Opposition parties ACT and National seem to be in agreement elimination has to go in order for the borders to reopen.
The difference in their Covid-19 response plans, released this week, is the timeframe in which the current strategy has to go.
In its 'Opening Up' plan, National said a vaccination rate of 80 to 85 per cent in those aged 12 and over would be needed to move away from elimination to a "vigorous suppression" approach to Covid-19.
ACT believes New Zealand should move to a "harm minimisation" approach as eradication is "unsustainable" in a Delta world.
However, in its 'Covid 3.0: Life after lockdown' plan, no vaccination target can be found.
Leader David Seymour told Breakfast on Thursday the party was not interested in setting a target, but it was "realistic" the country would get to 90 per cent.
She told Breakfast if the Government put its best foot forward and adopted some of its 'opening up' steps, many Kiwis could be home by Christmas. (Source: Other)
But New Zealand could not afford to keep waiting to reach this vaccination rate and it needed to rejoin the world.
ACT's plan also outlined how instead of whole cities being locked down, travellers, the infected and the vulnerable would be isolated.
It wanted to see a date from the Government on when the vaccination roll-out would be complete in order for Kiwis from low-risk countries to be home by Christmas.
The Covid-19 Response Minister has defended the Government's response and said it is already working on some of the ideas ACT and National have suggested. (Source: Other)
ACT said "rigid and arbitrary" rules needed to be removed for businesses and the Government needed to engage with them in order to come up with new targets for reducing transmission of the virus.
New Zealand also needed to see the Government move away from using fear as a tool to taking a "balanced approach to overall wellbeing".
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told Breakfast the Government did not want to put the classic Kiwi summer at risk by "throwing open the borders prematurely".
He said if this happened, the Government would need to introduce measures to bring a "potential significant outbreak" under control.
He told Breakfast the Government's elimination strategy is "futile" and a "harm minimisation" approach needs to be adopted to open the borders. (Source: Other)
Hipkins told presenter John Campbell there were "undoubtedly" things from the Opposition's plans the Government was already working on.
This included "more models at the border".
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