Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.It's been 11 months—11 months—from the time that the Prime Minister announced that she was committed to introducing a trans-Tasman bubble and 11 months until we had yet another announcement to say that in another two weeks it would happen. Eleven months and two weeks. But I am very pleased to know that this trans-Tasman bubble is going to be opened and I am very pleased on behalf of the National Party that we are going to see some tourism back in Queenstown in the glacier towns of the South Island back into Rotorua into Coromandel and into Auckland.It is crucial for New Zealand's economy but also for the wellbeing of all those people in small and medium sized businesses around the country and all of their employees. It's no point saying that everyone gets an extra paid holiday when the business is broke and it's gone under. It's crucial for everybody in New Zealand that this happens.It's also crucial that our nurses and teachers are able to be reunited with their families many of whom are overseas. We met yesterday for the National Party with people who represent our essential workers who have come in from overseas. In many cases they left their families overseas waiting for their permanent residency to be granted while they're working on a work permit. Those people have now been separated from their families for over a year. Some of those people have been separated from their families for 500 or even 600 days. It is simply not acceptable.There are spaces in the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities that could be used to help those people. They're essential to New Zealand. That's how they were able to get here. We should be kind to them and bring their families home to them. It is simply unacceptable that a Government that prides itself on telling everyone else to be kind forgets that they could be kind right now to people who we need for our economy to drive our economy and to restore our country.When we look at what's happened in the Pacific—just think about that. We have heard nothing from the Government about a Pacific bubble. What about Fiji Samoa and Tonga? What about the Cook Islands? We know what's happening there. It happens on 1 May. We don't know it from this Government but we certainly know it from the Cook Islands Government. They're very free with it and very happy to announce it to everybody and yet New Zealanders are not allowed to know this information but thankfully the Cook Islands has told us.We also know that nothing has been done in relation to Samoa and Tonga and Fiji. Why is that important? Is it just about New Zealanders going and having a winter holiday? No it's not. It is very important to our Pacific neighbours and friends that we support their economies. When we look at some of the losses that they have endured because of COVID we have to ask ourselves: is there something we could be doing better than what we have? And yes the answer is yes.We have 400000 New Zealanders of Pacific origin Pacific ethnicity and they want to be able to visit their families. They want their families to be able to visit them. We've had Fletcher Melvin from the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce tell New Zealand media recently They need to treat us like adults" and that's the plea. I am sick of listening to people of the Labour Party and some in the media who have said to me "But what if something goes wrong in the Pacific?" Stop treating sovereign nations as though they can't make their own decisions. It is outrageous. It is paternalistic. It is wrong. Just because New Zealand messed up under this Government—messed up the measles vaccine—doesn't mean that Samoa and Tonga and Fiji can't actually make their own decisions. It is crucial.Have a look at what's happened to the GDP of these neighbours and our friends in the Pacific. The Cook Islands economy has lost 20 percent of its GDP. Fiji has fallen 19 percent and unemployment is now in Fiji at a whopping 27 percent. We could help fix that. We could do our best. Samoa's GDP has fallen 8.6 percent.The other thing that could happen is we could actually bring in Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme (RSE) workers seasonal workers coming in from the Pacific into horticulture and agricultural areas. They could be earning money which in six months—and this gives you some sense of scale. In six months working as an RSE worker a Samoan can earn as much money as they can at home in Samoa in seven years. This is how crucial the RSE work scheme is in the Pacific. It is absolutely crucial and the great thing with it is that the money goes with the person. It goes with that person who's earned it. It goes back to their aiga. It goes back to their village. It goes back to their home. It doesn't go through a Government agency. It doesn't get clipped on the way through by lots of officials who are helping to add value. It actually goes to the people who earn it and that's what we should be encouraging.We have a Government who announced yesterday that yes we'll have the trans-Tasman bubble but what are they going to do with all those spots available in the managed isolation and quarantine facilities? They're going to close them—close them. And close them why? Close them because apparently some of them are unsuitable to be used for MIQ for countries where there is a lot of COVID. So why have they been used for countries with a lot of COVID for the last year? Why has that happened?The National Party raised these issues. We raised these issues and said the Government should be keeping people from COVID-free places separated from places where there's lots of COVID. We said there should be pre-departure testing. We said there should be saliva testing on a daily basis as well as the nasal tests. We said that. And what we've got is now a year later after we've had four lockdowns because of COVID coming through MIQ facilities or at least three of them I should say are from that—at least three. A year later—oh lo and behold—the Government's worked out that actually it's not a good idea having people from places where there are COVID hotspots in the same corridor as people who come from Australia.Well for goodness' sake COVID has been brought into the community through MIQ. It's taken the Government a year and instead of saying to those families that we met yesterday "Here is an opportunity for you to bring your family here." who turned up from the Labour Party yesterday? Not one of them. Not one of them. Why didn't they want to? No they don't want to see these hard-working people who have chosen to make New Zealand their home and who want to bring their families here. How can they possibly lecture anyone else about being kind? How can they possibly do that when they're turning around and saying "No we don't want to bring those people back now because actually we don't have to."?Hon Scott Simpson: Heartless.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: It is absolutely heartless. And what's happened to immigration in that time in COVID-19? Do you think the ministry or the department of immigration would be busy doing what it can to help these families? No—nothing nothing gone on holiday apparently working from home. But anyway what we're seeing is nothing coming from this. So yes I am very happy for our tourist industry. I'm very happy for our Kiwis who are able to go and visit their families in Australia. And how many times have we heard from the Government "Something could go wrong."? And do you know what something could be? You can have an extra three days in Sydney. Well it's hardly that bad is it? It's hardly that bad. And yet we've had months and months of being told it was too hard something might go wrong—and by the way someone at some stage in Queensland they had some COVID a couple of weeks back and didn't they deal with it very quickly and well and that's because the Australians have been all over this since October. From October we had opportunities as Kiwis to visit there; we just couldn't come back and that was one of the problems. Why is it that we can trust a travel bubble with Australia but not with our Pacific neighbours? Why is that? What is it that is behind all of that? What is behind the attitude that we can't have a relationship a good travel bubble with Samoa or Tonga or Fiji? And those MPs who are here who have some connections to Samoa or Tonga or Fiji—and some of them claim all of that—why aren't they advocating for their aiga? Why aren't they advocating for their family? Why aren't they advocating for their countries of birth? And the answer is because they don't care. They don't care and they like to think that they are in charge.So I have seen over the years some pretty interesting work from this Labour Government and I've also seen the odd thing—I've thought that ours was quite interesting too—but I've never seen anything like I've seen on mental health. Never have I seen anything as bad—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume her seat. Now the member has her letter which she wrote to me which was a very narrow letter. I have been very liberal with her in letting her go way outside what she asked me to debate. Urgent debates are amongst the most narrow that we have. She has gone a long way away from Australia in her discussions but doing the next jump is just a step too far. I will say while I'm on my feet I'll let whoever follows the Leader of the Opposition have about two minutes to respond to anything that was irrelevant and after that there will be strict relevancy. This debate is about the Australian bubble.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well I'm happy to continue on the Australian bubble and I'm very happy to talk about the mental health issues around that Australian bubble and the fact that actually every Government should take that into account. We have had constituents—I have personally had constituents I know my colleagues have and I'm sure other people other members of Parliament have had—contact us about a family member dying in New Zealand: a family member a mother in a hospice situation unable to get back to New Zealand to visit their mother when they are dying being told they can come to the funeral. And of course that's of no use when you can't actually say goodbye to one's own mother. We've had family members say that they've got a child in Australia who is suffering from mental health issues and they should be with their daughter or son. One particular woman I know very well had to leave from New Zealand to go to Australia taking advantage of the Australians opening the travel bubble with New Zealand from October to be with her daughter for several months and staying there waiting for this bubble to be opened up because her daughter was undergoing an extremely difficult pregnancy. This is the sort of thing where families have been crying out for some kindness some decency some understanding that not everybody who asks for something is entitled. Most people who come to us as members of Parliament asking for our help do so because they have actually lost confidence in the ministries and they don't know where else to turn. So this travel bubble with Australia is a good thing. We are delighted to see it finally happen. Yes we do say thank you to the 45000-plus people who signed our online petition. Yes we do think that they made a difference. They made a difference because back in February this year the Government had only just started talking to the states of Australia having given us all the flannel about how in fact they were already discussing all of this. It turned out that wasn't quite correct. So when Scott Morrison the Prime Minister of Australia said—pretty much paraphrasing this I am—"Well the door's open any time New Zealand wants it." I think he also helped to bring this about. He helped to embarrass the current New Zealand Government into doing something. He helped to do that. But everybody who is now able to travel to their families should understand that the Australians have been able to receive us since October last year. They have been willing to receive us since October last year. The door has been open. The trouble is that the New Zealand Government refused to let the Kiwis back in without going through MIQ. I am delighted that we are getting a victory for the people of New Zealand and their families. I am delighted in our work to make this happen and I am delighted—and I'm delighted—to be able to have the opportunity to speak today in support of all those Kiwis all those Kiwi families who have missed out for the last six months when it could have happened then. So I am very delighted today."