McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Mr Speaker thank you. I want to start by recognising the significance of the unfolding events for so many New Zealanders—so many New Zealanders who face uncertainty in the coming weeks and months in respect of their health so many New Zealanders who are unsure about the longevity of their employment and so many hard-working New Zealanders who today are still unsure about what this means for their businesses. I also want to start by thanking our health workers and those on the front line because as information has come slowly to us through the media these doctors and nurses health professionals and front-line staff have been also working in uncertain times not knowing fully what risk they were exposing themselves to as they were caring for those who maybe had visited New Zealand or New Zealanders who were not well. I want to recognise that the Government has decided that it is important to put more money in health but I think that the $500 million that they've allocated in this package today is just not enough because actually our hospitals have been struggling and we know that. We know that for many New Zealanders who have faced a growing wait to get to hospitals for operations and so on actually more resource is needed than this $500 million particularly when we consider just how significantly this disease this virus has escalated in other countries. A recession is all but here and I want to say that I do believe that the response from the Government until today has been slow. I think it's important that last week we saw the media and Simon Bridges the Leader of the Opposition start to mount quite considerable pressure upon the Government to increase the pace at which they were reacting to what was obviously a growing crisis. It was slow and it should have been faster. There should have been controls at the border greater than the ones that we had seen and they should have been there sooner. There should have been temperature checks of people coming off flights—taken aside and questions asked of them—and testing of visitors to see whether or not they had this disease rather than actually the assurances we were given not being delivered on. This brings me to the issue of self-isolation that the Prime Minister announced just on Saturday night and I must say quite clearly from the point of view of the Opposition and so many New Zealanders it is not clear to us quite how this would work. So we could have had 10000 people getting off aeroplanes yesterday who had to self-isolate because they had just arrived in New Zealand and where were they doing this? There are reports of them checking into hotels and the hotel workers and the owners of the hotels are very uncertain about what that self-isolation means. The only way we stop the spread of this disease in the way that the Prime Minister has given assurances and commitments to the public over is actually for there to be clear and precise information given. To say people should self-isolate without clear guidelines or rules that weren't delivered on Saturday night—Hon Members: There are. Hon TODD McCLAY: They are not. They are not clearly there. Members of the Government may say they are but up and down New Zealand on social media and through the media and on talkback radio New Zealanders are confused. So the point that I am making to members of the Government is rather than saying it's there what we need to see is much more information being made available more readily and clearly so that everyday New Zealanders are clear about the implications of how self-isolation will work. This is not a political plea; it's actually just a plea to say that New Zealanders are concerned. The concern is growing. Parents won't be sending their children to school this week and that information about self-isolation needs to be much much clearer. That brings me to the issue of testing. We know there have been around 500 tests done in New Zealand—maybe a few more—but testing testing testing is what the World Health Organization said today that other countries are doing. I really would ask the Government to be able to provide information clearly. If we haven't been doing enough testing—the testing we required—how do they know exactly how many of these cases of people with this virus there are out there? I think it's very important that people know the scale and magnitude of this challenge.As I said earlier the recession is coming. In fact for some it was already here. It will be deeper and it will be longer. There is a small business package here today but I think that has been delivered later than it should—almost for some too late. Too late for the 200 workers in an engineering workshop in Rotorua who were laid off on Friday because their employer was not able to continue to pay them. Certainty should have been given to those employees and that employer earlier.Too late for the large tourism business in my home town who is in the coming days about to lay off 50 workers because this support will not go far enough for that employer. I suspect that business will have to close in the coming weeks and with the exception of a few workers there every single one of them will lose their job.Too little for the hotel chains that may have 500 or 600 workers around the country that this package announced by the Government doesn't deliver for who will have to lay so many people off who will actually not be kept in jobs and will be on the unemployment benefit. Chris Roberts from Tourism Industry Aotearoa said today that after seeing the Government's plan he expects that of a workforce of around 230000 New Zealanders who were involved in tourism and accommodation at least 100000 of them are likely to lose their jobs—not in the coming year but in the coming weeks. For those New Zealanders much more should have been done to give them certainty much sooner.The first thing the Government should not have done was look to make it easier for people to go on the unemployment benefit. The package we've heard about today that does give some certainty to some businesses should have been delivered at the same time weeks ago—should have been delivered at the same time weeks ago. Because the Government is right when they say that it's easier to keep somebody in a job than it is to get them off a benefit back into employment.But I'm saying that the timing of this the priority of the Government was wrong. These announcements today should have been there weeks earlier as the private sector was asking for as the tourism sector was asking for as Simon Bridges was asking for and demanding and have only just arrived today.That brings me to something else the Government says that they won't do that I actually plead with them to go back and reconsider because it's a plea that comes from businesses throughout New Zealand and predominantly smaller businesses. It comes to the heart of the increasing cost that's been placed upon businesses before the magnitude of this virus has hit them. That's around the 1 April increase in the minimum wage. Now this isn't a debate about those who earn the least and whether a sharp increase in the minimum wage will deliver for them because in the tourism sector we've had one of the experts Chris Roberts say 100000 New Zealanders in the coming weeks are going to lose their jobs.I ask: how many people are likely to lose their businesses? I asked the Government to reconsider their view last week that they wouldn't put the minimum wage increase of 1 April off by just six months so businesses can adjust. We can see what's going to happen.There is a cost of $300 million coming to New Zealand businesses on 1 April because of the minimum wage increase. It's something that they could not well afford before the coronavirus arrived in New Zealand. They really cannot afford it today. I fear that many many more people will lose their jobs more quickly than they might otherwise as a result of this cost being put upon businesses.Finally I want to talk about exports and trade because so many jobs in New Zealand depend upon this. Actually we're going to see a slowing of the world economy and we're going to see it more difficult for our exporters than it should be. I'm glad the Government has recognised that it's going to be harder for that supply chain overseas to continue.I would say to them as with all of the money they've announced today for small businesses and to keep people in work or for those who will be on sick leave as well as the money that's set aside to help keep that supply chain open it needs to be delivered quickly. It must be there today it must be there tomorrow it must be there in the coming weeks. We can't have an overly bureaucratic system where we have businesses and industry and exporters expecting help today and that help won't arrive for them until weeks' or months' time.This is a time when this Government needs to step up—the first and only time actually in the last 2½ years when it's clear that they absolutely must do so. It's not a time for talk. It's not a time for meetings or working groups. It's a time to deliver the help to everyday New Zealanders who need it to make sure the money they've committed that they are borrowing is spent as quickly as it can be to keep those businesses open and to keep those people in jobs. It gives some certainty to many of our large and small businesses who are involved in the export sector who continue to face great uncertainty not only about their job and their prospects but about the depth of the recession and how that will affect them in the coming weeks and months and years. Thank you Madam Speaker.