Hipkins ChrisCOVID-19 ORDERSApprovalHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I move That this House approve the following orders made under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020: COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 3) 2021 COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 11) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order (No 5) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 12) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Amendment Order (No 4) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing and Vaccinations) Amendment Order 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine and Maritime Border) Amendment Order 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 4) 2021 COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 13) 2021.This is the last one for 2020. There have been several such motions in the House this year to confirm orders made under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act. I do want to begin this particular contribution with a very genuine word of thanks to the members of the Regulations Review Committee who have done a very thorough job of scrutinising every one of the orders that's been made under that Act. They provided some incredibly constructive feedback and suggestions for how those orders can be improved some of which have resulted in revisions to the orders and some actually resulted in some changes to the primary legislation under which those orders are made. I do want to thank the committee for the way that it has engaged with that.Just to very quickly—I'm not going to run through all of the orders that are covered by this particular confirmation but they do cover a lot of things from required vaccinations through to changes to the air border order which makes it a requirement to be fully vaccinated to come into New Zealand if you are not a citizen. There are changes that are being made to the required testing and the frequency of testing that people need to undertake. Changes have been made to the quarantine-free travel arrangements with our Pacific neighbours particularly with the Cook Islands Niue Samoa Tokelau Tonga and Vanuatu.There have been changes made to the maritime border order in terms of defining the amount of time that people need to isolate on board ships before being able to come abroad. There are some changes to the required time frames for vaccination particularly around Fire and Emergency New Zealand. That covers the main thrust of the changes. The rest deal with relatively I think technical issues around the required vaccination requirements.I do acknowledge as I always have done in issuing these orders that it's an enormous responsibility that I have as the Minister who has to sign them. I think this is a very important part of the process where Parliament confirms those orders because they are made in a relatively unusual way in the sense that they are scrutinised after they have been made rather than before unlike most primary legislation where it gets thoroughly scrutinised before it is made. So I want to thank members of the House for the way they have approached these orders throughout the course of the year. This is the last one for this year although I have to tell members that there'll be another confirmation motion on either the first or the second day back after the summer holidays for them to look forward to.But finally can I just take a moment to thank all those who were involved in both putting the orders together and implementing the orders. The Parliamentary Counsel Office often have to turn these orders around overnight where something's happened urgently and we need to put the orders in place. I acknowledge the huge pressure they have been under this year as a result largely of COVID-19 - related demands among other things. But I really want to thank them and put on record my thanks to them for the way that they have handled this. I also want to thank those at the front line who have to implement these orders again often at quite short notice and thank them for their work their commitment to our COVID-19 strategy and wish everybody involved a very merry Christmas.