Luxon ChristopherCHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr Speaker. The Opposition supports this motion and we join the House in recognising the dedication service and courage of the police fire and emergency services Wellington Free Ambulance parliamentary security and all those who restored order and safety to Parliament's grounds yesterday. Yesterday was a sad day for New Zealand. After more than three weeks the occupation of the parliamentary campus finally ended in ugly scenes. Those scenes were the culmination of weeks of intimidation and aggression toward Wellingtonians.We will always respect people's right to protest; it is quite rightly a basic tenet of our democracy and in my time in Parliament I've tried to meet as many protesters and petitioners as I can out on the forecourt to hear their concerns. But something was off in this protest from the get-go. There was real animus in the atmosphere. With roads blocked and public transport disrupted Wellingtonians had no choice but to significantly alter their daily routines and yield their freedoms. The National Party wholeheartedly condemns the behaviour of these protesters. Their behaviour yesterday was not peaceful protest or activism; it was thuggery. We join parties across the Parliament in paying tribute to all of those who have kept us safe and have contributed to bringing the unrest to an end.On behalf of the Opposition I would like to express our enormous gratitude to our New Zealand Police officers our Fire and Emergency New Zealand personnel to the Wellington Free Ambulance paramedics and staff and to our Parliamentary Service security personnel. We thank you for the tireless and courageous work that each and every one of you have done to keep Wellingtonians and New Zealand's Parliament safe in the face of belligerence and abuse. You exemplify a true spirit of selfless public service.I would like to particularly acknowledge the immense bravery and selflessness of our front-line police officers. Over the last few weeks I've had the privilege of meeting and chatting with a number of officers here in Parliament and last night I visited them out on the forecourt to thank them and to hear their accounts of the day. They told me how police had all manner of makeshift weapons thrown at them from chairs and road cones to bottles and paving stones. For some it resulted in broken bones and they had abuse screamed into their ears and fire extinguishers unloaded into their faces and at least seven officers have been hospitalised. Around 80 brave new recruits graduated from Police College and immediately began their very first assignment in uniform restoring order to our capital. For one young officer I spoke to last night yesterday was just her second day on the job. I sincerely hope she has a long career where those scenes are never repeated again.Our police do their jobs not seeking gratitude or glory but out of a very genuine desire to make New Zealand a safer and a better place for all of us. The officers here sacrificed their own safety to protect others and several of them told me of their pride in protecting our Parliament—their Parliament. Their tenacity in withstanding the protesters' provocations and remaining calm patient and restrained is a testament to their incredible skill and their professionalism and we all owe them our sincere and heartfelt thanks.Now while we recover from the hurt of yesterday's actions it is still vital to examine how we got here in the first place. The National Party fully supports such a review taking place and we commit to engaging constructively with it. A review should examine the relationships between the Police and parliamentary authorities and the process through which decisions were taken. It should consider whether communication channels were effective and whether the actions of some authorities—including those of you Mr Speaker—served to ease the tension or exacerbate it. It should look at the steps that can be taken to mitigate and to prevent situations before they escalate beyond control. We also need a much clearer approach to the management of Parliament's grounds in an environment of elevated risks and threats. A review will undoubtedly find practical measures that can be implemented to enhance the security of this place. However this Parliament is the heart of our democracy and it must be open and accessible to New Zealanders. Cloistering and insulating this place and cutting politicians off from the people who elect us and send us here to represent them will only fuel more of the behaviour we've seen not lessen it. The competing imperatives of safety and public accessibility must continue to be carefully balanced.As well as looking at the events of the past three weeks we also need to consider more broadly how we got to this situation as a country. As I said in a speech last week two years ago when the Prime Minister made the wise decision to put New Zealand into a strict lockdown we were united in our resolve; we came together to combat COVID-19 and we felt good about it. But Kiwis are frustrated that what was simple then has become messy and complicated two years on. There are frustrations shared by reasonable law-abiding well-intentioned and well-informed people up and down the country about the Government's approach to COVID and its lack of a plan. Of course it was correct that the debate did not take place between lawmakers and law breakers on the forecourt of Parliament and I am proud that every party in this House agreed not to open a dialogue with the protesters until they de-escalated their behaviour—a condition that they demonstrated they were not up to meeting.But we cannot risk writing off other New Zealanders' valid concerns because of the reprehensible behaviour of a disaffected minority. It is reasonable to expect that Aucklanders who spent 15 weeks in lockdown last year or business owners who have lost the ability to pay their staff or put food on their family's table will want to hold the Government accountable for its decisions and promises. It is healthy for a democracy to allow a Government to be questioned when its policies are creating significant disruption and impacts on citizens' lives. I've often said that is possible to disagree without being disagreeable but the behaviour we saw yesterday did not exhibit that.It will take time to heal the divisions in our society but we cannot lose sight of the fact that there is far more that unites us than divides us. Parliament is a robust place. We all come here to debate what is best for New Zealand and sometimes that can get heated. We don't always agree on the way forward and that is proper in a functioning democracy. But we are all here in this House for the same reason: because we want a better future for New Zealand. As a Parliament let's continue to move forward towards unity together.SPEAKER: Marama Davidson—a five-minute call. It is a split call.