SPEAKER: Well, I am almost certain that the member was not there for the final meeting, where that was discussed.
David Seymour: Almost?
SPEAKER: Sorry? You were not always there.
DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Point of order. How is it helpful for the order of the House for you to engage in this sort of argument? It’s completely superfluous, unnecessary, and I don’t know why you do it.
SPEAKER: Well, I am not going to be responsible for the member’s ignorance.
PETITIONS, PAPERS, SELECT COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
SPEAKER: No bills have been introduced. Petitions have been delivered to the Clerk for presentation.
CLERK: Petition of Andy Earl requesting that the House urge the Government to reinstate the upgrade of State Highway 2 Tauranga to Katikati corridor.
Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern: Trevor, the Māori Party—the Māori Party.
SPEAKER: Well—
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
SPEAKER: I can see someone calling. My understanding—in fact, I’m prepared to take leave for two minutes for the member, but the party is not entitled to a call, because it’s not a specified party; it is a matter for specified parties. If the House wants the Māori Party to have a call, I’m prepared to seek leave for the Māori Party to do so. Is there any objection? There is none.
General business interrupted.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS
COVID-19—Alert Level Changes
Debate resumed.
DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Kia ora, Mr Speaker. I’d like to speak to the ministerial statement in so much as two matters that came to Te Paati Māori’s attention in the last week, and we’ve been very vocal about them. One was the communication that’s been used. Clearly, the Government has changed strategy, but what we did see is that there hasn’t been a change to the communications. And what we’ve seen is an effort to open schools very early, but it seems to forget that we’re dealing with hundreds of rangatahi—many, we saw in the last week and a bit, whose first language is not English and whose first habit is not to listen to Government messaging.
So what we’ve seen and become, I guess, quickly savvy with is a complex four-category framework that is being used by this Government. But what we didn’t understand, again, is the mix of messaging that has, quite frankly, brought about a mounting mess of, “Are we, aren’t we, should we, shouldn’t we?” It resulted in what we saw in Te Ao Māori as a victim-blaming session in social media—intentionally or not. What we do want to do is ensure that the Minister for COVID-19 Response is aware of this and we stop, together, the backlash that we see that is happening to our communities. While we may be a team of 5 million, I think it’s really important to remember that we have a small team and are relying on 400,000 South Aucklanders to carry the brunt of a lot of the decisions that are coming out of this Whare.
So one of the questions, I guess, that we do want to know from the Minister is: what have we learnt and what is the communication style that we’re going to take going forward? The second thing we would like to put to the Minister is: what are we doing,
