SpeechHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I want to take a moment at the outset of this speech to acknowledge all of our doctors our grocery workers our teachers and our nurses who have been at the front line of COVID-19. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge our public servants. We are on the back of one of the most challenging events in our history and on this side of the House we absolutely supported the Government to flatten the curve. We have done very well as a nation in flattening the curve and reducing the virus in society but the huge debate—and that we are on the eve of seeing the true cost of this to our country—has been whether you go after the needle in the haystack whether you eliminate or try to eliminate the virus to the nth degree and then the cost to the country of that. On this side of the House we do believe that there have been major issues in the Government's response. We acknowledge that they have been dealing with a fast-evolving difficult situation but we have to continue to expect more of our parliamentarians and our Government than ever before at this time in our history.So the first thing that we raise is that process matters. It matters if a lockdown is legal. We deserve as a country to know the answer to that and there are many questions that are being asked about that. We also deserve more than 24 hours' notice on a piece of legislation that is going to impact the freedom of New Zealanders whether that is religious freedom whether that is freedom of association. On this side of the House we have said that with a reduced media with significant police powers with a reduced Parliament it is entirely appropriate to expect a larger lead-in time than that on a piece of legislation as important as this legislation. So process does matter and we would say never more than in a national emergency is it important to get to the table with the Opposition and work that through. And what played out today—and we've seen a bit of a backdown from the Government—is that people in New Zealand said Hang on a second. We believe in reducing the public health impacts of COVID-19 but we expect you as leaders to be able to explain your public health rationale for restaurants versus schools versus funerals and tangi." That is entirely reasonable. On this side of the House we will continue to ask for maximum transparency around the decisions at a public health level and that is what New Zealanders would expect from us.So tomorrow we will see the extent and scale of the damage. We have reports coming out at the moment that indicate that we could have around 150000 jobs as a result of this event. People are naturally looking at the OECD information and saying "Why is it that Australia could have similar outcomes as New Zealand and could have such a larger-scale impact in terms of economic activity?" And that is a reasonable question. So when the Budget is read tomorrow New Zealanders will be asked to reflect on what would have been the normal course of damage as a result of a global pandemic versus what could have been the damage as a result of the Prime Minister's decision to pursue elimination. Because of the impact on generations of New Zealanders in terms of debt it is entirely appropriate to ask the question whether my niece and nephew whether those students at university are going to be dealing with a $50000 bill as a result of COVID or a $40000 bill because of the time that it will take for generations for us to pay that back.We also believe on this side of the House that debt is an important argument to be had but that we do need to spend to ensure that we deal with—and the Prime Minister said—and address the significant blow for many families as a result of COVID-19. We believe that at the heart of that rebuild and recovery is our education system. What we expect to see tomorrow in the Budget is the Government addressing a range of things: dealing with the financial viability of schools dealing with the financial viability of our international education sector and ensuring that there is a reasonable plan to bring international students back to New Zealand. We do expect to see funding in the Budget to address as I have said the drop in international students and the real issues around fund-raising for our schools. We expect to see a large-scale skills plan for New Zealand because we understand that the scale of job loss and displacement means that we need to have a very clear and comprehensive plan to upskill New Zealanders to deal with this significant issue.Thank you to all of the New Zealanders who have been involved in the first response. On this side of the House we will continue to put up positive plans to rebuild New Zealand."