SpeechRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister): When there was a severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak at the start of this century there was a pandemic policy put together where not one epidemiologist was on the planning committee and here we are now with the COVID outbreak again and we have to learn some real lessons. We can hope for a worldwide vaccine but we will not be able to say that's enough for any future pandemic variations or new viruses. We live after all in an interconnected world and our response is critical. The number one responsibility of members of Parliament before their party is to save lives and a duty to protect the economy with all the jobs and general welfare which spring from it. The power the Government deploys to do so comes down to our bureaucratic arrangements.When the Government bureaucracy is effective the response is effective as well and we win the support and cooperation of our 5 million citizens when we are effective. But if there's a question to be asked about the past week about the renewed COVID spread and corresponding lockdowns the question is this: does the Government have the best possible agency arrangements to fight these outbreaks? It's not a criticism of the valiant efforts of our front-line staff and emergency workers; this is a call by my party for a new border security policy. My party is calling for the creation of a new border protection force. Our focus on Government should be a single line of attack. Its task will be to coordinate the protection of our borders from pandemic and biosecurity incursions and our lives and economy depend on it. Consolidation of effort is called for.If you take the recent case of a managed isolation worker in a quarantine facility what did we all see? We have to as a Parliament respond to it. A press conference from the Minister of Health and the Director-General of Health on the outbreak a press conference from a Minister of Housing and an Air Commodore on the quarantines and then a Prime Minister answering questions in Parliament on lockdowns and what happened when. Behind it all is a massive blend of Government agencies task forces and central agencies with overlapping roles. But a genuine question has been posed: did one arm of Government know what the other arm of Government was doing or not doing?Barbara Kuriger: One could ask that of Cabinet right now.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well we could ask it of the National Party right now because they've been all over the place for the last three months. But we're trying to come up with a positive policy going forward for the biosecurity and pandemic problems that we face. We've had under the National Party—I'm not going to deviate from this but we had in the National Party in their nine years over 178 biosecurity breaches. Over 178 and yet a member from the agricultural community in this Parliament from the King Country shouts out as though she's got some righteous cause behind her. If I was her I'd keep quiet with that record and a lack of investment in terms of cultivating attacks on such invasions of this country whether they be by virus or biosecurity.Can I just say that we are calling for one single agency to be created with a clear-eyed focus on border control a new border protection force reporting to one senior Cabinet Minister who in turn reports to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. It would have its roles responsibilities and obligations clearly set out. But the key thing would be—and I'm going to release this policy this afternoon—the use of the Defence Force which we argued for from day one; the use of our Customs Service alongside the Defence Force and alongside strategic Immigration New Zealand officers in terms of their powers being strengthened where the enforcement of these laws would be required.Here are the realities: our biggest-populated city is in lockdown with security and staff that come in and out of facilities with potential to spread virus in all of these quarantine facilities. Why in our biggest city are they not in our military camps? Why are they not in places like Waiōuru Manawatū Ōhākea? We've got an Air Force facility there; we can fly people in and out. Why not in the Burnham Camp area and why not in the West Melton training area? We've got the facilities we've got the people we've got the utilities and we are paying a fortune to look after these people coming in now. Imagine if we'd put that investment into our military. We'd have been able to do that for a fraction of the cost with a long-term benefit.So we are talking about today the need for a new border protection force and that should be—and we will make it—a major priority.