Week That Was: Historic action on climate change

This week, we passed the Zero Carbon Bill. It's an historic moment, and as the Prime Minister said, puts us on the "right side of history". 

So what is the Zero Carbon Bill? Among other things, the Zero Carbon Bill sets climate change targets to keep global warming to within 1.5 degrees. It also establishes an independent Climate Change Commission to hold future Governments to account.

After over two years of negotiations, our Government has secured an upgrade to New Zealand's free trade agreement. This is alongside our work on the Regional Economic Partnership (RCEP), which shows our commitment and ambition to open new markets for our farmers and growers.

Our primary sector exports - at $46.4 billion in the year to June - are at record levels, and our economy is in good shape. 

As a country so heavily dependent on trade, we are always looking to diversify our trade portfolio. Agreements like RCEP and the China FTA upgrade will help us grow our export markets and diversify our trade, for the good of all New Zealanders.

On average, 66 New Zealanders are diagnosed with cancer every day. They deserve world-class care.

We're investing in better cancer care for all New Zealanders with new cancer drugs through Pharmac, better prevention and early detection services, and twelve new cancer radiation machines.

This week, Pharmac announced they're funding new leukaemia medicine - meaning three new cancer drugs have received funding this year. 

Exams are stressful enough - without worrying about paying fees!

With NCEA exams starting this week, we're celebrating the 168,000 families who are benefitting from scrapped NCEA and Scholarship fees. That's on top of the other work we're doing in education, including increasing funding for schools so they no longer need to ask parents for donations.

To all those sitting exams over the next few weeks - good luck!