Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Isn't that speech an absolute example of why the National Party keeps going down in the polls? Because they're out of touch completely disconnected with actually what New Zealand is about and what New Zealanders want. New Zealanders want to be safe in their country. New Zealanders don't want the borders opened all over the place as this National Party has been calling for from the beginning. We were standing here a year ago saying No we shouldn't be opening the borders." when they were calling for it. Now the previous speaker did mention a couple of questions which I think common sense would easily be able to respond to. The question from the member was: what are the immigration staff doing now? Well if anybody has any illusions on the fact that this is an extremely busy department they are on another planet. But obviously most of those staff who were previously processing the normal visa applications are now dealing with the border exemption applications. So there is your answer. The other question was: why two years? Well I think we do this for two years because we don't have to spend this time in the House again if this pandemic is raging on a year from now which is very well possible. Nobody would hope so and in fact when we were going through the last bill we were hoping that by this time we would be no longer needing these powers but we are. So who knows where we are this time next year—so hence it is two years.So the Minister outlined very clearly that this is a really simple bill. It doesn't introduce any new powers. In fact all it does is extends the same settings. It extends the repeal date of the Government's temporary powers. It needs to do so because otherwise that initial original bill that I just mentioned would expire next month. That original bill was passed unanimously by Parliament.So what this bill will do: it will maintain the additional immigration system flexibility approved last year by Parliament. The previous member Erica Stanford was trying to scaremonger around the wide-ranging powers which by his own admission the Minister totally mentioned the powerful and sweeping powers of this particular bill. But the bill has major safeguards in it and they will continue to be implemented. Again the Minister outlined those very clearly in his speech. I'm quite happy to reiterate as the previous member didn't pick those up.Firstly the majority of the powers cited within this particular bill are disallowable instruments. So that means that those instruments—or in layman terms the powers as delegated to the Minister—can be disallowed by the House. So basically that means that there is a really clear precaution in place to provide that accountability mechanism to use these immigration powers.Secondly the exercise of those powers also needs to be really clearly tied either to COVID-19 or the effects of any responses to COVID-19. So really they can only be exercised in relation to COVID-19. So it's a really simple bill and I think it's a helpful reminder for all of us—in particular the previous speaker—that while our response to COVID-19 has been very successful there are still global circumstances under which these powers were initially passed and they still stand.We in New Zealand are not immune to what happens in the rest of the world and we've certainly seen that over the last year. But because of this Government's action to stop COVID-19 at the border we are able to enjoy all those freedoms that we have—and the interaction—in New Zealand. We are able to go to our markets and have our events and hug and meet our families and friends and that is a really different situation in so many other countries in the world. In fact New Zealand is to date still the envy of the rest of the world. And if the previous member were maybe to have a look outside of Aotearoa New Zealand and see what it's like for people in other countries they might have a clear understanding of how fortunate we are.My parents in the Netherlands just celebrated—celebrated?—their second Easter in lockdown. It's a third wave in that country despite having had the lockdowns despite starting their vaccination programme. They still have thousands of new cases every day. So since March 2020 they've been inside. They can't go and see their family. They can't see their friends. They've been cut off from their grandchildren and children. Many like them all the elderly and vulnerable are afraid to go out. They are unsafe and so they're staying home. So that is the reality for most of the country. So let's count our blessings for where we are and what we have because COVID-19 continues to rage around the globe.What this bill does is it maintains those really important powers that have enabled our Government to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak as we've seen it and as it will perhaps develop over the next two years. So it has given our country a real opportunity to build back better and that is thanks to that strategy that our Government developed to eliminate COVID-19 from our communities and to keep New Zealanders safe.I always really like to think back to what our Minister Grant Robertson said in his 2020 Budget speech. He said—and he spoke to the "glimmer of silver lining on the darkest of clouds" because we have that opportunity here in New Zealand to build back better. So as chair of the Education and Workforce Committee—Chris Bishop: Oh are you? Oh my Lord!MARJA LUBECK: Yes. Indeed I am. In fact Mr Bishop that committee was referred to recently by one of the Ministers as not only the hardest-working but also the best-looking select committee in Parliament. So there you go.So as chair of that particular committee—despite being an extremely busy select committee—I am indeed looking forward very much to receiving submissions on this bill over the next couple of weeks. We are going to report back to the House I understand at the end of this month on 29 April. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you Madam Speaker."