“ACT’s Freedom Day has effectively been adopted by the Government – if only they’d offered certainty earlier,” says ACT
Leader David Seymour.
“Jacinda Ardern should now go further and take the whole country to Level Orange of the COVID-19 Protection Framework.
“This decision should have been made weeks ago. Nothing has changed. The Government just got organised and bowed to
political pressure.
“ACT has called for any suburb reaching 90 percent fully vaccinated to have its restrictions lifted.
“Businesses are calling for a clear date to end restrictions and detail of what the new framework will look like. They
currently do not know when they can reopen, what the vaccination certificate system will look like or how it will
operate, or how the new traffic light system will affect them.
“All of these sentiments were laid bare when I visited Auckland recently. You could see the pain behind the mask,
something you can’t sense over Zoom. This is why Jacinda Ardern needs to be there.
“If the Prime Minister saw, heard, and felt what I did, she would be making different decisions.
“Labour’s plan has meant freedom depends on the least-motivated person. Every DHB reaching 90 percent keeps people
guessing. What businesses, students, and people needing healthcare need is certainty.
“ACT has called for the following steps to freedom:
1. Set the date and stick to it
2. Supercharge vaccination with community partnerships and financial incentives
3. Engage every sector in all-in ‘sprints’ to reduce transmission, vaccination and death
4. Remove restrictions as we know them and get on with life.
“ACT believes in personal responsibility. Once everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, it’s time to get on
with life.
“ACT has a plan that would get our freedom back. The Government adopted nine of the 15 recommendations in our COVID 2.0
plan. We call on them to take our COVID 3.0 recommendations, implement them, and then set a date for freedom.”