Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT for the first time to oppose the adoption of these orders—at least the motion that the reports be accepted. We've been on quite a journey on this issue initially supporting the first reading of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act believing it important that we have a process where the rule of law makes New Zealanders' rights and responsibilities clear even as the Government needs to respond sometimes rapidly to a changing public health situation. We entered into this in good faith but what we have watched over the year and a bit since that initial vote is a Government's response to COVID-19 that has become increasingly chaotic inconsistent and disproportionate to risk.Just to take one example of that there are vaccine mandates for some workplaces here that do not allow the alternative of testing. Now the Government has decided that for travel through certain internal borders the mandate is vax or test. Air New Zealand a major commercial operation that flies people all over the country have said their requirement is vax or test. Initially for the education sector the requirement was vax or test. Now these orders say that for certain jobs the only way to reassure people around you is if you are vaccinated rather than tested negative. And it's not even clear which of those at various points of vaccine fade will truly be safer.We have heard from other members already about the total lack of risk proportionality in the air border orders that are put in place that require people to isolate for long periods of time when they return to New Zealand even seven days. And again that's totally out of proportion to the risks that the Government is willing to take on COVID-19 in other circumstances. For example we now know there are hundreds if not thousands of people with COVID-19—that the Government knows have COVID-19 because it tested them and they were positive—isolating at home but we still require New Zealanders if they're lucky to come and get a managed isolation and quarantine spot and isolate for seven days in a hotel room. Many won't have that chance and will find themselves trapped overseas virtually being tortured by a rollercoaster of changing expectations on behalf of the Government.At the same time to give one example there are youth hostels that normally have 30000 people sleeping in them each night that are ready to start isolating people on education visas and skilled work visas that could be returning to New Zealand and isolating there. But they're completely empty and they're going out of business by the mass. We're paying those costs while right next door in Australia the universities the schools that ply their trade in international education are welcoming students are welcoming skilled workers across the border making sure that their economy is producing valuable goods and services for their people to consume—to counteract the inflation New Zealand experiences as too much money from the Reserve Bank and Treasury chase after too few goods raising the cost of living for every single New Zealander.Then there's the question of how the Government has used the power it has to control the movement of New Zealanders around this country and enforce those rules. As a Parliament when we started out with this COVID-19 Public Health Response Act we gave the Government the power to act nimbly in a changing public health situation with the right legal framework and what has been the experience of a simple concept which is analysing the costs and benefits and risks of Aucklanders leaving the city to travel throughout New Zealand? What is the chance of somebody who is not vaccinated in Auckland leaving the city actually harms somebody outside? The Government hasn't calculated that. And at various times they've said that when people leave the city every car will be stopped—then Some cars will be stopped."Then maybe at one point there was going to be a special time that you would be allowed to drive up State Highway 1! And then they said Chris Hipkins said "Only the Police will be able to stop people and check their status and where they're going." Then they said "Actually it will be enforcement officers." Then they said "It will be the Police that initiate them." Then the Police said "Actually after discussion with some of the enforcement officers we've decided what the details of these checkpoints will be." This is absolute chaos despite the power this Parliament gave the Government to make rules and into that void of chaos have stepped activists who don't represent Northland who don't represent Māori who don't represent iwi—and we know that because they stood for Parliament in Te Tai Tokerau and were rejected by the voters—now bullying the Police into setting up checkpoints that will create more chaos filling the void left by this Government's indecision and inability to use the legislative power that we gave it as a Parliament to use these kinds of orders.That is why this Government no longer deserves the power to operate this way. It's not doing proper cost-benefit analysis. It's not weighing up the risks and all of the costs that New Zealanders face. It is not allowing New Zealand to be competitive in a global context. All it is doing is behaving like a tired weary Government that has lost the initiative that is watching costs go up that is separating families at Christmas and that is creating confusion and eventually constitutional problems as it's no longer clear who is really deciding what Police operations are when people try to drive up the road. That is a total failure to use this legislative framework that this Parliament gave the Government in good faith to use and that is why against that backdrop of increasingly chaotic and disastrous COVID management the ACT Party cannot support this motion for these orders. This Government's initiative at managing COVID is out of time. Thank you Mr Speaker."