Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): It was absolutely evident during that contribution that the person most enjoying themselves on the opposite side was one Christopher Luxon because when the caucus starts chanting no after everything the leader says you know that it's all on. And when it comes right before a three-week parliamentary recess you know that the knives will be out.Judith Collins chose to start her contribution today talking about housing just a day after her housing spokesperson said that she would stick to the State house building programme of the current Government but Judith Collins just this morning asked about that said the opposite and said Well I could tell you how many but I think it is certainly not at this stage." Not quite sure exactly what that means but it clearly means that they're not talking to each other—but of course that's not unusual in the National Party caucus.So Christopher Luxon thoroughly enjoyed himself. I understand he's using the three-week parliamentary recess to begin his reconnecting-with-the-provinces tour around New Zealand. He's going to start in Kaitāia Whakatāne Whanganui Masterton Kāpiti Westport and Wānaka and all of the other places where he cut their air services whilst he was the chief executive in Air New Zealand and start with an apology to those communities.It is in fact a great time to be a part of this Government—a Government that is united and focused making real progress for New Zealand as we continue to lay the foundations of recovery and tackle the long-term challenges that have been facing our country including the housing crisis that we inherited from the last Government and shame on them for ignoring that for nine long years. We are keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 working on accelerating our recovery and making progress on those big long-term challenges that we face as a country.Aren't our economic figures stacking up pretty well compared to the rest of the world at the moment? The Opposition while they try and talk down the New Zealand economy should get out and about a bit more and see the fact that New Zealand has actually been incredibly resilient through this global pandemic. New Zealanders are doing the hard yards to make sure that we are rebounding and recovering from what has been an unprecedented economic shock. It has been the hard work of New Zealanders that has delivered that rebound for New Zealand. We are seeing unemployment decreasing—one of the lowest unemployment rates despite the challenges that we have at the moment. We are seeing numbers of people leaving main benefits and going into work every week now because of the work that we have been doing to ensure that New Zealand is rebounding from this economic shock.We have good news on the vaccine front today. I want to mention the number 150000 twice today in fact: 150000 Pfizer vaccines arrived in New Zealand this week—the biggest delivery that we've received to date which happened to coincide with 150000 New Zealanders safely arriving back in New Zealand through our managed isolation facilities without bringing COVID-19 into the community with them because of the hard work of the people working at our border to keep us safe. I would of course remind the members opposite that the only disruptions that we have had to the trans-Tasman bubble since it opened have not been in New Zealand. The team working in our border to keep COVID-19 out of our community have been incredibly effective. They have been working very hard and they deserve our thanks. When we look at how difficult it is around the rest of the world it only underscores just how good they have been and just how much we owe them a great debt of thanks. And so I want to say that on behalf of all New Zealanders to our border workers: thank you for what you have been doing to keep the country safe and for the sacrifices you are making for the rest of us.Half a million New Zealanders are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19 three-quarters of a million New Zealanders have had at least their first dose of vaccine. We have approved a new vaccine today. Medsafe has approved a new vaccine today that gives us further choices should we need them around our vaccine roll-out and we are seeing the number of vaccine doses delivered into New Zealanders' arms continuing to increase as bigger quantities of the vaccine arrive in New Zealand over the coming month. And again I want to thank our front-line health workers for the work that they are doing to get vaccines out of the freezer and into peoples' arms as fast as they are arriving in the country—that is a huge tribute to our health workers. I think they deserve our thanks and I think that people should stop running down their efforts and actually thank them for the contribution that they've been making."