Davidson MaramaHon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness)): Thank you Madam Chair. In response to my colleague Mr Waititi I also wanted to pick up on the kaupapa Māori - led response to homelessness which is an incredibly important part of our work across our ministerial colleagues and as Minister Woods said we are very clear that not one person living without adequate shelter is acceptable to any of us. The vision for the Homelessness Action Plan is that homelessness for anybody is rare brief and non-recurring. We also know right now that we have some work to do towards actually achieving that vision and we are committed and this is a different way of Government responding to the issue of homelessness.So as we know homelessness in particular has been decades in the making but we have a shift in responding to homelessness. So the 18-month review of the Homelessness Action Plan was able to point to good progress in particular areas that I did want to highlight including in ensuring that a housing-first approach here in Aotearoa is specifically prioritising a kaupapa Māori - led response a tangata whenua - led response to homelessness. I know my colleague Mr Waititi is very genuinely concerned on how we also respond to and prevent homelessness. My colleague the Hon Peeni Henare already outlined the support and the importance of preventing homelessness from happening in the first place. This is the Māori supply the Māori-led housing development that we are going to start to see more and more of around the regions and it has a direct impact on the unacceptable disproportionate rate that Māori experience homelessness in particular. And as we have heard from our providers it is unacceptable more so because this is our home in Aotearoa as tangata whenua. So I did want to highlight that important work to the House and in response to my colleague. I also want to go on to say that the progress includes action across the entire immediate 18 actions in the Homelessness Action Plan. It included—I wanted to also talk about this—new accommodation places for women leaving prisons and new accommodation places for young people leaving the care of Oranga Tamariki. Making progress on those and many other important areas are nothing to be scorned and are leading in terms of our valuing of who we need to be caring for as Ministers in this House.Now these are prevention actions as well. The Sustaining Tenancies initiative is about helping people to keep their tenancies in the first place to stop seeing more people from becoming homeless. Right now I'm proud to say that we have got 1063 households currently in that programme. We also have 4435 households accepted into Housing First. These are important every single one but we know that we want to see more work done in those particular spaces as well. I cannot sit down without acknowledging that through all of the homelessness work that we alone as Government cannot do the community sector the iwi Māori and marae sector and the NGO sector has been critical—even through COVID where they have been on the front line of having to deal with COVID and homelessness and a housing crisis at the same time. I cannot sit down without acknowledging their absolute commitment in the face of the incredible challenge and burden that has fallen disproportionately on them. They were literally the groups and the communities who were needing rapid antigen tests for their residents who were needing the health services to come directly to their residents and their sites. I have to give a shout-out. It was only because of them that we are also able to have achieved the actions and especially the immediate actions in the Homelessness Action Plan. It is good progress. We absolutely need to be doing more. This is why I'm also pleased that the 18-month review threw up some new focus areas including a highlight on youth homelessness a highlight which we have never had in Governments before including a highlight on the mental health and addictions support that we must acknowledge: the health support that goes hand in hand with addressing homelessness and finally including a kaupapa Māori focus and leadership for responding and preventing further homelessness. Thank you.