van Velden BrookeBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'll keep my comments very brief but I think I will echo what my National Party colleague has said in that there is a lot of law that comes through this Chamber that is done under the matter of urgency and it leads to a lot of issues that we've seen through the Regulations Review Committee. In particular if I look at one of these this is the COVID-19 Public Health Response (COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate) Order. The committee said We're concerned that the order gives an electronic system the power to make a decision without specifying who's actually accountable for those decisions". I mean that's a pretty big oversight and it's throughout a lot of these orders.You can see another order that came through was the Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order and in particular the problems that the committee raised were ones that I was dealing with with members of the public in the community who were in the middle of moving home. And this was a huge issue for a lot of people—it created a lot of stress. In particular one person said that they had sold their home within Auckland and were moving south to Hamilton but because of the restrictions through the protection framework they weren't legally allowed to move into their new home. But that created a huge challenge because they had settled on their home; somebody was expecting to come in and move into that home on the Thursday and they had no legal right to leave Auckland. And then other people said "Well why don't they move into a hotel or move with family?" Well should the Government be putting restrictions in place on people that actually costs them money? Not everybody has thousands of dollars to move all of their stuff into a hotel let alone all of their goods into storage facilities when there could have just been an easier solution: letting people who are in the process of relocating through the border.These are issues that we see when we rush legislation through and it imposes huge costs on people. We need to make sure that we're getting public policy right and that we're doing these laws correctly.Another aspect that is increasing when we are passing these laws is clauses that are completely redundant. I see the committee also noted there were around 30 COVID-19 provisions in Part 2 of one of these orders that are currently redundant. What are they still there for? We are passing laws that are confusing for people to even read because there are clauses in them that actually have no effect. People will be reading these orders thinking that what they're reading is in fact the law when in fact it's not. How at that point can you trust what you are reading that is passed by Parliament? We have a right and a duty to make sure that our laws—and what restrictions we're putting on people—are simple and easy to follow. And I think it's a real shame that people would mistakenly read our COVID orders thinking they're doing the right thing but they're so unsure that they actually are.When it comes to the Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order I think we really do have to start having a conversation about whether we are going to see steps in the coming weeks and months that show when these orders are no longer needed and when we can move on and what the Prime Minister actually has in place for what we will move on to. The ACT Party has stressed since last year that we shouldn't in fact have heavy-handed vaccine mandates; we should have a vaccine or test requirement. There is an alternative that the ACT Party has been putting out there for months and we would encourage Parliament to pick it up because we are seeing a lot of division and we are seeing a lot of people starting to ask the question: "Well when do we move on to something more?". When do we actually allow people to have some of their rights and freedoms back because we are limiting people's rights and freedoms under the law and there is a real need to show people a way forward—a way forward of hope and unity rather than division—and that's what the ACT Party stands in favour of.And so Madam Speaker the ACT Party is quite frankly getting sick of how many orders the Government puts through under urgency and how shoddy that makes our legal regime. People have a right to know that the laws are written down in black and white that they can trust what's in front of them that there's been due diligence that we're getting it right and that we also have a path out of limiting people's right and freedoms. That's why the ACT Party is standing opposing these orders today."