Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you very much Mr Chair and it is a great pleasure to take a call on this part in this bill. I have deliberately not made a contribution so far in the debate because I wanted to see the Minister's responses and I wanted to see the contributions made by my colleagues. I also did a lot of speaking on the bill that preceded this one so I wanted to frankly just take five and chill out for a bit. It's great to see the Minister of Revenue here in the chair. He does engage and we look forward to that contribution. As Mr Luxon says he's too much of a fan of Piketty but he's a diligent and conscientious Minister. But I wanted to pick up on something that Mr Luxon said about the visit to Auckland hospitality by him and me and my colleague and friend Erica Stanford a couple of Sundays ago because I've got to tell you it's not until you actually go and talk to Auckland businesses and business owners that you get a sense of the despair in Auckland particularly hospitality and retail and places like hairdressers. The people we talked to—without divulging too much detail of their own personal lives—were mortgaging their homes selling their cars and maxing out their credit cards just to get through the next week. Yep they've had the wage subsidy and yep that goes some way but we are really talking about people who are just struggling literally to survive week by week. So the real question for the Government is: what is going to be done about those sorts of businesses as we head into December and as we head into January and the onset of the traffic light framework? Actually the traffic light framework gives with one hand but it takes away with the other because yep it's true that there are some more freedoms for the vaccinated and actually not so much for the unvaccinated but there are some more freedoms for the vaccinated under the traffic light system. But Auckland enters at red. If Auckland enters at red and even at red there are limits on the number of people you can have in a bar and the number of people you can have in a cafe—even for vaccinated customers you have to be seated you have to be separated and you've got capacity limits. The very strong point that was made to us—and I'm sure Erica Stanford would agree with me—by people in Auckland hospitality was—Hon Member: Make it green. CHRIS BISHOP: —exactly—why are we entering at red and why are we not entering at green or maybe orange or amber but they actually want to enter at green. If you look at the framework red is defined as when the hospital system is facing unsustainable pressure. Well the Prime Minister says the hospital system is coping Dr Bloomfield says that things are basically pretty good and when they get asked about summer they say that that's what the modelling shows as well—that we can cope. That's the Government's own criteria and it doesn't bode well for the traffic light framework that when it starts the Government will place Auckland into a setting that isn't borne out by the evidence. So then you say well what about everywhere else and I haven't even covered the point that it's totally unclear what every other region will enter at. I live in Wellington. There is basically no COVID in Wellington. Wellington City is I think at 94 or 95 percent double vaccination. What will Wellington enter at? I don't know—I've got no idea. What will the South Island enter at or parts of the South Island? I've got no idea. We're told it will relate to vaccination status and vaccination numbers. Well what's the threshold? It starts next week. Look it actually starts next Friday. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to have some sense as to what each city they live in will enter the traffic light framework at. People want a bit of certainty and clarity so that they can plan their lives and plan what they're going to be doing in the run-up until Christmas. So there is a massive opacity around how all this is going to work. It is incredibly untransparent incredibly confusing and people should not have to turn on the TV every second day to find out the next announcement about what their life is going to be like in a couple of weeks' time particularly when it keeps changing. So the take-home point for the Government is: what are we going to do about the businesses that Mr Luxon talked about because they deserve support and they deserve some clarity and some certainty and at the moment they have none of those things.