2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Is she confident her Government moved at an appropriate pace to put in appropriate measures to manage the risk of COVID-19 re-emerging in the community? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. The positive result in the current outbreak came back at around 2.30 p.m. on 11 August. I was informed around 4 p.m. I travelled back to Wellington immediately and met with the Minister of Health around 7 p.m. At 7.30 we met with all-of-Government officials and health officials. Immediately after that I convened Ministers with power to act and we made the decision to move Auckland to alert level 3 and the rest of the country to level 2 by midday 12 August. The Government since has undertaken extensive testing and contact tracing with the Ministry of Health to identify all cases in the cluster and place them into isolation. We have already conducted over 123000 tests and are performing at approximately 80 percent the benchmark for contact tracing within 48 hours. We are moving as swiftly as we can to manage this re-emergence in line with our resurgence plan. Hon Judith Collins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Thank you Mr Speaker. I asked about the appropriate measures to manage the risk of COVID-19 re-emerging in the community not what has happened since it's re-emerged in the community. Perhaps you could consider whether or not the Prime Minister has actually addressed the question. SPEAKER: Well I can see nothing relating to timing in that. Hon Judith Collins: Was it her belief that on 22 June when Cabinet signed off the Ministry of Health testing strategy all border-facing staff would then be routinely tested for COVID-19? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member will see in the testing regime—but I have to say it's only one part of the re-emergence plan. We released in and my recollection is late July—the member will actually probably remember the date. It was the same day that she became Leader of the Opposition—that was the day that the Government released our plan to respond to any new COVID cases in the community. That sits alongside our testing strategy which was agreed by Cabinet at the end of June and it did include an expectation around testing of asymptomatic individuals at the border. We also put in place reporting expectations so we could continue to monitor whether or not that was in place and as I've already discussed when we saw that those numbers weren't meeting our expectations we took steps to continue to scale up that testing. Hon Judith Collins: Was she aware that the strategy only encouraged testing said no disincentives should exist but made clear that any testing of border-facing staff would be voluntary? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course as I've said when we saw the numbers coming through we were concerned that we weren't seeing enough testing at those sites. As I've already acknowledged to the member over the three-week period we did see an increase in the number of those staff while we continued to have those talks with the Ministry of Health of what we could do to rapidly improve. The member will also be familiar because I've already set this out that we had the same questions and issues with making sure we got our managed isolation staff numbers up which was why—and we made this decision as a Cabinet to require all staff to be tested within those facilities because of the risk that they presented. Hon Judith Collins: Why then did her Government issue on 23 June one day after the Cabinet sign-off of mandatory testing the next—did she issue the press release that included the line regular health check and asymptomatic testing of all border-facing workers" if it was only going to be voluntary? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Because that was our expectation. I also did acknowledge in a post-Cab on 20 July that we'd set down the expectation that he was working with the Minister of Health on adjustments required to see that surveillance testing increase because we acknowledged then that we weren't seeing it meet our expectations. Hon Judith Collins: Does she accept that the word "all" gave people the impression that this testing would mean "all"? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course as I've said when we saw the reporting coming back with the low numbers we could see it wasn't as wide-reaching as our expectation which is why we put in place again a Cabinet minute recording particularly for managed isolation facilities and we continued in our work with the Ministry of Health to up the numbers that we saw of that testing at the border. Again as I have said that is only one part and I understand the member's interest here. We of course are continuing to put in assurances to make sure that we do have that regular testing cycle coming through at the border. I've given further measures again today to ensure that is happening but it would be wrong to assume that just testing is enough. It would be wrong to assume that just personal protective equipment is enough or that just infection control is enough. We need all of it and I would finally remind the member that despite comprehensive testing to date we have not drawn that conclusion between our current cluster and our border. Hon Grant Robertson: Can the Prime Minister confirm in light of the primary question that the pace and level of contact tracing is meeting the standards set by the Government at somewhat over 80 percent—not 6 percent as I heard on the radio this morning? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes. As I've said we have successfully contacted 1861 individuals. We are meeting our expectation and that has been of course that within a 48-hour period of a positive return we are contact tracing those close contacts. That work that was done after our first outbreak to use Sir Brian Roche get that system up to scratch and to ensure it is as far as possible what has been called gold standard was very very important and useful. Hon Judith Collins: Were health officials specifically directed to test all border-facing staff prior to 22 July? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'd want to go back through the Cabinet minute but certainly you can see an expectation in the language that I've used publicly both at the time and since. Certainly it was minuted for managed isolation staff and the fact that you can see from the reporting that we were not satisfied with our numbers early on but that work was done so that by 31 July we had it up over 200—that was our expectation and we knew there were barriers to overcome to make sure it was happening. Hon Grant Robertson: In light of the primary question again is the Prime Minister satisfied with the overall level of testing in the wake of the re-emergence—in particular noting that the total number of tests per confirmed case for New Zealand is now 470.5 compared to Australia at 232.9? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Part of our resurgence plan was of course to have rapid scaled-up testing—and that's not just of course of staff but within the community—as part of our surveillance and around our close contact and casual contacts. The 123000 tests that have been conducted to date acts as a form of reassurance that we are reaching those we need to reach whilst having some surveillance around whether or not that is a contained cluster. Hon Judith Collins: Why after putting mandatory isolation in place on 9 April for returnees did it take her Government 104 days to set the expectation that all border staff would be tested? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course we have changed rapidly the managed isolation process. We in April of course moved very quickly away from a system that many countries still use where they have returnees just self-isolating at home to requiring everyone to go into facilities. Now my recollection is that we have had somewhere in the vicinity of 40000 people going through Government-run facilities. That is significant. Once we had that regime set up we moved to increase the controls around those. We now have them managed by Defence Force personnel and even today we've taken new steps again to scale back the use of private contractors scale up Defence Force and where we are using security directly engage them by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and make sure they're paid a living wage. We have always looked for improvements and made them all the way through as part of our response. Hon Grant Robertson: In light of that answer what is the Prime Minister's response to the statement by the Opposition health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti that it would be impossible to have 100 percent watertightness at the border and "I don't think anyone in anyone's hands"—SPEAKER: Order! Just as one's not allowed to use these things to attack one shouldn't use them to support and quite obviously the Prime Minister does not have responsibility for Dr Reti. Hon Stuart Nash: In light of the primary question before the recent outbreak did the Prime Minister hear any reports or hear anyone state that the Government was actually scaremongering or playing politics in warning New Zealanders not to be complacent? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes. That is something that was levelled at us multiple times. When we produced resurgence plans when we continued to encourage people to get testing if they were symptomatic when we asked people to prepare by having a mask at home we were labelled as scaremongering. Again I ask for nothing more than a consistent approach—yes for us to be held to account but for as much as possible a consistent approach to the public. These are anxious-riddled times. As much as we can as officials in the public domain consistently encourage people to take steps to look after their public health the better off we will all be. Hon Judith Collins: Why has the Prime Minister had to bring in another working group today of Heather Simpson and Sir Brian Roche? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We haven't. We already have a surveillance and testing plan and it is a robust one. We are acknowledging of course though that we are implementing that alongside what is a period of a huge amount of work for the Ministry of Health. As they continue to successfully deploy our resurgence plan they are also being asked to deploy a strategy that cuts across ports up and down the country international airports and multiple sites working across of course supporting the work at managed isolation facilities. It is not unreasonable—in fact it is responsible—to support them by bringing in extra individuals who do also have expertise across different agencies to make sure they're well supported in rolling out that plan. Hon James Shaw: Just in light of her answer before that there were something like 40000 people who have been processed at the border so far is that essentially saying that given that there has been one outbreak in that period of time there was a one-in-40000 chance that there would be another outbreak? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member is right to point out that we have had an extremely successful response to date. I think it's also fair to say that the re-emergence of the virus in New Zealand is not a sign that every system we've had in place has failed. It is a sign that it is a tricky virus that no one in the world has successfully been able to keep their protections as being impenetrable which is why we have to have multiple plans to keep it out but also to respond if and when it comes through."