Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this very serious matter the special debate on the Regulations Review Committee's report on the Inquiry into COVID-19 Secondary Legislation. Now I was a member of the Regulations Review Committee and spent a happy six months there—as the report will state—looking into a number of issues in relation to secondary legislation but also partly the issues raised in this report. So I do know that even though I left the committee in February they were even in the last Parliament looking at the COVID19 Secondary Legislation to make sure that it was doing the job that it was meant to do.I think just for the record it's probably worth stating the function of the Regulations Review Committee because I think even some in the House and myself before I was a member of that committee may not be sure of exactly what its function is. But it basically—everything that is a regulation or part of secondary legislation is within the ambit of responsibility of the Regulations Review committee. The Regulations Review Committee does not look at policy; it just looks at the intent. So it's very much a committee that helps to assist the Parliament really fulfil its constitutional obligations that the laws that are passed and the ambit of secondary legislation is in fact what is enacted by whoever the decision maker is in relation to the particular piece of secondary legislation.So in many cases that may be a Minister it may be a Government agency but it is an important check and balance on our democracy and it's a very collegial enjoyable committee to be a part of and it's nice to see members of the committee here today in the House.The Regulations Review Committee was especially important during periods of emergency and we've seen the important work that the Regulations Review Committee did during the Christchurch earthquake and the recommendations that were made following that major emergency and huge event actually informed the work of this report. We've also seen of course the important work that was done during COVID-19. So I want to acknowledge the work that the committee did and also for New Zealanders that are watching this debate the huge impact that the pandemic had on our lives. Also additionally the huge impact that the response to the pandemic had on all of our lives. No one needs to be convinced of that. We all remember that time and it was immense. So the very good work and this very good report that the Regulations Review Committee has done into those decisions is very helpful in ensuring that when we undoubtedly and unfortunately but inevitably face another emergency that we have the best systems in place possible to ensure that we are responding to them in the best possible way. It is worth I think acknowledging that the response and I think it has been touched on by other members of the House did save lives. I think—I was looking at the Otago academic Michael Baker estimating that around 10000 lives were saved in New Zealand due to the restrictions put in place and the way that COVID-19 was managed by the Government.I don't underestimate how difficult those decisions were but they did save lives and it just shows you that these types of decisions are not easy. They're often complicated. They have to rely on existing powers and existing legislation and sometimes create new powers and new either primary or secondary legislation. It is complex but it's very important to have that scrutiny of it too.I think it's also important—other members have noted this—there is a royal commission that has been announced into COVID-19 which in addition to this report will hopefully give a more holistic perspective on New Zealand's response to the pandemic. That was announced on 5 December 2022. I think the intention of it is not only to look at the work that was done in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic but also inform future work for future pandemics. Of course we hope this is a once in a lifetime event but it would be naive to not prepare for the fact that it—that we may face future pandemics in the future. So that royal commission I understand is considering evidence and will conclude mid-2024 which seems a considerable amount of time but as you can see from this report there is a considerable amount of stuff to go through. Just in the time I have remaining I just wanted to touch on a few of the recommendations made by the Regulations Review Committee in this report. There were a number of aspects that were touched on and a number of recommendations made. When there was improvements that needed to be made the Regulations Review Committee informed Ministers of that and hopefully that indeed strengthened practice and these are all laid out in the reports. In the interest of time I won't go through them all but I commend the work of the committee to the House.