“When Jacinda Ardern announces the traffic light changes today she should follow her own criteria and move Auckland to Orange and the South Island to Green,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The Government’s Traffic Light System says a region will be in Red when the health system faces an ‘unsustainable number of hospitalisations’.

“It’s clear the health system isn’t being overwhelmed right now.

“Moving to Orange would remove the venue size limits that are killing so much activity in Auckland and other regions in Red. Hospitality, events, even weddings and funerals are being severely limited by Orange.

“The Government needs to stop making it up as it goes along and follow its own rules.

“Jacinda told Parliament that “as we move into it, we've said we'll deliberately take a cautious approach, because we've learnt from overseas: if you move too fast, you run the risk of those cases getting out of control, and no one wants that.”

“If we have rules and even the Government won’t follow them, what chance does it have of taking the public with them?

“Labour’s logic at the border is also lacking.

“Does the risk of fully-vaccinated, negative-tested New Zealanders returning home and self-isolating really outweigh the benefit of them spending Christmas with their families when thousands who’ve tested positive can self-isolate?

“Meanwhile, keeping the border closed until April, while Australian and Canadian schools and universities are back in the market for international students, seriously holds back the economy.

“When Cabinet meets today it needs to show some common sense and follow its own rules.”

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