National Party leader Christopher Luxon has criticised the Government during an Auckland address on Monday afternoon, saying there was an “increasingly divided society” in New Zealand.
During the speech, the Botany MP said New Zealand should begin to remove vaccine mandates progressively once the country was through the Omicron peak.
"What we are seeing outside Parliament and the reaction to it, is the culmination of underlying issues that have been rumbling along in our communities for some time," Luxon said.
He said it was driven by Covid and vaccine mandates, but also, "the frustrations shared by many Kiwis are also driven by a Government that seems to be stalling".
"They want leadership. They want to know when, and under what circumstances, vaccine mandates will end and when vaccine passes won’t be required any more. They want to know when tourists will be able to come to New Zealand once again," he said.
"They want to know when gathering limits will be lifted and when events can run again. They don’t need the exact dates. But they want to know the Government’s got their back and is being proactive, not letting Covid set the agenda by just waiting and seeing."
Luxon said there was a "third way" through Omicron.
"That way is to use effective public health measures like vaccination, boosters, testing and treatments, but to start returning normality to people’s lives. To start reducing the rules and restrictions, phasing out the mandates, and easing the divisions that have sprung up in our communities.
"Once we’re through the peak, and assuming there’s no other dangerous variant on the horizon, we can start to ease the division in our society and get back to something approaching normal life."
Luxon said it was a "big thing" for Government's to impose mandates.
"Mandates were justified for a while as a temporary measure as we battled Covid and lifted vaccination rates," he said.
"What we need from the Government is an honest conversation and some straight talking over the issue of mandates.
"It’s not good enough for the Prime Minister to just shrug her shoulders and say 'they’ll go at some point' and not enter into a dialogue over when and how. We deserve more than that," Luxon said.
"The mandates have caused real hardship and despair: Kids denied entry to sports teams or public libraries; good men and women who have lost their jobs because they don’t want to be vaccinated.
"We should get rid of mandates progressively and carefully once we are through the peak of Omicron."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said to the Opposition - "we all took a position as parties, that none of us would engage with what is ultimately illegal activity outside that borders on and demonstrates bullying and harassment of Wellingtonians".
“I find their position at the moment quite upsetting to see now they seem to be responding and sympathising with the protesters.”
She said last week there would be a time "where we're in a position to move away from restrictions, in the same way we moved away from lockdowns and that we're opening our borders".
"But right now is not that time".
Ardern said they had a "duty of care for all New Zealanders, as this pandemic grows that we're focused on them and their well-being."
She reiterated there would be a time where they would look to remove or lessen restrictions "that we've all had to live with".
"But as the pandemic grows, that is not the time to do that."
On Saturday, ACT leader David Seymour confirmed to 1News he was accepting and taking a petition to Parliament that asked for the repealing of some Covid-19-related legislation.
The legislation was voted down by ACT, National, and Te Pāti Māori in November last year.
Seymour said, as long as he’d been an MP, his blanket approach was to accept petitions from people as long as they were not “wildly offensive”.
He said he didn’t know if the person he was receiving the petition from was a protest organiser.
There were 2365 new Covid cases reported on Monday.
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