1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by our Government's announcement that from 15 December people will be able to travel out of Auckland if they have either been fully vaccinated or have had a negative test 72 hours prior to departure. We know Auckland has done it tough over the past three months but due to their hard work getting vaccinated and their sacrifice which has helped slow the spread of the virus we know we will be in a position to allow them to reconnect with friends and whānau around the country over the summer break. There will be enforcement and those who break the rules will face penalties but our announcement today helps all New Zealanders plan for a safe transition.Hon Judith Collins: When she announced the target of 90 percent full vaccination for every district health board was it her intention at the time to abandon this target just a few weeks later?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: At the time we made that announcement we said two things as well—and I do note to give this context that by mid-December we are expecting the country to be at roughly 90 percent but at the time we made that announcement we also (a) said that we would be pragmatic about the decisions; (b) we set at that time an expectation that the rest of the country would likely move into orange. Today we have said if we have areas that have lower vaccination rates to ensure greater protections those areas would likely move into red. But ultimately what we've said today is that to provide greater protection for New Zealand our view is that the COVID protection framework does a better job for this phase of our COVID pandemic management than the alert levels which is why we've indicated that we will be moving shortly into that framework.Hon Judith Collins: Why did she wait until day 92 of the lockdown to announce her new travel restriction plan; which part of the plan in particular was so complicated it had to wait until today to be announced?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If the member is suggesting that after day two of putting Auckland into restrictions we would then make announcements that in December the border that had been established would be removed I don't think anyone would suggest that that would have been feasible or sensible. We have maintained the boundary for this period of time because it has slowed the spread of COVID. It has enabled us to keep the rest of the country as safe as possible whilst vaccination rates have continued to increase. The fact that at the time when Delta arrived in New Zealand full vaccination rates were sitting in the mid-20s and are now over 80 percent demonstrates the speed at which we have all moved. But now is the time to transition. Aucklanders do need to be able to move safely. This plan allows them to. Hon Judith Collins: How many Auckland hospitality businesses will fail if they are forced to operate through the Christmas period under red traffic light restrictions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I reject the idea that that will be the case because of course the member will be familiar with the new framework which if you were giving a likeness in terms of the ability to operate in terms of the number of people and the requirements—very similar to level 2 which the rest of the country has been using. The added layer of protection is the use of vaccine certificates. So that is the thing that gives an added layer of protection but of course allows hospitality to operate obviously more than they are able to now.Hon Judith Collins: Under the new travel restrictions she's just announced how many cars will police be expected to stop and search on a daily basis?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I wouldn't describe enforcement in that way. It's simply those who are—Hon Judith Collins: Oh yes it is. Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I would not call it a search power. The—Hon Judith Collins: It's a stop and search. Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I reject the member's characterisation. We of course for months now have been running a system that does require people to demonstrate that they meet the requirements to travel. Now all we're asking Aucklanders to demonstrate is that they have either been vaccinated using of course their vaccine pass or that they have had a negative test. We are allowing the enforcement decisions obviously to be made by police. It is operational after all. We expect though in the North that they will work with the communities and iwi in the North. We do expect that we will have potentially lower vaccination rates in those areas so we do want to make sure we act cautiously there. Hon Judith Collins: So if it's operational then are police free not to bother with this stop and—what—check procedure? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm sure the member is familiar with the idea of stopping someone for speeding or stopping someone for drink-driving. This is no different. There is no sense with any of those that you have no enforcement. There will be enforcement. The decision on how that is operationalised and how that is safely operationalised is not a decision for members of Parliament and it never has been. It will be operationalised by the police. Hon Judith Collins: So will people be required to show photo ID whenever they show their vaccine certificate and will that requirement extend to people who are say 12 years and six months old? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member can ridicule all that she likes. A 12-year-old who is able to be vaccinated also is able to have a vaccine pass and of course it is not unreasonable that a parent may hold that. For the under-12s we do not require them to have vaccine passes because they cannot be vaccinated nor will we require them to be tested. But the system has not just been devised for the boundary; it exists for hospitality and events. It is not unlike what has been operating in other countries. In fact I'd say ours is an enhancement on what you see for instance in the federal system in Australia. They have no verifier QR code; ours does. It enables that extra step of verification. Also it contains full name and date of birth so that you are able to check against other photo ID should you choose to. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Point of order Mr Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition's question was clear that it related to people over the age of 12 and the Prime Minister addressed the question of people under the age of 12. SPEAKER: She added extra information afterwards. Hon Judith Collins: So can we take it from the Prime Minister's answer then that anyone over the age of 12 years is going to have to have a photo ID as well as their vaccine certificate? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No. Hon Judith Collins: Well then what does she mean? Who is going to need a photo ID? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If you carry a vaccine pass you can use a verifier app to verify that it is an actual vaccine pass that has been issued by the Government and has not been tampered with. It'll be up to those who are policing or enforcing to determine how they verify whether or not the individual is who they say they are. But this is no different than any of the enforcement activity that occurs at a bar or that occurs by police when they are stopping people on the side of the road and actually this is a further enhancement on what some countries have been operating for quite some time. So I'm not quite sure what the member is taking issue with.