Today the Auditor General confirmed that Labour’s botched measle’s catch-up campaign lacked targets and did not achieve its goals, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Labour spent $32 million over two years on a measles catch-up campaign, but only reached a mere 7 per cent of the targeted number of people – a cost of $1,300 per person, per injection.

“Even more shocking was the vaccination rate for Māori in places such as Tairāwhiti, a high risk area, where only 28 people were vaccinated across the whole two years.

“Although Covid-19 didn’t help the campaign, Labour’s incompetence was a contributing a factor.

“The promotional material arrived three months after the campaign started. Then Labour was forced to destroy $8 million worth of expired measles vaccine due their inability to manage vaccine demand.

“The Auditor General also questioned why DHBs at the time continued to receive funding even when the program was paused.

“Being vaccinated against Measles has never been more important. As we saw just the other week an Auckland High School had to shut down after a case of the highly contagious and deadly disease was detected.

“Under Labour, our immunisation rates have been in steep decline. From the end of 2017, the immunisation rate of children aged 24 months was 92.4 per cent. Compared to the end of 2022, that number has dropped to 82.9 per cent.

“National will fix the economy and restore fiscal discipline, so we invest in our hard-working front-line staff and give them the resources they need. National will also reinstate lifesaving health targets, including childhood immunisation.”

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