Clark DavidHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): It is a good day to be in Government. Today is a very good day to be in Government. This is a Government focused firmly on fixing the mess that we have inherited around this country's longer-term problems: the housing crisis and the under-investment in our social sector and in health and education.I want to canvass a few things that I've seen over the recess in the media just to see what people out there are saying about the progress of the Government and what we have ahead of us. It is good news. I've had a wonderful recess with the opportunity to announce some of the Government's cornerstone investments in our health system—in the buildings in our health system. Good news—to repair after a decade of under-investment in our health services.I'll return to that during my speech but first I want to dwell for a second on comments I read in a transcript from an economic commentator who said I think we can all agree"—and this was this week—"there's serious momentum there"—there is serious serious momentum there. This commentator was commenting on the New Zealand economy: "whether it's the high employment the low unemployment the GDP"—it was serious momentum. That comment was repeated later in that interview. Then the commentator went on to say "Frankly we're in a situation where almost anyone who wants a job today can get [one]". That praise for this economy of course was coming from that commentator that we all know in this House Simon Bridges. On this side of the House we're all hoping of course that he can keep up some serious momentum himself so that he can lead that Opposition into the next election and the one after. That commentator singing the praises of the economy—well we agree with him on that. This is an economy with serious momentum. Simon Bridges is absolutely right on this point.But it's not just the economy where we've got serious momentum. We're making huge progress in housing in education and in health. We're making a real difference to people's lives. We've lifted the incomes of over 350000 families with the Families Package provided Best Start support in a child's early years provided the winter energy payments for those on benefits or super and increased the minimum wage.We've got a strong focus on the economy because we want to see a shared prosperity. We want the economy to grow so we can share the benefits of the growth in our economy with all New Zealanders. We'll keep that focus because we believe in the value of a strong economy and we have a plan for growing that strong economy.That strong economic growth allows us to do things like fund the meningococcal W vaccine we announced this week—10000 doses. This is a news announcement. No press release has been put out. It's delightful in a general debate speech to be able to make this kind of announcement: 10000 doses are already in New Zealand. It's less than a month since it was decided that we actually had an outbreak in New Zealand by the expert panel. We've got the doses in New Zealand and within a month we will have injections in children's arms to immunise against this in a situation where around the world there's a competition for this vaccine. The district health board (DHB) Pharmac and the Ministry of Health have worked together to quickly bring this in to make sure we have a ready response and we can afford to do that because we had serious momentum in our economy. We can move when we need to move. Simon Bridges is right: that serious momentum's there and we are going to make sure New Zealanders get the healthcare they need.On top of that of course in the past week I've been able to announce more spending for Counties Manukau—$80 million dollars—to address the rot and mould in the walls that we inherited as a Government as a legacy of under-investment in maintenance in the DHBs. We've also announced previously that we put $275 million into the Auckland DHB to address significant infrastructure challenges. We've put money into the North Shore Hospital—$200 million—for elective surgery capacity. I could go on. We've made loads of investments in our capital assets and we can do that because of the serious momentum in the economy.Finally I want to cover off the fact that we saw an industrial settlement announced this week that will lift the wages of some of our lowest-paid workers. It is a real pleasure to see the new multi-employer collective agreement agreed between DHBs and E tū will see many public hospital service workers get pay rises of up to 40 percent over the next three years. These are those who are paid the least but do some of the most important jobs in our hospitals. As Sam Jones from the E tū put it "This is a fantastic outcome for members who have struggled with costs rising faster than their low wages" and "It'll be easier for people to pay the bills and feed their families properly [so] they're healthier and happier." Serious momentum in our economy—it's a good day to be in Government. We're investing in New Zealanders."