In criticising "clear failures" at the border, National's health spokesperson says the economic consequences of Covid-19 re-emerging in New Zealand have been "massive".
Dr Shane Reti told TVNZ1's Breakfast today he agrees with what National leader Judith Collins' statement that there had been a "massive failure" at the border.
"I think if you look at those 1.7 million Aucklanders and that economic consequence, if we just step away from the border for a moment, I would say many of them would say their consequence has been massive.
"I think this is a big deal, I think this is a big hole at our border and you can tell that because we've heard the Prime Minister say she was disappointed, you can hear Chris Hipkins. We're all disappointed.
"Really, our task is how do we fix it? That's what we need to get to."
More than 33,000 people have returned to New Zealand since the first lockdown, with around 5000 arrivals in the past 14 days.
Dr Reti said the number of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand as a result of border breaches was "small", but that the Government was not prepared to admit that the border is where they've come in.
"This is one of our points of contention because surely it's come across the border, it just couldn't have come from anywhere else."
The campaign pledge comes as leader Judith Collins has criticised the Government’s current testing regime. (Source: Other)
Yesterday, National announced if elected it would create an agency to oversee border management and require all people returning to New Zealand to test negative before entering the country.
Ms Collins called the current system "ad-hoc", saying the Government's decision to use different agencies "has led to a disorderly and confused response, putting the health and livelihoods of five million New Zealanders at risk".
"I think what we need to do, as we're proposing, is we need to be ready, we need to be prepared, we need to have a clear set of protocols, everyone needs to know what they're doing, we need to be well-resourced, we need to have great contact tracing," Dr Reti told Breakfast this morning.
"What you're seeing here is an example of us really wanting to bring constructive ideas to the table.
"I know Chris Hipkins has said 'we looked at exit testing [testing people before they board a flight bound for New Zealand] and we kept moving'. I'd like him to look at it again, particularly in the light of the countries that are now doing exit testing, in light of the risks that we have.
"We'd like him to look at this proposal, have a dialogue with us, have a discussion. We've got some of these ideas that we want to bring to the table, let's truly work together.
"I come from a career where my job is to help you have the best outcome and the best life you possibly can, how's that any different now I'm an MP? I want to do the best with every skill I've got, with the team of talent around me I'm blessed to work with, to help you have the best life possible. That is my primary mission."
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