Covid-19 is dominating question time this week with Ministers fronting up on issues including wage subsidies, education, testing, and border controls.
National MPs spread out in the debating chamber to meet level 2 distancing requirements Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Parliament was meant to have dissolved on 12 August but was delayed twice by the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; first to 17 August and then again to 6 September following an outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland.
Dissolution is a formal process which brings a parliament to end and starts the election process. The election date has also been postponed from 17 September to 17 October.
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The delay has added two extra weeks to the parliamentary sitting calendar requiring MPs to turn up to the debating chamber in Wellington but it's not quite business as usual.
Fewer MPs are in the chamber and must adhere to physical distancing. No members of the public are allowed in the galleries and the list of business before MPs is much shorter than usual with the House only sitting for two days instead of the normal three and finishing up a couple hours after 2pm.
See RNZ's full coverage of Covid-19
Question time still took place on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week with Covid-19 the focus of every question.
It's one of the quickest items MPs work through and consists of up to 12 oral question to Ministers. Its purpose is to provide a space in the public eye where Ministers can be questioned on their plans, policies, and actions.
Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins questions the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Parliament sitting under alert level 2 Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
On Tuesday the Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins' quizzed the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on what she knew about how Covid-19 entered Auckland.
COLLINS: What advice, if any, has she received on the most likely way COVID-19 entered Auckland, causing the lockdown which began on 12 August, and what weaknesses, if any, have officials identified in border procedures which may have left New Zealand vulnerable to fresh outbreaks of COVID-19?
ARDERN: I have been advised that as with all countries which have faced resurgence, we should not rule anything in or out without evidence. That's why we have undertaken border testing that has covered our front-line agency workers, testing across our managed isolation facilities, contact tracing, and environmental testing—and even secondary environmental testing at the worksite that remains our earliest sign of this outbreak. To date, we have not established the source of the current cluster, but investigations continue.
The full exchange is lengthy and can be read or watched on Parliament's website.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern answers questions from National Party Leader Judith Collins on the Government's response to Covid-19 Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
There are generally two types of questions; harder hitting ones from Opposition MPs which are more critical of the Government like this one from the National Party's finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith to the Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
GOLDSMITH: The Government's COVID website says that if a business needs to, it can pay just the full-time workers the subsidy rate, but that rate is well below the minimum wage. The Employment Relations Authority says the Government's advice, essentially, is wrong, and that the minimum wage must be paid. Isn't there a problem?
ROBERTSON: I answered a number of questions about this during the period of time when the first wage subsidy was put into place. Employers are well aware of the need to follow the law.
National MP Paul Goldsmith is the party's finance spokesperson Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
The other type of question is a softer one asked by MPs from governing parties which is often referred to as a 'patsy question' like this one from Labour MP Greg O'Connor to the Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
O'CONNOR: What recent actions has he taken to support the New Zealand economy under the current COVID-19 restrictions?
ROBERTSON: With the re-emergence of COVID-19 in the community, the Government is again moving quickly to cushion the blow for businesses and workers. Yesterday, I announced criteria for a new nationwide wage subsidy covering the period that Auckland is at COVID-19 alert level 3, along with the removal of the revenue drop test for the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme and an extension of the mortgage deferral scheme from its current end date of 27 September to 31 March 2021.
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson address a smaller than normal House meeting under Covid-19 level 2 restrictions following an outbreak in Auckland. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
There were other patsy questions which allowed Ministers to share achievements or reports including one on specific interventions for Māori and Pacific peoples in the Covid-19 response and one on support for students whose education has been disrupted by the shift to alert level 3 in Auckland.
Question time normally lasts for about an hour and there are no requirements for action at its conclusion. The point is to give MPs in the House of Representatives an opportunity to hold the government to account by questioning them in public on their performance.
The House will sit again next Tuesday 25 August and Wednesday 26 August.
