Bayly Andrew; Parker DavidANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Madam Chair. Look I just want to acknowledge Nicola Grigg for her contribution. I too have a similar case in my electorate but it actually relates to a bus company. The owners a husband and wife team are in a similar situation where they are about to lose a lot of their life's earnings. They have a big fleet of buses and for them to get through the process they have been looking at disposing of buses and of course every time they do that it means that one less person has a job or perhaps if they have a couple of drivers a couple of people. So this is the immediacy of what we're talking about tonight. This is actual real stuff that is happening on the ground. That just highlights the importance of the Government being clear about its intentions and that's why with eight days to go I still think it's outrageous that the Government's not prepared to say what the new arrangements are under the new traffic light situation.So I want to turn to my tabled amendment because the Minister sort of slightly sideswiped me and said Well we're not going to make an announcement by 25 November."—tomorrow night. I suppose this gives rise to: is this a question of could should or would? I think if we ask ourselves "Could the Government make an announcement tomorrow?" well of course they could. The Government came out with an announcement on 22 October with great fanfare saying "We're going to do something."—right?—as they always do and of course everyone in New Zealand heard about this announcement of the announcement of the announcement that they were going to make this change. Over a month later it still hasn't made the announcement. Now I think it would be appalling if it is really the situation with eight days to go—and we're getting close to midnight; it will be seven days tomorrow—that the Government really hasn't worked out what the new arrangements will be. So could they make that announcement by tomorrow night? Of course they could.The second issue is: should they make an announcement by tomorrow night? I've got to say we've just heard Nicola Grigg talking about a story I've just related one from my area and I would imagine that if the backbench members of the Labour Party were to stand up and contribute to this debate which is highly unlikely but if they were and be honest about their situation and the calls they're getting and the emails they must be getting—unless they've chosen deliberately and callously not to respond to people not to listen to people's plights and not to act like real electorate MPs they would have to be tone-deaf if they were not getting the same situation. I see all of them looking down—all of them looking down. The reality is that everyone's been affected across all of New Zealand and so should they make an announcement by tomorrow night? Of course they should make an announcement—the Government I should say. The Government should make an announcement by tomorrow night. So the question then turns on would they make an announcement tomorrow night and that's the big issue. We have a Government here who just loves making announcements keeping people on the hook and then letting out a little bit more information. I would suggest to you Minister that you could make the announcement—you should make the announcement—the question is why you wouldn't make the announcement tomorrow night.The other thing I'm a little bit worried about is that I heard the Minister say before that—and he implied "should financial support be needed". Now I'm just hoping that that was just a slight slip of the tongue because my first question is: can the Minister confirm that the Government will be putting in place a new financial support package for businesses business owners and their staff and that the reference to the possibility of it was incorrect? The second question is: could he confirm that they could and should make an announcement but that they've chosen not to make an announcement? That's a big issue and that is the issue that most New Zealanders and their business owners and their staff are most concerned about right now.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Revenue): What I can confirm is that the scheme that has been in place until now which has been linked to alert levels has been utilised on a number of occasions over the last year. The next scheme needs to be durable for the new traffic light system for a long period of time and I can confirm that if the committee was to vote for Andrew Bayly's amendment it wouldn't work."