Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I was particularly interested in the comments of the Minister for COVID-19 Response early in his speech, where he quite rightly said that we have done very well, but then he followed it up with something like, "The success is not obvious". I'm not quite sure what he was referring to, because I think the success, at least in elimination, over time is obvious, and we have been doing very well. But if the only goal is COVID-19 elimination at any cost, and the only measure of the success of that goal is how much money we spend and how many deaths and serious harm we save, then that might be the case. But what is actually not obvious are the other costs, the non-financial costs, every time we raise alert levels. We saw this last year, particularly in the Epidemic Response Committee, heard compelling testimony from people who were not able to farewell a loved one who passed, or to celebrate a wedding, or to be there with the mother in her labour and delivery, and they were heartbreaking stories, and we're back at them. We're back at that level where, at least in Auckland, significant costs are being incurred. There are other financial costs that don't fall on the Crown, of course. We might be saving lives but tens of thousands of livelihoods are at risk and will be lost as a consequence of further rises in alert level, such as the one we have this week. 