The Government should front up and be honest about which regions Health officials said could be in “Green” at the start of the Traffic Light Framework, National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“Chris Hipkins ducked and dived to avoid answering this question in Question Time today but places like Wellington and the South Island deserve to know if the officials’ preliminary view was that they could enter the Traffic Light Framework at Green, which is far less restrictive than Red or Orange.

“Dr Bloomfield has provided an affidavit to the Waitangi Tribunal saying that “our preliminary view was that various regions could enter into the CPF [Covid Protection Framework] on Green”.

“People in Canterbury – currently at 92 per cent double vaccinated and rising – will rightly wonder what on earth it would take for them to be at Green. The same applies for the Southern DHB region (90 per cent double vaccinated), and Capital and Coast (93 per cent).

“Chris Hipkins almost certainly knows what regions the officials said could be at “Green” but he didn’t want to tell Parliament this afternoon.

“The Government is not following its own Traffic Light Framework criteria. Red is meant to be for when hospitalisations are at unsustainable levels. In the Prime Minister’s own words, Auckland is tracking well but yet it remains at Red. Moreover, the public has no idea what the trigger is for Orange and Green settings.

“What is very clear is that the Government just makes things up as they go. There was no plan for Delta, no back-up plan if elimination failed and the messy last six months has been the result.”

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