Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to speak on this bill which we don't support and this item in Part 1 relating to the complex—well not complex; the lack of any detail around how any support payments would exist. My colleague Gerry Brownlee was asking questions of the Minister around Does the Government actually plan to make anything or are they just going to wing it?" and I can give him an answer because I've heard the Minister of Finance many times in this House say "No we actually think when we move to the traffic light system that there won't be the need for ongoing wide-ranging support." That's their view—they're just going to can it. They think that everything's back.Now our political point on this side of the House is that the best way that you can help businesses: small businesses employers people who are trying to stay afloat in their businesses such as we've heard in the cafes and the beauticians the tourist operators—the best way you can help those people is to allow them to do some business. That's how you help people in business. You let them do their job and actually serve some customers and give people what they want and be able to sell them the coffee and the ice cream and so forth—let them actually live and get their lives back. That's how you help people and this Government just continues to find every reason to keep us in some way or other locked down notwithstanding the fact that the promise was made to the people of New Zealand that if we went out and we got vaccinated and we got up to 85 percent—we're nearly at 90 percent. We've reached one of the highest vaccination levels in the world. Well they said that we needed to because the Government spent the first six months of the year saying we didn't need the vaccines and other countries needed them more than us but we've finally got there. New Zealanders have gone out they've got vaccinated they're at high levels of vaccination and yet still what is the benefit for Aucklanders? We go to red. Nobody in Auckland can understand the most weird reward for effort ever in the history of this country which is that we all do our bit we get vaccinated and the reward is that we go red—we go red—and we still have to live on with all these controls and difficulties. That makes business difficult and then the Government says "Oh don't worry—don't worry. Businesses can all trade under all the traffic lights." yet they miss the most important word which is they can trade but can they trade profitably or can they trade sustainably? There's no point being able to open your business if there's no possible way given the rules and the numbers of people that can come and the requirements that you can actually make a living. That is the issue. So we're forced into this ridiculous situation. The Minister of Finance stands up and crows about the fact that he's spent $6 billion over the last four months helping support businesses because of the lockdown that has been imposed and thank goodness that some resources have gone to those businesses who were in desperate need of them but it's nothing to be proud of. It's $6 billion that could have built six hospitals. It could have done amazing things for this country that kind of money—that sort of investment. Well it could have probably covered the cost of a third of that Minister over there's crazy light-rail transport. Now that wouldn't be good money because it is the most ridiculous project ever put forward. But nevertheless that's the scale of the money that would have the biggest transport proposal in the history of Auckland: a slow tram down Dominion Road which nobody thinks makes any sense whatsoever. I'm getting distracted but that is the scale of the money that's being spent.Now the answer is not just to keep on pouring it on and keeping us locked down for ever—waiting until April to allow tourists to get back into this country effectively which is what we've heard today. For goodness' sake are they saying that the tourist industry is not going to be affected now that we move to the red traffic light? No—they've got no tourists. You can't trade if you've got no tourists and there's nobody here because they have to go into isolation for seven days. Nobody is going to do that. The rest of the world has moved on. Australians are not going to say "Oh well I know—here's an idea. I could go to New York for a week or I could go to Queenstown for a week and I'll spend my week in self-isolation at home. Oh yeah why don't we do that? We'll go to Queenstown." I mean it's so nonsensical it's not even funny but that's what's being proposed given the fact that we've all got high vaccination rates.So the Government in this piece of legislation—why we oppose it is because it's imposing a framework that makes no sense. Our view is that at high vaccination rates we need to allow people to get their lives back and trade. Then when we look at this bill it sets up—having ignored that and having decided to keep us locked down and decided to keep all those businesses to carry on struggling in various ill-defined ways it then brings in legislation implying that it may provide—[Time expired]"