So too is the fact that last week we introduced a range of measures that will raise the incomes of 1.4 million New Zealanders, and that's a crucial step to making sure we build back better and further our recovery. Last week, minimum wages went up to $20 an hour. Pensions and benefits, which were indexed to increases in wages, also went up, because, despite the odds, last year wages in New Zealand increased by 3.1 percent. Abatement thresholds were also changed, and what that means is that people receiving a benefit and in part-time work can keep more of what they earn. That is great news for people in my electorate too. You see, a few years ago, when the previous Government was in, Whanganui was called a ghost town by a visiting reporter, and that was at the point where we had a so-called rock star economy. Well, we didn't see that rock star economy in the regions. Instead, what we saw was shops closing, more and more families living in cars, and we didn't see wage growth. Times were tough for families—unnecessarily so—but what a difference a few years makes when you've got a Government that backs the regions, that invests in our regions, that works in partnership with our regions, and we've felt the benefit of that in my electorate, where we feel more hope and more optimism now through a global pandemic than we did when we had a so-called rock star economy. 