News that our national men’s cricket team may get vaccinated ahead of the elderly and other at-risk groups shows why the Government needs to release its full vaccine schedule, so every New Zealander knows where they stand in the queue.

“New Zealanders deserve more transparency than they’re getting from the Government on the vaccine rollout,” National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“New Zealand has lagged behind the rest of the world for months. About 80 countries started vaccinating before us and we’ve only administered a miniscule amount compared to many other nations.

“The slow pace of our rollout is now starting to bite, and we’re fast approaching a situation of having to bump sportspeople up the priority queue so they can participate in events like the Olympics in Japan and the World Test Championship final in England.

“No one wants to deny out elite sportspeople the chance to complete in these events but it’s only fair that every New Zealander knows where they stand in the vaccine queue compared to them.

“Other governments around the world haven’t been anywhere near as secretive as the Labour Government has with this information. All Australians have known for weeks now exactly when they will be receiving vaccines.

“The Government needs to be open and transparent about what its vaccine plan is – and if it doesn’t have a plan yet then it needs to be honest about that too.”

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