Bishop Chris; Hipkins ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you Mr Speaker and I thank the Minister for his remarks. I just want to focus on a couple of things the first is just in relation to the Wellington situation over the last week or so. Obviously we're very grateful and pleased that New Zealand and Wellington has managed to avoid an outbreak. Will the Government be publishing the contact tracing system metrics and applicable standards identified by Dr Verrall in a previous role before her current role?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Yes it's absolutely the Government's intention to publish those statistics. The metrics are looking very good—they're ahead of target in terms of those close contacts and making sure that they're contacted within the required period. I would perhaps at this point because it's useful to do so just provide a breakdown of the testing numbers because I know that people will be interested in those. In terms of close contacts 957 is the identified denominator there 905 of those had been returned as of about an hour and a half ago; 1650 casual contacts about 1509 of those returned like I said as of a couple of hours ago. So overall numbers: 2609 is the number of contacts identified 2416 are the number of test results back. I should point out that there's also the closest of contacts both of those have been tested twice and they've both come back negative.CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you for that and thanks for the illumination. In relation to the decision around the trans-Tasman bubble can the Minister advise the House what the public health advice was going back to when the bubble was opened in April in the first place? Was the public health advice to open the quarantine-free travel zone—otherwise known as the bubble—with pre-departure testing or without it?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): There was considerable debate around the issue of pre-departure testing at that time and a variety of views around the Cabinet table. The official health advice was not to have pre-departure testing at that point.CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you for that. There will be people out there who are contemplating travel to Australia or potentially are even in Australia now who are contemplating what the new requirements will be for people coming from Australia to New Zealand. Will the New Zealand Government accept antigen tests or non-PCR or RTPCR tests as an alternative to the traditional PCR tests? And the reason I ask that is that those are acceptable forms of pre-departure testing for people coming from countries to New Zealand right now other than high-risk destinations and Australia and so there is an argument I think as a matter of logic that if you're coming from the United States for example and you can have an antigen test and that's accepted as a negative pre-departure test that should be the same for Australia which has been identified as being of lower risk than other countries.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I think one of the key things that we need to differentiate around pre-departure testing for Australia versus the rest of the world is those who are getting pre-departure testing around the rest of the world still go into two weeks of managed isolation when they arrive in New Zealand. So therefore the risk tolerance around those different testing methodologies can be a little bit more lenient than for those coming from Australia when really it's our last line of defence before they get to New Zealand and are out in the community in New Zealand. So we are requiring a PCR test at that point but I do want to acknowledge that the testing technology and the accuracy of some of those other testing methods is improving all of the time and so we are monitoring that very closely. I wouldn't rule out using other forms of more rapid testing at the border as one of our future interventions. We're not at that point yet but we are getting regular updates and regular advice on that and monitoring that very closely. Where we start to see that those more rapid test methods are more broadly available and are accurate and providing us the level of reassurance that we want I certainly wouldn't rule out them being used in the future.CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you. Just as a follow-up something that I know people will raise as well is in Australia right now the way the pre-departure tests have worked in the last month or so since we've had the issues with the bubble if you rock up to a publicly funded or provided testing centre in Sydney or Victoria for example you can get a pre-departure test and you get a text message saying you've had a negative test or positive and that is not accepted by the New Zealand Government when you turn up at the airport. And I am aware of people who have turned up with the text message saying I've got a negative test." but you've got to have the "dated report" to use the language on the COVID-19 website. So now that we are going to be making it a mandatory requirement for everyone coming from Australia to come back to New Zealand within 72 hours is the Government going to look at a slightly greater tolerance for text message updates rather than the dated reports which I understand you have to go to a private clinic for and it can be quite cumbersome to get particularly on the weekend?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Not at this point but what I would indicate is that we're working very closely with the airlines with the World Health Organization and so on around travel passports and the ability to share this information digitally much more readily so that includes vaccine information and testing information. I think everyone would be of the view that the sooner globally we can get to the point where we can share this information more readily without people having to carry around pieces of paper—I think we would all like to get to that point. We're not at that point at this stage. One of the risks with text messages is that they are easily invented and so it is more easy for people to present what appears to be a legitimate text message that isn't.CHRIS BISHOP (National): As a follow-up to that has he had any communication or discussions with his state or federal counterparts in relation to Australian states or the Federal Government doing the converse—so requiring pre-departure testing from people who travel to New Zealand and go to Australia? And I suppose the follow-up to that is—which you can answer at the same time—if Australia is looking at that or he's had an indication that Australia's looking at that what provision is the New Zealand Government making to allow Australians in New Zealand or New Zealanders going back from New Zealand to Australia to have a pre-departure test?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): No we haven't had that conversation particularly. I would perhaps at this point note that that's not really the nature of the relationship. I think there is a lot of good will there. I don't think that there's sort of a tit for tat type of relationship there. And they would be looking at New Zealand at the moment and making decisions around the risk profile in New Zealand where there aren't COVID-19 cases in any part of the New Zealand community at this point.Having said that though I think that issue around access to pre-departure tests for other countries' requirements whether it's Australia or anywhere else is something that we are aware of. We are doing that now. Our testing is available to people travelling further afield where they're required to get pre-departure tests so they can do that at the moment."