Seymour David; Hipkins ChrisDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): What is the point of the COVID-19 protection framework or traffic light system today? It used to be a combination of vaccine pass requirements which are gone; crowd size restrictions which now exist only in one restriction of 200 people at red; it used to have masking requirements which now exists only in the difference between green and orange; and it used to be about record-keeping which we no longer require. So if there's no vaccine pass there's no record-keeping there's only one crowd size restriction and there's only one masking rule in the entire traffic light system then it's become a husk and we'd be better just to say that you can't have a crowd over 200 and you have to wear masks in some circumstances because that's effectively all it's become. Now the Government has said we've got to keep it around in case we need to bring it back but by keeping it in place without any of its features it's been distorted beyond recognition and meanwhile we have the question of—regardless of whether we call it the traffic light system—what possible benefit are we getting from knee-capping hospitality events with a 200-person limit inside when the reality of Omicron is there are so many different transmission sites that one super-spreader event will make far less or any difference in comparison with elimination when one super-spreader event really could decide whether an outbreak got under control or not? So if the Minister could explain: why do we still have the traffic light system? How can we claim that we're keeping it around for the future when it's been completely denuded? Wouldn't it be simpler just to say there's a maximum crowd size of 200 and you have to wear masks inside which is effectively all it adds up to now? And if there is a rationale for a crowd size of 200 what is it and can the Minister explain why it's worth the enormous cost and impacts it's having not only in not being able to have events but the uncertainty of whether events can be had by restricting indoor meetings to 200 or more? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I think the member somewhat contradicts his own argument when he says that we shouldn't have the traffic light system any more we should just take the rules that we have under the traffic light system and call it something else. Ultimately we have the traffic light system in place at the moment because we're still dealing with a global pandemic and we're trying to reduce the number of people that get COVID-19. I would also point out to the member that I get two pieces of very strong feedback from the business community: one is opposition to restrictions. That's true. There's no question there is a strong opposition among some sections of the business community to any form of COVID-19 restrictions. And then we also get quite strong feedback from businesses at the moment that they are struggling with the number of their staff who are sick because they've got COVID-19 and removing restrictions potentially increases the number of people out of the workforce because they are at home in bed because they are sick. Those are the difficult balancing decisions that we make on a daily basis. We all want to get to the point where restrictions are removed and there is a much greater degree of freedom; life returns much back to normal. We are on the pathway towards that. Things are looking very promising at the moment. Our case numbers have turned down steeply—that's great—but we have been very cautious to not move so fast that the case numbers turn back up again. We're on the downward trajectory; we want to stay on the downward trajectory.