the money that went into apprentices it shut down and so nothing ever happens in isolation. I know that when I left my last job I said "Don't say that I'll be a success until I've been gone for three or four years. If things are still doing well then I will have been a success." and that's the way we have to look at it. Nothing happens overnight. We live in this society these days where it's instant—you know just add water and stir. Unfortunately that doesn't allow for the long-term strategy we need. So I go back to this Budget now and what this Budget is about is people. This is a continuation. It isn't new. This is a continuation of what we learn: if you concentrate on the people then the rest will look after itself. We come to this House from various experiences and we're challenged to sit down there and look at the formative experiences we've had. I know that from when I spoke here in my maiden speech about what I learnt. Basically I was a middle-class white farm boy from the South Island and I then went and worked as an undercover police officer in the North with communities I had only ever seen through one set of eyes before—I'd seen them through a police officer's set of eyes. But it was what I was actually able to see and do you know what? I came out of there seeing how much talent was in there. It was talent that if it was turned in the wrong direction it meant they became very good drug-dealers very good armed robbers and good at all those things that they did. But unfortunately in the past the only time that really captured that was often in the western desert and places like that—they were the people who came through it. But the talent that's out there if we can capture that talent and yes we won't capture it all—we won't capture it all. There will be examples. But if we can get half the people that would otherwise have had lives that they weren't satisfied with and no one around them was satisfied with then we will have succeeded. You know you don't give up. There will be some and we have to accept that there will be some and there will always be a need for prisons—you know those who will stand up. In fact it was quite interesting. One of the submitters we had when we were talking about the Budget Policy Statement and I think Mr Webb might have mentioned it was People Against Prisons Aotearoa—you know defund the police. Well as I pointed out to that particular individual who looked like he was probably a fairly safe liberal from the leafy suburb he came from. So what I pointed out to him on the only statistics he had there—and this goes back to Māori victimisation—was that the vast majority of people who are victims of crime are Māori. So do you ignore the victims by actually ensuring that—yes—what we've got to make sure of is that as much as we stop Māori offending we stop Māori victimisation? Nothing in isolation and that's why it's important. Again I go back to this. Just some examples: the Living Standards Framework. Look one of the most important things that came out of this when we look at the success of the last year is unemployment. OK at 4.9 percent it's still too high. No one is standing from the chandeliers waving a flag but it is a heck of a lot better than what we were looking at which was up to 10 or 12 percent. So at least with that 4.9 percent there are 1.5 percent more people working than were projected to be working. That's 1.5 percent—I don't know what numbers are on that but that's 1.5 percent more people who are actually getting out of bed in the morning or at night on whatever shift they're working who are actually getting out there and doing something and who are participating in our economy participating in this world. So again pointing back to this Budget and where we're going now it is very heavily focused on the people. We will continue to train apprentices. We will continue to make sure that people can participate in our world and that's what having a Living Standards Framework means. A thoroughly—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."