Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Speaker and I want to start by acknowledging that there are many individuals families and businesses who are doing it incredibly tough right now from one end of New Zealand to the other and the 687 individuals who are currently COVID-positive. I want to also acknowledge every single essential worker that is working in their many fields at the moment. But what they won't be comforted by is that this is the year—2021—that the Prime Minister loudly proclaimed was the year of the vaccine but unfortunately we have disproportionately higher rates of those most at risk of COVID that are not yet vaccinated. My parliamentary colleague Barbara Edmonds referred to the many Pasifika who have set records in terms of testing. Unfortunately we haven't set records in terms of vaccination. The essential workers whether they are police officers corrections officers St John Ambulance officers those who work in the supermarket or those that are working incredibly hard on the ground to deliver food parcels for example they haven't been vaccinated. Too many of them each and every day are at risk. It's easy to say This year is the year of the vaccine." but clearly the Government have not delivered on the year of the vaccine. So yes for everyone out there: level 4 lockdown for those still in Auckland and Northland and level 3 for the rest of the country. National supported the move into level 4 but what we have to recognise and we have to be honest about is the fact that if our vaccination rates were significantly higher we would not be in the position we are in today. So I do hope that there is a greater level of preparation than we have seen demonstrated so far in every single area. I want to give you a couple of examples. The Prime Minister earlier today talked about the vaccine strategy task force that was set up in May 2020. Well the very groups of people—300000 actually—are reached by Whānau Ora providers who do extraordinary work and are doing it on the ground right now. Te Puni Kōkiri told Minister Henare that funding was available and advised to fund commissioning agencies so that they could be part of the overall vaccine strategy recognising the particular expertise they have in reaching the very 300000 New Zealanders that potentially needed the vaccine ahead of others but what happened? No the Minister ignored the advice didn't seek funding and now expects Whānau Ora providers to provide vaccination support over and above what they are already doing.We had Minister Henare in front of the committee this morning. He doesn't accept and he denied the fact that Whānau Ora commissioning agencies including Pasifika Futures could have been at the table to prevent the low levels of vaccination that we see today: 19 percent for Māori. That's simply not good enough. Had the Government planned and worked harder and reached into every one of those communities we wouldn't be in this position. It's the same with Minister Sepuloni. There are 350000 New Zealanders that her team work with every week. Has there been any connection with them with regard to vaccination to support people to get vaccinations to get information and perhaps to even get transport to a vaccination centre? Zero. So this has been far from the year of the vaccine with an all-of-Government approach. The lack of planning and preparation has been appalling. It should have been a singular focus in the year of the vaccine. How do we deliver more vaccines in the arms of every New Zealander faster? Clearly—clearly—the Government have failed on this and unfortunately are now scrambling to repair the damage but it's New Zealanders who pay. So instead of the year of the vaccine starting on 1 January it's 1 September. May I remind the Prime Minister it's now spring."