Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in opposition to this COVID-19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill. I welcome the Speaker's invitation to have a looser than normal debate on the third reading of this bill. He's expressed his displeasure with the way that the Government has rushed it through Parliament with no due process whatsoever—no consultation no regulatory impact statement no proper New Zealand Bill of Rights Act analysis nothing. Did we think that maybe the Minister would come down to the House with some humility and say I'm here to listen and work with other members in order to get the best bill possible in the tight time frame we've given ourselves."? Of course he didn't; he stood up and used most of his speeches on the first and second readings to politically attack another political party mainly the National Party. And what about the Labour backbench? Those Labour members of Parliament some of them very intelligent people who are actually here on the same salary as everyone else in the Parliament were they there to question the Government to question the legislation? No. Were they there to give support and say why they think it is good legislation? No. They gave two-minute speeches of platitudes at best—and recently only one minute. Well I kind miss the two minutes because as Bret and Jemaine used to say "Two minutes in heaven is at least better than one minute in heaven."!But this bill which is being called a constitutional outrage by legal experts that has wiped out so much of the credibility of democracy and due process in New Zealand is actually part of a pattern. If we think about the way that this Government has managed the pandemic let's go back to last February or last March. New Zealand was the 63rd country to have a case of COVID-19. New Zealand had more natural advantages in facing a viral pandemic than any other country. And we know that's true because I've asked the Minister for COVID-19 Response to name a country that was more isolated had a more spread-out population had a younger population was wealthier had a more cohesive population that was prepared to act together to beat a virus. He couldn't name one country that had more natural advantages than New Zealand. That's the backdrop that this Government went into COVID-19 with—and add to that record low interest rates and more borrowing of money and taxpayer stimulus of the economy than any other OECD economy but one being the United States and ain't they in some fiscal and monetary trouble right now.That's the background of a country that was lucky and was prepared to borrow more and use low interest rates more than any other. And even then we didn't have a plan because back in March when we went into lockdown the rhetoric of the Prime Minister was "Let's flatten the curve." She didn't think we could achieve elimination. It was only several weeks into the lockdown they thought "Oh if we keep going we might get to zero cases." And once they did it stumbled upon success did they think "That was lucky. We should start preparing to safely reconnect with the rest of the world." as people like say Helen Clark—we'll come back to her—was suggesting; the way that many medical experts and public health experts were suggesting we might need to do? No they were not. Instead the Prime Minister did a little dance and spent the summer that we had to prepare instead of mending the roof celebrating and doing victory laps and thinking "If we're successful it must be all due to us." Not luck not debt not cheap money not isolation—it wasn't any of those things! It wasn't the efforts of a cohesive population of New Zealanders; it was all them! And they thought it was so easy and they were so good that they didn't do anything. If you doubt that let me give you an example of what I mean. I asked Chris Hipkins back in July "Minister have you done anything? Can you tell us anything that this Government's done to prepare for Delta? Because you know it's out around the world. It's just wreaked havoc in India."—as it had at that time—"What sort of preparations has this Government done to prepare for Delta?" and he couldn't name one. In fact when the Delta outbreak occurred in Auckland they had to shut down the vaccination centres because they hadn't considered the possibility that they might have to vaccinate people for COVID-19 while COVID-19 was out and about. They literally had no plan B. They thought they were going to hit a home run isolate the country Delta would never break through managed isolation and quarantine vaccination would give population immunity and they would open up sometime around now like nothing had happened. And now it has all gone completely wrong and they don't have a clue what to do. You can feel the panic. They're making it up as they go and they are making Kiwis pay the cost. They are making our constitutional arrangements pay the cost. They're ramming stuff through Parliament in a way that even the Speaker is admonishing them in an extraordinary way that I've never seen in the seven years that I've been in this Parliament. And what does the Labour backbench have to say about that? Crickets nothing nada—can't hear a word from them. Actually their handling of COVID is nothing new in the context of this Labour Government. Remember when this Government was going to bring kindness? This Government was elected because "Climate change is my generation's nuclear-free moment." This Government was going to fix the housing crisis. At one point Stuart Nash went on ZB one morning and said they had fixed the housing crisis! That was only six months ago. Everything this Government has promised to do they have profoundly failed at and somehow managed to paper over the cracks.Take "my generation's nuclear-free moment". Well what has happened to New Zealand's emissions under this Government? They've gone up. And have they confronted their failure? No they've gone off to Glasgow and set an even more ambitious target that they also will fail to reach in order to distract failing at the last one. What has happened with housing? Do we remember KiwiBuild? It's almost unfair to talk about KiwiBuild in the context of this Government because it's become unfair. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I'm going to interrupt the member. I know the Speaker made a ruling at the beginning of this debate but I've listened very carefully to the member. He should really talk about the bill. Housing all of these other matters important as they are—climate change and all the rest—he should actually speak about the bill.DAVID SEYMOUR: Well the thing is they are also failings of this Government and what a time to talk about them. And the other thing this Government has done just like this bill—DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I'm having another ruling on that one. The member knows very well he should not be giving a narrative or commentary on the ruling just get on with his speech.DAVID SEYMOUR: This bill has been described as a constitutional outrage. You might remember in pursuit of climate change being "my generation's nuclear moment" the ban on oil and gas exploration the kind of legislation that is eroding the constitutional underpinnings and the faith that people around the world have in this Government and in this country's institutions. Throughout this COVID pandemic we've had legislation before this bill was rushed through where we legislated in this House—or at least those guys voted for it—that a private business can have their property taken away from them; that we can have contracts for commercial rent that were made when the law said one thing—now the legal backdrop for those laws is different and you've actually got retrospective legislation.This Government is constantly eroding the capital that they have inherited for New Zealand because they simply don't know how to plan ahead; they simply don't know what to do. And New Zealanders up and down the country are at a loss to explain this phenomenon. How can governance that is so practically inept that fails at everything it sets out to do fails at COVID fails at housing fails at reducing emissions fails at controlling the cost of living which is now ramping up for every New Zealander—people ask "How is it possible that this Government can carry on?" And the truth is that we are witnessing a very special phenomenon not only in New Zealand politics but in world politics. What we are witnessing is the world's first "Instagram Prime Minister". The American people have until recently suffered the world's first "Twitter President" and that leader and our leader right now actually have more in common than people realise. The "Trump of the South Pacific" is dividing people with her rhetoric separating people and dividing not only people but dividing wealth as well instead of creating the conditions to unite New Zealanders behind good ideas to create a wealthier more cohesive and more prosperous country exactly like our friends in the United States. Well the good news is that the polls aren't usually wrong despite what some people say. People are wising up. They are seeing that after four years of promising this Government simply can't deliver. You can fool some of the people some of the time but this Government cannot fool all of the people all of the time. I say today is a turning point when people are seeing it more and more. And you mark my words: this Government has two years to go if they're lucky. Change is on the way. Thank you Mr Speaker."