1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her statement We will continue to be your single source of truth"? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): I stand by my statement in its entirety. Some weeks ago I was asked about rumours and speculation that had emerged across social media on COVID-19 that could have caused harm to New Zealanders. My full quote reads "I've been watching for some days—and this is not unique to New Zealand—that in the midst of what is a global issue as you would expect there are a number of rumours that circulate. I am present on social media; I see it myself. I cannot go round and individually dismiss every single rumour I see as tempted as I might be. So instead I want to send a clear message to the New Zealand public: we will share with you the most up-to-date information daily. You can trust us as a source of that information. You can also trust the Director-General of Health and the Ministry of Health. For that information do feel free to visit at any time—to clarify any rumour you may hear—the covid19.govt.nz website. Otherwise dismiss anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth. We'll provide information frequently. We will share everything we can. Everything else you see—a grain of salt."Hon Judith Collins: Was her Government the "single source of truth" when it announced it would build 16000 KiwiBuild homes in the first three years of the programme?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I stand proudly on this Government's record of building houses and I stand proudly on the fact that we have always been very open when a programme that we had proceeded with hadn't achieved what we expected. That does not however diminish the 5000 housing places that we very proudly have helped achieve whilst in Government and that is all in addressing the housing crisis we inherited.Hon Judith Collins: Well then does she realise that none of those Housing New Zealand or Kāinga Ora houses are actually part of the 16000—the mere 16000—KiwiBuild homes that have actually been built—that she said she was going to have built?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: In my answer I gave a very clear view on the different elements of our housing programme which includes public housing transitional housing Housing First and of course support for first-home buyers.Hon Judith Collins: Does she think that the Labour leader Jacinda Ardern was being New Zealanders' single source of truth when she said a future Labour Government would start building light rail to Mount Roskill straight away and complete it by 2021?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Can I just say I do not agree with the member's conflation of my statement around providing information to New Zealanders via daily updates alongside the Director-General of Health and via the COVID-19 website in contradiction to some of the harmful rumours speculation and conspiracy theories online as being the same thing that the member is now trying to state. However I've also openly in this House many times answered her questions on transport.Hon Grant Robertson: Supplementary question Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: No. First of all I've been reflecting on this and I've been reflecting on the relationship between the primary question and the supplementary questions and the authentication provided which was expanded on I think by the Prime Minister. This quote—the "we" in this—actually refers not in some royal "we" sense but to statements made by the Director-General of Health or someone acting in his capacity and the Prime Minister or the Minister of Health or another Minister acting in their capacity in the COVID areas. For this to continue the supplementaries have got to be related to that.Hon Judith Collins: Was her Government being the single source of truth when it told New Zealanders there would be "regular health check and asymptomatic testing of all border-facing workers" when nine weeks later it was revealed two-thirds of those workers had never had a test?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course we did agree as a Cabinet that in our testing strategy there would be testing of asymptomatic border workers. That had started with pop-ups at the airport in July on multiple occasions but we have been very open about the fact that it wasn't as comprehensive or scaled up as quickly as Cabinet had desired. That is why of course we have put in place additional supports in the Ministry of Health to ensure the roll-out of that. We are now in our second sweep of border workers at the ports at the airport and in our managed isolation facilities and it is important to note that alongside those sweeps we as yet have not identified the source of the resurgence we've seen in Auckland.Hon Judith Collins: Was her Government the single source of truth when it mistakenly told 700000 Aucklanders to get a COVID-19 test and then failed to proactively correct the record?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I refute the last part of the member's question. We did seek to proactively correct that information when it was identified—Hon Louise Upston: When? How much longer? How much later?SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —and as I said in the House yesterday and as I said publicly on Sunday a mistake was made. That has been corrected and again I apologise to any New Zealander who had any anxiety as a result of that incorrect information.SPEAKER: Sorry I'm just going to remind the Hon Louise Upston that when she interjects she does come through her leader's microphone which extensively amplifies her already adequate voice.Hon Judith Collins: If her Government is our single source of truth on this why did she tell me last week that port workers were going through "a blanket second wave" of COVID-19 testing when it has now been revealed that two weeks after the first round of testing only 200 out of 10000 port workers have received a second test?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Firstly I continue to refute the way the member is using my quote and again as I have said that reference was made to information sourced from the Government and those officials who are a part of the COVID-19 response. So I will say that again. On front-line workers we did say that once we completed that first sweep—and for the port that was not completed until the latter half of that period of time—we then started that second sweep again. There's a few more days left of that testing to be undertaken. The latest report I have as at Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. is that for the Port of Auckland that's roughly 277 workers and for the Port of Tauranga 132. The Port of Tauranga continues with their testing; so they'll be running for a few more days. But that is in accordance with the two-week additional turn-around for that second sweep.Hon Judith Collins: Was her Deputy Prime Minister speaking the truth when he said today of the COVID-19 response "We haven't done as well as we could have done. We let our guard down"—SPEAKER: Order! There are two things here. One is a reflection on a member of the House. The second is the question of whether the Deputy Prime Minister made any comments at all. I think the leader of a party did and that is not the responsibility of the Prime Minister.Hon Judith Collins: Is the Rt Hon Winston Peters correct then when he says of the COVID-19 response "We haven't done as well as we could have done. We let our guard down. Too many things fell through the gaps or the hole rather that was left by the bureaucracy. The fact of the matter is that the Labour Ministers"—SPEAKER: Order! The member now has four supplementary questions. If the member had listened carefully to my ruling she would've limited herself to two.Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I don't think that's the only issue with that question. It doesn't relate to the primary question.SPEAKER: I think there has been some discussion of testing as part of the exchange since and seeing as I'm in a generous mood I'll allow the Prime Minister to answer.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Look I actually stand proudly on the record of New Zealanders and their response to COVID-19 and this is a response that would not have seen New Zealand having one of the lowest death rates relative to other countries some of the highest testing rates some of the highest compliance and just today some of the highest compliance with technology solutions as well—we should all be proud of the efforts of New Zealanders in this global pandemic because whilst it surges globally we have continued to take a process of elimination that puts us in the best position to protect New Zealanders' health and the best position for our economy to recover. I for one am very proud of that."