Hipkins Chris; Dean JacquiCOVID-19 RESPONSE (MANAGEMENT MEASURES) LEGISLATION BILLSecond ReadingHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I present a legislative statement on the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I move That the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill be now read a second time.This bill is part of the Government's continuing response to COVID-19. It amends 16 different Acts of Parliament I think in part recognising the complexity of the situation that we continue to deal with. It also amends one set of regulations. These are common-sense practical solutions to problems that have been created by the Delta outbreak of COVID-19 and our response to it. We often find—and we did find this last year and we found this again this year—that compliance with existing statutes can be incredibly challenging. There are often deadlines that can't be met. People find it difficult to work in a digital environment with some of the constraints that the legislation currently places upon them. So this particular bill the second of these types of bills—I think it's at least the second of these types of bills—that we've brought before the House deals with a raft of issues with some relatively pragmatic changes.As the Minister in charge of the bill I am in a bit of an unusual position in that the policy advanced in this bill doesn't relate to my ministerial portfolios. So I do want to thank all of the Ministers and officials who have contributed to this bill. It is effectively a compendium of different legislative changes. Unlike previous legislation when we dealt with similar bills previously we have referred this bill to a select committee for a very short period of time. So I want to thank the Finance and Expenditure Committee who did an excellent job of scrutinising the bill. I'm advised they received more than 200 submissions and had heard from 41 different submitters on aspects of the bill. The Regulations Review Committee has also added its analysis of aspects of the bill as well. Many of the amendments in the bill recommended by the committee will now form part of the bill being considered by the committee of the whole House next week.The Property Law Act changes attracted the most attention from submitters. These are the changes being made around commercial leases. The Property Law Act amendments have two main purposes: firstly to support commercial tenants and landlords to come to agreements to adjust the rent due under the leases so that the parties share the financial burden of the COVID-19 response which will help to enable more businesses to remain solvent during the response; and secondly it provides a way for disputes to be resolved if no agreement can be reached. Many submitters on the property law amendments discussed the behaviour of landlords towards tenants during the epidemic so far to date and highlighted their own experiences so it was good to hear from landlords and tenants through that process. It is a difficult situation. I want to acknowledge it's a difficult situation for everyone—the landlords and the tenants—and there are clearly some parties that haven't been able to reach agreement so those dispute provisions will be very important.Other issues raised included whether the bill should provide criteria around the types of businesses or leases to which it should apply whether we should be limiting eligibility to only small and medium sized businesses whether there should be a linkage with the eligibility of the wage subsidy scheme or income and capital levels. The period for which the rent reduction should apply was debated and so on. A key theme that was raised by the submitters was what constitutes a fair portion of rent. I'm sure when we come to the committee stage of the debate there will be some discussion about that. The Ministry of Justice is preparing guidance on its website that will go up shortly. That will give businesses more clarity. There was also quite a bit of debate about the Residential Tenancies Act amendments. These are the ones that enable tenants to stay in their rental homes during any future COVID-19 alert level periods where people can't move houses and that will help us to stop the spread of the virus in that way. The amendments also make it clear what notice periods apply after the termination restrictions lift.So these are similar to the temporary restrictions that were put in place last year. They very much continue that work. Submitters overwhelmingly supported the nature and intent of those changes and there is a forthcoming Supplementary Order Paper that will include some of the changes that were suggested by submitters. For example it will propose that the Minister must give seven days' notice prior to switching off a COVID19 tenancies order. So the Government is working its way through that and we will have a Supplementary Order Paper before the House before the bill completes its remaining stages next week. Tenants will be given two days' notice to cancel or terminate tenancy agreements where they're prevented by a COVID-19 public health order from taking possession to avoid tenants being liable for both rent at their current property where they need to remain and the new property which they can't yet move into.Very briefly—I'll try and keep this fairly brief—the bill amends the Land Transport Act to include electronic service and infringement notices infringement reminder notices and regulatory notices. I hope these particular provisions will be relatively uncontroversial. There will be some further clarification on the point at which an electronic communication is deemed to be delivered and so there will be some further clarity there. The committee has noted its concerns about the proposal applying to criminal matters having the potential to create some confusion. So to be very clear: if someone's charged with a criminal offence such as driving while unlicensed or while suspended the bill does not amend those criminal procedure provisions.There was some debate around the Electoral Act provisions. I want to provide some reassurance to the House that the Cabinet has picked up on those concerns. We've had further discussions around the Electoral Act provisions and we will come back to the House again on that next week during the committee stages. Final decisions have not been taken but we have taken on board the concerns that were raised there.In terms of the environment-related legislation some submitters have been concerned that the proposals extend statutory deadlines by which the Minister of Climate Change must set the three emissions budgets in the first emissions reduction plan. They have expressed concern that that could have an impact on New Zealand's overall action on climate change. I want to be clear about this: it's not expected to delay significantly the action to address climate change over the time frame of the first three emissions budgets. It will also not preclude the Government from taking updated or additional commitments under the Paris Agreement in advance of COP26. Similarly despite the concerns of some submitters the extension of the repeal date for the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 for an additional year is unlikely to have a negative impact on the environment and there isn't any evidence to date that suggests that it has. Members will have the opportunity to consider further these and other provisions of the bill at the committee stage next week. So I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.