Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker and it's a pleasure to take a call on the Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill. As the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee I would just like to run the House through the process that this bill has actually gone through. As the Minister already stated the bill was referred to select committee on 8 April and received 168 submissions from interested groups and individuals and our select committee heard from 43 of those submitters. Many made oral submissions to the committee in person over the recent recess period as well as over Zoom. Now I would also like to acknowledge that the bill is being read with urgency and as such obviously the submission period was shorter than it normally would have been but I am actually very pleased with the level of engagement that we have seen from the submitters and from the public. I would like to again thank all those 43 people in particular who made the effort to come to Wellington or to join in over Zoom and make submissions. Now I would like to touch on a couple of the submissions that particularly stood out to me and some of them have been selectively referenced by the previous speaker. It's also worth noting that in fact all of the businesses that submitted on this bill—every single one—acknowledged the efforts of Immigration in what have been obviously such challenging circumstances. The Auckland District Law Society (ADLS) was quoted by the previous speaker but what she didn't mention was that ADLS actually said that the Bill as drafted has sufficient safeguards in ensuring that the Minister of Immigration is unable to delegate the majority of the special direction powers and that Parliamentary scrutiny will apply where such powers are exercised". So as it seems that parliamentary scrutiny is such an issue for the Opposition they're downplaying—as they did in the first reading—the fact that the powers that the Minister of Immigration receives with this bill are actually disallowable instruments. That means that the House can disallow those powers and it means that the House will have continued scrutiny of these powers. That is one of the continuing safeguards of this bill which again has been downplayed by the Opposition when they talk about that large transfer of power—that there are continuing safeguards within this bill. Again the Opposition spoke much about the two-year extension. Now on balance as our report says the majority of our select committee was satisfied with the reasons for the time line and why the powers are time-limited. Even if there were no expiry date in this bill the powers are still limited and the Minister has clearly outlined that in his speech because everything has to be clearly related to COVID-19. Another thing that really stood out—the previous speaker did mention that many submitters raised general immigration issues that weren't related to this bill and we heard many stories about family unification. Now our select committee wants to thank those submitters for telling their story and we acknowledge that the decision to close the borders and protect New Zealand communities from COVID-19 caused difficulties and caused heartache for some people. But the work that sees family reunification is continuing and just to mention one example 13000 people have been granted border exceptions as partners of dependants of New Zealand citizens or residents. Over the past year several border exceptions supporting the reunification of split families have been introduced and in fact that work is continuously happening. But as the Minister also said in his speech—our select committee report re-emphasised this particular point—the powers in this bill don't manage the border exceptions policy settings which govern people entering into New Zealand and entering managed isolation and quarantine. Our select committee did note in our report that the Minister of Immigration has recently announced border exceptions that allow for family reunification. So I would like to finish my short call by thanking everyone involved in this process particularly regarding the urgency that was put on them—so that's our select committee clerks our officials the Office of the Auditor-General the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and members of my select committee for all the additional meetings during recess and all their efforts. Therefore I commend this bill to the House. Thank you Mr Speaker."