Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I begin by echoing the sentiments expressed by my colleague the Hon Chris Hipkins and indeed the member who's resumed his seat the Hon Michael Woodhouse in acknowledging the tremendous work that the Epidemic Response Committee did in scrutinising this bill and coming back with in some cases some quite significant changes. Clearly the committee understood and undertook their role with due seriousness gave a detailed examination and have come back all with very sensible and important changes.Can I also acknowledge the comments of the Hon Michael Woodhouse too in his adumbration of the circumstances that we are in—when I say we": this House is in—in a country that like the rest of the world is in crisis. We have to be very careful when we adjust and adapt our democratic institutions and this—this institution the apotheosis of our democracy. When laws have to be made when rights and interests have to be legislated for or against the need for scrutiny the need for accountability is as I think Michael Woodhouse said even more paramount is even more important. And so as I think this House has proven on many different occasions under many different Governments it is important to be nimble and agile about adapting our processes and our structures to enable that to happen and I think we've demonstrated that that has been possible over the last five or six weeks.But I also agree with the Hon Michael Woodhouse that we should not get used to this. This is not a set of processes—this not a way to run a Government. We need to be able to respond to the circumstances and we need to restore stability and certainty and then we need to come back to allow every member of this House to discharge their full privileges and responsibilities. For the Opposition it's calling the Government of the day to account; for the Government it is about proposing and putting up laws and policies and measures that augur for the wellbeing and the goodwill of the country. So I acknowledge the sentiments that Michael Woodhouse expressed. They are the sentiments of a parliamentarian. We are all part of that equation and it's incumbent on all of us to make sure we make the system work and that accountability happens.I just want to comment on a couple of points in the bill or the Supplementary Order Paper as it now is with the changes recommended by the committee all of which I agree with. I'm thankful for the changes made in relation to the Courts (Remote Participation) Act. I think it was right for the committee to look very carefully at the possibility that sentencing might be conducted on an audio-only basis—I think there was a bit of an overreach there for which I take responsibility; I signed off the original provision. It is right that that more limited means of remote participation should be confined to procedural matters only and when it comes to sentencing it is important that there is a fronting-up. So I acknowledge that.In relation to the Property Law Act changes which are very important I think I acknowledge that apart from one correction to a cross-reference there is no material change there and I'm thankful for that improvement and for that provision coming back largely unchanged. That will I think make a big difference to both tenants and landlords but particularly commercial tenants who are grappling with the fact that they had reduced or in some cases no income and have been having to deal with some landlords—not all landlords because many landlords have done the right thing and come to terms with their tenants—who are still holding out to continue to receive their full rental payments even though the circumstances simply do not allow that.Finally I want to acknowledge the significant work that the committee did in amending and I think improving the business debt hibernation regime. Obviously very careful consideration was given. They are good changes that have been made. That's an important initiative a temporary initiative to get businesses through and the New Zealand corporate community through what will be a challenging few months ahead. Some businesses as we know will take longer to recover because of the industry that they're in and the circumstances that they're in. Others as consumers return as markets restore and revenues are recovered will be able to restore themselves more quickly.The initiative is an important one as indeed are the safe harbour provisions that are provided for in the amendments to the Companies Act in the original bill. To draw again on the spirit of the Hon Michael Woodhouse and the parliamentary comments that he made we know that these are measures to respond to an immediate crisis. They should be temporary. They by and large are. I think there are one or two measures that the committee agreed ought to be made permanent and so that is there but by and large most of these measures are temporary. If we are to make permanent changes along these sorts of lines they should be subject to the full level of scrutiny with the appropriate time taken and the expertise drawn upon both in the community and from within this House. But in the strange circumstances such as we have them the committee has done a tremendous job and on that basis I too commend the bill to the House."