Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. Today we're celebrating some good news for the thousands of stressed anxious Kiwis stranded overseas since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The Green Party has said from the very start that we would not leave them stranded that we would not agree to impose an unexpected shock $3000 fee for those who need to come home to live and who were overseas when this once-in-a-lifetime once-in-a-generation—if not even rarer than that—crisis hit. We know that as a nation we learnt—with our COVID response—not only to listen to the scientists not only to put people's health before profit—but those are all great lessons—but we also learnt that unless we take care of all of us unless all of us are okay and safe and well none of us are truly safe and well.Today we have ensured with Labour in Government that that fee will not be imposed on anyone who was overseas before the pandemic hit and the cost of quarantine was made clear if they wish to come home to live in New Zealand. These are whānau with children they will be in ever-changing circumstances right now. They've had to decide between keeping their employment overseas or coming home to face a lengthy period of unemployment perhaps and they're only just finding that actually their visas won't be renewed. They are people who found it really difficult to even find flights home and to move children and partners. It's complicated and it has been changing from day to day so to cut them off in situations where their residency is unstable where they could potentially become Stateless and to then assume that they can somehow meet this really unexpected fee—that's $3000 per person—for an entire family would be quite a shock. It would in fact mean that people may not only remain in a situation where they don't have visas—and they are becoming more or less technically without Statehood—but in fact they could be facing the threat of the virus itself while they save and they put together the money it would take for them to come home and start a life here with the rest of us with this team of 5 million back here. The thing to remember as well is that quarantine—which is what we've imposed as part of our public health response—is a public health response. It's not a personal privilege. It's not a choice. And like all things that we put in place to keep all of us—as an entire society as a community—safe it's something that we say should well be taken care of from the public purse because it is in fact to keep us all safe. It's just like the types of decisions that we made during lockdown where we stayed home the types of decisions we made to keep our essential workers safe from this virus. So it does fall within the realm of what we will take care of as New Zealanders for each other. So we do say that the balance was met well by allowing those who wish to come home to live—who were overseas when COVID hit—to not be charged. But those who want to come home for a visit or for business will be charged unless they're facing financial difficulty—in which case they will have access to a payment plan. If not they will be able to apply for compassionate dispensation in cases where people are for example coming back to look after a sick relative. It may be a funeral it may be a happy occasion—if it's the birth of a baby—and those cases will be administered on a case by case basis. The fee may in those cases still be completely dispensed with. Of course those who leave now—knowing the fee and knowing the cost of returning and quarantine and this extraordinary circumstance that we've all found ourselves in—will be expected to cover that cost and to build it into the cost of the travel when they decide to go. We think that that's a fair balance and we're proud that we did stand for fairness. We stood for all of the Kiwis overseas whose voices we heard whose stress they expressed to us and we're proud to celebrate that win with them today.