Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National): That was an interesting speech from the Minister of Health. It was consistent with the theme started by the Prime Minister in the House this afternoon called: let's rewrite history—let's rewrite history. The Minister stands there and says that the Opposition have made various suggestions about what might happen in the environment that we are currently dealing with. Every one of those suggestions was based on the false optimism of the Government—every one of them. The idea that we should open our borders to Australia—that was the Prime Minister going to Australia meeting with Mr Morrison and talking about the Australian bubble. It was the Prime Minister who talked about the Pacific bubble. Those are the sorts of optimistic statements that it would be reasonable not only for the Opposition who get told things only a few minutes before they happen but everybody in New Zealand to expect because if in fact the border was secure we would not be in this position right now.The Minister says Well it's not possible to have 100 percent prevention of this virus coming in at the border." Well let's be clear: it has come in because there are gaping great holes in the process at the border and they've been there for a very long time. What's more Cabinet seems to want to say to New Zealand the Prime Minister wants to say to New Zealand the health Minister wants to say to New Zealand "We were told by officials that it was all OK and that the testing was going on." Well 107 days—107 days—it took them to ask the right questions. That is not a Government that is showing any kind of leadership at all.Perhaps the best thing that came out of the Minister of Health's speech today was finally the admission that this virus this incursion in Auckland has occurred because of a border transgression. That's the first time we've heard it. Up till now one of my colleagues described it—and I don't mean any offence by saying this although at the moment pretty much anything I say causes offence but I don't mean any offence by saying that. Up until now the Government's view has been that this was an immaculate event. That somehow this virus just—well that this virus just appeared from nowhere. It got into the system somewhere it didn't come across the border and there's been no possibility of tracing it. That should worry every New Zealander—that it has not been traced that there is no source apparently at the moment. Well if there's no source and it could pop up at any time how on earth do we get out of the current alert level situations with any degree of confidence? That is a big worry because at the moment there will be people in this country who are losing their jobs there'll be businesses that are going to the wall and there'll be thousands of others as I've said so many times wondering what happens when the wage subsidy ends.It's great that it's been extended—no one's arguing against that; it's what has to happen in the current environment—but there's got to be some end play somewhere and there just is none. And for the Government to say "Well we don't know where it came from." "We can't trace the source." "There is no connection." "We're doing all of the various genome tracing etc." "We know that there's similar types of virus but we don't know how they're connected."—that is not a comforting message to be giving New Zealanders. And for the finance Minister to say "Well don't worry about it because the cost of this is just coming out of the $14 billion that we set aside from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund."—every dollar in that fund is borrowed every dollar. So it's not as if there's a pot of cash sitting there that's being dipped into; it's debt. And while we would quite openly say we do have to look after New Zealanders who are in threatened circumstances there has to be a look at what the endgame is.So we look at the resurgence plan. We're told today by the Prime Minister it's a work in progress. They hope to have it before Cabinet soon. They've got an A4 paper that goes out with about six or seven paragraphs on it and they're saying "That's the plan and we're following it." Well the plan so far has let COVID-19 through the border it's let it get into the community and then it has not been able to be traced because the tracing system is not strong enough. If there was any optimism shown by this side of the House about what New Zealand might be able to do as we progressed from the last bout of COVID-19 in this country it's because the Government was relentlessly optimistic about the situation and therefore every New Zealander was optimistic about the current situation. Anyone who says that we're wrong is themselves wrong."