Leavasa Anae Neru; O'Connor GregDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Kia orana. Meitaki maata Madam Speaker. It is great to take the last call as the MP for Takanini in the special debate on the Regulations Review Committee's report on the Inquiry into COVID-19 Secondary Legislation. It's good to see you Mr Speaker come into the House. When it comes to COVID-19 first of all I just want to say a huge thankyou to the committee for their inquiry and also their report and also for laying out what in particular the committee do and the terms of reference for the inquiry itself—a huge thankyou to the committee members there. When it comes to COVID-19 I always like to take the opportunity to again thank you our awesome primary and community providers—the hard-working nurses doctors healthcare assistants pharmacists kaiāwhina secondary care healthcare professionals and also our essential workers who risked getting infected when they were out there during this time taking care of our community at large. So a huge meitaki maata to you all as well.I remember when COVID-19 was spreading throughout the globe on the TV and through our medical groups we were quite anxious in South Auckland. As a GP during that time we were coming out of the measles pandemic that happened during the 201819 period. When we first heard of the measles case in the South Island we knew that if that came up to Auckland it would go straight through to South Auckland and then connect to the Pacific Islands which was the case. So when it came to COVID-19 we were also scared because this was a new virus happening. We knew the vulnerabilities the areas and pockets of our community that were getting affected largely. So we pushed our local MPs at that time to make sure that the Government was going to put in legislation or some sort of regulation to make it easier for us on the ground to do the work to do the mahi to protect our community. We wanted the Government to act decisively and early and that's what we got—was to go hard and to go early from that Government.We all know that being a new virus that was spreading we were only learning of what countries were going through themselves. When it comes to grappling with COVID-19 again we all hear from colleagues across the House there was no playbook or rulebook on how to manage this. And again we were learning from our colleagues across the different countries across the globe. And it was our biggest health challenge. We remember the Spanish flu that happened in the early 1900s. We remember the swine flu; again that happened just over 10 years ago. I was working at Middlemore Hospital. When you talk to other people whether it be Dr Reti from Northland having worked there in Rāwene Hospital our vulnerable communities across Aotearoa we just want to make sure that everyone is protected and that there is legislation fit for purpose to do the job. When we look at the Health Act in many ways it was focused on quarantining. It needed some more work in terms of making sure that the framework was targeted at COVID hence why we needed this new legislation and therefore we got the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.We can look back and look at the cases that had COVID-19 the measures that were put in to protect our whānau. I remember our maraes getting on board the many Pacific-Māori providers whether it be in Manurewa Papakura Marae getting their kaiāwhina and workforce involved making it targeted for people. We can look back and say Hey we did a good job." And we can hold an inquiry to make sure that we can do an even better job if it was to happen again. But it is getting prepared for that. We look at the recommendations from the committee. We've heard from a few points that have been raised the balance between primary and secondary legislation. Yes there was some appropriate balance between that. But we do look at the vaccination Act: that could have had its own legislation and making sure that that was solid. We look at the traffic light regime: that could have been put into primary legislation to make sure that in the secondary legislation there was only active orders there—so making primary legislation more substantial in that regard.So across the House I'd like to say a huge thankyou to the committee members for their report on this inquiry and I thank everyone that's been involved. I commend this report to the House.Motion agreed to.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I declare the House in committee for further consideration of the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill."