Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm proud to rise as the member of Parliament for Southland. It's a regional economic powerhouse with two of the key industries that underpin the New Zealand economy: farming and tourism. But I want to speak this afternoon to tourism a sector which is under incredible stress in my region and in particular to two places: Te Ānau and Queenstown. Now Te Ānau: I have photographs of 11 shops that have closed since roughly this time last year due to the loss of international tourism to the region. In Queenstown a third of businesses in downtown Queenstown estimate that they won't survive winter—i.e. roughly the next three months. So we're talking about 60 businesses. Now I want to stress that this is not just about business. We're talking about mostly small to medium sized businesses and businesses are about people and people are about communities. So if we have businesses who can't employ staff that's people who lose their jobs. That's also the business owners who lose their income and their family lose their income. I've spoken to a number of business owners who have been hanging on for just short of 12 months now since the borders closed on 24 March last year and they have been borrowing against the equity in their homes to keep their businesses going and keep their staff employed. They can't keep doing that for much longer. That's what we're seeing unfortunately in Te Ānau an amazing town on the lake. That's on the way to Milford Sound one of the iconic destinations for people who think of New Zealand and come to this country. They've already been devastated. I'm pleased to say there are still operators who are hanging on in Te Ānau and providing experiences providing meals at restaurants providing opportunities for people to go and see the surrounding region on various amazing trips but they are under huge stress at the moment. The same thing is happening in Queenstown for the tourism operators. When I say tourism" we're talking about a broad swathe of industries. We're not just talking about those offering experiences for people. We're talking about restaurants we're talking about cafes and we're talking about accommodation providers and they are under huge stress. It has been described to me that the tourism sector is experiencing its version of an economic earthquake and they are crying out for help and support from this Government. A lady from Queenstown wrote to the Minister this week expressing a view that's been expressed to me many times in fact by local people in the industry. They feel they have been abandoned by the Government and they are calling for the Government to do something to do anything—more specifically to provide a plan for them so that they can determine what their future is and how long they can hang on for. We have called as the National Party for opening the trans-Tasman bubble with Australia. I'm pleased to say that a number of experts have come out in support of that call including the respected epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker who has said that New Zealand and Australia are ready for a two-way bubble. He said we should embrace the traffic light system as it is now known. We have a green zone with most states in Australia a number of Pacific Island countries and New Zealand are already very good at managing this risk and there is now a very low risk he has said of infection from all of Australia most of the time and we are ready to open up for quarantine-free travel. There's a huge benefit to us in getting this right and it will make a huge difference to people's lives in Te Ānau in Queenstown in Milford Sound on the West Coast in Wānaka and in the Mackenzie Country. I've seen calls from the North Island as well from operators there who are under huge stress. People in our communities need this from the Government. If the Government isn't going to open up the travel bubble with Australia they need to tell us and tell our communities and tell our businesses and our employees what the plan is and when support is coming for our businesses who are fighting to stay afloat to support the economy in one of our biggest industries. We need this Government to step up."