Hannah Tamaki hits out at Government’s quarantine policy

Hannah Tamaki says she has no confidence the Government's testing and quarantine procedures will keep COVID-19 cases out, calling it a "complete shambles."

Tamaki led a group of Vision New Zealand supporters in a protest at Auckland Airport, calling for the borders to be closed and tighter controls on testing. 

Over 25 people were involved in the protest and it followed the landing of Air New Zealand's first flight from Shanghai.

Ms Tamaki, leader of the Vision New Zealand Party criticised the government's handling of the borders in a press release. 

“How dare this government squander the sacrifice we made as New Zealanders by opening our borders to cities and countries across the world that do not have this virus under control.” She said.

Ms Tamaki said the government allowing people from overseas to enter New Zealand was reckless considering the hardship New Zealanders faced during the level 4 lockdown.

Ms Tamaki said she has no confidence the government's testing and quarantine procedures would keep COVID-19 cases out.

“The quarantine accommodation in Auckland is at capacity so now we are shipping new arrivals to unsuspecting cities and towns across the country. This is unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Adern told the AM Show this morning claims of quarantine rules being broken weren't always true and she expected new cases at the border

“Cases at the border do not mean their hard work has been squandered. We always had an expectation of cases at the border… this pandemic is growing, not slowing, around the world.”

“The reason we're likely to keep seeing those cases we have in recent weeks is we've had a doubling of the number of people in the last month who are coming in at our border, into quarantine. The number of New Zealanders coming home is increasing, and they are coming from - in some cases - at-risk parts of the world.”