Coffey TamatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Thank you Madam Chair. It has been my pleasure to serve on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee for the last few years and more specifically in recent times just looking at some of the Estimates and the appropriations that have gone to those different parts of our very largely mandated committee. Can I note that obviously in this post-COVID world that we are in we face some pretty uncertain times. We had a very strong health response and that's what's gone and led to the position we are in now but it's going to take an economic response to be able to deal with the unemployment and the uncertainty that is all around New Zealand at the moment. Our team of 5 million helped to achieve that and actually it's great to see that the Government in Budget 2020 has backed New Zealanders to be able to provide jobs in lots of different areas across the board to cushion the blow for the whole country. When we talked about infrastructure on our committee we were just noting that the massive amount of investment that has gone into infrastructure all across New Zealand is quite unprecedented with the Provincial Growth Fund with the New Zealand Upgrade Programme and also with the $3 billion investment into infrastructure as part of the COVID relief fund. That has all been welcome not least the allocation for connectivity with some of our marae in really remote parts of New Zealand. All of that fits under the general heading of Infrastructure" and on our committee we heard from the Minister and the officials about that kind of investment. When it came to the sciences we had the conversation with the Minister about where we could increase opportunities for Māori in science noting that only 2 percent of the science workforce are in fact Māori. We have a long way to go to be able to try and address that imbalance—that very obvious imbalance—but part of what makes me happy is the fact that we have allocated $33 million to expand Vision Mātauranga. That's a capability fund to strengthen the relationships between Māori and obviously our sciences as well. It would be remiss of me as the member for the Waiariki to not mention the investment into tourism that we have had and part of that conversation was a really welcome sector recovery fund of $400 million all up to try and hang on to some of those really strategic assets that we have within our tourism assets all across New Zealand. To date we've had a couple of those announcements: one in the Waitomo and one in Kaikōura. Both of them are really really crucial to our tourism landscape and I know that our folks back home in Rotorua are looking forward to some announcements there as well. Can I also note that we had conversations about the $10 million which was directed straight into Māori in tourism of which we've got a very strong leader at the helm of that with Pania Tyson-Nathan who has been doing work with stakeholders that work in Māori tourism around New Zealand. They've got their allocation of $10 million to be able to help encourage the work that they do. Part of Budget 2020 is also looking towards the future of tourism and we have the task force co-chair that was announced the Hon Steve Chadwick who's been put at the helm of that to help reimagine what the future of tourism is going to look like. So there's a collaboration going on between the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Tourism New Zealand and the sector as well where they're looking to reimagine what tourism is going to look like in New Zealand. We know that the borders will open—we know that—but we need to make sure that when they do open we've got an environmental policy and a sustainability policy that absolutely enhances the offerings that we have in the tourism industry. We have worked hard on our COVID-19 health response. Our economic development is going to play a huge part in our recovery from this and that's why we're committed to working together and obviously investing in some of those Māori-led solutions to restart and also to repair our communities. I was pleased every time we had a Minister in the seat to talk about the many opportunities that have presented themselves and that are in the report."