SpeechHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Look I just want to acknowledge all members of the House who are here today. It is unusual for people to be watching the television and to see our Parliament in diminished numbers. I want to do a call to all of the members of Parliament who are watching virtually who would dearly love to be here but for safety reasons are not. At 12:21 p.m. today New Zealand declared a state of national emergency. I want to acknowledge all of the civil defence staff and all of the lifeline critical utilities people who are in place currently doing everything possible to fight for the lives of New Zealanders. I think it is important as our leader has done today to acknowledge the fact that this is a global situation that has a complexity that is moving at pace and speed and is like very little things in our lifetime. I acknowledge the other speakers who have acknowledged that this is far reaching—potentially generations of impact financially but also potentially in terms of loss of life. I think we do need to again reiterate what Simon Bridges has said today and what has been reiterated by many members of Parliament: there is no blue team there is no red team there is no yellow team; there is only the ability to put on the New Zealand jersey. I think every member of this House and every member of Parliament who is out in their community at the moment fighting to support people to keep them safe is putting on the New Zealand jersey. But I do want to make this point. We have a critical role in the Opposition to not get in the way of Ministers and a Government that are trying to do everything to save the lives of New Zealanders but we do have a role to ensure that we do ask some questions where appropriate to shine a light on the response because we also have the ability if we do that in the right way—in a collaborative way where possible but also to raise the flag at various times—to save lives and we will continue to do that in an appropriate manner. I want to acknowledge the significance of this threat and the challenge of an invisible deadly threat and how you manage that as a country. We know that many countries have struggled and scrambled to do that. As has already been said by the Prime Minister but also many other people in this House there is a need for New Zealanders to have personal responsibility and discipline because what we know is that if you self-isolate if you don't flout the rules you can help us save lives. So that is our expectation of New Zealanders. We have a piece of legislation before us in our view that of course because this thing is moving so fast we are all finding out about some of that legislation in a pretty quick way. So we're making fast decisions to support the Government to do what it needs to do in this emergency. I acknowledge what has already been said by the Hon Chris Hipkins. We're adding District Court judges to the list of those that can alter the rules of the court. It's very important in a time like this to ensure that our justice system has the resources that it needs to manage this response. We also are enabling our civil defence teams to be able to work effectively remotely via visual links via audio links. That's really important because they are crucial in terms of the response to enable critical lifeline utilities to do what they need to do. We are enacting provisions around rent and eviction freezes. Again the basic premise around this is that we need people to be at home able to be self-isolating and not being worried about being kicked out of their homes. We also have some provisions in here that are around our education system and are about ensuring that the Secretary for Education can direct any entity licence to operate via the secretary and impose conditions on any licence. The Minister of Education has already made comments on that. I want to take a few moments to mention a couple of other things that are really relevant to our response in this situation. I think the first is to say that this is moving incredibly fast and it is really important as much as possible—and my plea to the Government is that while you are in a fast-pace situation you're making decisions quickly and we need to let you get on and do that—that we have maximum transparency around our critical lifelines because that will help. There will be other New Zealanders separate to the Government and officials and the hundreds actually thousands of public servants that are doing an amazing job. As we can already see on our phones as members of Parliament as we are directing people to the Government or communities are just coming up with solutions we need transparency about what the Government might not have—whether that's personal protective equipment whether it's testing kits whether it's hand sanitiser whether it's ventilators or whether it's a secondary workforce for our health workers who are effectively the soldiers of this war and need as much support as possible. We can't wait just for a top-down approach. So that transparency around critical lifelines at this time will actually help the other millions of New Zealanders be able to do what they can do remotely to try and help New Zealand fight this. I want to acknowledge all of our critical lifeline utilities whether it is our health workers or whether it is the people who are delivering transport or logistics or the Air New Zealand staff that we all saw this morning. A couple of other points. This is catastrophic. We have to acknowledge that. I went at a very large social distance through my communities yesterday around Ponsonby central Auckland and through Waiheke. I looked in the eyes of a number of owners of businesses in communities who turned to me many with tears in their eyes and said that they may never ever open again. So we don't underestimate what many New Zealanders are going through and that's why the fiscal package—and I'm sure there will be more—is crucial to ensure that we can enable people to get through this. First and foremost is the health response and the health of New Zealanders and saving lives; secondly obviously to make sure that people have food and water and the necessities of life; but thirdly as well—we are a nation of small businesses—to do everything that we can to support them through this. I want to acknowledge again everybody who is fighting this virus on the ground all of the New Zealanders that are working hard. Finally I want to make a few comments about our education system. Can I acknowledge the Minister of Education. Thank you for the work that you are doing through this period. As I've already said to you I will walk over broken glass to do whatever you need to help you and support you and the many thousands of educators that are out there. A few points that some educators and parents have asked me to make today: I think the first is that safety is paramount. So I think Minister you have the support of education institutions all over the nation to move to closure. The point that's been made about being flexible in terms of arrangements is lots of schools have different situations in terms of holidays. You've already taken on board the importance of the remote learning package which I know is coming. I just obviously make the point that there'll be the national support but there are many schools out there that have huge innovation that want to reach out across to other schools to help them in that remote learning. Just also to make the point—to many parents as they know but also to many New Zealanders—for many teachers they are working. They are choosing to virtually broadcast to many parents and children across the country. So we acknowledge you. Also just to acknowledge the cost to teachers through this period as they deliver from their living rooms core education provision. I know Minister you've got on your radar the financial viability of early learning centres and other key institutions and you're doing a huge amount of work in that area. Finally in terms of parents I just want to do a shout out to you. We are obviously making provisions in this legislation around education institutions. But you are dealing with the fact that you are alongside your children probably cooking cleaning and being the mental health support person. As one parent who emailed me said Nikki I am trying to help my young child. I am trying to help my university student. I'm trying to be a professor. I'm trying to do so many things." So I just acknowledge all of the parents and all of the teachers and educators out there that are doing so much. Look thank you to all New Zealanders. Be calm. Be positive. We're in for a bumpy ride but we're an amazing nation. We're a food-producing nation; we're spread out so we have the ability to self-isolate; and we're very resilient and we will get through this."