Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I was particularly interested in the comments of the Minister for COVID-19 Response early in his speech where he quite rightly said that we have done very well but then he followed it up with something like The success is not obvious". I'm not quite sure what he was referring to because I think the success at least in elimination over time is obvious and we have been doing very well. But if the only goal is COVID-19 elimination at any cost and the only measure of the success of that goal is how much money we spend and how many deaths and serious harm we save then that might be the case. But what is actually not obvious are the other costs the non-financial costs every time we raise alert levels. We saw this last year particularly in the Epidemic Response Committee heard compelling testimony from people who were not able to farewell a loved one who passed or to celebrate a wedding or to be there with the mother in her labour and delivery and they were heartbreaking stories and we're back at them. We're back at that level where at least in Auckland significant costs are being incurred. There are other financial costs that don't fall on the Crown of course. We might be saving lives but tens of thousands of livelihoods are at risk and will be lost as a consequence of further rises in alert level such as the one we have this week. And then of course there's the non-COVID health effects the mental health strain as a consequence of all of those things that are going on. The non-COVID health effects what Dr Chris Jackson said last year were the non-COVID cancer casualties that were estimated in the last lockdown at potentially 400 premature deaths due to delays in screening and in treatment. We have to bear in mind those costs also and we have to expect from the Government that if they are to pursue an elimination strategy—something that not every country is doing—then they better damn well get it right every day every way. I make no apologies for the fact that the Opposition has for 11 months now more than that held the Government's feet to the flames praising when it's due but criticising when it's due. Because that is the role of the Opposition and I have no doubt that as a consequence of that we have made things faster and often better but there does still appear to be a leaden-footed response in some areas.A lot of those areas are in the area of technology. Mr Seymour talked about saliva testing as did Mr Bishop and that is but one of a number of technologies that could be being deployed by this Government that not only could be being deployed but that have been known to health officials for months. I had people approaching me from overseas with excellent ideas for technologies that could keep New Zealanders safer and freer but because they were from somewhere else somewhere outside of the realm that a certain number of officials deemed to be accurate—David Seymour: Got to be tested here!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: That's right Mr Seymour. They were reluctant to try them and I find that disappointing. Because we have to get it right every day but the COVID virus only has to slip through once in a while for all of the efforts that New Zealanders have gone to to be successful. And it's not like they've got it right every day—frankly nobody should expect that—but there have been some failures that cannot be excused by the sorts of responses that we would expect—by the standards that we would expect—certainly by now. And there are questions about why some border workers are mandatorily tested regularly and some aren't. There are questions about vaccine roll-out what being at the front of the queue actually means. The vaccine is going to be so important because we will move from elimination; COVID will be endemic. At some point a Government probably this Government will have to take the tough decision to say "COVID is endemic on this planet and we need to take different steps" but in the meantime while we pursue an elimination strategy the Government has got to get it right because the country is running out of patience with alert level rises."