National leader Judith Collins believes the prime minister should follow her lead after she freed up Chris Bishop to focus on their party's Covid-19 response.
She said Ardern should do the same with Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.
Last week, Collins completed performance reviews with her MPs which resulted in some tweaks to portfolios .
The change-up saw a shift in the Shadow Leader of the House position. Michael Woodhouse replaced Bishop as Shadow Leader of the House.
At the time, Collins said that leaves Bishop “to focus solely on his critical role as National’s Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Response”.
Collins defended the move on Q+A with Jack Tame on Sunday morning.
"Obviously when I discussed it with Chris it was very much on the basis of making sure he was 100 per cent on to the Covid-19 situation which is where is main job has to be," she said.
Collins said while "everybody wants to have every portfolio", Bishop was pleased with the reshuffle.
She added his role was "the biggest job outside the leader".
"Chris is very comfortable, he's discussed it all with me, he's very happy doing what he's doing."
Collins and deputy leader Shane Reti have been consulting with the party's MPs since December.
"No surprises to us that we need to have Chris, now that Covid-19, the vaccination rate from the Government has been so abysmal until recently, that we need to have Chris absolutely 100 per cent on that.
"It frees Chris up because Chris doesn't have 3000 staff members, he doesn't have a ministry. He's got to do it himself and it's really important that I look after my MPs so they are not overly stressed or not overly occupied with other things," she said.
"I think Jacinda Ardern could do the same with Chris Hipkins and just give him a bit of a break so he can really focus on Covid and particularly the vaccinations."
Hipkins also holds the Education portfolio.
On Friday, 86,544 Covid-19 vaccines were administered in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Saturday. The number was made up of 60,869 first doses and 25,675 second doses.
In total, 3.77 million doses have now been administered in New Zealand.
Collins said her Caucus was "absolutely focused on making sure the Government does a better job".
She said it was Oppositions job to hold the Government to account and that they face scrutiny over New Zealand's vaccination rollout, the nation's way forward out of the pandemic and the economy.
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