Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in support of this motion to thank police fire and emergency services Wellington Free Ambulance parliamentary security and many others for their extraordinary efforts over the last three weeks and especially the past 36 hours. That is not to say that ACT agrees with everything the Prime Minister said and more on that later.I've spoken to a lot of police and firefighters and parliamentary security over the last few days. They're tired in some cases they're injured and in every case they've been professional. They've come from all over New Zealand. Last night I spoke to an officer from Ōāmaru and a crew from up in Auckland and everywhere in between. There was another officer who was guarding the gate at Hill Street. He had blood on his vest and a massive bandage on his forehead. I asked him What happened?" One of his colleagues said with typical police humour "The senior constable was trying to stop a brick with his forehead." I said "Are you still on duty?" He said "Sure I'm fine." Anyone who says that the police were brutal or unprofessional needs to meet that guy.Yesterday they encountered extreme and reckless violence. The crescendo of that violence and stupidity was putting LPG bottles on a fire that they'd lit on Parliament's lawn. Another officer at the gate was standing speechless and I think I know why. I think it's the same one Christopher Luxon met. I said "How are you going?" Another officer spoke for her and said "She's two days out of Police College." and I said "I hope that the rest of your career is a lot calmer than that." One of our jobs in this House is to make sure that that happens.There's no question that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the police fire and ambulance who stepped up to the call of duty—at great personal cost in some cases. First of all it's critical that those responsible for this sad scene in New Zealand history are held accountable. That starts first and foremost with those obstructing and fighting the police officers yesterday. Let's be very clear: they were not where they were legally. There is a right to protest but that right of protest does not extend to taking over the rights of other people around you. You can't talk about civil liberties when you're threatening others. You can't talk about restrictions when you're preventing small businesses in the area that have suffered enough through the last two years of COVID restrictions from getting on and doing their business.The protesters may well believe that their cause was more important than others that the ends justified the means. Well actually all protests believe that at some level. But most protests understand that a society that observes democracy and the rule of law is worth preserving and the preservation of that society is worth more than any single cause. That's why we have to ask why so many people felt that the society had abandoned them that they had so little to lose that they would occupy Parliament and central Wellington for three weeks in a protest that everybody agrees is different from anything that we've seen before. Well the Government's answer to that question came out last night in what I regarded as a disappointing speech from the Prime Minister. So far as she's concerned everything is fine the COVID response is fine; it's all because of conspiracy theories driven by foreign websites. Well you know what? That sounds like a conspiracy theory in itself.Just to be clear the world does have a big problem with misinformation with processing information. There's never been more access to information and our ability to work through it and sort fact from fiction has not kept up. I get it nearly every day. I get somebody who emails me saying "I don't think this vaccine's effective." I send them a link from the New England Journal of Medicine—the premier medical journal in the world the journal of record for the profession that's doubled life expectancy and made so many things possible—and they shoot back "No I've got this blog. I'd rather read this." People are lacking the ability to tell the difference and that person is misinformed—that is a real problem and I know it and I experience it. But that doesn't mean that everybody who has a concern is misinformed. The problem with being unable to internalise complex situations in our head to quote an old ad is that we are failing to do that as politicians too.One of the things we most need at this time—and I mean the past 36 hours this year and the 2020s so far—is the ability to internalise complex situations in our heads. The Prime Minister wants us to believe what Michael Wood said that there's a "river of filth" running through the protest. I know Michael Wood. He's enough of a political tragic to understand the allusion to Enoch Powell's sinister speech when he said that.Then the Prime Minister or at least her party Mr Speaker seemed to support you calling people ferals. Coming to you Mr Speaker what were you thinking? I hope one day you'll explain what you thought you achieved by turning sprinklers and bad music on the protesters. Even if you wail that you didn't make it worse where were you as the leader and custodian of this fine institution seeking a mature de-escalation? That's what we should have seen.But back to that complex situation. It's not good enough to dismiss all of the events of the last three weeks as driven by conspiracy theorists and extremists as the Prime Minister has. We need to be able to accept that there were unacceptable behaviours in the protests but also behaviours by people who simply felt they'd been driven to distraction and ostracised from society.Let me give you just one example: a man I know came to me the other day—and I want to be clear he wasn't at the protest but many like him were—a man who was a beloved chaplain at Dilworth School in Auckland. Now that school as some people will know has been dealing with some historical problems—they're not the fault of anyone at the school right now; they're extremely sensitive. This man is not an anti-vaxxer. He had two doses but he doesn't want to get boosted because of the severe reaction he had to his second dose. His doctor recognises that that is one of the few accepted responses to the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine. She's not allowed to give him an exemption. The school's not allowed to make an exemption. He's not allowed to keep on teaching. That school has lost him at the time they most need him because of an inhuman and inflexible response to vaccination policy.What would have been more human is if we said it's vax or test. What would have been more human is if we said an organisation can make its own rules. What would have been more human would have been to say that a doctor as a respected professional can keep their autonomy and make an exemption. For him and many like him that more human response would have been more in keeping with a Government that was elected to talk about wellbeing and had we done that we might not have created the seeds of this unacceptable and despicable meltdown that we have seen.Finally for the record—and I want to just make clear again that that man was not in the protest but many like him who weren't none the less share their concerns. What we need from this point is to be able to have genuine and candid debate about the future of our country and the response to COVID-19 in particular without saying and oversimplifying that everyone that has a concern is somehow a neo-Nazi. You know the people that are doing that are as much of a problem as some of the antisocial fringes of this protest. We need hope and healing and that's going to require from our Government some humility. We've had a Government that's been here for 4½ years—all sorts of tragedies many decisions made under intense time pressure. The only thing they've apologised for so far is the Dawn Raids back in the 1970s.We need to accept that some of the policies that we've adopted haven't worked and be prepared to say we're going to put them right. Only at that point do we come back together. It's no good calling people names. It's no good trying to toxify people. It's no good trying to blame people. What we need is dialogue and discussion about how we go forward uniting New Zealanders behind good ideas rather than trying to demonise each other. That's what we need to do. Yes we need to thank the police—and we should. Yes we need to hold the criminals who behaved so awfully yesterday accountable. Yes we need a response to COVID-19. But you know what we need more than anything is hope healing and humility—the ability to have dialogue not to stereotype each other or behave immaturely and call each other names. If we can unite behind good ideas then we can truly heal from this disgraceful day in our history. Thank you Mr Speaker."