“The sooner the Government’s COVID tsar Sir Brian Roche can be brought before a select committee to explain how he proposes to fix the shambles he’s taken on the better,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Today’s Health Select Committee revelations that an MIQ hotel worker hadn’t been tested for COVID for six months before testing positive for the virus is evidence of how bad things are across the COVID response.

“All these issues are in one way or another relating back to an alarming shortcoming around information systems.

“We don’t know who’s actually working at the border, who’s been tested nor when they’ve been tested.

“We also don’t have a proper register of vaccinations and can’t book vaccinations, which is undoubtedly part of the reason for our glacial vaccine rollout.

“It’s time for some accountability, because when the Prime Minister says things will happen they simply don’t.

“Jacinda Ardern said all border workers and their families would be vaccinated within two or three weeks after the vaccine arrived, but over a month after that deadline hundreds of people still haven’t been.

“When ACT released its comprehensive COVID Response Plan 2.0 the Jacinda Ardern said she would release a ‘roadmap’ ‘in the coming weeks’ showing how the vaccination rollout would affect the COVID response in the coming year.

“Six weeks on that roadmap is nowhere to be seen.

“The time for these broken promises is over, because there is too much at stake.

“Sir Brian Roche needs to explain how he’s going to get the show on track because this is looking like an overall systems failure.

“ACT knows how to respond to the megatrends in the global COVID response – it’s in our plan. One element is to stop treating the private sector like enemies and bring them into the tent.

“Another is throwing everything we can at better technology, which again means using the private sector, instead of believing MBIE, the Ministry of Health and DHBs have the know-how to stand up the information management systems required.

“The problem is we’re clearly so far down the path of a failed approach that by the time we get back on track we’ll be far behind much of the developed world and will suffer negative social and financial consequences for years to come.”

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