“The ACT Party is this week sending our thoughts to the families who have been cruelly separated by the Government’s rigid MIQ booking system,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Christmas Day is meant to be a time of families coming together. For many it will be filled with loneliness and sadness that should have been avoided.

“Now the Government has decided to delay the end of MIQ for Aussie-based Kiwis. They say they want to ‘buy time’ to get booster shots done, then announced early boosters won’t start until next year.

“We have heard heart-breaking stories of fathers who are yet to meet their new-born children, husbands and wives who are separated, and families separated as they prepare to farewell a loved one.

“Christmas will be a difficult day for many families. MIQ should have been scrapped months ago. The Government talks about kindness – but there is nothing kind about separating families at Christmas.

“The ACT Party will continue to lobby the Government to make sensible changes to its COVID response, so families can be together and New Zealanders can get back to some sort of normality.”

Our latest COVID-19 policy paper can be found here.

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