National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee says the Government cannot continue to pay for people returning to New Zealand from overseas forever.
Anyone entering New Zealand after October 3 will be asked to fork out for managed isolation under a National government, Mr Brownlee announced yesterday .
The Opposition has proposed a fixed fee of $3000 for one adult to help cover the costs of managed isolation and quarantining.
Additional adults, such as a couple, would pay an additional $1000, and children over age three would see an additional $500.
The only exception would be people returning on compassionate grounds.
Mr Brownlee, who is also National's spokesperson for the Covid-19 recovery, this morning told TVNZ1's Breakfast people have had months to return for free.
"They're New Zealand citizens who could've come back without a charge in any of the four months up to this point, and remember that they're coming back to join the five million who have gone through significant sacrifice to get where we are as relatively free of the virus," he said.
"It's costing all those New Zealanders who woke up this morning to go to work wondering whether or not the job will be there Friday or the heaps, now over 200,000, out of work about $1.6 million a day.
"They need to go into that quarantine and they need to know that they are going into that quarantine with a charge on it.
"I think the time has come for them to be paying part, only part, of the cost of that quarantine."
National's Covid-19 border response spokesperson says it’ll help taxpayers cover the costs of managed isolation and quarantine. (Source: Other)
Mr Brownlee said it wasn't a small challenge with hundreds of thousands of Kiwis abroad eligible to come back, some of which would have lived overseas for years.
"They'll be coming here because they see value in the health status of the country, and we would welcome them coming back obviously as fellow citizens, but we cannot continue to pay for that forever."
The Government has also toyed with the idea of charging returnees for their quarantine stay. However, officials said they have legal barriers to work through.
This morning, Mr Brownlee responded that the Government was good at announcing stuff but not delivering.
"If we could lock down five million New Zealanders the way that was done, and remember there was huge amount of buy into that, it can't be beyond the system to be able to say to people, 'If you're going into quarantine it is a cost that you have to meet,'" he said.
"It doesn't seem unreasonable that they [returnees] meet some of the cost of that quarantine.
"There is absolutely no question that they can come back into New Zealand, no question about that whatsoever, but they do not have a right to come back and potentially risk the gains that have been made by the huge sacrifice of the team of five million."
She says the Government was working to find a “fair” way to implement a cost recovery scheme. (Source: Other)
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