Hipkins ChrisCOVID-19 ORDERSApprovalHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I move That this House approve the following orders made under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020:COVID-19 Public Health Response (Maritime Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 2) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 5) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Amendment Order 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 8) 2021COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 6) 2021Under section 16 of the aforementioned Act any orders that I make under that Act have to be approved by the House or they are revoked. The orders first go to the Regulations Review Committee who do a very thorough job of examining them to make sure they are consistent with the law and consistent with good regulatory practice. They've provided feedback to me on various occasions including some suggestions for improvement that we've taken on board as we have continued to refine those orders. I think it's worth recalling that these orders are being regularly amended. They're being regularly amended for two reasons: one was that they're often put in place quite quickly and so when you do put orders in place quite quickly there will be a need to refine them as potential errors or flaws or inconsistencies are identified. The second though which is also incredibly important is that the situation around COVID-19 continues to evolve and actually a couple of the orders that we're going to be confirming today really highlight just how much things can evolve and how quickly they can evolve.So to talk through the five orders that this motion confirms the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Maritime Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 2) 2021 makes changes that clarify the isolation requirements for ships coming into the country—a relatively topical thing at the moment but it makes it very clear what physical distancing means and so on. So when people are coming in on a ship—many of them don't even get off the ship—it makes it very clear how we keep New Zealanders safe in that environment.The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 5) 2021—this was an order that stopped quarantine-free flights from Australia due to a recent community outbreak. Members will note that there is a further order the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) Amendment Order (No 6) 2021 which restarted quarantine-free flights with Australia. I can confirm that that has subsequently been superseded by another order that we're not confirming yet because that's currently before the Regulations Review Committee and that stopped the flights again which just shows that this is an evolving situation and these orders sometimes by the time we get to confirm them quite a lot has happened in the intervening period. So we're confirming a stop of the quarantine-free travel a start of the quarantine-free travel again and there's another one in the process that will have stopped it.Then we have the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Amendment Order 2021. This makes some rules around airline staff in particular and clarifies that they don't necessarily have to do the full 14 days of isolation. This is important because we do have different arrangements in place for our aircrew otherwise we wouldn't be able to operate our airline and other airlines internationally. So this does allow for changes to be made to the requirements around them.COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 8) 2021—this was the order that moved the Wellington region down from alert level 2 back to alert level 1 where the rest of the country was at that time and Wellington has subsequently remained. So this was the change made after the most recent potential concern that we had here in Wellington.The House is also considering the two reports of the Regulations Review Committee on these and other orders. I want to again thank the Regulations Review Committee for the way they have approached dealing with these orders. They have been very diligent and thorough and I think quite pragmatic in the suggestions that they have made. I have on occasion consulted the committee including about some forthcoming legislative changes that we're making or I've sent them to the committee to have a good look at them before we even bring them to the House because I think whilst there'll be a lot of politics in COVID-19 I think when it comes to getting the technicalities of the orders and the legislation right I think there has been a good degree of cooperation across the House on that. I want to thank all of the members who were involved in doing that.So the committee had no concerns around the isolation and quarantine order that I've described and it had no concerns around the other orders that I've also described. So I thank the committee for their very diligent work.