Sio Hon Aupito WilliamHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Pacific Peoples): Mr Speaker thank you for the opportunity to rise and to confirm my support for the Government's decision on Sunday to move Auckland to alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to alert level 2. Like—I think it may have been following my senior colleague—Mr Chris Hipkins I was in Dunedin with the Pacific community celebrating the inaugural Moana Nui Festival when I received a call from the secretary of Pacific Peoples alerting me to the cases in Auckland I was with the EFKS Church in Dunedin Mr Woodhouse with colleague Ingrid Leary.I didn't eat lunch probably that day. It was because of the alertness because it was Auckland—my home town—there was a sense of worry. And so I made contact with staff and too received briefings from the Pacific team of the Ministry of Health; made contact with our Prime Minister; and when she'd made the announcement at Sunday at 7 p.m. I was able to convey the same messages using the Samoan language across the country on a Pacific Media Network Samoan programme.That was important because we needed to convey confidence to the community because there was a certain amount of uncertainty around this. But I want to say with the greatest respect to this House that the fact that we were able to pick up these cases and the fact that we were able to move quickly with the support and significant advice from our officials meant that to a large extent our system is robust enough to be able to keep us safe. But I do agree with Mr Bishop that it is important for this House to continue questioning the Government's response and to be looking collectively at ways of improving that response. In many ways we forget that the world is experiencing a crisis on this COVID-19 that the Pacific region is experiencing a crisis and we forget that we've got a crisis because we're able to move with a certain degree of confidence throughout this country.So I note that today there were six questions all to the Minister for COVID-19 Response. I believe he's responded to each and every one of those questions in full but I also want to say to my Opposition colleagues: there is a certain degree of care—a duty of care—that we have to take on board because this is about protecting lives. And what's motivated this Government is the recognition that we have certain people—cohort populations particularly our managed quarantine staff who work day in day out to protect this nation but then we also have to recognise that we have significant cohorts of vulnerable communities with comorbidities. This is not—I know the New Zealand Herald once asked me What was the ethnicity of this family?" And I said "It's not about ethnicities; it's about our common enemy the virus." And we have to recognise that whilst this emanated from South Auckland these individuals have family connections not only throughout Auckland but across other parts of New Zealand.I'm sad that today the Ministry of Health has confirmed that we've recorded a sad death of a COVID-19 patient at the North Shore Hospital—it is COVID-19 related. And so I'm just saying we've just got to be mindful in how we question absolutely the freedom of the Opposition to how they frame those questions.When I listen to Mr Seymour's debate I often think—somebody said to me some time ago "If it wasn't Labour that was in Government imagine the numbers of deaths and infections if it was somebody who advocated for the freedom of movement and the opening of borders." as he has done so. I have said often to the Pacific communities there is a fundamental principle by which I've asked the Pacific communities to operate under and that is based on the saying: "E se'e fua Ulufanuasese'e ma le loto tetele ae se'e ma le fa'aeteete."—in essence: "While we might surf the ocean waters with a great deal of confidence we always have to be mindful of the demons of the ocean or the sharks." And so thank you for that."