1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by this Government's continued commitment to supporting people into meaningful and sustainable work as part of our recovery. Today we announced that over 800 job seekers will be supported on pathways into employment education and training through funding into the Māori Trades and Training Fund and He Poutama Rangatahi projects. We're already seeing the positive signs of this Government recovery plan with unemployment falling to 4 percent. There are now 63000 more people in jobs since September 2020 and another 31000 entered paid work off the benefit in the June quarter. This Government continues to back our recovery.Hon Judith Collins: Why did it take until 29 January this year for New Zealand to raise its first order of Pfizer vaccines?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Sorry would the member mind repeating the question?Hon Judith Collins: Oh I would be happy to—thank you. Why did it take until 29 January this year for New Zealand to raise its first order of Pfizer vaccines?SPEAKER: To raise its order?Hon Judith Collins: It's a term meaning to actually order.SPEAKER: Right OK. Sorry. [Interruption] Sorry it's not one that I'd heard before—that's fine.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes. Forgive me Mr Speaker I'm just not entirely clear on the member—is she asking the question over whether or not we increased our order in January when we had a completed contract? I'm just not clear on the content of the member's question. What the member will be aware of—and if I am given questions on notice it enables me to give full time lines—is when we began our programme of ordering vaccines we did take a portfolio approach. That was because there were a number of different vaccines in the market. Some—the RNA vaccines for instance—were less well-known to the wider public health community. They were newer technological developments and there were others that were more traditional. We took the option of ordering within each of those different portfolios to give us good coverage. As we progressed in some of those discussions it was clear to us that there were some that were completing clinical trials earlier than others and some that had better data than others. So we made the decision ultimately to in the end go with a singular vaccine because that gave us both logistical improvements great efficacy across the board and just the consistency for our population.Hon Judith Collins: Why did it take until 29 January this year for New Zealand to order its first Pfizer vaccines when Pfizer is the only vaccine approved in New Zealand?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Oh the member—if I may just go through the process again we made orders before there would be approvals and that was the case for every single vaccine that we've had. You make the orders because the approval process requires you to get manufacturing data. You wouldn't get approval for a vaccine that you hadn't in fact ordered and had the intention of purchasing and so that's just merely a sequencing issue. Again I'm happy to go through the full process of ordering a pharmaceutical product in New Zealand if the member would be so inclined. But again I encourage the member—questions like this if you pop them on notice I can bring down the time line for every single decision.Hon Chris Hipkins: Can the Prime Minister confirm that New Zealand purchased 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last year and that there is a technical process of issuing a purchase order for each delivery where the purchase order is issued within days of the expected date of that delivery?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes I can. This is where again I just highlight for the member there is a process here where we enter into negotiations and contracts with companies to deliver for across our population and then go through a Medsafe process and then we've got the deliveries themselves. As the member knows we get about a four-week notice before they've come in and as the member has said there are some other technical elements that we go through. I think the member might be alluding to something that's just factually incorrect here. Again if the member puts things on notice I can come down and happily correct her. If the member is suggesting that we didn't actually have a contract with Pfizer to deliver for our population she is wrong.Hon Judith Collins: Is the Prime Minister saying that the Hon Chris Hipkins gave an incorrect answer to Chris Bishop when he advised him that the first order was made on 29 January this year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No. In fact the member himself actually just reflected and interpreted what Mr Bishop has misinterpreted.Hon Judith Collins: Has New Zealand ordered any booster shots yet?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Keeping in mind that we have more than enough vaccine already for our entire population and beyond—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I am going to warn the Leader of the Opposition that she will not chip me when I call her to order. [Interruption] Well sorry there was a—well Nick Smith's not here now so I don't have that problem. But there was an indication in the—referring to the Prime Minister in a way which polite people don't which I thought came from the Leader of the Opposition. If it came from another member I would like that member to indicate who it was.Hon David Bennett: I withdraw and apologise.Hon Judith Collins: Point of order Mr Speaker. The MP who has indicated it was him is a man. I am a woman. I am right in front of you. If you can't tell whether it's me or not please do not name me like that.SPEAKER: Well I apologise to the member. I did notice her lips moving.Hon Judith Collins: By what date will everyone in New Zealand who wants to be be able to be vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The same indication and timetable we've said all the way through. Our goal is by the end of this year for everyone who wants a vaccine to have access to be vaccinated.Hon Judith Collins: And why were more than 70 unvaccinated port workers allowed to board a ship despite her promising more than four months ago that unvaccinated port workers would be removed from the front line?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We traversed this in great detail yesterday. Of course they have been able to access a vaccine since the very beginning of our roll-out. We prioritised port workers so that was right at the start. We wanted them to be in that queue. One of the issues that was raised with us by port companies was that if we had critical port workers who did refuse or did not take up that initial offer if we were to mandate it and have job loss we may see a complete stop in some of our supply chain which was already under a lot of pressure. We took the decision to mandate but on a time line that working alongside ports they believed that they could work around if they did have critical workers drop out. I would highlight in fairness to the ports that actually of those directly employed by the ports we've had reasonable uptake. It is often those who are contracted by the ports to come in where we have had lower uptake.