and what are your approaches, with Māori specifically, as you have addressed the vulnerability? We would hope that there is effort and, certainly, focus on our Māori vulnerabilities in those who choose to have vaccinations, and not, as we heard this afternoon, on a cricket team. I would love to hear, and we would like to hear, your response to some of these questions. And just finally, thank you, is: when will we see a schedule for Māori roll-out from the Minister? Thank you.
Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): One of the things that the debrief that’s happening at the moment—and that’s happening at a number of levels: it will, obviously, happen at the Ministry of Health where they’ll be looking at their own internal processes and what they can learn from that; and then the review panel that I announced today will also have the opportunity to have a good look at this—will look at is: should our systems and processes be different in a school setting? We’ve actually had some feedback from a number of school leaders, not necessarily involved in this outbreak, pointing out that when you’re dealing with teenagers there are some close contacts they have that they don’t wish to disclose to their parents, let alone a contact tracing team, and that that is something that we needed to factor in in thinking about how we deal with a potential outbreak in a school setting. So we’ll certainly have a closer look at that and consider that.
Health engagement with iwi leaders is ongoing around the testing regime, making sure that Māori are tested appropriately and proportionately and are not under-represented in our testing system. So that engagement is ongoing. When it comes to vaccines, the member will see a bit more about this tomorrow when we release the sequencing framework, but we have absolutely been working very carefully through all of those issues, including who our most at-risk populations are. The member will also be aware that some of our Māori-Pacific population is quite strongly represented in the first cohort—the people who are working at the border—as well. So they and their whānau are already off to a reasonably strong start; we need to make sure that we maintain that right the way through the vaccine campaign.
PETITIONS, PAPERS, SELECT COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
General business resumed.
SPEAKER: I’ll ask the Clerk to repeat the petitions.
CLERK:
- Petition of Andy Earl requesting that the House urge the Government to reinstate the upgrade of State Highway 2 Tauranga to Katikati corridor
- petition of Grant Dixon requesting that the House urge the Government, Auckland Council, and the HLC to set aside 11.2 hectares of Bomb Point as a reserve.
SPEAKER: Those petitions stand referred to the Petitions Committee.
Ministers have delivered papers.
CLERK:
- Annual reports for 2020 of Te Hiringa Hauora/Health Promotion Agency, New Zealand Health Partnerships, and Te Māngai Pāho
- report of the proceedings and operations of the Local Government Commission/Mana Kāwanatanga ā Rohe for the year ended 30 June 2020
- Government response to the report of the Justice Committee on the petition of Charlene Kraatskow
- Government response to the report of the Justice Committee on the petition of Laura O’Connell.
