Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. Nine hundred and eighty-six—986—that's the number of COVID deaths that we have now registered in Aotearoa New Zealand. That's a lot of people. The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 16 so we could be heading towards the thousand mark this week. Each of those people were mothers fathers grandparents aunties uncles and in some cases children—children.When we hear this talk about getting back to normal I honestly don't know what that looks like. What does that even mean? I think normal left the building years ago. I am becoming more and more concerned with this House becoming desensitised to the deaths of people in Aotearoa New Zealand from COVID. You go to the news sites and it barely registers—it barely registers. I was just reflecting on that with the revelation of a senior data analyst at the Ministry of Education—an email got leaked and that senior data analyst at the Ministry of Education said that the Government is asleep at the wheel—the Government is asleep at the wheel with COVID. And it feels like to me the National Party are singing them lullabies to make sure they continue to sleep.There were a lot of positive gains within the first 18 months of the pandemic and I do want to acknowledge the work of the Government in keeping us safe and all of that work that was put together and the team of 5 million and you know together but apart—and all that kind of stuff as well. But where has it gone? Where is the team of 5 million? Where is that strategy which put at the centre of it our immunocompromised whānau our disabled whānau and learnt the lessons that needed to be learnt about engaging with Māori and Pasifika leadership and how to best access them to help support them to do the best things for their health needs?This first Omicron wave has brought close to 900-plus deaths and we are getting right up there. And unfortunately there is no end in sight and we have continued to loosen protections. For our unvaccinated tamariki for our immunocompromised for our elderly this means that they either face significant danger or have to remove themselves from large parts of society. I don't know how it is for other members but people who have immunocompromised whānau or disabled whānau will have real concerns about the approach or non-approach that the Government is taking and the types of reflections that that places on them and they have been getting in contact with me.I also want to reflect on the health experts who have been calling for stronger protections to give us that line of sight in terms of what we can do. And I look at this also as a parent as someone that has to take their kids to schools. The school my kids are at has been open and closed because of COVID. Just think of that as a parent who might possibly have a child in the primary school setting another kid in a secondary school setting possibly another one in the early childhood education setting—you've got three different settings. So what does that mean? And the burden that we place on teachers and school community leaders as well—being a teacher and being an educator is really tough particularly in the middle of a pandemic but now we're expecting them to be healthcare workers as well—healthcare workers.It's important to also acknowledge our healthcare workers. We did have some strong questioning from Jan Logie around the support for our allied health workers—support they deserved funding they deserved pay and conditions that they deserve—because at the forefront of all of this at that front line are our healthcare workers who have been doing everything that they can to keep us safe. When I meet with them some of them are tired tired and unappreciated and so it is really important that we as a House really rethink and refocus on what we're doing with our response to COVID and this pandemic.Some of those experts have been calling for better ventilation. I mean if we can't have these other things these other protections which seem to be falling by the wayside as we get back to normal—whatever that is—then at least we can get ventilation sorted. Some of the things that we have been calling for are to improve air quality in schools and ensure this is properly monitored because relying on open windows in the middle of winter is just not good enough. It makes our tamariki more vulnerable to things like the flu and other winter-related illnesses as well. It's also important that we ensure that there are ventilation standards in the building code making sure that they're fit for purpose. When we look at the building code if we don't think that it is strong enough let's strengthen it. Let's strengthen it and make sure that we get those air standards and that ventilation sorted not only for our schools but all the buildings that we gather at.We should also continue to make sure and to do what we can to make sure that there are free N-95 masks or equivalent masks for all schools as well. The schools are really at the forefront of all of this. And of course making sure that we work alongside Māori and Pasifika leadership in everything that we're doing with COVID. There were some lessons learnt through the pandemic. We must continue to double-down and support those efforts as with people moving forward. Also we need to have that deeper work and that support around what does it mean to have long COVID. What does that mean for people going back to work? What does that mean for families? What does that mean for communities?I would like to end by saying that we do need to get back to that focus. We need to focus back on the collective back on the team of 5 million and to ensure that we keep at the centre of our attention our immunocompromised whānau our disabled whānau listening to the leadership of Māori and Pasifika health leaders as well and not getting distracted by the noise. Because one of the things that I've noticed as we've talked about this in more controversial time periods is there's often a lot of noise: we have the lemmings on the Parliament lawn with their conspiracy theories we've had businesses banging the drum and while all of that noise was happening we were incredibly distracted. This House was distracted from who we should have been focusing on who we should now rethink about and continue to put our focus on to make sure that when we move together we move together as communities that we move together as a society that we move together as a people as a part of that team of 5 million.So unfortunately the Greens will not be supporting this motion. Thank you.