Bennett PaulaHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise and do not support the Prime Minister's statement. I would like to start on behalf of the National Party by acknowledging those people not just in New Zealand but actually around the world with the uncertainty the angst and the fear that many feel over the coronavirus at the moment and what is happening. I want to acknowledge those in business who are seeing a marked drop in their business and who are worried for its survival and those who are in jobs and are in fear of losing those jobs or seeing their hours reduced which is really real for them as they try and pay their bills and do what they do. We in the National Party want to take this opportunity to know and acknowledge and say that we understand where it's at and that we share actually a lot of their concerns. When you look at businesses they're saying there's a 30 percent drop in hospitality so far. Hotels are talking about having one booking now for the month of July. People are fearful of getting on a plane because of what that might mean in travelling long distances. Exporters of course are already saying there's $100 million in reductions that they're seeing so far and there are projections of $300 million. We do stand up here and ask the question why so much emphasis is about helping people go on to the unemployment benefit when actually we'd like to see more of an emphasis about how we keep people in their jobs and keep them connected to the workforce. Everyone will agree of course and there's every bit of research around it that says that if we actually keep them connected to their employer even if it's with reduced hours—and instead of seeing that money go on welfare have it actually go directly to the employer or the employee so that they can stay in the job—economically it makes sense. It makes much more sense for the worker themselves because they're staying connected to the workforce and when that work picks up they can—and of course businesses want to do that because they want to keep valued employees. We don't seem to be looking at that as a kind of solution at the moment and it's one that we would like to see a lot of work being done on very quickly. It happened of course in Christchurch after the earthquakes. I myself was actually involved in getting that programme up and running and I know for a fact that it saved a lot of jobs and it saved a lot of families. It meant that they could continue to pay their bills which is what most of us want to do. I also want to acknowledge though the delay in timely and the right information getting out. Never was that more stark than this morning when on TV we saw the Minister of Health confirm that there was a third case of COVID-19 and a little while longer—and I believe it was minutes not hours—in an interview with RNZ the Director-General of Health was asked if there'd been a third case and he said I will be making statements about that this afternoon." We then waited six hours and of course there was a lot of uncertainty for New Zealanders. I would just plead to the Government: they have a role to take leadership here and get that timely information out in the correct manner to people so that they aren't left with a vacuum that leads that fear to continue to grow.I also want to acknowledge doctors. We say that we should be actually being led by the health professionals and I agree completely. But we have doctors that are saying they want to and should be testing people but they're told they can't because there are not enough tests to be done. The Ministry of Health from what I've read are only able to do about 500 tests. That's proving to not be enough and we need a faster speedier response there. We need to be supporting our businesses so that we can support those workers getting the right health response and giving them everything. The good news ladies and gentlemen is that the National Party are going to bring forward their economic plan so that people can see a path to prosperity and to certainty and to make sure that we can deliver our plan so that they know what's kind of going on. We do not see an economic plan from the Government except to put more people on welfare. New Zealand needs a better response. We control our borders. We are one of the few countries in the world that you can't walk into or paddle to and as a consequence of that we could be doing much more in our airports and on our planes to make sure that we are protecting our people and ensuring that we're getting the right response to them. So I say beef up the support at airports more; ensure there is more testing better management and information; and on economic businesses and workers get a plan that actually keeps people into work.Well the chaos that is the Ardern - Peters - Greens Government is absolutely in display in this debate that I have seen for the last few days. I mean come on: let's give New Zealanders some straight answers. Is the "freebate" for electric vehicles dead or is it alive or is it a maybe that we get from the Prime Minister or it might—"I don't know. I can't say" says the Prime Minister "because I can't actually manage this Government to give a straight answer to let you all know what's going on." In that week of fear and uncertainty that we saw growing last week as the first case came out about coronavirus—New Zealanders obviously worried; tourism slowing down; hotels and our hospitality industry all really concerned—what was the response or the priority that we got from the Government that week? I know: let's give prisoners voting rights. Yeah that is the response and a priority from a Government that is tinkering at the edges and not actually addressing the issues that New Zealanders want them to be doing. By the way they'll speed it through Parliament this year and not go through due process because they want it in before the election. I think that's disgraceful in a week where we see such uncertain times for New Zealanders and says a lot actually about this Government's priorities.Let's get some certainty around the question that New Zealanders are going to have for legalising recreational cannabis—yeah? So they've taken the right away from Parliament to decide the question for the first time ever. Cabinet's going to make the choice; it's not going to go through the proper process that it normally does. And then what we're seeing is they are deliberately misleading New Zealanders so that they will mix up medicinal and recreational cannabis. That is a disgrace in itself and I would love to hear from New Zealand First where they stand on that. They can't deliver—oh no; that's not fair. They deliver more gang members—yeah. They can't deliver—oh that's not fair of me. They delivered seven KiwiBuild houses in January so that's making a big difference! The wonderful Judith Collins highlighting yet again more virtue signalling from the Government when they tell us about a homeownership package that by the way they've put a working group on and they've got a few more announcements to make on it but no actual deliverables of course because they don't want to. But you know there are things that they have delivered. They've delivered higher rents—yeah. They've delivered the cost of petrol going up. They've delivered more homelessness—yeah. They've delivered more child poverty—so more children are actually living in poverty now than they were when this Government came in. Oh they've delivered more people on welfare at a time of record low unemployment. In fact they've delivered 15000 more children into welfare-dependent households to date—to date.The argument this Government wants to have is: what level should benefits be at? Let's have an argument about how we can get them into productive work into better lives into owning their own businesses and getting ahead instead.The very people that were promised so much from this chaotic Government have been the very people that have been most let down—the most let down. They were given false hope that has actually left their lives worse off because of the policies and the lack of delivery of this Government. Only National will give real relief to families. Only National will build roads and only National will make them and their families safer. National understands the economy. National knows that the role of Government is to provide relief and certainty to New Zealanders particularly in troubled times and to help them get ahead. We have positive plans that are going to strengthen families that are going to make their lives better and improved that are going to reduce the cost of living and that are going to take away the false hope the chaotic Government that's been in front of them and actually show some strong leadership."