Hipkins Chris; Rurawhe AdrianCOVID-19 RESPONSE (MANAGEMENT MEASURES) LEGISLATION BILLThird ReadingHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to present a legislative statement on the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill. By way of explanation normally they have to be presented by I think 11 o'clock in the morning but the bill was still going through its committee stage at that point.SPEAKER: Leave has been sought for that course of action. Is there any objection? There is none. Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I move that the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill be now read—SPEAKER: No no—sorry. I then have to say that the legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill be now read a third time.New Zealand's been dealing with the challenges posed by COVID-19 for over a year and a half now; in fact we'll be heading in very shortly to two years of dealing with COVID-19 and the disruption that it causes. COVID-19 has wrought a huge amount of disruption around the world and New Zealand has actually been reasonably fortunate in that we've experienced less disruption than many of the other countries that we usually compare ourselves to when it comes to international measures. We've had fewer days of restrictions than many other countries we have had an overall better economic response to COVID-19 than many other countries and of course our public health response has stood head and shoulders above those of many other countries and I think New Zealanders can rightly be proud of that. But the restrictions that are put in place around COVID-19 do from time to time create significant challenges that make it difficult for New Zealanders—for individuals for companies and others—to comply with rules and laws as they exist. This bill the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill deals with many of those challenges and I'll highlight a few examples. Many of the changes here are non-controversial. So for example if we think about the changes to the Gambling Act to allow class 3 operators to offer lottery tickets by email or phone and to accept payments online and to issue those tickets electronically this provision's being extended for three years recognising that the way those tickets were previously sold hasn't been possible often in the COVID-19 environment. Organisations like Coastguard New Zealand and the Heart Foundation that rely on the sale of those lottery tickets for their bread and butter—in order to continue to exist they needed a provision to be able to continue to raise money to continue to fund-raise for that really vital community work that they do even when they can't sell tickets face to face as they have been doing previously. So those sorts of changes make a great deal of sense. Greater use of the High Court can be made to ease the backlog in District Courts. Court rules can be more easily modified to respond to the circumstances of COVID-19. The coroners can hold hearings remotely. These are pragmatic decisions that recognise that we can't necessarily meet face to face when we're dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19 and when we have restrictions in place but we still need some of those essential public services to be able to function. Other provisions help with administration such as the extension of statutory deadlines the ability to use electronic signatures and the ability to serve electronically infringement and reminder notices under the Land Transport Act. These things all make a difference and allow New Zealand to continue to function while we deal with a global pandemic. I do want to thank all of those who have been involved in putting this legislation together. It has had a longish gestation period but of course it particularly responds to the most recent outbreak that we are dealing with in Auckland. So our thanks to all the Ministers and all the officials who have worked through that and a particular acknowledgment to the Finance and Expenditure Committee who considered the bill under a tight time frame and reported it back to the House.Just to pick up two issues that provoked the most attention. The provisions around commercial contracts: this bill offers respite to businesses under pressure because of the restrictions that have been imposed by higher alert levels. It supports a process through which commercial tenants and landlords can reach agreement about lowering the rent while businesses are operating under restrictions or if they've closed down completely. I want to emphasise here that many many landlords and many tenants have already agreed to these sorts of provisions. A number of refinements were made during the committee stage such as ensuring that the lessee being unable to gain access to the property should be taken into account and the resulting rent reductions will apply from the start of the current Delta outbreak in August. The bill also looks after the interests of residential tenants. Amendments are being made to the Residential Tenancies Act to enable tenants to stay in their rental homes during COVID-19 alert level periods where people are not allowed to move houses. So it helps to stop the spread of the virus in that way and it allows people to comply with any restrictions that might be put in place. The amendments also may make it clear what notice periods apply after the termination restrictions are lifted. Refinements made at the committee stage include creating a penalty for the issuing of a termination notice that a landlord is not entitled to issue. Finally there were some provisions around the Local Government Act and local government elections that do warrant mentioning. When the bill was first being put together we were planning we were considering we had contingency that we were putting in place for if we were still dealing with COVID-19 response next year as we have had to do over the last two years. It's now become apparent as we continue to progress our response that with higher rates of vaccination we will be in a position to manage COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 outbreaks differently to the way we've managed them before. It's therefore the Government's view that the existing provisions within the Local Government Act should be sufficient in the event that there does need to be any shift in local government elections. Having said that we always have to be mindful that the situation can change. We could find ourselves dealing with a breakthrough variant for example that's resistant to vaccines. In that case we would come back to the House if we needed to have any further legislative provisions to enable us to deal with that so we don't think that the local government provisions are necessary at this point. That's why during the committee stage the Government put forward a Supplementary Order Paper that removed those provisions. So overall this is a good bill that deals with many many pragmatic issues that help people to deal with the impacts of restrictions flowing from COVID-19 and I commend it to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.