Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Kia ora tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity. Look it's important within this discussion that we reflect directly upon that speech we heard from the throne at the end of last year. One of the resounding themes for me when listening to that speech being delivered was the importance of laying the foundations for a better future in our country and that's exactly what lies before us now over these next three years. New Zealanders quite clearly voted for stability and for security going forward and that responsibility weighs heavily upon our shoulders now to make sure we continue to do that. Those areas that we need to continue to focus on are important. Those three that I'll briefly touch on today are housing affordability child poverty reduction and also taking action on climate change. I can see no better example than the announcement that we heard today from the Hon David Parker in terms of repealing and reforming the Resource Management Act (RMA) because what that does is it touches on all three of those areas. It demonstrates how we need to free up land and make that available in our urban areas where our predominant population resides. We need to make sure that families that are affected by child poverty have access to affordable homes and we need to continue to build them on land that's freed up through a system and a process that makes land available through the local government systems as well. Finally we need to be able to see that we're taking action on climate change and having a system that prioritises our environment alongside of urban development has been long overdue in the 30 years that the Resource Management Act has been in place. In terms of child poverty this Government will continue to focus on reducing how children in particular are impacted upon by the disparity between poor and rich in New Zealand. We will continue to overhaul the welfare system and a big part alongside of that is introducing over 200000 free healthy lunches in schools. Now that's a fantastic one that we see rolling out right across our regions. It also enables local businesses—local caterers—to be able to recover from COVID by providing healthy food and benefiting economically from giving kids a good breakfast and a good lunch during their learning day. It's also important in that space of child poverty that we continue to roll out our mental health support which we've seen throughout schools and making that also available in GPs as well. That's a critical part of being able to make sure that not only young adults but their parents are receiving the support that they need to get on. In terms of housing our Government will continue to focus on housing as a priority. We continue to hear cries from those opposite that such and such is the silver bullet or not but the reality is that we have quite clearly said that there is no silver bullet. The reforms that we see announced today for the Resource Management Act are just but one part of overhauling a system that is long overdue and it has been neglected for some time now. It's all very well to cry that we must immediately repeal the RMA or we need to have things fixed immediately but this problem that we face—this housing crisis that we face—was many many years in the making. So to be able to provide for our natural environment and to be able to provide for better urban spaces for young people and our families we need to be doing that with care and due process is important in that space. Finally I would like to touch on the importance of climate change and on how we need to have a resource management Act that looks after our natural environment. We only see here in Wellington alone the importance of our waterways and also our three waters review to make sure that we have clean seas and clean rivers and that waste is carried from our urban centres in a way that does not jeopardise the wellbeing of our drinking water or our swimming in our natural environment. Making sure that we have adequate resource planning and systems in place that equip us for our future will make sure that we continue to build a country on strong foundations. As we recover from COVID we build back better because that's what this Government is focused on doing—making sure the next generation of New Zealanders has a stronger foundation to rest upon.