Mallard TrevorGENERAL DEBATEHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Thank you Mr Speaker. May I first of all stand on behalf of not just National MPs but actually on behalf of the National Party its many volunteers and its many supporters and at this time shout out to mostly those health professionals that are at the front line and that are doing jobs and putting themselves at personal risk to those cleaners and workers that are out there and doing that job to the teachers that are dealing with parents that are full of angst and uncertainty and of course to New Zealanders and probably to people around the world actually that are in times of such major uncertainty in not knowing what's coming along next. Can I just please put us on record in acknowledging all of them in these absolutely unprecedented times. To start with the good can I just commend the flu vaccinations and there being more of them being made available sooner for those whom they have prioritised. That certainly from our perspective makes sense. Can I acknowledge the job support package. Thank goodness something is finally here even though a week before in this very House we had been hearing It's business as usual. There's nothing to see." Certainly the answers to questions from our side to Grant Robertson on Wednesday last week were just "It's business as usual. Carry on." and in just a few short days we—thank goodness—saw that change and we've seen some of that support come on board. There's no two ways about it. We do question things like $600 million for aviation but only $500 million for health and $2.8 billion for increasing benefits which was most likely going to be done quite frankly in the Budget. But one has to question it when we get accused of politics on a daily basis on this that actually to try and make the package look a bit bigger than what it was going to be—that that was brought forward so that it could be a bigger announcement yesterday than what we would have seen if it had been in the Budget. We would have liked to have seen more for health as they are in the times that they are right now. We do worry as everybody does in this House about those that are going to lose their jobs who are in medium-sized or bigger businesses and who haven't got weeks to wait for the next iteration of what might be coming their way and these are literally thousands of jobs. Like I'm sure every member of this House—and actually probably most of us in society—I mostly at this point worry about those who are in overcrowded situations and what does it mean for them if someone is suspected of having coronavirus or has coronavirus. I worry about those that are in motels at the moment and those that are homeless and our most vulnerable. I worry about older people who already feel isolated who wonder what it means for them if they're actually now feeling even more isolated because they can't get the visits and they can't get the level of contact that is actually part of who we are and that keeps us ticking along and keeps the soul feeling good. For many of them this will be a truly fearful time. So I like that Parliament's talking about what a plan might be and what we may need to do but I do shout out right now to politicians: we are representatives of the people. We are public servants. This is the time where we don't stand up and say "Us first." It actually for me is the time when we say "Us last." This is the time when we should be calling out and making sure that we're doing our bit for the people that we represent in our communities. [Interruption] No I'm saying it for all members of Parliament and certainly not just for us. This is the time when I think that we can be doing what needs to be done so we will continue to ask the questions. At times they'll be uncomfortable and at times people will criticise them and they won't like them. It is the job of Opposition I think more now than ever to actually be asking the questions that need to be asked of the Government as they make huge decisions that affect people's lives. We would like to see more transparency. We would like to see the basis of the decisions that were made on Saturday. We asked today and were told "Go through the normal process. You're not getting that level of paperwork." We're constantly told that we should work together and yet any hand that we reach out is simply not taken up. It's yet again the words but not the actual practice. I shout out to the people—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."