Seymour David; Rurawhe AdrianDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in opposition to the second reading of this COVID-19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill. Now only a few hours ago we supported the first reading because we entered into this debate with a spirit of goodwill in hope that even in this compressed time frame the Government might come forward in the same conciliatory way saying Actually we accept we got a few things wrong and we're going to be prepared to clarify and make it better." and what did we get from—Hon Scott Simpson: Delusional optimism.DAVID SEYMOUR: Scott Simpson from the Coromandel he says that's delusional. Even the Labour Party deserves hope and forgiveness Mr Simpson! Never forget it.I have to say that when I heard Chris Hipkins get up in the second reading speech—having raised a few questions about for example what happens if somebody takes four weeks off then decides they did want to get vaccinated but their employer says actually it would be an unacceptable disruption for them to come back to work do they keep their job or not? I thought maybe Chris Hipkins the Minister for COVID-19 Response would get up and say "Yes this is very difficult. We're asking Parliament to operate under extraordinary circumstances passing a law overnight with far-reaching consequences and no New Zealand Bill of Rights Act accreditation or check on whether it's consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act." What did Chris Hipkins the Minister for COVID19 do? Well he stood up and he spent most of his time criticising the National Party.Now how is that helping the future of New Zealand or the welfare of New Zealanders to have somebody who is put in a position of being the Minister for COVID-19 Response in as he said a global COVID-19 pandemic to get up and give a six minute speech playing politics? So it's become very clear that we have a Government that is not serious at all in changing any aspects of this bill in making any improvements or conceding that it might have got anything wrong despite this incredibly rushed process. We just can't support that. You know we're good guys and girls. We're trying to be user friendly and help people work together when we can. But the truth is that it's a two-way street and the Labour Party is not prepared to meet anyone halfway. So we're opposed to this bill from now on. This has to be seen in a much wider context where free societies are grappling with the challenge of trying to fight an enemy that is a different species; that is a virus attacking humans. It matters because we live in a global world where there will be more epidemics. There may even be more variants of this virus next winter that are more challenging than what we've faced so far. But even if we beat COVID-19 there will be more in my lifetime and yours Mr Speaker—probably within the next decade. And the question is how will free and democratic societies respond in comparison with totalitarian ones? Because right now the only society that's really managing an elimination strategy is the People's Republic of China a totalitarian state that for example just had a case of COVID-19 in Disney world and locked up 10000 people and wouldn't let them leave till they were tested. Now the facts are that we need free societies—Hon Scott Simpson: Don't tell Labour!DAVID SEYMOUR: —to be able—the National Party is saying Labour might do that too. Don't give them any ideas Scott Simpson! You could find yourself spending an extra few days at Rainbow's End next time you visit!This is a serious topic. We need free societies and democratic societies to work through the challenge of facing down a pandemic and we need them to do it better than totalitarian societies and right now it's not obvious that we are if you just measure effectiveness of fighting pandemics. It's critical that we do better than them because they have so many other problems whether it's democracy or civil liberties or whatever. One of the things that a free society needs to do is to be able to maintain its social cohesion maintain its democracy maintain its due processes and its consultation its bill of rights analysis and its regulatory impact statements. It needs to keep doing all the things that democracies are supposed to do while fighting COVID-19. What we're seeing here tonight is a bill being rushed through under urgency with none of the things that a democracy should do when trying to make laws and fight a pandemic. Have they done public consultation? No they haven't. There will be no select committee process not even a shortened one. They're just going to skip straight from the first reading to the second reading. In fact we're on the second reading already. Even I missed it. Have they done the regulatory impact statements—the regulatory impact analysis that is the hallmark of good Government asking what are the costs what are the benefits who pays the costs who gets the benefits of this law or regulation? Well the attempt at a regulatory impact statement says "We don't know. No information was available because we were forced to do it so rapidly."—Hon Michael Woodhouse: The bill says it's not even required.DAVID SEYMOUR: —and there's Michael Woodhouse from Otago he's reading it out. He knows how bad it is and he's been shocked. He's clearly so indignant he took his mask off that's how angry he was.Have they made sure that this legislation is consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act? Well no. They said "We didn't have time to think about that because we were so rushed." This is not the way that a free and democratic society should be acting when making laws against a pandemic. If we can't do it better and fairer with greater consultation and analysis than the other guys maybe we should just join them. It's not what I want for this country. I want our freedom and democracy to be maintained even as we rally to fight against a pandemic.Some people might say "Ah but it's an emergency." Well actually this Parliament has been incredibly generous to the Government incredibly understanding throughout this pandemic and incredibly good at accepting that the Government needs room to move and needs to move rapidly. We've allowed them to make orders that are binding on all New Zealanders and said "Don't worry take it to the Regulations Review Committee Parliament will sign it off later. You can do it any time you like as much as you like." We've let them do that. We've had the Parliament shut down unable to come here and ask questions of the Prime Minister at various times. We've done an Epidemic Response Committee by Zoom. We've been incredibly supportive and constructive throughout this pandemic; putting forward ideas offering constructive criticisms where necessary and helpful suggestions whenever possible asking the questions that New Zealanders need. But can we honestly say that the Labour Party has joined into the spirit of an open and constructive democratic response to COVID-19? I don't think we can. I think we saw it in Chris Hipkins' speech on this second reading that the ACT Party opposes.Did he get up and say "Look other members of this Parliament have raised questions about how this will really work and when the regulations that this legislation allows Government to make will be ready."? Did he get up and say "Look I need to explain what will actually happen if someone takes the four weeks to get vaccinated gets vaccinated tries to come back and the employer says that's an unacceptable disruption to their business. I understand that might confuse some people and I want to clear it up."? No. All Chris Hipkins did was get up and play politics by attacking another political party. That's not the tradition of a free and democratic society facing a crisis. That is a Government and a political party that has spent too much time doing victory laps or doing a little dance as the Prime Minister likes to say and not enough time getting prepared to pass the laws in a proper and democratic way with analysis with consultation taking people with them and having the debate using persuasion instead of coercion to maintain New Zealand's social cohesion and to keep this country together so we actually come out of this crisis with more social capital than we went in.Instead we've got a Government that forgot to order the vaccines—and that will come out sooner or later—eventually started vaccinating people after the rest of the world and even with all that extra time forgot to do really basic things like maybe if we're going to vaccinate people they'll want some proof of purchase. You know what they could have done? They could have engaged RUSH the people that did it for the NHS. Oh and they made the COVID-19 tracer app for the New Zealand Government and then they got dumped and disengaged—don't need anything more from you. We could have had our vaccine app and our scan and tracing app in the same app but instead New Zealanders are going to have to go to a pub or a hairdresser wherever and get out one app to show they're vaccinated and another app to scan in and that in itself is going to weigh heavily on New Zealanders. It's going to show them the Government just wasn't organised. Not only are they disorganised but they are sacrificing democracy and the consultation and analysis of a free and democratic society that goes with it and that's why—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."