1. Question No. 1—COVID-19 ResponseDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—COVID-19 ResponseDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. To the Minister Chris Hipkins—will the Minister—SPEAKER: No. Order! Order! To the Minister for COVID-19 Response.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: Thank you. I stand corrected; thank you. Will the Minister for COVID accept that Māori are a population group particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and if so can he confirm that there is a specific vaccine roll-out plan for Māori?SPEAKER: Order! I am going to get the member to ask the question again as it's written down on the yellow—if the member goes to the yellow sheet and just reads that bit other than her own name that will be accurate.1. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: Does he accept that Māori are a population group particularly vulnerable to COVID-19; if so can he confirm that there is a specific vaccine roll-out plan for Māori?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Yes; and yes. We do know that Māori and Pacific people experience a range of poorer health outcomes that they are at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 and increased risk of harm if they contract the virus. So like other key stages in our COVID-19 response we have developed a specific plan for Māori focused on supporting vaccine confidence in particular and also ensuring that we get good strong uptake amongst our Māori communities.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What specifically is his plan for vaccinations in Māori communities recognising that Māori have higher vulnerability at early ages than the general population?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think the first thing to note here is that Māori will be highly represented in the first phase of our vaccine roll-out which is our most at-risk border workers where we do have high concentrations of Māori working at the airport and in our managed isolation facilities so they will be well represented there. As we move to extend beyond that group our first priority is the whānau the family of those border workers and again there'll be a significant number of Māori whānau within that group. Then as we continue to expand out from there we're working very closely with Māori health providers because one of the things that we're very mindful of is we need to ensure that Māori feel confident in receiving the vaccine and they are more likely to feel confident if we are working and if they're receiving that vaccine through health providers that they have an existing trusted relationship with.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: When will the specific Māori vaccine roll-out plan that you referred to be released to Māori organisations and the public?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The details for the plans for the broader roll-out are being released progressively as we reach each stage in the roll-out. So the first stage of the roll-out is our border workers. We've got a detailed plan there which we have shared and people are aware of what's happening there. As we move forward as we receive additional deliveries of vaccines one of the things that we do need to be able to do is tweak the vaccine roll-out plan if you like depending on what we know about the vaccines that are arriving. We've got four different vaccines that we've bought for New Zealand. We understand more as each day goes along about who those vaccines are the most effective for and so we need to be able to tweak our detailed implementation plans as that information comes to light as our Medsafe approvals process shares more information about those vaccines with us and as the delivery schedules for the different vaccines get locked in.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Can you confirm that a million masks have been distributed to the Tāmaki and Taranaki region and what percentage went to Māori organisations; and will this current lockdown be extended?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: With regard to the last part of the question I can't give any sort of confirmation around how long the current restrictions might be in place for but what I can say is that Cabinet is reviewing that regularly and more information flows in on almost an hourly basis at the moment. We will make decisions tomorrow in terms of how long these current restrictions are in place for. In terms of personal protective equipment—so distribution of things like masks—we've been working very closely with community providers to make sure that the cost of accessing masks isn't a barrier for anybody being able to access them and use them.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: We have this afternoon heard from Taranaki leaders who have stated they haven't received any masks; can the Minister please state as per the question what percentage of that went to Māori?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I don't have that information but I'm very happy to follow that up and see what's happened there to make sure that all those who need the masks have access to them.