Hi Everyone!

As you will know over the weekend Auckland has had to move into COVID-19 Alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand into Alert Level 2 as a result of new community cases in our country. It is important that we all follow Ministry of Health guidance during these uncertain times and keep our communities safe. You can find out more information here.

COVID-19 Update

As you will know over the weekend Auckland has had to move into COVID-19 Alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand into Alert Level 2 as a result of new community cases in our country. It is important that we all follow Ministry of Health guidance during these uncertain times and keep our communities safe. You can find out more information here.

Health and COVID-19 Spokespersons Dr Shane Reti and Chris Bishop have announced National's five point plan to urge the Government to get on top of the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland.

National Believes that we need to:

1. Introduce rapid antigen testing – nasal swab tests that return results in 15 minutes.
2. Roll out high intensity, well-staffed testing stations across Papatoetoe and at every single location of interest
3. Conduct higher intensity wastewater testing at suburb and sub-suburb levels in Papatoetoe
4. Set aside enough vaccines for all border and port workers, then priority vaccinate South Auckland
5. Increase monitoring of people who are required to self-isolate, including spot checks

I  agree 100% with my colleagues that these steps will help greatly reduce the risk of further community transmissions, ensure our businesses can stay open and keep our nation safe. 

Your can find out more about our plan here.

Data Rights, you and New Zealand

For the past couple of years more and more business have had to contend with the questions of how to manage store and arrange appropriate access to their consumer data in addition to the wider Privacy frameworks New Zealanders expect businesses to undertake with their information when we do business.

The reality of the digital age is that doing business online requires more innovation and more challenges as local accountants, lawyers and ordinary businesses alike all try to tackle what a growing concept of a ‘data right’ may mean for their businesses and for their clients. Internationally, particularly in Europe with the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) our businesses and organisations are already being impacted due to clients either being based overseas or having business that in part lies overseas resulting in a need to comply with an international framework adding a regulatory burden outside the control of New Zealand legislators.

This financial and time based ‘hit’ comes locally and that regulatory burden adds a quantifiable cost to a business with extra education, compliance costs and external support usually required to meet rules that are effectively mandatory to any business operating in a global market, something many New Zealand businesses have embraced. Regulations should not take time away from innovation, they should assist. A lot of Kiwi businesses have already reached out to me about these issues informally so it’s time to have a real conversation.

So what should we in New Zealand do, should we ourselves create a Consumer Data right? Over the summer the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has been working on a number of proposals and many businesses, organisations and ordinary Kiwis have given their input to this concept. I’m deeply interested in what your views are, whether you think we need even more digital protections (or less) than those already afforded through our existing regulatory regimes and the Privacy Act, I encourage you to check out the information and read the submissions which come from a wide array of actors in New Zealand’s Digital Economy.

The digital world has amazing opportunities for our economy, our communities and our innovators and it also is deeply challenging for the development of best practice regulations that don’t burden business but help them grow and interact with their customer bases online.

I’m keen to have the conversation with you and your community, feel free to reach out.

Nga Mihi

New Office Location

Just a reminder that over the summer break I moved my office to 107 Great South Road in Greenlane. I'm currently hiring a new support team and will have news about them hopefully in my next newsletter. My new support Team in Auckland will be predominantly focusing on outreach to multicultural communities and I will be continuing to be involved in the Mt Albert Community as well as an Auckland based List MP. 

In the meantime please note that some Contact details have changed:

My new Office phone number is 09 520 0538 - if you dial the old one it will re-route either to this one or my Wellington Office. 

The new Postal Address for the Auckland Office is PO Box 74271 Greenlane Auckland 1546

As usual you can always send postage free any information to my Wellington Office in Parliament at: Office of Melissa Lee MP, Freepost, Parliament Buildings, Private Bag 18888, Wellington 6160

Note: During Alert Level 3 my Auckland office will be closed for in-person meetings but I'm happy to hear from you over the phone, via email or Zoom and my Parliamentary Office in Wellington is open and happy to help. 

My Email address at [email protected] remains the same and is regularly monitored. 

Keep safe everyone!

Kia Kaha.

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Melissa Lee
National List MP based in Auckland
Authorised by Melissa Lee Parliament Buildings, Wellington