Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): New Zealand does face a challenge of a scale possibly unlike any one that we have in the past. We've seen global financial shocks—actually I think in the last decade or two we've seen more natural disasters than we would have liked; and we've had more than our fair share. But what I do believe in a country like New Zealand is that actually we're up for it. New Zealand as a country has weathered many storms and I actually think it brings out the best in people. That is the opportunity for us as a country and communities to come together to deal with some of the challenges that we are still quite uncertain on.There are a couple of things that I think are important. One of those that comes to mind is that no matter what happens we need to remain calm. You know there is official advice whether it's through the Ministry of Health or whether it's the Ministry of Education. One thing that I would say is particularly for older New Zealanders the feedback I've had through my electorate offices is that we actually need to make more information available in many different ways and not rely on New Zealanders having access to the internet to get the most up-to-date information. New Zealanders up and down this country would agree—and definitely the National Party as our leader Simon Bridges and deputy leader Paula Bennett have both acknowledged that New Zealanders are pleased with the support package that the Government has put forward.It's an absolute relief to see an increase in the testing that's available. It's fantastic to see that the flu vaccine time frames have been brought ahead. It's fantastic to see that there will be a public campaign because I do think that's really critical in terms of good communication clarity and keeping people calm.There were a few surprises though in the package for me. The first one—as our health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said—was the small amount that went to health because our health professionals each and every day before there is a virus outbreak like this do do an extraordinary job for us and our families. So I was somewhat surprised that the level of funding into health was as small as it is given the size of the challenge ahead of us.In the weeks that have already gone past the bit that surprised me was that the Government was very fast to act to get people on benefit faster when actually I believe they should have focused on actually supporting people to stay in their jobs because at the end of the day that's the certainty that a lot of families have been looking for; some have been delivered to with this package.One of the other questions that's come through to my office in a number of different directions is the difference between the increase in the benefit of $25 a week which is permanent and the winter energy payment which is only for a year. The Prime Minister has said she's very happy to provide information to the Opposition so that that can assist us in doing our job—I'm really keen to see the Cabinet papers as to what the difference is between that. Why is the benefit increase permanent and the winter energy payment only a year? I suspect that's because the benefit increase was planned anyway and was going to be delivered in this year's Budget.There are a couple of other questions I've had from constituents. What about new businesses—businesses that haven't been trading for 12 months that still might have 20 or 30 employees but haven't got 12 months trading records? So that's one. Another is a group of tertiary students that are also having work difficulties who work part time to support themselves.So my questions last week and this week have been about you know what are the forecast numbers of the people who will be unemployed or who will join the benefit numbers because actually until you know what the numbers are how do you make that plan? New Zealanders want certainty. They want to know that there is a plan going forward and although the situation is changing that the plan can then be adjusted according to whatever those circumstances are—and that's what we will continue to be interested to see. Our job as the Opposition is to ask questions and is to challenge and that's absolutely what we need to do.My final message is—we're facing uncertain times—to stay calm and more importantly stay connected. Self-isolated doesn't mean cutting yourself off from your loved ones and community.