Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. One of the things that I liked the most about my last job monitoring child health was you had the opportunity to sit back and look at the bigger picture. You could look at the trends underlying child health you could look at the economic drivers that were driving some of those changes and you could think about what you might do to achieve change. I think back in 2009 when the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) were starting to be felt it meant I had the time to sit down with colleagues and work out how we were going to monitor the impact of that economic downturn on child wellbeing. As a result we produced the Children's Social Health Monitor to track those impacts. And what we saw was basically as we were expecting unemployment rose and because there were no real buffers or shock absorbers in the system that tracked through immediately to changes in child poverty and the knock-on effects to families in terms of health and wellbeing. So basically when we started to see COVID coming through the country and the Treasury back in April 2020 was starting to predict that we'd be seeing large rises in unemployment and some of their models were really quite concerning—so in some of the scenarios they were saying between 8 and 22 percent unemployment through to 2021—and so basically the question was: what was our Government going to do in response? And thankfully our Government chose to take quite a different path to what we saw during the GFC and as a result many of those things that we were predicting never came to pass because what we did is we put in the wage subsidies and what they did is they made sure that workers were connected through to their employers and they stayed in their jobs. We had COVID support payments to help out businesses we increased benefits we doubled the winter energy payment and we also looked at potentially people that would need to retrain and so we had the free trades training and also looked at providing that support for employers so they'd take apprentices on. So we saw some really good things that were happening as a result of those changes that we'd made. The other thing that we didn't notice so much and we're not thinking about is the legacies that this time will leave across the country and for me thinking about what's happening down in Invercargill. Many of those projects that the Government invested on to bring forward jobs and to rebuild our infrastructure are going to have a lasting legacy. I was out in Bluff a couple of weeks back for the opening of six new kaumātua units out at Te Rau Aroha Marae and the ability for kaumātua now to live adjoining the marae and then to basically be able to mix with the kids in the kōhanga every morning—some really really positive changes as a result.Every week as I drive to the airport we've got these big stopbanks the Stead Street stopbanks that protect our airport from inundation because it's pretty much at sea level. And basically what they've done is with some COVID response shovel-ready funding they've put in place this massive sheet pile wall to stop the waves overtopping with high tides and with sea-level rise. So it doesn't come across the road and basically we've got better protection for the infrastructure in Invercargill—so some really permanent legacies.But also thinking forward about how we can create jobs but at the same time manage our response to climate change. So I was at a couple of different nurseries that local iwi are involved with—native tree nurseries. The Jobs for Nature have assisted with the funding. So not only does that create jobs but it means that we can start to restore some of our region's biodiversity. It means that we can start to improve our water quality and take us further forward in terms of our climate change response. So it's wonderful to see how many of the innovations are actually doing those dual-purpose jobs but also climate change but also permanent infrastructure for our region. So basically there's a whole lot of stuff that I think's going to be very positive out of the previous years.But the problem we've got is nothing ever stands still and I think the problem we've got is that we're looking forward to the ongoing supply issues with the COVID pandemic. We're looking ahead to the impacts of climate change on food production and we're also seeing the impacts more immediately of the war in Ukraine and the impact that's had on cost of living.But looking again at what we had in terms of buffers in the system when we went through the GFC our Government in the last few years has put in place incredible—we've increased the minimum wage. We've increased benefits. We've got the winter energy payment. There's a whole lot more buffers in the system that are going to help families as they negotiate that very difficult time and then even much more recently looking at 25c a litre off fuel costs and also half-price public transport.So for me we've only got one sleep until the Budget and I'm looking forward to hearing more about what the Government is going to do next to take us through the year ahead. Thank you Madam Speaker.