1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Mālō e lelei and I acknowledge Tongan Language Week. Yes and I do just want to reiterate or reinforce the statement made by Minister Andrew Little in particular the best wishes of the Government to those who were the victims on Friday of a horrendous violent attack and of course reinforce that we will do all we can to learn from what has occurred in the lead-up to those events going forward including any legislative responses required. Hon Judith Collins: How many more people could have been vaccinated by now if the Government had secured additional vaccines two months ago?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Our vaccine roll-out has always been based on the supply that we have noting of course that we receive over the course of October the entirety of our Pfizer order which is more than enough to vaccinate every single eligible New Zealander. What we've been seeing over the course of September of course through the outbreak is the ability for us to surge up meet the additional demand through the course of those months. Rather than cap that demand because of our limited supply we've decided to meet it and then go through extraordinary efforts to over the course of a two- or three-week period match the gap in supply that that then presented to us. Hon Judith Collins: Does the extra supply announced today mean that she will bring forward the target of offering everyone a vaccine before the end of the year; if so what is the new target date? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We've always said that every New Zealander would have the ability to access a vaccine before the end of the year. That continues to be the case. Even when actually all of our supply came forward to October we maintained that same principle. It's still of course on us making it as available as possible; we still need New Zealanders of course to take up that opportunity as well. Hon Chris Hipkins: Did she see any commentators earlier in the year confidently predicting that the vaccine programme would fail to reach a target of 50000 doses a day of the vaccine on average being delivered and is she aware that the programme is now delivering closer to 80000 vaccines a day on average?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes I did see some of that scepticism. I think it's really a testament to the New Zealanders who are coming forward to be vaccinated and some of the figures are fantastic. We now have 62 percent of people aged 12 and over who have had at least one dose but what I'm really heartened by is what we're seeing in the projections around New Zealanders who have either had their first dose or also booked for their dose: 91 percent of people aged 65-plus are booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose then 84 percent of people aged 40-plus and it's even 81 percent of people aged 30-plus. So really good to see those high rates; we just want to see that continue and we want it to be across the board.Hon Judith Collins: How can New Zealanders prove that they have been vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: At this point it's a manual process so those who need for any reason to demonstrate that they've been vaccinated are able to contact the Ministry of Health who can provide them with documentation. What they're working on at the moment though is a digital solution which will be able to be utilised for multiple purposes: either domestically if they need to or if for instance they need to produce vaccine passports overseas. There's a couple of templates though. There's not just one that's being used globally. We're working very hard to make sure that what we develop will be compatible with the requirements of overseas jurisdictions. Hon Judith Collins: Well when will New Zealanders be able to easily provide electronic proof of their vaccination statement as has been in place in many other countries now for months?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Keep in mind some of those countries have used them to access venues and the like and of course what we're trying to do is ensure that we have something that is able to be used when moving through borders as well so multiple purposes. My recollection from the time line of health officials is that they're working on it currently. They're looking to have I believe something that will be available I think in the latter part of this year so near the end of the year. They'll want to of course make sure that they're trialling and piloting it. I have to say some of the digital solutions that our health team have worked on—be it the booking system which prior to now didn't exist; improvements to the immunisation register which previously I have to say we inherited a bit of a dog's breakfast on the immunisation register; and then also the work they've done to develop the NZ COVID Tracer app—just demonstrate the incredible work that that digital team has done.Hon Judith Collins: Does she stand by her answer to oral questions from me on 2 February in relation to vaccine passports that I have received copies of advice provided to the Minister of Transport around developments of this regime." and why are we still waiting for it seven months later?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member conveniently left out that those briefings would have been around the International Air Transport Association development that was under way. Of course New Zealand wanted to make sure that we were following the guidelines that were being worked through internationally to ensure that there was something that would be interoperable so that's what that briefing was about. Of course as I've said we are specifically working on an option that we believe should have interoperability but at the moment countries are working on their own passports and so you're trying to get that dual purpose of having something that's readily available but also having something that will be useful when New Zealanders travel.Hon Judith Collins: So what advice if any has she received on whether law changes are needed to allow high-risk businesses to require employees to be vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That advice predominantly would be going to our Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and our Attorney-General so I suggest a specific question to them.Hon Judith Collins: Is it her plan that during any future outbreaks as our level of vaccination increases that New Zealand will be in a position to reduce the use of lockdowns and gatherings' size limits?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Look I think it's everyone's goal to reduce the need for lockdowns. They're incredibly disruptive they're very hard on people they're very hard on businesses so that is everyone's goal. Where our experts have really cautioned is just putting a single number on it and I can see why. When you look to some countries which many members in this House hold up as being the beacons of vaccination programmes most of them still have restrictions in place in some form and many of them sit somewhere between 70 to 80 percent of vaccination rates. So yes we do want to see an end to those but we haven't put a number on it. We want to encourage everyone to be vaccinated as soon as possible.Hon Judith Collins: Does she agree that if months ago New Zealand had achieved the rate of vaccination that we are currently seeing we would be in the position today where hospitality businesses would not need to be under a new alert level 2D?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No I absolutely disagree with that sentiment for two reasons. First of all countries that started their vaccination programmes in earnest in say February and even peaked around April or May in some cases still have restrictions in place they still have gathering limits in place they still have things that are constraining their everyday lives and in those places where they don't have that they have record hospitalisations. So I think it's an overly simplistic analysis. The second issue I would point out to the member is the only thing that has constrained our vaccine roll-out has been supply. We have had in place an order with Pfizer that covers our whole population. Pfizer of course have determined globally who receives their supply and when. So regardless of course we got allocations for quarter one two three and four and as with many countries the bulk of ours are coming in quarter four which is why we always designed a vaccine programme that factored that in."