"ACT welcomes Chris Hipkins’ suggestion in Parliament today that the COVID-19 Response Act might not be around for much longer, and encourages him to just get on with the job and rip it up already,” ACT’s Leader David Seymour says.
“Minister Hipkins essentially put a timebomb on his own ministerial portfolio by saying the Government is in the phase of looking at whether the Act is still necessary, and are considering whether it’s time to repeal it.
“ACT is happy to inform the Government that it isn’t necessary, and it is time to repeal it.
“Always ahead of the curve, ACT has been saying since November 2021 that it’s time to move on from emergency COVID laws and get back to running the country with our traditional constitutional laws, we’re glad the Government is finally catching up with us.
“The Traffic Light system that currently exists by virtue of the COVID Response Act is totally redundant. The Government dismantled their own system to the point it has no reason to exist. It was introduced to control crowd limits, encourage vaccination and for contact tracing. None of these elements are in play anymore.
“These rules don’t make sense anymore but just constrain peoples’ everyday lives and make us a less attractive destination to tourists.
“Why on earth would people want to come here if they thought they’d have to isolate for seven days after testing positive? Newsflash, they won’t.
“New Zealanders are fed up. It’s time to move on. No more pressers from the podium of truth, no more arbitrary traffic light and alert level systems, no more fear about what restrictions could be inflicted on us at a moment’s notice. The COVID Response Act is no longer necessary for New Zealand and the sooner we get rid of it the sooner we will bring some normality back."