“Nobody will ever believe the Prime Minister again when she says ‘she’s following the public health advice’”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Jacinda Ardern should today implement the public health advice she received – that the Auckland border should be lifted and the whole country, bar Auckland and Northland, should be in Orange – and start releasing the advice as a matter of course. We should not need the Waitangi Tribunal to find out what the Government is up to.

“If the Prime Minister had taken the public health advice we now know she received on 24 November, the South Island would be at Green, the North Island would be at Orange, and the Auckland border would be gone.

“Instead, we are all paying the cost. People are missing funerals because they can’t leave Auckland. One of them was on Friday 3 December, when Ashley Bloomfield told Jacinda Ardern that the Auckland border had ‘served its purpose’.

“Major events are being cancelled and postponed because of crowd limits at Red, when they could have gone ahead at Orange. This Government just has no idea of the costs it is imposing.

“300 police are being sent to Northland to enforce borders that are not necessary, while crime gets out of control in Auckland, because the Prime Minister has made people more afraid of Aucklanders travelling than they needed to be.

“The Government needs to start balancing all of the costs of COVID-19, not just public health.

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