Hipkins ChrisGENERAL DEBATEHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I want to begin today with an acknowledgment of everybody in Auckland. It is tough going in Auckland at the moment. Aucklanders continue to do the hard yards on behalf of the whole country in fighting COVID-19. They are making a significant contribution to the overall public health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders. I acknowledge it's not easygoing. I acknowledge that the period of restrictions that they have experienced has been difficult. That has manifested itself in a wide number of ways and I think I want to on behalf of the whole country express our gratitude for what they have been doing in order to keep COVID-19 contained within Auckland at the moment and I do want to thank them for that.I'd also like to acknowledge that it's World Cleaners Day and I want to say a very warm thankyou to cleaners up and down the country for the work that they're doing. In fact cleaners have been at the forefront of our COVID-19 response and we should acknowledge that. We should acknowledge that they often work while we sleep making sure that they are keeping us all safe and they do that day in day out right the way through the year even when we're not dealing with COVID-19. So a big thankyou to our cleaners.A big thankyou to everybody who's working in the health system at the moment. I particularly want to pick out one group the group that we saw a lot of on Saturday and that is our vaccinating workforce up and down the country who have been doing everything they can to ensure that New Zealanders are provided with good robust information so that they can make an informed decision to be vaccinated. There is absolutely no question that the pathway forward from here for New Zealand relies on a good high rate of vaccination. For those who currently sit on the fence or who are wavering my message to them is this: stop delaying. Go and talk to someone who knows what they're talking about. Don't listen to what your friends might be saying or what someone that you've read on Facebook might be saying. Go and talk to your doctor. Talk to a nurse. Ring Healthline. Get some trusted advice and make an informed decision about being vaccinated because we are all in this together and the higher the rate of vaccination that we get the greater the possibilities for all of us. Vaccination is incredibly important now.We are already seeing the benefits of vaccination in Auckland. Some of the modelling is already showing the impact of a high rate of vaccination in Auckland and the effect that that's having on the potential number of cases that we could be seeing on a daily basis if we did not have that. That is because Aucklanders have come forward. They currently sit first-equal with the Wellington region for the highest rates of vaccination in the country and it's having an effect. It is helping to suppress the number of cases that we are seeing in Auckland. [Interruption] I have to tell the member that the southern region's got a bit of catching up to do and I think Canterbury might have even overtaken them. So they've got a little bit of work to do down there in the deep South. But it is good to see vaccination rates across the country coming up because ultimately that is a big part of our future—making sure that we have a highly vaccinated population throughout the country. And vaccination rates in every part of the country matter.I want to again extend a message to the rest of New Zealand that at the moment COVID-19 cases are contained within Auckland but it will not stay that way for ever. There will come a time when there won't be a ring around Auckland any more and I think those in Auckland want that to be sooner rather than later. That does mean that the rest of the country need to be prepared and the best thing that they can do to be prepared is to get vaccinated. COVID-19 will find unvaccinated people. That has been the international experience of COVID-19 and it has been particularly so with Delta which spreads faster and infects people much much more quickly than previous variants of the virus. So there is an absolute degree of urgency here around vaccination. We need people to embrace the spirit of Super Saturday to keep that momentum going.So my message to those who have either had one dose or have been fully vaccinated is you've still got a role to play here in convincing those who haven't been vaccinated to come forward and be vaccinated. So when you're coming forward for your second dose or when people are coming forward for their second dose if they could bring one unvaccinated person with them then we will be one of the most vaccinated countries in the world very quickly. So that could happen and we need New Zealanders to do that. We need to get those vaccination rates as high as we possibly can.We have this opportunity. We're seeing New Zealand's vaccination rates continuing to grow day by day. I acknowledge the hard work of those on the front lines who are making that happen. I acknowledge the work of the people who are getting out there and making sure that people have got good information to make informed decisions. Vaccination is so huge for New Zealand's future.