Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise in support of this bill and to deliver some good news to New Zealanders overseas living with all of the anxiety and stress that they've let us know over the past few months they're living with whether it's unexpected job losses whether it's visa losses or whether it's the stress of even finding their way home and at the foreground and the backdrop to all of that is a once-in-a-generation health crisis across the globe that is creeping closer and closer to them as they battle their way home. The Green Party has said from the start that we stand with them that we won't leave New Zealanders overseas stranded if they wish to move home to live that it is a fundamental right of their citizenship and residency and that if they are in the situation where they are finding their circumstances have changed and they're finding that they now do need to move home to live they won't be slapped with a shock $3000 per person fee. We know from their very human stories that have been pouring out—I think all of us across this House have probably been receiving those stories—that these are families with children that they are New Zealanders who are now in very precarious situations that they weren't expecting this fee and that it's adding exponentially to their stress. Some of them would not be able to afford to come home or at least as quickly as they would like to as they try and save desperately for this fee. Now leaving them stranded in a situation where that could mean becoming vulnerable to a deadly virus was just something that the Green Party was not willing to do and we're so proud to have worked with our Government partner the Labour Party to come up with a scheme that the Minister has outlined where we think fairness is struck. So New Zealanders who wish to move home—back to Aotearoa to live—will not be charged for the public health response of quarantine and we need to remember that that is the lesson of this pandemic for us. There have been a few lessons and I hope that we will hold tight to them. One has been to follow the science and the other has been to put people first. We know that unless all of us are taken care of in our public health response none of us will actually be safe and well in facing this virus and that is something to remember. We want the quarantine regime to work and we want to apply it for all of us not just for those who are now in a position of moving back. It's not a privilege; it is part of our public health response. I've heard members from across the aisle talk about you know This money could be invested in Pharmac or in other types of public health good." but this is all the same thing. We all pay for our hospitals and our medicine and all of the things that we need when those of us who are sick need it. We don't put the cost on the individual who needs it because we want to live in a nation that takes care of everyone when they need it and where our fundamental rights are upheld when we need them. It's not a user-pays system and $3000 per person is a high fee that would in fact leave people stranded. It would leave them stateless for those who have lost their visas. The other thing that's been puzzling me has been hearing from members across the aisle talk about how the Green Party doesn't want anyone to pay when we've been very clear from the start that we do accept that for those who are coming home for short trips business or tourism the cost of this will be built into their visit and that is fair. Hon Member: Why—why is that fair? GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: Those who go overseas from now on and who decide to take on that travel cost now will also pay and that is fair because it's not an unexpected fee that has then been slapped on them that will mean that they will be stranded overseas. But we also accept and acknowledge—and it is incredibly important and Minister Woods has outlined this as well—that for some it will mean that even for the temporary visits they may need to access a payment plan or the compassionate dispensation and that will include tangi it may include funerals it may include other health issues that people may have or family issues. It is absolutely right that there is a dispensation mechanism as well which we will apply. So as with our entire Government COVID response this is about fairness and it's about compassion and we are so proud as the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to have stood for those values. We do commend the bill to the House."