Wood MichaelHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I wish to commence my comments today by noting and acknowledging this discovery today at the Pike River mine of video evidence of bodies in the mine. I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of all members of this House go to the families who continue to deal with this tragedy 11 years after the explosion first occurred.But today I primarily want to pay a tribute to the people and the communities of Auckland who have displayed incredible resilience and have come together in an extraordinary way over the last 14 weeks to combat COVID-19 to keep fellow Aucklanders safe and to try and move forward together in the most trying of circumstances. I think of the community event in my electorate of Mt Roskill three weeks ago where our Pacific community across faith leaders school leaders and community leaders came together to vaccinate nearly 300 people at our local Wesley community centre—people who may have been hard to reach people who may have been subject to misinformation people who needed help and support and advice to get in there and to be safe from COVID-19. Our community came together and did that.I think of our leaders from our Christ the King Catholic church on Richardson Road in my electorate who worked with local business leaders to encourage the community to come in for a vaccination event last week who provided support who provided incentives and who reached out in the very best traditions of the Christian faith to keep communities safe as opposed to some of the misinformation and self-aggrandisement that we see from extreme fringes of the fundamentalist movements within the church communities.I think of the businesses across Auckland like the large transport operator who contacted me two weeks ago to say Can you help link me up to our health services because we've got workers here that we know we can get vaccinated if we get an on-site vaccination service." Our health workers came together with that business to make that happen.I want to pay tribute to those health workers who have worked around the clock every single day in Auckland who have given and given and given to keep their fellow citizens of Tāmaki-makau-rau safe during this public health crisis. Those people are heroes.Most of all I want to thank the 1.7 million members of my city who have just displayed extraordinary fortitude. It has been tough mentally it has been tough emotionally and tough spiritually but the people of Auckland haven't let the knockers haven't let the purveyors of misinformation get to them. They've got on with the job they've rolled up their sleeves and over 90 percent of Aucklanders have now got their first vaccination and we are on our way to that 90 percent double-dose target. People in Auckland the businesses of Auckland are getting ready to transition to the new framework. The workers of Auckland are getting ready for it as well.Despite some of the noise we hear from the other side of the House and the conspiracy theorists people back this Government's tough decisions to make sure that we keep people in our health system and our education system safe by requiring vaccine where it's needed to keep our vulnerable communities safe from COVID-19. Being in Government and providing good leadership at a time of crisis is not about making the easy decisions that keep everyone happy all of the time. It is very often about making the tough decisions about dealing with the difficult conflicts between individual and collective rights about dealing with the needs of different sectors about dealing with complex social and economic trade-offs. That is what this Government under Jacinda Ardern has been doing week in and week out for nearly two years now and that has come to the fore at the time of COVID Delta.The final comment I want to make is that alongside that extraordinary work from the people of Auckland a very tiny but very vocal minority—with outsized coverage might I add—have continued to spread misinformation and have continued to undermine the work of our team of 1.7 million and our team of 5 million. I think it was an extraordinary abrogation of leadership from the Leader of the Opposition two weeks ago to excuse and justify the illegal gatherings—the illegal gatherings—brought together by Brian Tāmaki that false prophet that were illegal and that were unsafe and that will likely result in people getting COVID-19. I thought it was extraordinary this week as well when in the wake of that member's former colleague Matt King continuing to spread disinformation about the vaccine continuing to discourage social distancing and other public health measures the comment of the Leader of the Opposition was that he is a "lovely guy".New Zealanders and the members of the city of Auckland can wake up every morning safe in the knowledge that we actually have a leader in Jacinda Ardern and a Government that will make the tough decisions to keep Kiwis safe and that might be why the death rate from COVID-19 in New Zealand is less than 10 percent of that in Australia and amongst the lowest in the world."