Hipkins Chris; Dean JacquiCOVID-19 RESPONSE (MANAGEMENT MEASURES) LEGISLATION BILLFirst ReadingHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I move that the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Finance and Expenditure Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 14 October 2021—SPEAKER: I'm just going to interrupt the member and ask him whether he was going to do as had been indicated that he was going to present a legislative statement?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I thought I'd do that after this but OK yes. I do—no not on this one. SPEAKER: Not on this one? All right continue. That's not what my notes say but that's all right.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Sorry no Mr Speaker I do. I present a legislative statement on the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'll start again. I move That the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Finance and Expenditure Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 14 October 2021 and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions) during any evening on a day in which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside of the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 193 195 and 196.Last year in the month before the election the House passed two omnibus bills that were very similar to this one. They contained a wide range of measures that were designed to enable businesses local government and others to more effectively manage the immediate impacts of the disruptions that were caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. It is often the case after a lockdown or after a period of restrictions such as the one that we're currently experiencing and have recently experienced that people are unable to comply with legislative provisions that apply to them. Things like deadlines for filing papers and so on. There are a range of requirements that need certain things to be done in person that cannot be done in person in the current environment while we're dealing with COVID-19. So there's a need for us to make a whole series of minor relatively non-controversial technical changes to legislation with appropriate sunset periods to make sure that things can happen in this environment that might otherwise not be able to happen—or we effectively might be forcing people to break the rules in order to comply with the rules. So this particular omnibus bill deals with exactly those sorts of issues. In the tradition of the bill that we had last time this one amends 15 different Acts and one set of regulations. The amendments are in my view largely common sense. They're pretty practical solutions that deal with the challenges that have been caused by the current COVID-19 outbreak. So I'll run through the amendments—some of the more controversial and interesting of the amendments—in a little more detail. Obviously there's a lot of them so I won't go through all of them.But two of the proposed amendments—and the ones that I suspect are going to generate the most debate—concern tenancies. One deals with commercial tenancies and the other with residential tenancies. There will be an opportunity for the Finance and Expenditure Committee to consider these particular amendments. The amendments to the Property Law Act support commercial tenants and landlords to come to agreements that adjust rent due under their leases so that the parties can share the financial burden of the COVID-19 disruption. It enables more businesses to remain solvent through the COVID-19 pandemic and it provides a way to help resolve disputes if an agreement can't be reached. The other set of amendments applies prospectively to potential future restrictions and it's what happens for residential property tenants in the event that they cannot leave their tenancy because of a COVID-19 restriction. So it's important that we have a clear legal basis there for arrangements that have been entered into already in some cases but potentially could be entered into as a result of a future situation. So this is a prospective not a retrospective piece of legislation so it would apply to future outbreaks in the event that it was needed.Some other amendments that are of interest to the House. There are occasions were people aren't able to comply or have to stop doing something that there's a public interest in them continuing to do because of the various rules that exist around COVID-19 and in-person interactions. A good example of that is changes to the Gambling Act. Now by and large I'm quite cautious when it comes to making any changes around the Gambling Act but this one deals with some use of the provisions of that Act that I think we would agree there's a degree of social benefit to. Organisations like Coastguard New Zealand and the Heart Foundation use what are called class 3 lotteries to raise funds for the very important work that they do in the community. Now under the Gambling Act 2003 class 3 gambling operators have to sell their tickets either in person or via post. Last year we made an amendment—with a sunset provision that is about to expire—that allowed those class 3 operators to use email or phone to offer their lottery tickets with the payments being made online. Those provisions expire on 31 October this year so not far away. Coastguard New Zealand and the Heart Foundation have told us that the change has actually been a massive help in their fund-raising and they raised concerns that with those provisions expiring they would lose the potential to raise that revenue to support the really important mahi that they do within our communities. So the amendment to the Gambling Act that's proposed in this bill will extend the existing provisions that we've put in place as a response to COVID by another two years.Other things that the bill deals with it helps our courts to operate effectively in the era of the epidemic. Coroner's hearings would be allowed to be held remotely we would be able to make greater use of the High Court to clear the backlog in District Courts court rules will be able to be more easily modified to respond to the circumstances created by COVID-19. Other provisions help with administration like the extension of statutory deadlines as I mentioned. The use of electronic signatures and the ability to serve infringement and reminder notices under the Land Transport Act remotely and again these are just pragmatic and sensible changes that allow people to stay safe whilst continuing to transact the business that they need to be able to do.So most—as I said—of the amendments in this bill are small changes but they'll make a significant difference either to individuals or to organisations and they again exhibit a fairly practical approach that we have tried to show as a Government when it comes to responding to the issues that COVID-19 has put before us.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.