"There is no rhyme nor reason for spending an additional day at Alert Level 3 in Auckland, but the cost is estimated at $45 million," according to ACT Leader David Seymour
"Normally a $45 million dollar decision to keep Auckland closed for a day would come with some analysis and rigour. The Government uses an approach of black box political theatre where such decisions just mysteriously emerge.
"Hardworking business owners will lose another day of profitability for no clear reason, and the Prime Minister is still not telling the truth.
"At the same press conference that the Prime Minister said that she would start telling us the plan for COVID 'over the coming weeks,' the decision to keep Auckland locked down for an additional week had no rationale whatsoever.
"The Government tells us that it expects new cases and must keep Auckland at level 2 for an extra five days, but that doesn't explain why the hospitality industry for the entire rest of New Zealand will have to operate under Alert Level 2 restrictions that cripple profitability tomorrow. If they were confident in their contact tracing and self-isolation, Auckland would be able to operate with more freedom.
"In the absence of transparency, decisions seem arbitrary. It is time the Government brought us into its confidence on basic questions such as why we are remaining at Alert Level 3 in Auckland and 2 in the rest of the country for one extra day.