Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm pleased to take a brief call in this Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill. This is of course the introduction and as my colleague Stuart Smith has indicated National will support it in the first reading. It is really important—this is being considered by the Epidemic Response Committee and my colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse referred to a couple of the larger organisations that represent migrants and migrant workers but I would encourage others to participate in the process. Sometimes the most effective submissions are those of very personal stories and examples of when things don't work.Obviously for most New Zealanders at the moment COVID-19 doesn't work but for the 350000 temporary visa holders that are in New Zealand they're kind of stuck in a bit of limbo. When traditionally as the Minister pointed out an individual applicant would have their application considered by an individual immigration officer that's clearly not feasible at the moment. If you look at the different categories of visa holders because I think sometimes there's far too many generalisations around those who are on work visas—if I reflect on my own electorate if I reflect on essential workers and those courageous men and woman who got us through the five weeks of level 4 lockdown many of them were here on essential skilled visas particularly in our healthcare area and also our aged-care sectors.So yes there is this priority for Kiwis first but there is a complete and utter naivety if there's an expectation that someone who's working in a hospitality job or was six weeks ago next week could turn up and work in an aged-care facility. We are very fortunate in this country to have incredibly skilled workers in a whole range of different sectors many of those heavily occupied by those on work visas and the suggestion that they could be replaced any time soon is a bit naive. That's not to say that that work doesn't need to begin and I think one of the things that I think is really important in this process and that I hope will come through in the submissions to the Epidemic Response Committee is managing expectations.So there'll be a lot of people here on visas whether they're student visas whether they're visitor's visas whether they are essential skilled visas and actually as a country we need to be clear with them about their expectation of a future here in New Zealand. The future after COVID-19 looks very different than it was six months ago and you know there are many people in very challenging circumstances at the moment. I've heard unfortunately from far too many of them who six weeks ago were working and now they're ringing the welfare civil defence line asking for housing and food support. That is never a situation those people envisaged they would ever be in in a country they have chosen to come to because of opportunities. So we do need to do right by them and I'm hoping that the Government is doing some work on that at the moment.It's not just about allowing their visa conditions to change and the time frames to change; actually there's a much broader issue of support for those who are in New Zealand at the moment in a way that they're not getting supported at the moment. I do hope that people do take the time—although it's a short report back it will be considered by a select committee. I think the lesson came last week when the wrong bill was passed. That cannot happen again. Even though there's an urgency in terms of delivering a solution both to those who are here as migrants and also to Immigration New Zealand who needs to solve this issue it still needs fair scrutiny.So as I said National will be supporting this in the first reading. We want to make sure the issues are explored fully. There are extraordinary powers that are provided in here and a lot less scrutiny that's going to occur so any time that happens the unintended consequences do need to be considered carefully.The other point that I want to just add is whether or not the Associate Minister who has responsibilities for considering exemptions to policy is also going to take a new environment new rules" approach because many electorate MPs will have faced some absolutely heart-wrenching immigration cases at the moment and it is absolutely critical that when there are ministerial decisions to be made they are also considering those based on the circumstances we face as a country whether it's a situation I'm dealing with where half the family is overseas trying to get back to continue their work in New Zealand—we've got to be far more compassionate and practical and pragmatic about how we reunite those families and how we ensure that those critical essential workers are able to continue their work in New Zealand. Thanks Mr Speaker."