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The other day, I picked up the Whangārei Advocate, and there was an advertisement from Mr Reti on the highway to Marsden Point.

Hon Nathan Guy: Dr Reti.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Dr Reti had an advertisement saying that it had been reinstated. Dr Reti, please tell us how many dollars were set aside by the National Party with respect to Marsden Point? Mr Reti, put your hand up if $1 was assigned to Marsden Point to Whangārei—please put your hand up. You see what I mean? He can't tell a lie—I admire him. He's an honest man. But don't have your party put that crap out and think you're going to get away with it.

The same thing when it comes to, for example, north of Tauranga. There's the member for Tauranga talking about Ōmokoroa being promised, and all the way to Katikati—not "Catty-catty", as he said; Katikati—and Mr—

Hon Simon Bridges: The Te Reo renaissance man, now—are you?

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: OK, Mr Bridges, put your hand up if $1 was assigned by you as a transport Minister for that road. He can't tell a lie, either. I hope some people in the media are watching, because now we're having a confessional. We're having an admission. We're getting it out of him, but, boy, how hard it's been, and why do I have to do the job that they should be doing?

Where was the money? Well, it was never there, but he got up and said it. He read a list out today of what they had promised, excepting—as Grant Robertson will tell you, and as Mr Twyford will tell you—there was no money assigned to it.

When it comes to defence, they had a $20 billion plan with not $1 assigned to it. Along comes Ron Mark and, in very difficult and trying circumstances with the Minister of Finance, he starts getting the funding that defence desperately needs. All over the country and all over the Pacific, our troops are helping this country's image in essential humanitarian work. It's multifaceted, but it's this Government that's doing it, much to the surprise of the Defence Force. They have always believed that National was for them, excepting they never were when it came to finding the money that really mattered.

Hon Simon Bridges: Why is she not listening?

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, the Prime Minister's listening, all right, because I shared this speech with her before I started it. We're a Government of cooperation—in fact, she could have written it herself. Ha!

When I was the Acting Prime Minister, I can tell you what happened one day. I'll never forget it because I was absolutely shocked, because in the room came a group of civil servants to tell me that the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoy programme—which for decades we've been financing to warn us if a tsunami was coming our way, and our Pacific neighbours as well—had all been allowed to run down, and the last of them was on the blink. This previous Government—if you want to look at any evidence of how shocking and neglectful they were, they were prepared to see the tsunami come down, sweep through the Pacific islands, and take the top of the North Island out, with no way of warning ourselves.

I stood there and I could not believe it, and my colleagues know what happened. They are sitting here now. We said, "We're going to get on to this. We're not going to lose one day. We're going to rebuild these DART buoys.", and last year, before Christmas, five were sent to the Pacific, and at the end of the year, 15 will be in place. That's the difference.

There is nobody on that backbench who was told that—that we could have had circumstances where, when the media asked, "What happened here?", we would have found that the so-called Government of Gerry Brownlee and Mr Bridges had allowed the whole warning system for the Pacific and ourselves to lapse and rot and decay. You don't need to know any more about Government or policies but to know that.

More importantly, the Australians were shocked and said, "We'll help out." I spoke to the United States. They said, "We'll help, as well." But they could not believe that the very people who had put that in place—

Hon Gerry Brownlee: No, that part's not true.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —under former, responsible Governments had allowed it to happen. Mr Brownlee is still fully unaware of what happened. But, you know, if you're not spending all your time focusing on politics and other things, then you can possibly—possibly—lose the plot.

Can I just say one thing: the National Party today—and its image is very clear—is a party with a small "n". It's not a centre party any more. It is still in the throes of "Ruthanomics", even though that was a disaster that took the National Party, in the space of three years, from the biggest majority ever to a hung Parliament—in three years flat. They still hanker for that. They've still got control of the National Party, and, as for the rest of the backbenchers, they've got no influence whatsoever.

Here we've got Mr Goldsmith. You know what his experience is: he's looking to cut anything and everything. He's spent every time on massive, essential investments in provincial New Zealand scoffing at every idea—parked up in Epsom. He's notorious, of course, because he's the only politician in the whole Western World that is remembered for pulling his hoardings down—not for putting his hoardings up; pulling them down. We have never seen that—

David Seymour: How's Northland going?

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —anywhere in the Western World, and now here's the political cuckold from Epsom shouting out now. You know who that is, don't you? The one who's looking for a second tango partner.

In fact, I saw the other night on TV him dancing, again—it was on the weekend show—and I had a good, hard look at myself and I thought, "You know, this cannot surely be—that we in New Zealand have a Parliament where people are so desperate for publicity they're prepared to do that." They pick these special moments on national TV to humiliate themselves.

But, you know, can you remember the ACT Party's leadership? I do. Remember who the first one was? Douglas, and then Prebble, then Hide, then White—was it? And who else—somebody in between?

Hon Members: Brash.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, Don Brash—sorry. Oh, Don Brash, yes. Don Brash, and now Seymour. Now look, this is a case of serious, mortal mental deficiency—it shows. Seven leaders—seven—and the present one's only there now because there's not a second vote. That's what he's doing there.

By the way, when you say something like you said the other day, if I thought he had a cent, I'd sue him. But he said on TV something that's defamatory. If I thought he had any money or he had a sense of being able to pay me, I'd sue him, but I'm not going to waste all my money to get—

Hon Simon Bridges: Talk's cheap, sweetheart.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No, no. Talk's not cheap—that member's going to find out how expensive it is. This is a member that's all over a tape recording of illicit funding of the National Party. The tape recording's going to be disclosed in this Parliament shortly.

Hon Simon Bridges: Run us through the defamation.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: And he's shouting out that he's innocent. Is it somebody else's voice? Is it somebody else's voice? Mr Bridges, when the voice is played, will it be Mr Bridges' voice or someone else's? Because if it's his voice, then he's deeply implicated. He gave the directions. No wonder he said he wanted to move on—he wanted to move on.

Can I just say that recently the Fitch Ratings agency said that New Zealand had sound fiscal management, low and declining debt in relation to GDP, and they said that this would enhance the country's resilience to economic and financial shocks. The reality is that we face difficult times that I have forecast in the past. I'm not trying to be wise before the event, but if you look at the level of bank indebtedness around the world and the amount of money that's been given to cheap interest, then you've got to ask yourself: when does the ferryman have to be paid? When will the day of reckoning be? So for this Government to be positioning itself in preparation for these sorts of potential financial difficulties is a very, very sound measure.

For all those who will say otherwise, bear this in mind: when this shock happens, we will be affected; just like we are with coronavirus as we speak, where it will have a 2 percent effect—it looks like—on the Chinese economy. There are going to be international ramifications. The issue is: have we done all that we can to ensure that we've protected and shielded our people from those consequences? And I believe we have.

We're looking at ways to support small and medium businesses, and in that regard, the following principles are guiding our policy development: the ease of understanding and compliance, tax efficiency, practical tax relief that will have a real impact on economic growth, innovation, and productivity. We're going, compared to other similar economies, very, very, well. But we could do and can do a whole lot better.

Now, do you remember the National Party and its rail privatisation programme? Well, I do. In 1993, they flogged it off to their friends. Then they recapitalised it and the shares went up to $9.34, and after they'd recapitalised it and gouged it, the shares went down to 28c. That's their record on rail. So then the Labour Party bought it back, having realised that this wasn't a very wise thing to do, and put it back together again. National gets back in and deliberately set out to run it into the ground again—again.

Chris Bishop: Rubbish!

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know it's rubbish, and that's your specialty. Unbelievable. What a sucker, eh? Ha, ha! What a sucker. I want to focus on my speech; otherwise I'd have a field day. It's like having a duel of wits with an unarmed opponent, mate. And I don't like being unfair to people, I'm a nice guy.

Back to my point. Can I just say that the big thing that's going to happen this year—it's important for New Zealanders to recognise this—is that we need a dialogue with the New Zealand people about our future population policy because the forecast of New Zealand's population by 2050 has got us there already. All the forecasts said that where New Zealand would be in 2050 is today's population, and no one has had a discussion with any New Zealanders at all and the consequences are huge. We can see the straining and suffering out there, where we've got Third World problems that we have allowed to be created, because we haven't had a focused, smart policy.

Where are they all going to? Mainly to Auckland. All around the provinces we need workers. So we need a focused immigration policy that looks at making sure the provinces get their fair share of overseas expertise as well. Meanwhile out in the provinces, there's a different dichotomy of ageing, where they are older than in the big cities with so much immigration. What that means in the long run is that they'll be gouged out, as well, until the services all go. We need to look after New Zealand from Invercargill to Kaitāia, and to understand this more than anything else: that it's the riches of the provinces that keep this country going, that you can burn down our cities but the provinces will build them up, but you burn down the provinces and you're gone. One party understands that.

I want to tell people out in provincial New Zealand that they've got all these members of Parliament from the National Party from the provinces—they're lions in the electorate and lambs in the caucus. They have never defended the interests of the provinces when it comes to exporters and farmers.

Look, let me say—because I was a member of the National Party once—if your choice as a young person is to join the National Party because you're trying to find a wife or husband, there are better places to go—there are better places to go for real company. The problem is that once they get here, the big banks get to them and they stop speaking for the provinces. For example, when was the last time Sarah Dowie made a speech about Invercargill? When was the last time that Mr McKelvie made a speech about the provinces? When was the last time anybody in the countryside from the National Party got up and told the world what the country needed? Now, you know, it's deafening—they can't tell me one example. Well, who was the last one that made a speech?

And please don't tell me the guy from the prosecution office from Tauranga, even though he didn't have a warrant. Please don't say he speaks for the country. Oh yes, it sounds good on the CV; he used to be a prosecutor, he says—he used to be a Crown prosecutor. Mr Bridges, did you have a warrant? No, again exposed. It's like taking candy off a baby, isn't it? Just answer the question. Oh, Judith knows, because Judith has a real background in law; I do respect that. But when it comes to the man with all the teeth in Tauranga: no go, no show. Thank you very much.

Hon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. Before I turn my attention to the Prime Minister's statement, I just want to take a moment to draw this House's attention, and our memory, to the catastrophic fires that occurred in Australia over the summer, many of which are still burning now. I think it's pretty easy amongst all the hurly-burly of our election year to forget the crises that have occurred to our nearest neighbour. There was, and has been, extraordinary loss of wildlife, of human life, of forestry, and of property. The areas that were burned by the fires, if that had occurred here in New Zealand, would have stretched from Cape Reinga in the North to Rotorua and burned everything in between. I just think if we could take a moment to just acknowledge the scale of what has happened in Australia, because this House has not yet had an opportunity to reflect or acknowledge the catastrophe that has befallen Australia, and so I just wanted to take this moment to do so before we begin.

Sitting and listening to the Prime Minister's statement, I felt enormously proud of everything that this Government has done, is doing, and is going to do to make this country even better and to ensure that it is a great place to live for all of us, and not just all of us now, but for generations to come. So it is with great pleasure that I do stand on behalf of the Green Party to support the Prime Minister's motion and her statement that this House has confidence in this Government.

I do hope that the politics of this place—and we have seen that amplified already by the proximity of the election, even though it is still something like eight months away—won't distract us from the fact that we still have some big decisions to make that will have a profound effect on the lives of New Zealanders. Whether it is to ensure that people have warm and safe houses, or whether it's ending child poverty, or supporting young people who are going through a rough time, it is within these four walls that we can make and do make a huge difference to people's lives. Some of us have got different ideas about how to do that than others, but either way, I think all of us in this House should remember—and with humility—that it is a responsibility that we walk into every time we walk into this Chamber, for this place, it doesn't belong to us, to the 120 members of this Parliament; it belongs to the people of Aotearoa New Zealand. It belongs to people who tonight will be sitting around the dinner table worrying about how to pay the bills. It'll be the people who are working tirelessly to improve our communities; people up and down the country who are starting and running businesses.

In the next eight months, we will be asking those people, the people who put us here, to hold us to account for what we have done. We too in the Greens will ask them to support the ideas that we have about where to go next. Most of these New Zealanders, I'm sure, want a Government that will not just confront the challenges that we face at the urgency and the scale that that requires, but actually solve those challenges; not just acknowledge that there is a problem, but actually deal with it—creating a better future for their kids and for their grandkids; a thriving natural world; a cleaner, greener, and safer community in every part of the country; a zero-carbon economy; and a world where every New Zealander can earn not just enough to meet their basic living costs but to enjoy those things that many of us, and certainly all of us in this Chamber, take for granted, like time away with the whānau or a treat at the weekends.

Now, one term of Government was never going to be enough to fix everything that needed to be fixed, but we have made an incredible start, and New Zealanders know it. Nine years of a National-led Government demanded it. Look back at that nine-year period, and what most people will see is the familiar pattern of neglect that accompanies every National Government—not just this last one, but the one before that and the one before that. Look back on that nine-year period that most people will see as that familiar pattern of neglect. They'll see families that are struggling to make ends meet, forced to make impossible choices between heating their home or putting food on the table. They'll see polluted rivers and a nearly cataclysmic absence of the native creatures that we know should inhabit our forests and our land; a complete absence of meaningful action to tackle the climate crisis. That's what they will look back on on those last nine years.

On that last point, Mr Speaker, you well know that there are kids growing up today who are deeply worried about the future that they will inherit as climate change impacts their lives. It's hardly surprising, when you consider that every year that they have been alive has been the hottest on record—every year for teenagers growing up today has been the hottest on record. As they think about their future, they're looking at us and wondering whether we have the courage to step up. They want to know if we will take the action to create that better and cleaner world for them and their families, or what they will inherit from us for their children. I know what I want to be able to say to them. Climate change, it is not just another subject; it is a prism through which young people see the world.

Yet, in their term of Government, National squandered nearly a decade of opportunity to do something about it, to create a better future. They gave us no reason to hope. They eroded any promise of change. They became a risk to our shared future. That is not just negligent; that is unforgivable. So here, two years into what we will hope will be a very long period of Opposition for them, instead of using that time to think up ideas about how to undo the damage that they did, the only thing that they have managed to prioritise is an ugly politics of fear and misinformation and resentment. As we get closer to the election—we're eight months out, and you've got to remember what you just saw from the Leader of the Opposition; that's going to get worse—the National Party will pit country against town. They will promise simple fixes to complex solutions. In fact, Mr Bridges even said in his speech, "It's simple. Just build more roads."—the answer to every single question, every single challenge. "More roads" is the answer to every question that they have. Worst of all, they deny their responsibility for creating the very problems that they say that they want to solve. We will not adopt those tactics. We will not say just whatever comes into our heads because we think it might work. We will not make up stuff about the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, and we will not exploit people's genuine concerns for political gain.

We will win by talking to New Zealanders about the type of future that they want and the ideas that we have about how to get there. And we will win because of our track record in Government, regardless of anything that they say. More than two years ago, the Green Party members of Parliament elected to take seats in this place helped to create a Government that is committed to reversing the negligence of nine years of the previous National administration. We made a promise to Aotearoa that we would not shy away from the future that demanded us but work to shape it. And we here today have a track record of huge progress.

In our first two years, we have taken more action on climate change than the last 30 years of Governments combined: the zero carbon Act, the Climate Change Commission, the emissions trading scheme reforms, the first set of emissions budgets, the billions of dollars that we are investing in rail and light rail and buses and walking and cycling infrastructure, the billion trees programme, the end of offshore oil and gas exploration, electrifying the public service car fleet, companies reporting to their shareholders and State services organisations reporting to their Ministers on their climate-related risks.

I know—I know that there will be people out there who say we've not gone far enough. But no one should ever think—no one should ever think—that the hard work is not worth it because we haven't got everything that we want. You try telling that to Marama Davidson, who has worked so hard to ensure that our loved ones, our friends and our whānau have warm, safe, and dry houses in which to live. Or tell that to Eugenie Sage, who has delivered the largest boost to conservation funding since the Department of Conservation was founded in the 1980s. Barely a week goes by when there isn't some more good news about our native wildlife, and, thanks in no small part to her efforts, most people are shopping with their own bags rather than suffocating single-use plastic that we came to rely on. Or tell that to Julie Anne Genter, who has led a massive reprioritisation of transport spending to give people better, cleaner, and safer options for getting around.

And let me say this about the Advertising Standards Authority finding on the National Party, who found yesterday that the National Party thinks that they cannot hold this Government to account without lying about what it is that we're doing—

SPEAKER: Order! Order!

Hon JAMES SHAW: Beg your pardon, Mr Speaker. Try telling Jan Logie that the work to reform the way that we manage and reduce sexual and domestic violence has not been worth it. Or tell Gareth Hughes, who has changed the future direction of this country by working successfully to end offshore oil and gas permits that that hasn't been worth it. Or Chlöe Swarbrick, who has done so much to ensure that young people have the support that they need when they need it to live fulfilling lives.

It's work that serves to remind us that we are stronger when we have each other's backs, when we're looking out for one another, when we're giving support that makes sense to the people who are needing it. Tell that to Golriz Ghahraman, who has championed changes to our democracy that build trust and make us more accountable to the people who put us here.

We have done all of this. We have done all of this and so much more with just eight members of Parliament. Imagine what we could do with just a few more. There will never be a moment that we can say that we are done or that we have won. Lasting change demands that we keep working every single day further and faster towards a future where all New Zealanders have everything that they need to lead fulfilling and meaningful and prosperous lives, where everything from our morning coffee, to travelling to and from work, to warming our homes is powered by clean, renewable energy; where our precious plants and our animals are protected and our wild places are looked after for future generations.

This Government of three parties has shown how we can work through our differences and find common ground that benefits all New Zealanders. Who will be around the table for those discussions after the election is a matter for New Zealanders to decide. But for those who say they want us to do more, I say, get involved. Get involved—get involved in the issues that are affecting your communities and our nation, whether that's online or at a neighbourhood meeting, whether that's conversations with your friends and your family, talk about your ideas for solving the issues that matter to you. Demand more of us. Knock on some doors. You never know, that small action that you take might change somebody's mind. That might change the political environment in which the next Government has no option but to move further and faster towards that future that we need.

With two years at the heart of Government, the Green Party's first-ever time in Government, we have done a huge amount to create a better future for our kids and our grandchildren. But what we do next—what we do next—is where you will find our better future: an Aotearoa defined by its leadership on climate change, by fairness and equality, and a thriving natural environment. Making this happen is the only way that we can keep our promise to future generations that we will leave behind a world that is better off for what we did. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to the Prime Minister's motion and with some support for the National leader's amendments that you've finally received on the Table and with a few additional comments.

This year, New Zealand faces a choice between the politics of gesture and the best political marketer in the world, who is also the world's worst policy deliverer. A choice between a speech which delivered no substance whatsoever—there were lots of intentions. You have to hand it to the Prime Minister for outlining the intentions—everyone wants a better world—but not once did she describe how it would be delivered. And as for the Deputy Prime Minister—for now—well, let me give a bit of an education in some of the basic shapes. [Holds up pictures] This is a pentagon. This is a hexagon. This is an octagon. And this is a "should-be-gone". And there's so many reasons why he should be gone.

He says, "Oh, I'd sue, but you don't have any money." Here's the truth: the truth is that it's all gone wrong. The facts are out there. People know what's been going on. He can bluff and he can bluster, and he can huff and puff and threaten to blow our house down, but the truth is going to come out, and it's going to finish a career. The tragedy of that career being finished is this: people are going to sit down and try and write the legacy of Winston Peters. They'll try and compare it to the legacy of, perhaps, Mike Moore, who changed this country for the better for ever. As they sit and they try to describe what Winston Peters has achieved in 40 years, they will find they have nothing to write. What a shame—what a shame. But, sadly, it is still true that he is taking the shape of a "should-be-gone".

This Government is so filled with good intentions, and yet none of them work. Most of them, it turns out, actually, are a failure. The Prime Minister, as has been noted, didn't talk about KiwiBuild. I think she talked about the Child Poverty Reduction Act. What has it done? It's seen child poverty go up—as if passing a law to measure child poverty was actually going to reduce it.

We've seen intrusive market studies into whole sectors, such as petrol retailing, and get this: the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs says that they're going to bring down the price of petrol 32c by attacking the cut that petrol companies take. Well, the petrol companies only take 25c a litre, so can the Minister of commerce—you know, I've done geometry for the Deputy Prime Minister; maybe the Minister of commerce needs to learn basic arithmetic. You can't cut the price of petrol 32c by reducing the petrol company's cut when the petrol company only takes 25c. That's the problem in a nutshell with this Government.

Then they banned plastic bags to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean. Well, there're two problems with that. I actually asked the Government how much of the plastic from the ocean comes from plastic bags in New Zealand. Do you know how much it was? No? Neither do they. The Government can't tell you how big the problem is they were trying to solve. So they've got us all walking out of the supermarket like this [Mimes holding groceries] or buying even thicker bags with more plastic to solve a problem they don't even know exists.

I could go on and on talking about ineffectual policies that this Government has put in place. Here's one: we have a real problem in this country with our firearm laws. We know this because an Australian weirdo—and, frankly, as it turns out, one of the most evil people to set foot on our shores—is able to get off the plane. He's a single male. He lives alone. He's just got here. He gets a licence. He gets an AR-15. The police sign off on 3,000 rounds of ammunition. No alarm bells were rung. No one thought, "Gee, this is a bit of a problem." What's the Government done? They haven't solved any of those problems. What they have done is they've gone and isolated and undignified and collectively punished a quarter of a million New Zealanders who did nothing wrong. How's that for a Government of inclusion and kindness? It's another damaging policy that is ineffectual.

And then the Prime Minister had the temerity to say—and I guess if you're 100 percent marketing-led you can say these things regardless of their veracity—that this is a Government of infrastructure. I mean, how does a Government of infrastructure spend two years trying to work out which projects they're ideologically opposed to and then try to take the credit for building infrastructure that could have been started two years ago? If that's a Government of infrastructure, then I'd hate to see one that actually does things on time.

Not only are their policies ineffective at making New Zealand a better place; they're actually damaging. This Government sees every aspect of public policy through the lens of class warfare. Employers are people who save up, invest capital, have ideas, and attract customers so they can give someone a job. I think that's pretty cool. I think that's admirable. Not this Government. At every step of the way—minimum wage increases, national awards under the new name of fair pay agreements, new regulations on every aspect of employment—they actually make it harder for people to employ. They actually make it harder for people to get jobs. That's why you've got record terms of trade and the welfare roll is going up. Only this Government could manage those two things simultaneously.

Take landlords. Landlords are people who save up, invest, manage property, and, for a weekly fee—which is often less than the mortgage on the property—provide accommodation. I think it's a wonderful service. I think they're great people. Not this Government. Constantly, such people find themselves under attack, with more and more rules and regulations that make it harder to do their job. The irony of ironies is that not only is it bad for the landlords but, because landlords and tenants have a symbiotic relationship, this Government manages to hurt the exact people it's trying to help. Almost everything they do harms the people they're trying to help and defeats the purpose they're trying to achieve, because they just don't get basic economics, basic logic, and the basic ways that this society works.

This country deserves better. This country deserves a society that works because it gets better policies that actually deliver the intentions, not just serve as background to an unending marketing campaign by the Prime Minister, who—I'll give it to her—is the best marketer in world politics but the worst public policy deliverer.

Let me say finally, in relation to our Parliament, if there's one thing we can all be proud of and agree on, it's that we have been enormously fortunate to inherit parliamentary democracy. There is a long history where, gradually, power shifted from the monarch to the people, who send representatives to the capital city to speak for them.

It's because of the importance of that job—holding the Crown to account—that we have such great privileges. Traditionally, Mr Speaker, it has been the person in your role who is the prime defender of that tradition. Early Speakers literally lost their heads for speaking up for and defending the rights of parliamentarians versus the Crown. Mr Speaker, I watched your ruling on the Leader of the Opposition, and I observed the way that you treated me through question time towards the end of last year. I'd put it to you that, as the person with the privilege of upholding the parliamentary tradition, you, for now, have all the power except for one, which is to choose how others will judge you as you leave this place in future. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: Following agreement at the Business Committee, the debate on the Prime Minister's statement will now be adjourned and oral questions held. The debate is adjourned and set down for resumption next sitting day.

MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

COVID-19 Outbreak—New Zealand Response

Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I wish to make a ministerial statement in accordance with Standing Order 355 about the novel coronavirus. The novel coronavirus, recently named as COVID-19, was first reported to the World Health Organization on 31 December. As members will be aware, since that time there have been more than 43,000 cases and over 1,000 deaths—the vast majority within China. In New Zealand, we have not yet had a confirmed case but we are taking the threat very seriously and we are well prepared. Our comprehensive health response began on 6 January when the Ministry of Health first sent out advice to DHBs and primary care about the virus. Arrangements were quickly made to ensure that health advice was being provided at the border in a range of languages, including traditional and simplified Chinese.

I'm advised that providing clear health advice remains our best protection against the spread of the coronavirus, and that remains a key part of our ongoing response to this issue. An incident control team was set up within the ministry in the week of 20 January. That same week, on 24 January, the Government's interagency pandemic group met as a precaution. At all times our response to the coronavirus has been informed by the best available public health advice from doctors and clinical experts. That advice and our response are under constant review to ensure we continue to follow best practice and work closely with our international partners.

Based on expert public health advice, on 27 January we deployed public health nurses at Christchurch and Auckland international airports to meet all flights from mainland China, to provide advice and check anyone displaying symptoms. Those measures are ongoing. On 28 January, Cabinet met for the first time this year and made the novel coronavirus a notifiable disease under the Health Act—that means we have all the appropriate public health powers in place to deal with the COVID-19 if and when it arrives in New Zealand.

That same day the Ministry of Health activated the National Health Coordination Centre, which is operating seven days a week to monitor the situation and which provides updated advice on a daily basis. Our response to the coronavirus has been measured and responsive. As the number of cases has increased and disease has spread, we have been constantly reviewing our position to ensure we are doing what is required to keep New Zealanders safe.

On Monday, 3 February the Government introduced travel restrictions that prevent anyone other than New Zealand citizens or permanent residents who have been in China in the last 14 days from entering New Zealand. This step was not taken lightly but followed updated health advice and was in step with Australia, the US, and several other countries—more have since followed suit. I would note that our border restrictions complement the actions taken by the Chinese Government to contain this virus within its borders. No country has taken stricter measures at their border than China itself.

All New Zealanders who have been in China in the last 14 days and have returned home since the travel restrictions were introduced have been asked to go into self-isolation for 14 days, which is believed to be longer than the incubation period of this virus. Previous experience suggests that self-isolation compliance rates will be high, as people are conscious of the risks that infectious diseases pose to their family, whānau, and community. For example, during the 2009 influenza pandemic there were high rates of compliance in the initial weeks of the event and the ministry did not need to use any powers to ensure self-isolation. So far more than 1,800 people have self-registered with Healthline about their isolation. Healthline staff are keeping in regular contact with those people to provide them advice and support and to check on their welfare. Customs and the Ministry of Health are also sharing data to enable Healthline to proactively contact anyone who has returned from China but has yet to register with Healthline.

Members will also be aware that the Government arranged an evacuation flight for New Zealanders and Pacific Island citizens in the city of Wuhan: 157 people remain in isolation at the military facility at Whangaparāoa. They are receiving regular health checks, and if anyone displays any symptoms, no matter how mild, they are being tested for coronavirus. To date, no one has tested positive.

New Zealand is well placed to respond to emerging infectious diseases, we have a strong public health service and a longstanding—

SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.