“Either the Government didn’t know what was in its national testing strategy, or it lied to New Zealanders about the extent of border testing,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The Prime Minister and the Health Minister have insisted that the Government expected the Ministry of Health to test all staff at the border.

“The Health Minister’s press release on 23 June said there would be ‘asymptomatic testing of all border facing workers’.

“The Government has blamed the Ministry for not implementing the strategy and border staff for refusing tests.

“But the national testing strategy itself says: ‘Screening of all asymptomatic border facing staff…is not thought to be viable.’

“Cabinet signed off on a national testing strategy that clearly said testing all border staff wasn’t viable. Why then has it been telling the public that it expected the Ministry of Health to test all staff at the border? Why has it been blaming the Ministry and border staff?

“Either the Prime Minister and her Ministers haven’t read the national testing strategy, or they’re lying to the public about the extent of testing at the border.

“Either way, the Government’s Covid-19 strategy needs a strong dose of accountability.”

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