Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says he believes New Zealand should come out of the lockdown "next week" so that struggling businesses can get up and running again.
Mr Bridges spoke to TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning about the Government's Covid-19 response and how the Epidemic Response Committee is keeping them in check during these testing times.
His latest challenge to the Government is their continuation of the lockdown for the next two weeks despite places such as Australia showing strict border policies and more-relaxed internal rules can both protect civilians and keep the economy ticking.
"Yesterday we heard from the equivalent of Dr Ashley Bloomfield for Australia and it really made clear for me that in Australia, you've got similar health outcomes but they're having better economic outcomes," Mr Bridges said.
"They went in with higher unemployment and they're going to come out with lower it seems and that's because they've actually let the baristas keep on selling coffees and the builders keep on doing that.
"It's really strengthened in my mind that we should come out of lockdown next week and we should let businesses get back to business and workers get back to work."
Mr Bridges said he wasn't critical of the lockdown taking place here but now was the time to be "agile and pragmatic" for the sake of New Zealand's economy.
When asked what coming out of lockdown looked like to him, he said it was much like what is happening across the ditch.
"I think ultimately it looks quite similar to where Australia is at, where we don't worry so much about the essential services, where you have a few who are favoured in business and most aren't.
"You just ask simple questions like, 'can this business do this safely?' and if you do that, you don't have one online trader who is able to do something and one that can't, you don't have a situation where one truck taking what is deemed essential goods is ok but others aren't - you let businesses get back to business."
When asked for specifics on what would re-open under his control, Mr Bridges said he would look to get New Zealand back down to Level 2 "as quick-smart as I could".
"I'd go to what we call Level 2+ which is strong on the borders but otherwise trying to return to normality as much as we can."
Also speaking to Breakfast this morning, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said what Mr Bridges was proposing wasn't that easy.
"What we're doing is working for New Zealand and I think it's really important that we stay the course," Mr Robertson said.
"Different countries are in different places and while Australia is obviously doing well too, they're also talking about the prospects of restrictions on things like going to bars and such for six to 12 months.
"We've taken the stance of doing this once, doing it right and getting it down. History will judge us in the coming months and years but I think we're on the right track."
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