Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. The ACT Party rises in support of these orders being passed into law and accepted. They're both doing useful things and yet the fact that they're necessary—the fact that they're being debated now—allows us to illustrate some of the broad themes and failures of this Government's response to COVID-19. First of all nominating Air Chathams the mighty Air Chathams as a quarantine-free trans-Tasman or QFT" carrier—fantastic. We do want more free enterprise more businesses competing to offer the New Zealand customer a good deal. That's a wonderful thing. But I would argue that this shouldn't be necessary because one of the great failings of this Government's response to COVID is that it has failed to make sound rules of the game that apply without fear or favour. So instead we have a Government that is naming particular entities in its laws and regulations—particular businesses qualify if they get the Government's favour—and that is not the way that we would like commerce to work in a free society. Actually businesses that meet the criteria meet the criteria. That's what it means to make rules based on the risk that we face from the threat of COVID-19 rather than the identity of the particular person. Nevertheless the way the Government has chosen to write its legislation is that clause 4A(2)(a) of the principal order here requires us to name Air Chathams and so it is right to name another airline as a QFT carrier so that New Zealanders can have more choice.The second of the two orders is the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order 2021. Again you cannot fault the outcome. It clears the way for greater use of saliva testing. As the Minister just said 10 months after the Simpson-Roche report recommended the Government uptake saliva testing all the barriers from the central government's side have been removed for the greater use of saliva testing. Well better late than never. A good thing that the Government is no longer standing in the way of saliva testing being used in our fight against COVID-19 infections. But hasn't it taken a long time? And again one of the key things that the Government needs to do in response to an epidemic is make clear rules of the game that don't discriminate and are proportionate to risk. They appear to fail to do this. But the Government is not only a regulator in the case of the kind of test; it is also engaged in the provision of tests. It has contracted an organisation to provide saliva PCR testing—polymerase chain reaction testing that is.And let's just stop on that for a moment because when the Prime Minister was answering questions in this House back in March I think it was she said the Government is not going to use saliva testing; it's going to use PCR testing. Now let's just think about this; let's just unpack this for a moment. PCR is the test that is used to detect COVID on the material taken from the person's body. That material can be either phlegm or mucus taken from the nasal cavity or it can be saliva taken from the person's mouth. Now to say "We're not going to use saliva testing; we're going to use PCR testing" as the Prime Minister did shows that on one of the most critical aspects of the COVID-19 response—using good technology to test rapidly—the Prime Minister had no idea about the first and most basic elements of how this technology works. And of course it starts at the top and the rot goes down because we've just heard from the Minister that it's not the Government's fault there's not more saliva testing.And then we had another failing of this Government—again from the Prime Minister. When we had the February outbreaks—remember when it was the KFC worker? Remember when the Prime Minister from the highest podium in the land from a very great height bore down on a person who had no platform other than apparently Michael Morrah in Newshub—and wasn't it great that he got an award for standing up for that citizen against the Prime Minister? But the common theme here is that we've just heard the Minister for COVID-19 Response try to say "No no no we've removed all the Government barriers; it's the people's fault. They don't want to." We're expected to believe the problem is now according to what the Minister said that people are so eager to have a swab put into their nasopharyngeal tract that they're refusing the saliva testing. That's what he's trying to tell us; just like the Prime Minister in February. When it's all falling apart blame the citizens of New Zealand. Don't serve them blame them!I think the real problem is something else. He said it's not the Government fault. He then said we should ask the people who are rolling out the saliva testing. Well who's that? The people that the Government contracted. Well contracting out Government services is a big and difficult topic. It is in essence a principal-agent problem where as the principal that issues the contract you've got to get the agent the contractor to do what you want. And if it's done well good procurement means that the people of New Zealand get good services paid for by the Government but it sounds as though one of the big problems with saliva testing is that something is not quite right with the Government's contract. It sounds as though they're not getting what they thought they were getting and that's why it will be a year from September 2020 to September 2021 from when the Simpson-Roche report said the New Zealand Government should be using saliva testing to when it's used in any great volume—a year maybe longer.And this takes us to another major problem and failing with this Government's COVID-19 response: it's inability to work with the private sector and augment its response to COVID-19 with better technology. First they told us they couldn't have saliva testing because it wasn't accurate—well actually first the Prime Minister didn't understand what it was. But then once we solved that problem they started to say it's not as accurate. And then Janet Pitman from Victoria University of Wellington said it's just as accurate. Saliva testing is as accurate; it's just faster and less inconvenient to the person giving the sample. That's the result they've come to. And then they say "Oh but it doesn't have quite the same sensitivity depending on the particular stage of the infection." Even if that was true—and it appears now that it's not but even if that was true—there's a trade-off between the cost the inconvenience and the frequency of testing. If you want to make sure that you actually catch COVID-19 with a test perhaps a less sensitive test might actually catch it if you apply it more often than a less sensitive test that can't be applied as often because of cost or because of the inconvenience and people's reluctance to have it.The Government has never explained what that trade-off is and this episode tells us how much trouble we're in when it comes to the question of responding intelligently to COVID-19 and getting our way of life back. This crazy problem of trying to accept what the evidence is on testing understanding what saliva testing is contracting someone to deliver it—all of this has taken a year for a relatively simple technology to be absorbed. Now can you imagine this Government as the COVID world becomes more complex as we're trying to safely reconnect with the world as other countries are doing to get our way of life back? This Government doesn't have the ability to make rules that are proportionate to risk that apply equally to all; to assess the evidence and use the best technology; or apparently to write good contracts and get the technology so that we can have a better and stronger response that's more nuanced and can deal with COVID as the world begins to reopen and safely reconnect different countries.That's why this episode is such a good example of how this Government constantly fails and it's only fall-back is "Hallelujah! Thank the Lord that New Zealand is an island." Because if we were anything else with this Government and its aptitude in responding to COVID-19 we would be in carnage. Despite that we support the order. Thank you Madam Speaker.Motion agreed to.Orders approved."