11. Question No. 11—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 11—Prime Minister11. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and policies?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. I especially stand by the Government's recent changes to managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) with a phased easing of border restrictions that sees the time spent in an MIQ facility halved for most overseas arrivals. Over 190000 New Zealanders have returned home through MIQ since border restrictions were put in place last year stopping cases at the border and allowing us to live life free of restrictions for the better part of 18 months. With most people returning now fully vaccinated the risk profile of international arrivals has changed so it is time to start changing our MIQ settings. The easing of MIQ requirements is part of the broader plan to reopen New Zealand safely and reconnect with the world.David Seymour: Why does it make sense to make fully vaccinated negative-tested arrivals go through any amount of MIQ when Nick Wilson and Michael Baker say such a person poses less danger to a fellow Aucklander than someone currently in Auckland at Countdown; or are those two wrong?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm not sure that Michael Baker would feel that the member has accurately reflected his position—David Seymour: Which part—which part?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —because of course that was—David Seymour: Which part?SPEAKER: Order! Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —because his position was based on there being a permanent hard border around Auckland which obviously is not something that we support and I would assume that it wouldn't be something that the member would support either. And so that was the basis on which that comment was made.David Seymour: If Michael Baker and Nick Wilson are correct that such a person poses less of a threat than people already shopping at Countdown in Auckland then how can it possibly be safe to allow people to leave Auckland as soon as 15 December but not to allow people to come to New Zealand without going through MIQ; is the Prime Minister seeing the logic problem here?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What the member is not taking into account is the position that experts such as Tony Blakely have continually reinforced as have other modellers. The issue with of course the wider management of any outbreak is the management of the ongoing seeding of additional cases. And when you look overseas you'll see that there are other countries who continue to use border controls and requirements at their border to reduce the seeding of additional cases into the community. What we have already said is that yes we will continue to change our settings at the border in line with our new strategy. So we are currently trialling self-isolation because the next stage for us will be to remove what has been one of the constraints on the system which is our ability to manage a person's isolation period through MIQ because it has a natural cap on the number of people that can do that. By moving to self-isolation you open up wider opportunities to bring more New Zealanders home. But if the member is arguing to remove those requirements entirely then the member is actually arguing that all of New Zealand should have to live with a higher level of domestic restrictions as a result because if the member chooses to look at Austria the Netherlands Ireland—even the UK are discussing additional restrictions—if you continue to seed cases then you will continue to have to have additional restrictions domestically.Hon Judith Collins: Will police powers to stop and request vaccine passports be restricted to people travelling in vehicles or will people be able to be stopped in the street once they reach their holiday destination?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course it makes sense to do it at the departure points because that is the point at which you will be sure that it's an Aucklander travelling. This is not about general checks in the community where someone could have come from anywhere. It makes sense to police it at the point of departure. What I would throw back to the member is that if she is suggesting that we should have nothing and that we should simply remove everything and have no requirement then that is up to the National Party. But I seriously believe that most members from outside of Auckland will come from constituencies where there will be concerns that there should be checks in place in the areas where we till now have had a hard boundary. Hon Judith Collins: So is the Prime Minister seriously saying after this announcement that she's still going to have people being stopped at a border between Auckland and Waikato and having their papers checked—is that what she's really saying—for Christmas? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No. David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. On the previous supplementary I waited for the second one from the Leader of the Opposition but I was very interested in the question of will the police powers allow police to stop people walking around in their destination. Now the Prime Minister said that she thought it would be more prudent or efficient to use them at the point of departure but that is a very important question—what will these police powers allow—and I don't believe that was addressed. SPEAKER: Yes and if the member had taken a point of order at the right point which was immediately I would have allowed it. He of course has supplementaries himself which he can choose to use. David Seymour: Does the Prime Minister stand by her statement that details of the whole country moving to the traffic light system will be announced on 29 November and if she does stand by it what details other than the date of the shift and the traffic light colour for each region remain to be announced? Hon Chris Hipkins: That's pretty much it. Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Some of the additional information that regions will be interested in are for instance the kind of criteria that we'll be considering in the future for movement up or down that system. Now it will be different than what we've done for the alert level system in the past because you will be able to project into the future based on what you're seeing with cases potential pressure on our hospital systems—and so making sure that we have that extra detail provided to those local communities. But ultimately of course the most important information people will be seeking is At what point will we be coming in?" That's by and large going to be determined by vaccination level. We need to use the most up-to-date data and we'll be doing that on 29 November. David Seymour: Does the Prime Minister agree with the statement heckled by her Minister for COVID-19 Response about a minute ago in response to my question of is there anything to announce other than the date of the shift and the colour of the traffic light in each region "That's about it." and if she does agree with his statement what exactly are we waiting for and why can't she just say right now that on 1 December the country will move to the traffic light system and that the colour of the traffic light system in each region will depend on vaccination rates in that place? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I said in the press conference actually for most parts of the country where they'll be moving into the system is material and that decision will be based on the most up-to-date vaccination information. If the member can see that in the space of three months we can move from 20 percent to levels as high as over 80 percent in vaccination levels then we should give the opportunity for regions—now that they know how material their level of vaccination is to their next steps in their settings we should allow them to continue to vaccinate and make decisions based on that information in a couple of weeks' time. David Seymour: Will the police have the power to stop people walking around the streets and check their vaccination status and perhaps send them home if they're in the wrong place? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That is not the intention. Of course the order is around the departure from Auckland to other parts of the country. If the member is suggesting that the police would choose to enforce that by randomly walking the streets of other parts of the country then that is simply quite bizarre."