O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Thank you Mr Speaker. This morning I was very privileged to be at the official opening of Transmission Gully and for those of us who were there for those of us who got to drive on the road it was something to behold. In an ocean of criticism an ocean of bad news I think it's important as New Zealanders to look and see that we do do a lot of good in this country.Now I know there's a lot of New Zealanders listening to this general debate because if they don't really watch much other Parliament it's a time they feel that many issues are being covered. Listening to the debate each side goes into their polar corner and argues that corner and it can leave those watching a little confused. But I'd just like to assure those that are watching that New Zealand's actually in pretty good shape and that we're actually in a lot better shape than you would think listening to this debate.What I really am looking forward to is New Zealanders now travelling again—we have become a little insular by necessity. And what that means is that we sometimes as New Zealanders travel and as we arrive back as we get off that plane in Auckland Wellington Christchurch or Queenstown as we've heard from before we think: actually this is a pretty good country. Because what we do is we actually have something to relate it to. And what New Zealanders will now do—as someone who has just been to Sydney and rang me this week said Oh actually from what we had heard Sydney was thriving; it's one big party. Actually Sydney is much quieter. There's much more downtown carnage in commercial activity than there is in New Zealand." I suspect that's going to be the case as New Zealanders go around the world. We're going to actually come back get off that plane and say "Actually we did it pretty well."I'll just look to in this House something that happened here that involved us all relatively recently which was out the front where we had an invasion where we had the streets around Parliament including Parliament grounds taken over. It was an affront to democracy and the world did watch as our police came here the same police that have been rubbished today—unfortunately for political gain. But when our police were asked to stand up as much of our Public Service have they stood up. That operation for anyone that understands the need to have a well-disciplined well-commanded group of men and women in order to achieve what was achieved out the front here today—they will actually understand just what was achieved. In fact it's not just been recognised by New Zealanders; there has been overseas recognition of how well done that operation was compared to what is being done in many other capitals.One thing that was reflected on by those watching was the fact that the people out the front here—we had a really good mixture of races in our police we had a really good mixture of cultures we had a good mixture of genders out there and that became very obvious. That has been reflected in a lot of the commentary that has been received from those overseas who watched it. That's apart from how well planned it was. And without just reflecting on the police—and I think New Zealanders who are watching who are looking to see how we do things we do do things pretty well here. We only have to look at what transpired during our COVID response—an excellent response.Also yes we have to acknowledge that things have got tougher for a lot of New Zealanders. Again we now look at what is happening overseas that has brought that about. The supply issues were a major problem. Our select committee had our shipping companies in we had our local ports in and all of them were looking at what's happening around the world that is impacting on prices and supply issues here. Supply and demand; it's quite simple. We've had obviously the fuel issues the fuel price issues—all these things that anyone who will take time to simply look at an overseas paper look at an overseas website will see these are issues that are happening everywhere. It's the response that's important and it's the response that New Zealanders can look at now: that we do do it well. And you'll see particularly this weekend when we're going to see something in New Zealand that we do well—we trickle up. We're going to give more income to those who need it who will actually spend it and the result will be better businesses in New Zealand. So for those watching have faith in New Zealand. Thank you Mr Speaker."