Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Minister for Women): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I rise in support of this bill. I want to start just by providing some perspective. I'm sure that many New Zealanders have watched what's happened around the world. For many of them they will have friends and whānau who live in other countries. I have a number of friends and family who live in the United States and in other countries but particularly in the United States where I have friends who work in hospitals as health professionals. I just have to express my intense gratitude for everything everyone in New Zealand has done to get us to this point because it seems frankly like a miracle to my friends and family in the United States who are looking at thousands of deaths every day and in some cases now front-line health workers who are otherwise young and healthy people have contracted COVID-19 been extremely seriously ill and even died from it.The economic impacts of the pandemic in the United States are no doubt going to be far greater because the virus took hold because they are going to spend months if not years in a situation of responding to that. Of course an intolerable loss of life on top of it on top of those job losses. So when I look at our situation here in Aotearoa New Zealand I'm incredibly grateful that our Government acted early went hard. We no doubt got a little bit lucky that we could see what was happening in other parts of the world before it took hold here. A huge thankyou to the team of 5 million who've gotten us to the point that we're at today.But of course this isn't over and I would express some caution to everyone who is really looking forward to getting out and about. We don't want to have to go back to level 4. We don't want to see an outbreak happen. You know in other countries like South Korea in the Victorian state of Australia and now in Germany of course we have seen a slight rebound in cases following a loosening of restrictions. So that's why it is so very important that the Government follows the very best health advice when determining what the rules for level 2 are and how coming out of level 3 into level 2 has to happen in a different way than the way we went into it.This bill I think is absolutely necessary to ensure that all New Zealanders will benefit from the period of lockdown that we've already been in and will benefit from being assured that the rules will be able to be enforced. Even if the vast majority of New Zealanders embrace these rules and want to stop the spread of COVID-19 it would only take a small number who ignore the rules to cause an outbreak that could quite quickly become very serious and cause us to have to move back to a stricter level. So of course the vast majority of New Zealanders support the actions that have been taken thus far. I think they will absolutely respect the rules in level 2 which are not at all arbitrary but absolutely informed by what is going to prevent the spread of the illness.I have heard some concerns expressed about the limitations on certain types of gatherings like funerals or in bars but of course there are very very good reasons for why there are the limits on numbers in those types of gatherings as compared to say sitting in a cinema. It has to do with the way in which people engage with each other. I heard this from Dr Siouxsie Wiles last night. I was on a panel for the Aotearoa Town Hall online and this very question was raised and particularly about the importance of tangi—the cultural importance of it—and was that taken into account. I thought the explanation given made a lot of sense from a scientific perspective which is that you know when you're sitting quietly in a cinema people aren't talking to each other and that it's that talking and being in close proximity that allows the droplets to spread the illness. So that's why certain types of—you know if you're gathering at a bar and there's a lot of noise and you're trying to speak at a high volume it's much more likely you're going to spread droplets to other people. That's why so many of our clusters were related to a bar and to weddings. Those types of events have been responsible for the spread of the illness here in New Zealand as well as overseas. So there is a logic to it.I'm very confident in our Director-General of Health and I'm very confident that the Government is listening to the very best advice to ensure that New Zealanders are safe from the spread of COVID-19. Of course that is the best way to protect jobs and the security of incomes into the future to limit the spread of the illness because those countries that have not had strict lockdowns who have had bigger outbreaks are feeling the exact same economic impacts that we are feeling here in New Zealand. Over time it will be worse because they won't be able to get back to life as normal as soon. So that's where we have a huge advantage here on our island nation of potentially being able to eradicate the illness or significantly prevent the spread to the point where we can return to life as normal sooner. I certainly hope for that.In order to do that we need the confidence of all New Zealanders and New Zealanders need to know that other people in their communities are respecting the rules and that the Government can take action if need be—without being in a state of national emergency—to ensure that those rules are being enforced. I think there is a real logic to having infringement regimes so that we're not simply limited to criminal penalties and a criminal prosecution which would be very much over the top. But we need some way of enforcing and ensuring that small minority of people who might disregard the rules that we have some way of ensuring that they play by the same rules as everyone else so that we can have the maximum benefit as a country in terms of limiting the spread of the illness protecting the health of our loved ones and of course being able to return to work and have some certainty around jobs and incomes as soon as possible.Of course the Green Party would always prefer that there would be a select committee even a very short one and we would've liked to have seen that. But we also understand the need for urgency right now given the move to level 2 at—was it at midnight on Thursday morning or 11.59 Wednesday? So recognising that this is a very very short period of time and that there was a desire to move back to level 2 sooner rather than later then we can understand this. But one thing that gave us a lot of confidence is that the exposure draft was provided to legal academics and actually quite a wide variety of people and perspectives to ensure that that feedback could be incorporated into the bill before it's passed. We take great assurance from that.Another issue that was raised by Gerry Brownlee just a moment ago was the two-year sunset clause. Of course that would've been something that would have concerned us greatly as well but my understanding is at the committee stage we'll be moving to a reconfirmation every three months as long as it's needed. Of course the specific rules around the level will change based on the very best evidence.I completely understand that many New Zealanders and indeed members of this House have expressed concern that we don't know what is going to happen and that the Government can't tell people with perfect certainty what will happen. But I think that most people would agree that the Government has been very very clear in communications has given people the confidence to move into level 4 and then into level 3 and that as soon as we have the best information we are communicating that in a way. Of course in a pandemic situation with a previously unknown disease it would be impossible for us to provide absolute certainty to everyone about how it's going to play out. We have to make decisions based on the very best evidence of how many cases there are our ability to contact trace our ability to contain things.I have to say that speaking to my friends and family around the world everybody has been incredibly impressed and envious of the situation we have here in New Zealand because certainly we are in a much better position than the vast majority of people in the developed world. I just feel incredibly grateful that we had the time and the ability. It's really a bit of a shame to hear the attitude from members on the other side of the House who now seem very intent on picking a fight and demonstrating their strength. But I think that ultimately New Zealanders can see that compared to pretty much anywhere else in the world New Zealand is in a really good position. If we continue to work together—if we continue to work together—we will have the very best outcome for our country. Tēnā koutou katoa.