Health Minister Chris Hipkins today shut down "deliberate misinformation" claiming the Government will make a Covid-19 vaccine mandatory should one be made available.
At the 1pm briefing Hipkins said people will be "encouraged" to get vaccinated, but it won't be compulsory.
"I was alarmed at the number of letters I have received from people concerned that the Government would be making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory," Hipkins said.
"This is a direct result of deliberate misinformation being spread through social media.
"The Government is not making Covid-19 or any other vaccinations compulsory.
This is despite concerns it’s deliberately misleading. (Source: Other)
"We will of course when we have a vaccine available be encouraging people to get one as it will help keep everyone safe."
His comments come after last week MP Jami-Lee Ross refused to take down a controversial political advertisement over vaccinations, despite concerns it is deliberately misleading.
His party - Advance NZ/NZ Public Party - released a video last month with footage from Parliament captioned: "Last week Labour rushed through a law change under urgency to enable them to force our citizens to be vaccinated."
"I could end up being fined for putting up that video and leaving it there and absolutely rejecting the decision of the Parliament Speaker that he says the we should take it down," Mr Ross said in a Facebook live video.
The video used edited clips from Parliament over the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.
The Act states that the Minister or Director-General could make an order to require a person to "satisfy any specified criteria before entering New Zealand" - and gave the example of making a person register when entering a managed isolation facility.
Those orders can only be made under a specific set of circumstances, such as that it "does not limit or is a justified limit on the rights and freedoms in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act".
Jami-Lee Ross faced the Parliamentary Privileges Committee on Monday over the video.
The Privileges Committee unanimously agreed the independent MP broke the rules by mis-using edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.
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