“COVID Response Minister Chris Hipkins has today admitted under questioning from ACT that there are 86 COVID positive cases isolating at home, so why can’t COVID negative people isolate?” Asks ACT Leader David Seymour.
“Hipkins is treating Kiwis trapped offshore with contempt. His best answer for why people have to go through MIQ is, wait and see. The Government says it is going to exempt travellers from MIQ, but can’t say what the delay is.
“The Government is happy to let seven dozen people with COVID home isolate, but double vaccinated Kiwis who’ve tested negative for COVID-19 have to do two weeks in MIQ.
“Tens of thousands of Kiwis are trying to come home. Many are separated from their family, desperate to be with dying loved ones, trying attend funerals or just wanting to enter their own country.
“The Government is just making it up as it goes along. The rules aren’t fair, and people are getting sick of it. That’s why hundreds of people have complained to the Chief Ombudsman.
“Hipkins said you could only return to Auckland to self-isolate, does he know Auckland’s population is a third of New Zealand?
“It’s time the Government realised we are a team of six million. There are a million off-shore Kiwis who call New Zealand home who have been disowned by the Government. Let’s stop the Hunger Games.”