Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): Mr Speaker the fundamental question listening to the debate across the House that is before us now is whether we need a COVID-19 alert level 2. Because listening to the members opposite we should simply declare victory now and say that it's all over and that everything should go back to the way that it was before. I remind members opposite that we had fewer cases than we do now when they started to call for New Zealand to go into lockdown. And at the time Simon Bridges stood in this House and said better to be cautious; better to be criticised afterwards for being too cautious and moving too quickly than have a massive outbreak in New Zealand and then regret not having taken further action. And yet that is where we're at now. So we've got more cases now than we did when they were calling for us to go into lockdown.And so if we don't have a COVID alert level 2 which is what this bill enables then effectively what we will be doing is we will be saying that we're willing to tolerate the risk of another big spike in cases and then all of the sacrifice that New Zealanders have made—SPEAKER: Order! I regret having to interrupt the member but I just want to remind Messrs Penk and Mitchell that people are not meant to be sitting in adjoining seats at the moment. I know that someone's moved some of the name tags around. Thank you.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: —and all of the sacrifices socially personally and economically that New Zealanders have made would have been in vain because we would find ourselves back in the position that we would have been in if we hadn't gone into lockdown in the first place. We need only look around the rest of the world to see what the consequences of that are: thousands of people dying lockdowns where there is seemingly no end in sight which is what other countries around the world are facing. New Zealanders can all be incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a country over the last seven weeks. Dare I say it seven weeks ago when we stood in this House and we debated whether or not to have the lockdown Simon Bridges was right. He was right when he said better to be cautious than have regrets later on if we don't go hard enough early on. We are in the same position now. Level 2 is about making sure that all of the gains that we have made don't disappear with a spike in cases.If you listen to what the members opposite are arguing they are saying that there should be no further curtailing of liberties—that people should be able to do whatever they want to that life should get back to normal. Well actually that puts the country right back at square one again. COVID-19 is still with us. We are still having positive cases coming through the testing. So we still need to have very good public health measures in place if we are going to avoid going the way of those other countries.We reset the clock with our lockdown but COVID-19 has not gone away; it is still there. Therefore the level 2 measures that this bill enables will help us to lock in the gains. It will help us to make sure that we don't go backwards. It will help us to give New Zealanders confidence that they can re-engage in their lives consistent with good public health provisions and that our country—ahead of the Australians ahead of so many other countries that are looking at lockdowns that will last much much longer and be much much harsher than ours—New Zealand is in a very good position. We shouldn't squander it; therefore we should pass this bill we should move to level 2 and we should lock in the gains that we've made.