SpeechSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm just going to take a short call; I don't intend to address all the aspects of the COVID orders that are being passed. But it would be remiss of me as the MP for Tāmaki not to add a voice around the unvaccinated permanent residents who are not being allowed back into New Zealand. So it's in that space that I want to speak and particularly to those amongst my electorate who call themselves the forgotten of New Zealand"—on this side of the House you are not. We are ultimately in a very strange and discriminatory situation here where citizens of New Zealand are allowed to return but we find that actually permanent residents are not. I'm not going to belabour the point that there are basically no differences between a citizen of New Zealand and a permanent resident. There's a few—they're quite small—but we just need to remind ourselves that we're surrounded in this country already by Kiwis who are citizens and permanent residents. We make no distinction in our daily lives: permanent residents can vote and most importantly—particularly to a Labour Government—they pay a lot of tax. So it feels to me both legally and morally wrong that we are not allowing them to return. Even if you do not agree—or rather members opposite don't agree with me on that front—even on a pragmatic point of view allowing New Zealanders who are permanent residents to return makes sense as we're crying out for extra help labour and support. Every day in this House we hear stories and we debate stories about how hospitality tourism and pretty much every and all industries in New Zealand need more people. While we keep the border locked out to those on other forms of visas it would make absolute practical sense to allow unvaccinated permanent residents of New Zealand to return.The final two points very quickly I would like to make. There are two points as I say. The first is the risk of COVID is everywhere now; it's almost ubiquitous. There is no health logic that I can see of keeping people out—it's not as if they're bringing something into the country that's not here. As I say COVID is everywhere. Bizarrely yet possibly—if you wanted to really push the point for the sake of almost exaggeration—you're probably more at risk of getting COVID from someone in New Zealand than from an unvaccinated permanent resident returning. And the final point really—and maybe this is just an encouragement to Kiwis as we go into this Easter weekend—please do not forget those other Kiwis who are still overseas. In fact let's not forget permanent residents of New Zealand currently who would love to travel for various reasons. I have one situation again in my electorate where someone who's a permanent resident is desperate to go overseas to see a dying loved one but in effect they cannot because there is no guarantee of return. And I just again want to reiterate: I think that is legally wrong and I think that is morally wrong. So as I say as we go into this Easter weekend—one that is meant to be one of hope—can I ask Kiwis to not forget those permanent residents of New Zealand still stuck overseas. And to the many who have contacted me through social media and in my electorate from me to you I say: you are not forgotten."