Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you Mr Speaker. You know in the midst of advice and theory and speculation nobody really knew how this country would respond post COVID lockdowns. One sector that has done extraordinarily well—despite all of the issues that have befallen it—is the construction sector. The construction sector has gone to extraordinary lengths to build houses and to build infrastructure. It's with the proactive support of this Government that our construction sector has thrived in this environment. Those that we expected to be most impacted by COVID have been most impacted by COVID: Māori Pacific and women. And yet in the construction sector with the use of the Construction Skills Action Plan and the partnership with the Construction Sector Accord those groups in particular have been so well represented that the numbers of those Māori Pacific and women in the construction sector have increased.If I can just share with you some of the fantastic news that has happened in the sector and I shared a little bit of that earlier today. We have gone from using the Construction Skills Action Plan which had a target of 4000 people into education and employment opportunities in the construction sector—that has exceeded the number of people in the sector by seven times to 29000 and that's just one opportunity that has been taken advantage of. Very early on in the development of the Construction Sector Accord the partnership between the sector and the Government—when we were plunged into our first lockdown the relationship that we now have with the construction sector is such that we were able to develop with them a way to safely bring the sector back on board at level 2. So one of the few sectors that opened up after the first lockdown was the construction sector—able to then continue on the massive house build programme that is being undertaken in this country. A record number of consents across the country and an unexpected really return to some great work in the sector.And what else is happening to support the sector? So there is other work that we are doing to support the sector by a legislative reform. One of the pieces of work we have done is to ensure that we can build faster through the changes we have made in the modular construction framework. So we're able to build faster but not only that we're now supporting—Hon Member: Are you the Minister of Police or not?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: I am actually the Minister of Police but I'm also the Minister for Building and Construction and I just want to tell you about the magnificent work that the building and construction sector is doing. And the work that we're doing around Licensed Building Practitioners. We know that in Christchurch for example that we a huge issue with the ability to know that our engineers were actually registered and working to their practice. The work that we're doing around supporting the development of some key criteria around Licensed Building Practitioners will give the sector some sense of security that we're able to continue to do—They are a real rabble today Mr Speaker. I'm not sure if you're getting this but they are a little bit of a rabble today.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I'm recording this sell it as a cure for insomnia!Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Oh are you falling asleep Mr Brownlee! Let me help you with more good news then shall I? The diversity into the—SPEAKER: Well if he is the member's sleep talking pretty loudly!Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Yeah. Thank you Mr Speaker.Let me just say that there are some amazing opportunities today—as we celebrate oranging the world for women—in the building and construction sector. The Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation apprentices say that about 5 percent of women apprentices in the BCITO are women. That's up from 3 percent in 2019. [Opposition members applaud] Oh thank you! What a disgraceful bunch of people.