Mallard TrevorBRETT HUDSON (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well it's interesting to be back in a turn of events which we didn't expect. But what we have learnt though is that the members of this Labour-led Government seem to believe that that fine and well-used cafe just a few metres from this Chamber was named after the American David Copperfield because for months they've been telling us how they've got the plan and they're taking the action to secure our border to keep New Zealanders safe and it was all an illusion. They had talked about it. They had made promises. They'd missed one small yet pertinent element: they hadn't actually done it.How many times—how many times—did we hear the Labour-led Government say We've got this."? How many times did we hear the Prime Minister say "We've got this."? Well it appears the only thing we've got is another dose of COVID-19. And why is that? Why? Because it took them over 100 days to even think about whether there should be testing of border staff. The perimeter for our isolated nation the one place where the virus could get through and they didn't think about testing the workers there that would come in contact potentially with infected people who could come in contact with infected surfaces and surface transmission has been known about through this entire COVID-19 scare. They didn't think that maybe it was a good idea to regularly test those workers. Then when the lightbulb moment arrived they wrote a little note in Cabinet. I don't know the exact words but it amounts to "Maybe we should test these people regularly." Then what happened? They didn't bother to check that it was actually being done.The speaker who resumed her seat before me Ginny Andersen said that the public would have an expectation of us at times like this. Well they have an expectation of the Government that it would actually do its job and the news that has emerged over these recent days is very clear that it hasn't. It certainly hasn't done it well enough to keep New Zealanders safe.Now on top of that as is not too uncommon particularly when this current Government finds itself in a bit of hot water it looks to deflect or apportion blame elsewhere. There was a news report early yesterday morning. The Prime Minister was appearing to place the blame for that lack of mandatory testing on the Ministry of Health. Well here's a bit of free advice for the Government: perhaps the show might work a lot smoother and it might actually be more effective at keeping COVID-19 out of New Zealand if they would simply let Dr Ashley Bloomfield catch the bus instead of trying to repeatedly push him underneath it. New Zealand would be all the better for that.It's not that New Zealanders are actually going to be surprised by this recent turn of events. The Government has talked up a big game but not actually delivered it and not even checked to see that the delivery in fact wasn't happening. We've seen it consistently for now just shy of three years. What are we going to do? We're going to build light rail down Dominion Road in four years. How's that going? We're going to build 5000 KiwiBuild homes. They've delivered fewer than 10 percent of their promise. This has been a Government that for three years has governed by press release and announcement trying to have New Zealanders believe that it is merely the spouting of words and intentions that delivers. The truth as New Zealanders are now finding at the peril of their own health is quite different. What they need is a Government that they can rely upon to actually do what it says it will do the sort of Government that National showed itself as in the last nine years particularly following the global financial crisis the Canterbury earthquakes the Pike River disaster—a Government that they could rely upon.I'll finish up by the mentions about the border and National's comments. National said the border could be reopened for international students if they were tested before they left tested on arrival tested before they left isolation. We wondered why they wouldn't support that. It's because they weren't safeguarding the border in the first place.SPEAKER: Order! The time for this debate has expired. In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee the House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. on Tuesday 25 August 2020.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.The House adjourned at 3.58 p.m."