“New Zealanders should be incredibly frustrated that the only travel bubble Jacinda Ardern’s Government has been able to establish is a fictional one, with the North Pole,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Why are so many people prepared to play along with propaganda devices like the Prime Minister giving Santa Claus a border exemption so he can visit New Zealand to deliver Christmas presents when so much more is at stake?

“What about the Cook Islands and Australian bubbles?

“Not to mention our horticulturists and farmers with thousands of sheep to shear – they want more real border exemptions now.

“They desperately need willing and skilled people to pick export quality fruit and prevent an animal welfare issue because sheep that can’t be shorn when they need to be will become fly blown.

“Meanwhile our Aussie cousins, fresh from stealing a march on us by flying in plane loads of seasonal workers from the Pacific before Christmas, are taking Covid-19 isolation and testing to a whole new level.

“So long as the country of origin is of low risk, workers are being kept in small bubbles throughout their travel and being transported straight from the airport to their workplace.

“Once there, they only mix in the group they arrived with for the first two weeks in the field and the Covid-19 testers come to them.

“That way there’s no delay getting to work and no costly two week stay in a state run managed isolation facility.

“There’s no good reason that we need to be running managed isolation the way we do for so many of the people coming into New Zealand, but this Government won’t work with businesses to develop equally safe but more flexible solutions that will help our economy.

“The message from this Government is simple, let’s talk about Santa Claus and wait for the vaccine, the economy will limp along till then.

“ACT says it doesn’t need to be this way, other countries are proving that, and we’ll keep reminding the Prime Minister regardless of how many fluffy diversions she throws up.”

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