O'Connor Simon; Mallard TrevorSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Eighty-five days of lockdown in Auckland—85 days of misery of which there is no apparent hope. I say that because the Government trumpets the higher vaccination rates which you would think would lead towards more freedom and openness but in fact is bringing about more rules more regulations and more excuses. I want to put on record here today that the likes of freedoms and rights values and principles are important and they become even more important in times of crisis.It also has to be said to this Government and to media our rights exist because we exist as individuals. These rights are not given to us by the State. But our right to—and importantly for those who protest they need to understand that their individual rights also exist within a community and we all have a right to live safely.But I want to focus today on behalf of my constituents in Auckland on the divisions which are being created amongst the supposed team of 5 million. I want to focus on the divisions that this Government is creating. One of the reasons that Governments and groups cause division is to create scapegoats. It's one way that division is manifest. Groups are being scapegoated and they're being scapegoated because it allows the Government to deflect the blame from itself—the late vaccination roll-out the booster programme not even starting yet. I have doctors nurses elderly and airline pilots coming to me saying It's been over six months Simon. We want the boosters." The scapegoating deflects Government failures in managed isolation and quarantine where literally hundreds of thousands of New Zealand citizens are being denied their right to return to this country.Creating division of course also takes people's focus away from the bigger issues and turns often the focus to those closest to them as I say rather than focusing on the bigger issues: families that are unable to grieve and celebrate—weddings that are postponed funerals that cannot be attended. Businesses that have no certainty. In August alone almost 10000 New Zealand businesses closed—that's in August. How many have closed over the last 30 days? Shocking to even think those numbers.Retailers who are in tears their businesses destroyed; their livelihood their independence their mortgages maxed out—no more options. These are real stories from my constituents. And yet at the moment trumpeting retail being open—that's a good step forward but the bars the bistros and the restaurants of Tāmaki cannot open. The barbers the beauticians the physios the osteopaths and the pools—they're not open. It's well past time that we embrace a safe operating model and not these blanket rules. And 85 days of kids who can't go back to school.All of this is because of something I call fundamentalism—and you've heard it today in the speeches from the other side. It's become an absolute fascination with only one particular health aspect of COVID. It's fundamentalism because it only focuses on one aspect of truth and not the wider picture. We need a proportional response and one that realises that beyond just COVID as a health issue there are many many other considerations. The stress and anxiety of those in business. Every day in my electorate I have business owners at their wits' end—as I say their businesses destroyed their loss of independence. Delayed healthcare interventions—again every day constituents who cannot get their treatments. I think particularly of the women who are trying to get mammograms. People are dying earlier and will die earlier than necessary because of what this Government is doing. Children who can't visit elderly parents with dementia. The only time they're going to be able to get to them is when their minds have gone.The mental health issues that are rising in our young people. How does a parent tell as I found at the Mission Bay swings their child they can't go on they can't play? This has an effect. The families who need contacts with their loved ones. Grandparents who haven't seen their grandchildren. Husbands and wives who are separated. Children stuck between countries. I have an older constituent married 60 years; his wife's now in a care facility next door to him and he can't go and see her. These are the real stories and the consequences of how things are not being managed.Students who cannot go to school. I've only got a few seconds left but to acknowledge the people at the Sommerville Special School—enormous stress. And the Government is doing nothing let alone to talk of our economy—it's tanking. They sit here and trumpet "Oh well we're not as bad as others." but that's hardly an argument. The Government and others can stand by and say they're fighting COVID and that's all well and good but only after some of the examples I've given today from my electorate alone we can only ask the question—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."