McLellan TraceyDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a great pleasure today to stand in support of the Prime Minister's statement a statement that I thought summed up what this Government's priorities are really succinctly and very concisely. No one should be in any doubt of what our priority is and that is that this Government is working for you. We are here for you we put people at the centre of everything we do and we are here to talk New Zealand up not talk New Zealand down. On the other side of this very honoured room all we hear is speeches and naysayers and people who want to talk New Zealand down as if New Zealand wasn't one of the very best places in the world to live and as if Kiwis don't revel in the fact of how lucky they are. That is not to say that there are not challenges that we face but more of that soon. As many people have done in this House I would like to acknowledge whaea Georgina Beyer who contributed so much to various communities to New Zealand as a whole and to humanity. I acknowledge her. As many people have done I'd also like to acknowledge all of the people who have lost so much and been through so much due to Cyclone Gabrielle and all of those adverse weather events that have happened just recently. I particularly want to acknowledge our first responders and all of the community groups some of which existed beforehand and have done fantastic jobs some of which have sprung up as a result of this to do their very best. Heroes and individuals who have really come to the fore to help each other out I acknowledge you and I'd also like to acknowledge our local MPs many of whom have been on the ground every day doing everything they can—particularly my colleague to my right here Anna Lorck.The Prime Minister's statement as I said focused on the core things that we need to be thinking about as a country. One of the reasons that we're able to do that and focus on what matters most to people acknowledging those challenges that we face is the reality that we ended last year with some pretty impressive strong economic growth. It's simply a fact that our economy is about 7.9 percent bigger than before the start of the pandemic and that it's growing faster than many of the places that we compare ourselves with like Australia the US Canada the whole eurozone Japan and the UK. That's pretty impressive.We have record low unemployment and we have what can only be described as world-leading Government books. That is something to be proud of. And while we're at it the other side of this House have just spent numerous amounts of their precious time barking on about consultants and how they would cut consultants and how they need to cut consultants presumably to pay for what is a paucity of ideas that they've released so far in policy but nevertheless under-costed not well accounted for and that's hardly going to cut the mustard. Unless someone's doing the work by definition no one is doing the work. So we either have more public servants which the other side—National—constantly refer to in negative terms or we have less analysis and less evidence to support policy. So clearly you can see the direction that they're heading: they're intending to do nothing. One of the primary responses to the cost of living pressures that people are facing in this country has to be increasing wages and improving productivity and the good news is again that wages are up more than 16 percent in the three years since December 2019. The increase that New Zealand workers waited nearly five years for following the global financial crisis—so this side of the House is doing a good job. When we think about supporting New Zealanders and supporting Kiwis one of the themes that is coming through is workforce shortages and we acknowledge that that is something that everybody is facing not just in New Zealand but it's a global issue. Last quarter while we had record employment and a really low 3.4 percent unemployment rate we recognised that the flip-side of that obviously is that there's been some shortages. That's why we're supporting New Zealanders to learn and to upskill. More than 215000 people have taken up those free apprenticeships and that targeted trades training. Almost 55000 apprentices now have been supported through that Apprenticeship Boost initiative and that's one of the things I'm most proud about and one of the things that I have no doubt in supporting the Prime Minister's statement because of. Thank you.