Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): I rise on behalf of National as the member of Parliament for North Shore. I must say when I listened to the Minister get up and provide an opportunity to articulate some simple responses to the many questions that we've heard from this side of the House all he could do is make comment in a negative way in terms of the members sitting on this side. He could not articulate at all any explanation for why this is rushed through without proper consultation.He also mentioned about these people who are not vaccinated who could pose a risk to other Kiwis and he's right but what he failed to mention was that we are in this situation because this Government has been complacent—that has led us to this position. Their failure to act throughout this year to get our population vaccinated has put us in a position where we are vulnerable and we are paying the price for that. That is disappointing and that has implications on all Kiwis across this country.I also wanted to just come back to a point that was raised before around the select committee process. We had the technical committee in around COVID testing last week. I'm a member of the Health Committee and it's a good committee. We've got many members across the House who are a part of it—good smart committee. It's a shame that this bill did not go through due process; it did not go through a select committee process. And while we have different views from the political spectrums around that table generally we can come to some consensus in terms of improving legislation and avoiding the reality of which we'll be faced with early next year when this bill comes back and we will need to correct a huge number of errors. We heard before around rapid testing and Mr Bishop mentioned quite earlier about the Government's failure in terms of rolling out rapid antigen testing to this country—testing of course that's widely available internationally but is still not available in New Zealand. We heard a number quoted across this side. She had the audacity to say that we were misquoting I think was the point. Hon Scott Simpson I think you were quoted as misquoting—Hon Scott Simpson: Oh it was a shameful attack.SIMON WATTS: A shameful attack. Well I've actually got the Hansard in front of me from that select committee Hon Scott Simpson and do you know what this Hansard says?Hon Scott Simpson: Do tell.SIMON WATTS: Well I tell you what. What she's quoted there was Mr Murdoch at the committee stated that the lowest point at which rapid antigen testing could be effective is 30 percent but what she failed to advise is that the highest point is 80 percent. It is a range. So she is scaremongering once again in terms of saying these percentages were not providing the whole picture. And that personifies the lack of transparency from that side of the House and it is a disgrace.Legislative change that seriously implicates or has implications on the rights of Kiwis needs adequate consultation; that is from commentators around this bill around this country. Well that feedback has fallen on deaf ears by this Labour Government. It is an indictment in terms of the fact that they do not want to take due process they want to rush this bill through without due consultation and the implications of that are that mistakes will be made errors will be had and this legislation impacts Kiwis across this country. It's going to impact everyone across this summer break that's coming up and beyond because of course we have not had articulated in terms of when this will end.So 8 percent of Kiwis at the moment have not had a vaccination so that is hundreds of thousands. And of course on this side of the House National strongly recommend that all Kiwis should be vaccinated absolutely it makes sense. But this legislation will affect a large number—thousands and thousands of workers. And again this process hasn't been through due consultation with select committees and hasn't had an opportunity for members to provide comment and to improve it.We heard before the fact that this legislation does not have a regulatory impact statement. No costs and benefits. Well I tell you what I'm not surprised. That seems to be the status quo from this Labour Government in terms of when it comes to passing legislation through this House. No signoff in terms of implications around the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act right? Aspects that should be part and parcel of legislation that comes through this House. Well I'll just ask a question. I might ask again the Hon Scott Simpson. Has this been through the human rights commissioner do you think?Hon Scott Simpson: I doubt it.SIMON WATTS: Do you think this legislation would have been through that?Hon Scott Simpson: It should have. Surely yes.SIMON WATTS: Well how much do you want to put on it? A little bit of it? Well I'll tell you what it hasn't. The Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt has said that the use of urgency was a considerable concern—and I quote—and given the human rights implications of this this is critically important to go through due process" another example of the fact that this bill has not been consulted at all widely with a number of stakeholders to ensure that this is correct.I want to spend a little bit of time on the Kiwis that this legislation will impact: those hospitality businesses that are across our electorates and particularly in Auckland where I come from—a hospitality sector that has had nearly a hundred days with no revenue. The consequences of this legislation in terms of that sector has been significant. Members of that community—members that I have been speaking to on the phone members that I have significant numbers of emails from every day and I'm sure across the House we would get that—still remain confused in terms of how this will work in practice.The other aspect that this legislation touches on is managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ). And I don't think we've talked much about that this evening but I want to spend a little bit of time around the implication. This bill adds layers and layers of complexity in terms of that MIQ situation and yet we've got thousands of fully vaccinated Kiwis that are trapped overseas in that lottery of human misery that is MIQ. Hon Stuart Nash: Oh for goodness' sake!SIMON WATTS: And they've got an opportunity—and I hear one of the Ministers saying what was that? What did he say Chris Bishop? Did you hear that?Chris Bishop: "Oh for goodness' sake." he said.SIMON WATTS: "For goodness' sake." I think we were picked up earlier on today around that language but anyway.Chris Bishop: Another faux pas by that Minister.SIMON WATTS: Ha ha! He's right it is. It is an absolute travesty that Kiwis are overseas who are fully vaccinated who can be getting a negative test before departure and come over to this country and can they home isolate Christopher Penk? Do you think that would be reasonable? No of course not. They have to go into MIQ. They have to go into MIQ and spend a seven days and then a further three days yet someone who is positive for COVID has to go into the MIQ situation. This bill touches on some of that legislation. In December any Aucklander with a negative test result can pretty much move around this country. They can go anywhere around this country but as I said Kiwi expats negative test before they leave their offshore country double-vaccinated don't have COVID aren't allowed to go into our community because they are—and I challenged the director-general on this. I said "What is the clinical risk difference between those two individuals?" And he said "Simon it's not a clinical risk it's a public health risk." Well what is that?Chris Bishop: There's been zero cases.SIMON WATTS: Absolutely. There is no basis. And what we've heard also is that that shows a lack of consistency in terms of the application of processes and procedures for Kiwis within our community and that level of inconsistency causes confusion.I want to go back to that Health Committee because it was raised before in terms of some of the feedback around that. We had Professor Murdoch come to our committee and he stated that the Government had been very slow in terms of its adoption around the rapid antigen testing which is such an important tool in our arsenal. So I just wanted to reinforce that that's what some of our technical experts have said around this.I think the issues with this legislation run much deeper than what we're going to have time this evening to be able to grasp because of course we haven't had a select committee process to be able to go through this and provide commentary and feedback and get that input from officials. But what this bill reflects is a Government that does not have a plan a Government that is making up legislation on the hoof a Government that is not providing certainty to the people that need it most and that is our business community particularly in big cities such as Auckland. That is an absolute disgrace because that is avoidable. If they had planned earlier in terms of where we should have been by now that would have been sorted. They could have dealt with that if they had been in control and were over the detail and they were not."