Kerekere ElizabethDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green) Kia ora. I rise in support of the COVID-19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill because the Greens have stood by a strong health response which vaccinations of course are a major part of. We have historically been very cautious about the use of urgency and while we consider that this matter is urgent a more open and transparent process would have been more effective we think for upholding public trust in the Government's COVID-19 response. The businesses and people responsible for rolling out much of this bill could have been available as advisers beforehand instead of potential protesters and complainants later. In the future we hope any future amendments and COVID bills will at least be referred to the Health Committee.We note this bill more explicitly sets out vaccination requirements. Part of it clarifies where people can and cannot go depending on their vaccination status. Clarity is really really important because this is currently in a constant state of flux and many people are confused about what they can do. Can they hug their family? Can they go into a particular place? What happens when they can't breathe properly under a mask? It also stops people going to specific areas places or premises unless they comply with specific measures—that might be wearing masks socially distancing or using a vaccine pass to prove they have been vaccinated. Another part requires services to permit individuals to enter a place regardless of vaccination status—so that means that unvaccinated people can still access essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies.So while the Greens support this vaccination effort we're concerned that people who are not vaccinated are becoming more and more stigmatised and that they're being shut out of many other services because no alternatives have been provided so that the average person can prove they do not have the virus when they need to go shopping for their whānau. We're setting up a place where our unvaccinated are essentially going back into level 3 and level 4 along with many immunocompromised people.I think there's still been insufficient time to educate people about the vaccine. Many have fallen prey to misinformation and many are genuinely scared. We need to keep that space open for people to get that good information to make those good decisions.So in terms of workplace requirements the Greens think it's really important to have good-faith processes for introducing new workplace requirements. Unfortunately this has not been able to happen in some places in relation to mandated vaccinations in some workplaces. It's going to take some time I think for our workforce to recover from what is happening right now. The Greens are very clear that these requirements should not breach any other law especially our New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. We note that the Minister will determine whether mandated vaccinations in a workplace is a justified limit on the freedoms guaranteed in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act..After we received a copy of this bill yesterday we raised a concern about whether workplaces will be able to require testing as an alternative or addition to vaccination. It was confirmed that the workplace assessment tool will help workplaces decide whether vaccine or testing requirements would be reasonable in the context of that work. We hope that that workplace assessment tool is easy to use and that people have somewhere that they can ask questions about it and clarify what is the point and how it's actually going to work. We note that the person in control of a business or undertaking—a PCBU—would retain discretion on whether to use vaccine testing or vaccine exemption requirements and any other control measures along with that. This bill also covers keeping track of all that personal employee information that's wrapped up with this and all these processes have now been added to the administrative workload of businesses and workplaces.So our second major concern was about how that privacy will be protected when collecting the records from employees. We received confirmation that the privacy requirements in the relevant clause are stronger than the Privacy Act and that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner had been heavily involved in the form of those requirements.So with those key concerns addressed for now we commend the bill to the House. Kia ora.