Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): In fighting COVID-19 New Zealand went hard and we went early and we are now enjoying the success of that effort. We shut our country down far sooner than just about any other country in the world when our case numbers were still very very low. The result of that is that we not only flattened the curve; we squashed it. The last thing New Zealanders want to see now as we come out of the other side of a very harsh seven weeks is to see that curve tip back up in a dramatic fashion. That is what we are working to stop. Let's be very clear about that. The Government on this side of the House does not want to see the enormous sacrifice that New Zealanders have made over this last seven weeks be in a vain. We want to lock in the gains that we have made and ensure that COVID-19 cannot get a foothold. We have seen in the House in the last 24 hours some passionate speeches about civil liberties some passionate speeches about good parliamentary process and they've been very very well made. They've been very good points—very legitimate points. As a parliamentarian I agree with many of the points that have been made by members opposite.COVID-19 respects none of those things. The reality is this virus will grab a foothold wherever it can. It does not respect civil liberties. It does not respect something as sacred as a funeral. If someone goes to a funeral who has COVID-19 and there are other people at that funeral who are in high-risk categories and that virus is spread there could be more deaths from that funeral. That would lead to greater tragedy for all those involved. I acknowledge funerals are a tragic time. They are a time when we come together to comfort the grieving. But COVID-19 doesn't respect that. It simply doesn't respect it. We as a country have to stick together by staying apart. That is the reality. We do not want COVID-19 to take off in New Zealand given the success of the sacrifices that we have made so far. Now the Opposition asked why we can't have level 2 under the existing laws and I think the Attorney-General has pointed out that level 2 under our existing legal framework would potentially be harsher than level 2 under this law. This law actually allows for more moderate action under level 2 than could be taken under the existing law. So this law is actually about making sure that we can get New Zealand moving again we can get our economy moving again we can get people back to work but we can keep New Zealanders safe in the meantime. No one in this House should feel comfortable curtailing civil liberties—curtailing other things that New Zealanders in normal times would take for granted. I did not feel comfortable sitting on that side of the House when Gerry Brownlee brought a bill to the House that curtailed the civil liberties of Cantabrians that confiscated their property rights in urgency after the Christchurch earthquakes but it was the right thing to do. It was an extraordinary set of circumstances and Parliament needed to take extraordinary action in those cases. Gerry Brownlee did the right thing in bringing that legislation to the House. It did make us all feel uncomfortable and there was fiery debate at the time. I think—and I do want to say this; it probably wasn't said to Gerry Brownlee at the time very much—he was placed in an impossible situation where no one was going to be happy with his response and I actually think he did pretty well on balance overall of managing that immediate aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. It did mean that Parliament had to make some tough decisions to back the actions that he had to take that ultimately curtailed people's liberties potentially took away their property rights and left a whole lot of people feeling pretty unhappy. No doubt about it this legislation will leave some people feeling that their civil liberties have been curtailed and that they're having to make further sacrifice. We need to do that because we do not want to see a greater tragedy in New Zealand. There are hundreds and hundreds of people dying every day in other countries who did not take the action that New Zealand has taken. They will suffer a much longer lockdown and if they come out of lockdown sooner they will potentially see their curve explode their health systems overrun and thousands of people a day dying. That is something we've avoided in New Zealand but to keep avoiding it we'll have to stay vigilant. This legislation creates the right framework for us as a country to stay vigilant and I support it.