Unkovich TanyaTANYA UNKOVICH (NZ First): Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand on behalf of New Zealand First to speak about a topic that we are very firm on and that is protecting our freedom and our democracy. More specifically it is the commitment our leader the Rt Hon Winston Peters made as he addressed his concerns about ending vaccine mandates and also holding a full and independent inquiry into the COVID-19 response. In early 2022 thousands of New Zealanders across the country who were frustrated about the COVID policies of the day converged on the Parliament grounds. Winston Peters was the only politician to walk amongst those who asked simply to be heard—Winston Peters was the only politician to walk amongst those who wanted to be heard. Now as I was writing this speech I was reflecting on why he did that and I was reminded of the speech that he made at the state of the nation last week. I will quote the leader: Labour left large numbers of people ostracised demonised shutdown and shut out ignored and cancelled—all because those people fought for their right to say 'no we disagree.' " We will defend people's right to disagree because that is what protecting freedom is all about. We continued to listen and for those forgotten New Zealanders our party advocated during the 2023 election to advocate again for freedom and protection and upon our return to Parliament we formed this unbreakable coalition. Very importantly amongst those promises the coalition committed to establishing a complete full-scale wide-ranging independent inquiry conducted publicly with local and international experts into how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled in New Zealand.Now New Zealand First were very specific in our commitments and there were four important areas that we wanted to cover: firstly the use of multiple lockdowns; secondly the procurement and the efficacy of the vaccines; thirdly the social and economic impacts both regionally and nationally on the people of New Zealand; and finally whether the decisions made and the steps taken were justified. We remain steadfast in our commitment. We understand that the Labour-initiated royal commission of inquiry into lessons learnt does not meet the scale the independence or the breadth of what an inquiry requires. We welcome the first steps made to expand these terms of reference of this inquiry and we applaud the 11000 New Zealanders who made their submissions. Now these experiences are what are going to shape and be used to inform what this inquiry covers. The decisions about the terms of reference and the make-up of the commissioners is yet to be made over the next few months but it will be made. New Zealand First has continued to listen to the people of New Zealand. In fact just last month the Rt Hon Winston Peters and I met with a group of Kiwi doctors who are concerned—NZDSOS or New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science—and we listened to those people because they needed to be heard. Mr Peters has also since met with United We Stand who are those New Zealand Defence Force personnel who are still concerned about mandates and vaccine orders.New Zealand First believes that every New Zealander deserves to be heard and represented in Parliament and we are committed to that. Our message to them is to be patient to work through the process with us and to know that you are all being heard and that we will remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting freedom and democracy for all New Zealanders. Thank you Mr Speaker."