Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to commence by joining with the Minister of Finance in commending our health professionals for the outstanding job they do for the health of New Zealanders but most of all for the work that they are going to need to do over the next days weeks and months. This virus is going to spread it is going to hit hard and the economic package that we are hearing about today and how long we're going to need to support workers and businesses and those job seekers who are affected by this is clearly a function of the degree to which our health system can respond nimbly and energetically.I say more out of sadness than anger that the comments that are made in the ministerial statement about go hard go early" are hollow in the context of the things that the Minister said about a public information campaign upscaling testing boosting Healthline and so on—the things that I and my colleagues have been talking about since 23 January. And there is a need I think to reflect somewhat on that before we look forward because there is still time. It's pleasing to see the Government responding finally with an energetic package. But is it too late? We will soon find out. On that day Hubei Province an area of China of 56 million people closed down on the back of 540 confirmed cases—just 540. The Director-General of Health in his first speech said "There will be imported cases but the likelihood of a sustained community outbreak remains very low." Why? Because they had the systems and the resources to deal with this. How many times have we heard the Director-General and the Minister of Health say that the likelihood of a sustained community outbreak was very low? It started as "very very low" then "very low" then "low" then they stopped saying it at all. But they had a pandemic plan and it was a very good plan according to the Minister. Yet in his press release today he admits now "Staff in our Public Health Units are our first line of defence against infectious diseases but they don't have the resources … to handle a pandemic." Well we haven't heard that at all in the last 11 weeks. In fact we haven't heard much from the Minister of Health at all who has issued just five press releases since the Ministry of Health first communicated with GPs on 6 January. Weak and late. I am very mindful of the Director-General of Health—in fact the World Health Organization was itself somewhat slow I think to declare an international emergency. But he's got it because his advice at his press conference yesterday was simply this: "This is a serious disease. Although the evidence we have suggests that those over 60 are at highest risk young people including children have died." And his advice? "Once again our key message is: test test test." I have been calling for weeks for a more liberal approach to the testing regime because it's only when we know who are the cases who have the virus who could be at risk of spreading it can we control this outbreak.We are spending billions because of the effect of the closures of our borders for the next weeks and months yet we're nickel and diming the testing regime. Now the Prime Minister in her intervention did say the capacity has now grown—or will as a consequence of this package—from 1000 to 1500. Very good but Prime Minister there's no point having the capacity if it's not used. We have 9950 people who are or were in self-isolation since that requirement was put in place but we've had 540 completed tests. That's only 5 percent of the people in self-isolation Never mind the people who could have been tested who wanted to be tested whose employers told them that until they were tested they weren't allowed to go back to work.Why are we nickel and diming that? The Minister and the Prime Minister say it's over to doctors. Well that's not what doctors are telling us. Doctors are saying they're being stopped from testing and that the criteria are far too narrow—two things: close contact and symptoms. Well I have said and the Leader of the Opposition has said that close contact is enough frankly. The fellow that came in from Brisbane at the start of the week who took a test before he got on a plane was completely asymptomatic. It gives lie to the question of symptoms. We know that people from the experience in China can be spreaders despite having very low or no symptoms but we refuse to test. Why? We are trying to stop the spread of this virus. So the testing capacity is one thing but it is the actual test that's going to matter.Now the issues at the border remain problematic. Even after 1 a.m. on Monday morning or Sunday morning—whenever that change came in—we still have reports of travellers coming home shocked at the lack of questions and information and screening at the border. There is the issue of thermal testing. I actually support thermal testing because despite the fact that we could pick up false positives and false negatives every single person who's coming across the border with a temperature of 38 degrees or more should be taken away isolated questioned and tested and it should be suggested that they might go into self-isolation until that test result is back. Do you know that we're actually doing that for people leaving the country? We are now testing people leaving the country to go to the Pacific—very good happy with that—but why on earth are we not temperature testing people coming into the country? It is inconsistent. It is late. It is weak.I am pleased there is a $500 million investment in our health services to meet this but I respectfully point out that while the aviation sector also needs support more money is going to go in to support the aviation sector than is going in to support our health service. And I do worry as the Leader of the Opposition mentioned that we already have DHBs with combined financial deficits of much greater than this amount. They will be $600 million to $700 million in deficit again this year. How can we be sure that this investment actually goes to net new services to keep New Zealanders safe? I would be pleased to hear from the Minister of Health if he is taking a call on this ministerial statement—because there is much to do. I note in the details of the $500 million that there are two stanzas to this support. But in the second stanza—yet to be announced; probably in 30 days' time—we're talking about things like increasing the amount of protective equipment buying more flu vaccines and making sure Pharmac brings in more antibiotics. Why is that a next stage thing? We should have been doing that last month not next month. There will be a run on the seasonal flu vaccine. There is no doubt. Why are we not buying it now? The Minister and the Director-General have assured the country that we have enough protective equipment. It's in storage in Taranaki or somewhere. Remember he said that? Why then are we now saying our pandemic plan is going to be overwhelmed by this our resources are going to be overwhelmed by this? Weren't we ready? And if we're not ready why are we waiting a month to make those investments? Is that I ask the House the actions of a go-hard go-early plan or a go-hard go-early Government?The National Party wants to support the Government in this effort. The National Party stands ready to support whether it's legislation emergency appropriation. We certainly support our health professionals right across the country who could well be overwhelmed by this outbreak. But I worry that despite the rhetoric this could be too little too late"