National and ACT continue to refuse to agree to a virtual sitting of Parliament, despite advice from the Director General Health that “it is not advisable that MP’s participate in a large indoor gathering for an extended period of time, or travel inter-regionally to do so, while the COVID-19 risk to New Zealand remains high”.

“We will not allow National or ACT to dictate what oranga looks like for us and so we will not be travelling to Wellington in Level 4 conditions this week.” says Co-Leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

“We believe it is our role as leaders to lead by example, to continue practicing alert levels 3 & 4 and proceed with caution in order to protect our whakapapa. National and ACT are putting us all at risk, and it wreaks of white privilege” says Ngarewa-Packer.

“There is no reason why we cannot conduct parliamentary business via zoom; it’s the 21st century. We are no longer in the dinosaur age and so they could very well do with some support in coming into the digital era.

“It is a reckless move by National and ACT to intentionally disregard expert advice, for the sake of egos and politicking, and we are concerned that the Prime Minister is allowing for them to make this determination on their own and put us all at risk of taking COVID back to our vulnerable communities” says Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi

© Scoop Media