Jacinda Ardern tight-lipped about National leadership drama

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is in Auckland as the city’s lockdown reaches 100 days.

Jacinda Ardern would not be drawn on the National party’s leadership drama playing out in Wellington as she spoke to media in Auckland on Thursday.

The prime minister spoke at Western Springs College in the city's inner west after a tour of the school and meetings with teachers and students as well as social sector and business leaders.

Ardern meets with students from Western Springs College.

Asked for thoughts on the National Party, which ousted Judith Collins as leader while she was speaking, she said her focus is on the pandemic: “Not commenting on leadership issues in the National Party.”

Moments after she wrapped up the media stand-up, news broke that Collins had been rolled as National leader.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that the country will move to the new Covid-19 Protection Framework, also known as the traffic light system, from 11:59pm on Thursday, December 2.

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Answering questions from media during her second visit to Auckland since the Delta lockdown began in August, Ardern said rapid antigen testing would be a part of the Covid-19 response in the future, followed up with PCR tests – the swabs used currently for testing – if a positive result is detected.

Ardern’s visit follows Wednesday’s announcement by the Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins about changes to New Zealand’s border restrictions.

Asked about the easing of New Zealand's border, she said the focus was on “getting the settings right domestically … careful and managed, so we don't have to increase the restrictions at home”.

Thursday marks the 100th day of the lockdown for Auckland, which remains under alert level 3, step two, restrictions.

Auckland, like the rest of the country, will leave lockdown and migrate to the traffic light system on December 3.

Auckland will enter at the red light setting, while the rest of the country is expected to be at orange.

Ardern said: “Auckland will stay at red to make sure we are easing restrictions in a careful way, so we don’t see numbers balloon out. Once we see the impact of the easing of restrictions, that will give us a better sense of what we’re able to do in terms of reducing them again.

“What we will also consider is the pressure on our health system and that includes hospitalisations, and our ability to continue to successfully to contact trace and manage the outbreak.”

Vaccination rates would help the public health system cope with rising cases of Covid-19 over summer, Ardern said.

“Because we have vaccines, the vast majority will experience mild to moderate symptoms. We need to enable the system to have people safely isolating at home – but we will continue to use the hybrid model, where if people need greater care they will get it.”

As for Covid spreading out from Auckland once the Covid Protection Framework – aka traffic light system – comes into play, Ardern said: “You can see already we have very tight controls for those departing Auckland right now, and even then we see cases move across the border.

“Yes, we are doing everything we can do slow that down by requiring Aucklanders to either be double vaccinated or be tested before they depart on the 15th of December, but one of the reasons we’ve made it that late is because more people around New Zealand will be vaccinated.”

Western Springs College is in Ardern’s electorate of Mt Albert.