Verrall AyeshaCOVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE (EXTENSION OF ACT AND REDUCTION OF POWERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I present a legislative statement on the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Extension of Act and Reduction of Powers) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: I move That the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Extension of Act and Reduction of Powers) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. It's a pleasure to address the House today and to see you in the Chair. As many in this House will know the Act will expire on 13 May 2023 unless it is amended to continue it. Continuing the Act is important. It allows for appropriate public health measures to manage the risk posed by COVID-19. It allows us to continue requiring the key public health protections like masks in healthcare settings and isolation of cases to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities. It ensures that vulnerable members of our communities are protected while enabling much of our economic and social life to return to normal. It's important we do reflect the changes in the risk that COVID-19 poses and we are certainly not in the position we were in in 2020 or 2021 with respect to the risk posed by COVID. Those were extraordinary times. We faced a public health emergency and Parliament granted through this Act extraordinary powers. Those powers are no longer proportionate to the risk posed by COVID-19 so it is important that in continuing the Act we also make changes to ensure the powers are proportionate and streamlined and as simple as possible. So this amendment bill retains a limited number of powers to implement public health measures necessary to support the ongoing management of COVID. We will be retaining the ability to put in place case isolation periods and mask-wearing requirements and if necessary requirements on travellers can be called on if things change and we need to step up our response. But most of the other measures including those extraordinary powers such as lockdowns and managed isolation and quarantine are resumed. I know that there will be members of the House who are concerned about the threat that COVID variants could pose. I want to reassure them that were there to be a threatening variant that required a different response Parliament would still have the ability to give those powers back but it would be Parliament's decision. As the most contentious and rights-limiting powers in the Act will be removed by the bill it is no longer necessary for Parliament to periodically resolve that the Act continue given the existing safeguards. There are safeguards and they remain within the Act; that is to ensure the ongoing proportionality of powers exercised to respond to public health events. Keeping a basic legal framework in place provides sufficient time to consult on the design and replacement of a general piece of pandemic legislation or communicable disease legislation that would set New Zealand in good stead for any future events rather than having to start from scratch as we had to in 2020. Continuing the Act ensures that appropriate public health measures are available to respond to risks posed by COVID until such time the Act can be repealed and replaced with fit for purpose pandemic or communicable disease legislation. This approach will ensure the design of any future legal framework is informed by extensive community engagement reflecting the views and impacts of all in our community. Any recommendations from independent reviews into the Government's COVID-19 response will also inform any future legislation design. This is an important next step in our evolving response to COVID-19. It is good that we are in a better situation than we were in 2020 and 2021. We're still able to respond to the likely challenges that we face with COVID managing the risks that we are currently facing but it ensures that our response remains proportionate and we remove extraordinary and restrictive powers that we no longer need. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): The question is that the motion be agreed to.