Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green) (remote): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on behalf of the Greens albeit remotely. Hands are in the air. People—on Zoom anyway—are acknowledging the work of the Regulations Review Committee for poring over the details of these orders and that's good. It's important that we put a bit of a lens over this because things are moving very very quickly. I just wanted to reflect on the work that our health workers have been doing. They've been putting in the hard yards for the last couple of years and just noting that Dr Ashley Bloomfield himself is stepping away. He's done some you know pretty amazing work with a lot of his team as well. When I talked to our workers you can see the strain and you can see the stress. So I do appreciate the need to move fast as well but I'm also concerned that it gets a bit messy and it gets a bit muddled but that's just how it is when you're in the middle of a pandemic. We do hear a lot of people say Hey look let's get back to normal." But for me I feel like normal left the building a couple of years ago and we're in a situation where folks are just trying to do the best that they can. I say this as a parent. I have major concerns with how this will impact our tamariki and our children and our schools as well. We often have schools kind of opening and closing—you know what does that mean? Teachers are working really really hard and now there's this kind of expectation that they should be health workers as well. That's tough and that's messy and people are getting tired and all of that kind of thing but I don't think it's a good reason to dump and run. I think it's more of a reason to actually dig down and get into the nitty gritty. Strangely enough I tend to agree with some of what was said by the previous speaker about things being tricky and difficult but I guess my response would be to instead of wiping your hands or going "Hey you know what? That's just too tough." we should actually really think about how this will impact on those who are most vulnerable and actually take a bit more time to actually do that. How will this impact immunocompromised whānau? How will this impact our disabled whānau? How will this impact on Māori and Pasifika communities where the vaccination rates could be higher and particularly thinking about it with our tamariki as well? We need to have those new tools in place to make sure we do all the things that we can do to keep our communities safe as well. And just reflecting on the schools as well making sure that we sort out the ventilation and filtration of our schools and workplaces. That's got to be on the agenda. We've got to make sure that we sort that out. We're lifting this that and the other; making sure that that's done is really really important. Make sure that we get free N95 masks in schools as well. I think that's important as well and actually putting a bit of effort into the vaccine roll-out as well. I know folks are working hard and doing that but there is still work to be done as well. I'm just reflecting on some of these COVID orders as well. I agree with as I was saying earlier the impacts on children and stuff like that. It is tricky. But as a parent myself I'd rather do the tricky you know mental gymnastics about what this all means and keep my kids safe rather than just kind of stepping back and walking away from it. I'd rather look at it: "OK. What's the best thing? What's the best situation for our kids? What's the best thing for our tamariki mokopuna? How do we support those that are supporting our kids?" How do we make sure that when our teachers are actually having to decipher all of these different rules and these orders and the speed at which they change they have that support around them to make sure that they can make the best decisions possible on the ground at the time and all the different permutations of our school communities and what that could mean for them as well? Then also getting back to making sure that we take care of our workers take care of our healthcare workers I was just thinking about this whakataukī which goes like: ko to amorangi ki mua ko te hāpai ō ki muri [If things are done well at the back then things out the front are sorted.]—so making sure that we support our health workers like when they come knocking on the door of Parliament to make sure that they get better pay and conditions for all the stuff that they've been doing for all of us that this Government actually pays attention and actually puts them to the front of the line. Because what I feel is often we hear a lot of noise but we don't hear the voices that we really need to listen to: immunocompromised whānau our disabled whānau. Those people are at the front lines helping and supporting our families particularly our front-line health workers as well. But once again thanks to the Regulations Review Committee for digging through the detail of this. That's my contribution for today on behalf of the Greens. Thank you Madam Speaker."