Hipkins Chris; Salesa JennySTANDING ORDERSSessionalHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House): I move That the following rules be adopted:COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE ACT 2020 1Interpretation In these rules— the Act is the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 COVID-19 order is an order made under section 11 of the Act day fixed for presentation is the day on or by which a committee must present a report to the House to comply with these rules. 2Examination of COVID-19 orders (1)The Regulations Review Committee must examine each COVID-19 order and report to the House before the expiry of the period that ends on the later of: (a) six sitting days after the day on which the COVID-19 order was presented to the House: (b) 16 working days after the day on which the COVID-19 order was presented to the House. (2)Unless the Business Committee determines otherwise no motion under section 16 of the Act relating to a COVID-19 order may be moved until after the earlier of the following: (a) the presentation of the Regulations Review Committee's report on its examination of that COVID-19 order:(b) the day fixed for the presentation of the Regulations Review Committee's report on its examination of that COVID-19 order. (3)If the Regulations Review Committee recommends that a COVID-19 order be amended then paragraphs (1) and (2) do not apply to an amendment to that order or a further COVID-19 order that is made only for the purpose of incorporating the committee's recommendations. (4)Standing Order 330 does not apply to a notice of motion under section 16 of the Act relating to a COVID-19 order. 3Disallowance or amendment of COVID-19 order (1)This rule applies to a notice of motion to disallow or amend a COVID-19 order only if that notice of motion is given by a member who at the time the notice of motion is given is a member of the Regulations Review Committee.(2)After a notice of motion to disallow or amend a COVID-19 order is given— (a) that notice of motion must be dealt with by the House no later than the sixth sitting day after the day on which the notice of motion is given: (b) if that notice of motion has not been dealt with by the House within five sitting days it is set down on the Order Paper for the next sitting day as the first item of business after general business. (3)If more than one notice of motion to disallow or amend a COVID 19 order is available for consideration on a sitting day then those notices of motion are set down as a single order of the day and are debatable together with their questions put separately. (4)Standing Orders 67 to 72 76 101 329 and 331 are read accordingly. 4Continuation of Act (1)Any notice of motion to continue the Act under section 3 stands referred to a select committee. The notice of motion is allocated by the Clerk to the most appropriate select committee for consideration.(2)The select committee must report to the House on any notice of motion that has been referred under paragraph (1) no later than the first working day 28 days after the day on which the notice of motion was lodged. (3)No motion relating to the continuation of the Act may be moved until after the earlier of the following—(a) the committee to which the notice of motion was referred reports or (b) the first working day after 28 days have passed since the day on which the notice of motion was lodged. 5Select committee reports set down A select committee report on a notice of motion under rule 2 or 4 is set down for consideration with that notice of motion.This motion puts in place a series of rules regarding how we are going to be dealing with COVID-19 Public Health Response Act orders in future in this term of Parliament and it mirrors one that was put in place in the last Parliament. The regulations review process that we have in this Parliament is a very good one. Those members who have sat in this House who have sat on the Regulations Review Committee will acknowledge that it's actually a very thorough process and it is one that brings some accountability to the making of rules that has been delegated by this House to a member of the executive through an Order in Council. But it does not move quickly and with regard to the orders that are issued under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act we do need to have a mechanism that moves a little bit more quickly than that. So this Sessional Order that we are putting in place means that each order that's made under the Act will be reviewed by the Regulations Review Committee by the later of six sitting days or 16 working days after it is presented to the House and the House would not be able to approve an order made before the Regulations Review Committee has reported on it.An accelerated disallowance and amendment procedure is also put in place by the Sessional Order. That's really important because if orders are not confirmed by the House they ultimately expire and in the next motion that I'll be bringing before the House I'll talk a little bit about the orders that we have made under this. I think members across the House would find it difficult to disagree with any of the orders that have been issued under the Act to date and in fact some would probably argue that some of the orders should have gone further than they did. In fact I think the contribution from Mr Bishop where he said that he opposed the ability for the Government to make the orders but didn't think the orders had gone far enough illustrated that very point. But I do note that the Regulations Review Committee has members from the four biggest parties in the House. It does not have a majority of Labour members and I do point out that any member of the Regulations Review Committee can in fact move the disallowance of a regulation made. So it is important that that process continues with the integrity that I think it has developed over the time that that committee has been in place.The other thing that this motion this set of rules does is put in place a new mechanism to deal with any further continuance of the Act. I want to thank David Seymour for his constructive comments. One of the reasons that we have not continued the Act for a longer period of time is that I do believe that Parliament should have the opportunities to do exactly what David Seymour has suggested the ACT Party will do which is to monitor the implementation and the use of the Act and if Parliament as a whole feels that Government has gone too far Parliament should have the ability to do something about that. So we have now just extended the Act until April. Under these rules Parliament will then have to consider a motion to extend it through a select committee process and we will then have to come back and we'll have to have another debate in the House where members will be able to do what David Seymour just did and say whether or not they feel that we are using our powers in the Act appropriately. I don't think that we should extend—even when we do it next time—the Act for a very very long period of time given that things can move quickly in the COVID world and at some point I think we all hope we will be at the point where we can let the Act lapse because the risk will have gone and we can then start to revert back to normal.Parliament at that point will need to turn its attention to what should happen with future pandemics because I think we've discovered that our epidemic response legislation isn't as good and as useful as it needs to be and we do need to think about some enduring arrangements. They may be modelled on this; they may not be. But I think it is important that while these extraordinary powers are in place Parliament has the opportunity to check back in on them regularly. The procedures that we're putting in place through this motion that I have put forward allow us to do that.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to.