3. Question No. 3—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 3—Prime Minister3Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by the Government's decision to increase funding to Māori health providers to provide ongoing support to Māori communities while responding to COVID-19. We know we all need to do all we can to ensure no one is left behind in our response to COVID-19 and that includes in our vaccination programme. Working with Māori and Pacific providers on our COVID response is part of that strategy.Hon Judith Collins: Why were protocols not in place to prevent a COVID-positive gang member being remanded to an address outside of Auckland despite the Government having 18 months to plan for regional lockdowns?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I refute the premise of that member's question.Hon Judith Collins: Why are New Zealanders still not able to show digital proof that they have been vaccinated when most other countries have had this system in place for months?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'd point the member to the fact that most of those countries who have those digital tools have also been using them as certificates for entry to different sites and so on. Of course we are not in that position currently. We do have an ability for people to access a demonstration a certificate of sorts that they have been vaccinated. People have been doing that through the Ministry of Health and as I've said in this House before we are currently working on a digital model that will allow people to be able to carry that information certification with them and we expect that to be completed shortly.Hon Judith Collins: So did the Prime Minister say just recently just today that she refutes the allegation that a COVID-positive gang member was remanded to an address outside of Auckland; in which case how does she refute that?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I refute that there weren't protocols in place.Hon Judith Collins: Then why weren't they followed?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: An individual is able to be bailed to an address outside a level 4 as it were environment. The issue was around the way that person was potentially transported or came into contact with COVID in the future.Hon Judith Collins: Has she received a report that an additional eight Middlemore staff have been stood down after gang members connected to the Mongrel Mob cluster who should have been self-isolating visited an associate on Tuesday evening in the hospital?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Whilst I don't have the individual affiliation of individual contacts the member will be aware that there was an individual who was a close contact who did seek to visit another contact. That individual yes was meant to be self-isolating. I am advised that that individual has tested negative but of course is still obliged to continue to follow the public health rules as we do for all contacts.Hon Judith Collins: What processes are in place to protect the staff of Middlemore Hospital from situations like this continuing to occur?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I think it's unfair to state continuing to occur" as if somehow all 30000 individuals who have been covered by requirements under our COVID response have somehow acted in this way—they have not. We have here an incident that has occurred where security personnel were involved because they are close contacts—they've been treated as contacts as a result of this incident. Of course we want to maintain security to keep our professionals safe and in this scenario some of those individuals who have come in contact there are protocols being followed to ensure their ongoing safety from COVID-19.Hon Judith Collins: So why are gang members being allowed to break lockdown rules breach their isolation orders and spread COVID; and what action does she intend to take to stop this continuing?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: It is simply wrong to imply that we have an environment where everyone is just able to do whatever they want. Of course they haven't. Broadly speaking we have had excellent compliance. We unfortunately have had some examples where there have been issues with compliance but I would put the emphasis on "some examples". The member has relayed one; we've had others that relate to our border breaches that we've seen that have cut across all walks of life. COVID affects everybody. Our job collectively is to make sure that we have rules in place to keep people safe to do what we can to enforce those rules and to act when those rules are broken. But the member making assertions as if somehow every single contact has behaved in this way is just wrong."