SpeechNAISI CHEN (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm so proud to be contributing to this debate standing on this side of the House because this side of the House wholeheartedly stands in support of our Prime Minister and her statement. The Prime Minister's statement made last week was one that showed this country had a future and a bright one. Our Prime Minister laid out our plans for the future. It shows that she is leading a Government with a clear plan to navigate us not only out of Omicron but into economic recovery; one that is clean one that is green and one that will actually see all New Zealanders better off.Today is Lantern Festival—元宵节快乐!—one that is usually marked by the Auckland Lantern Festival the largest festival in Tāmaki-makau-rau. This year unfortunately we've once again had to move all celebrations online.This Government is committed to supporting all communities. That's why last year in 2021 we opened the Ministry for Ethnic Communities; a portfolio that was deemed unnecessary by the Opposition members because they had actually lowered their reporting levels but a portfolio that represents so many people in all of our community in this country. I'm proud that this ministry will continue to support ethnic communities during the continued COVID recovery.I'm reminded of the Chinese word for crisis" which is "危机" which directly translates to two characters meaning "危" which is "crisis" or "danger" and "机" which is "an opportunity." You would have heard the Prime Minister talk about the many opportunities that will arise out of COVID recovery.On social media for the past few days you would often hear people compare the protest that we have outside right now to the one that had 40000 people participate—especially young people—who campaigned to look after our environment this earth. One of those opportunities that we have and that we're faced with right now is to build a cleaner economy and that is something that I want to spend the rest of my contribution talking about.I've already talked about—last week—that I was lured into buying an electric vehicle because of our clean car scheme. When I was looking for a Wrangler but really I knew I had to do the right thing and I was given the right incentive the right opportunity to stand by that. Transport accounts for more than 40 percent of Auckland's total carbon emissions so making sure that we have progress on our buses the electric ones in terms of being able to travel long distance is so important to reducing our overall carbon footprint.In terms of public transport and transforming the way that we move around our cities it's really important to build good routes in our cities. I remember one of the last events that I attended in the East Auckland electorates was actually the opening of stage two of our busway our Auckland-Manakau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) project that I was privileged enough to attend with the Hon Michael Wood.I still remember on one fateful day actually during question time while I was sitting in my chair in this House that I received a text from my MP support in my electorate. He texted me saying "Naisi are you listening to the council debates at the moment?" I said "No. What's happening?" He said "Auckland Transport have just actually cut funding for the AMETI project in East Auckland."This project means a lot to East Auckland residents because often because of the geographic location we're cut off from the rest of Auckland. I ran over from my seat to Michael's seat and I said "Michael what are we going to do about the East Auckland transport?" I want to thank him personally the Minister for working with me on this issue to make sure that we're funding stage three of it to make sure that it will open in 2024 and 2025 to make sure that the route from East Auckland from Botany to the city will be a less than 40-minute route. Right now at peak hours it actually takes one hour and 30 minutes to get from Botany to the city. That means a lot for young people of the electorate because they need to get uni they need to get to their jobs and so in order to build good infrastructure—and actually the first hydrogen bus in New Zealand was actually established on route 70 in the Botany electorate as well. To have a clean green low-carbon emission public transport system is so important for all of us.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Before I take the next call I'd just like to remind the House that members of this House are to be mentioned by their full name. Thank you."