Page:New Zealand Parliament Hansard 2021-03-09.pdf/5

9 Mar 2021

The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.

SPEAKER: I’ve asked the Deputy Speaker to say the prayer today, and both he and the Assistant Speakers will regularly take that responsibility.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: E te Atua kaha rawa, ka tuku whakamoemiti atu mātou, mō ngā karakia kua waihotia mai ki runga i a mātou. Ka waiho i ō mātou pānga whaiaro katoa ki te taha. Ka mihi mātou ki te Kuīni, me te inoi atu mō te ārahitanga i roto i ō mātou whakaaroarohanga, kia mōhio ai, kia whakaiti ai tā mātou whakahaere i ngā take o te Whare nei, mō te oranga, te maungārongo, me te aroha o Aotearoa. Amene.

[''Almighty God, we give thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed on us. Laying aside all personal interests, we acknowledge the Queen, and pray for guidance in our deliberations, that we may conduct the affairs of this House with wisdom and humility, for the welfare, peace, and compassion of New Zealand. Amen.'']

SPEAKER: Before I call the Leader of the House for his ministerial statement, for which notice has been given, I want to explain to the House how it will operate. The 2020 review of the Standing Orders recommended that members be able to engage in a short question and answer session with the Minister giving the statement. The intention of the Standing Orders Committee was that ministerial statements could operate in a similar way to the committee of the whole House, where members ask questions and Ministers answer them. So the Minister can make the statement, and then members may ask questions if they wish and/or make comments. I will allow an extended time, if necessary, for Ministers who ask questions. Ministers are required to address these questions but are not given carte blanche to make another speech.

Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Since the House last met, Auckland has once again been through the arduous ordeal of a lockdown, and New Zealanders have been reminded of the need for continued vigilance in responding to COVID-19.

On Saturday, 27 February, a new case emerged which could not be immediately linked to the previous cases in the Auckland February cluster. We found ourselves in a position that was fairly clear-cut: there was no immediate link for the new case, and, even if there had been, a large number of exposure events associated with the latest case posed a significant risk of spread. This led Ministers to take the cautious approach which has served New Zealand so well through the pandemic and move Auckland to alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to alert level 2. Over the past week, our systems have once again been put to the test. I’m pleased to say that they have demonstrated their overall strength.

By Friday afternoon, six days after identifying the new case, over 60,000 COVID-19 tests had been carried out—a significant proportion of those in Auckland—and 77 percent of the population of the Counties Manukau DHB have been tested. Our contact tracing team identified and managed roughly 6,000 contacts linked to the 15 cases. We were able to genomically link cases to give us confidence that we were dealing with a contained cluster, and we carried out regular wastewater testing at key sites, the results of which