Hipkins Chris; Mallard TrevorCOVID-19 ORDERSApprovalHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I move That this House approve the following orders made under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020:COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Amendment Order (No 2) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 2) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 3) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 4) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 5) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 6) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Amendment Order (No 3) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 7) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 2) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order (No 4) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) Amendment Order (No 8) 2021.This is certainly not the first time the House has had to do this. Under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 orders that the Government makes—or that I make as the Minister for COVID-19 Response—under the aforementioned Act have to be endorsed by the Parliament. They only apply for 90 days if not endorsed by Parliament. In between me making an order and it coming to the floor of the House for a vote it's scrutinised by the Regulations Review Committee. And I can tell you as the person who receives the correspondence from the Regulations Review Committee that they do a very thorough and diligent job of scrutinising those orders of ensuring that they are being made consistent with the Act of ensuring that they are not being done in a way that unduly tramples on people's rights and freedoms—although there is recognition in the Act itself that people's rights and freedoms may be affected by the COVID-19 response.So I want to run through briefly the orders—and there are 12 orders that are under consideration today. I'll deal with them in groups.Eight of the orders in question deal with alert level - type changes. So the purpose of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 12) was to prevent and limit the risk of the outbreak or spread of COVID-19 by setting the level 3 conditions that are in place in Auckland and the level 2 conditions in place around the rest of the country. Subsequent amendments have been made to that as the response has continued. The changes covered by those amendments include things like: the level 3 boundary that was put into effect in the Waikato; the level 3 period that Northland was placed at that alert level; the mandatory testing requirement for those crossing the border for work; amendments in relation to gatherings and physical distancing requirements in certain circumstances like early childhood education; and the requirements for movement between Auckland Waikato and other parts of the country. I want to acknowledge that the Regulations Review Committee did make some useful comments around how we define the boundaries in the Northland region. And it recommended that the boundaries should be described by reference to roads rivers or other geographical markers—which the public would be more familiar with—rather than the cartographical references that are used in the current orders. I think that that is a reasonable suggestion.The committee also expressed concern about amendment order No. 7 which imposed a new prohibition on people travelling to a secondary home or place of residence after a Government announcement of alert level change and before those changes came into force. The committee was concerned that there was insufficient communication of the new rules and if there was insufficient communication of the rules it could lead to people unknowingly committing a criminal offence. I want to be clear here that that's always the case when an alert level changes and a boundary is put in place. This particular change was to effectively stop the Coromandel exodus that has happened once or twice from Auckland when the alert level has escalated there. People knowingly knowing that Auckland is about to go into a lockdown abandoned Auckland and headed out to the Coromandel to their beach houses—that somewhat defeats the purpose of having a boundary in place in order to contain the risk. So while I acknowledge the committee's concern in this particular case I don't necessarily agree with it.Two of the orders amend the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Order that was put in place last year. That's the order that establishes managed isolation and quarantine. Amendment Order (No 2) updated the definition of medical examination and testing to include the use of saliva testing. Amendment Order (No 3) prescribed the requirements for self-isolation by those taking part in the Government's self-isolation project. There was one concern expressed by the Regulations Review Committee which said that the order assumes a link between a person's participation in the programme and their employer." which would not necessarily be the case but the rationale for creating a legal obligation on the employer for the behaviour of the participant is to ensure that the employer only puts forward employees who the employer trusts to participate in that pilot programme.The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 2) updated the principal order to extend the meaning of "vaccinated" to recognise some of the people who may have been vaccinated with vaccines other than Pfizer abroad. So it includes vaccines like Moderna AstraZeneca Janssen etc. The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Order 2020 was designed to protect and limit the risk of an outbreak by requiring testing and medical examination of affected people for COVID-19 and it put in place—for staff at various education locations and facilities—the requirement to provide a negative test before they physically enter the site. It puts in place a weekly testing requirement for unvaccinated workers at an affected education service until mandatory vaccination requirements come into force on 1 January. The committee raised some concerns about the clarity of that order as they often do about orders and we'll have a look at those as a package—though these orders have been pretty central to our COVID-19 response and they've helped to play a very significant role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 cases across New Zealand. Often they are put in place in a hurry. Often the Regulations Review Committee—and in fact the work that officials do after orders are put in place—identify further changes refinements clarifications that can be put in place. That's one of the reasons why these are often regularly amended.Some weeks I seem to be up until midnight most nights awaiting the day's order coming through so that it can be signed and gazetted that night because inevitably given the pressure that the drafters work under here there will be points of clarification that need to be made and I want to thank those who do that. I do really just want to underscore that point: that when decisions are made the process of putting the legal instruments for those in place is a very compressed one. The people who do this work do so under enormous pressure and often right into the night and into the early morning in order to make sure that the law is clear and that it can be complied with and I certainly thank them for their efforts. They have been integral to our COVID-19 response they have been diligent and conscientious and they deserve our acknowledgment and our thanks.SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."