"Propaganda" is how National MP Simon O'Connor has described signage advising people to maintain social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
O'Connor blasted the Government's response during a speech in Parliament on Wednesday, taking aim at the Green Party who he said "very much like a crisis to push through their particular agendas".
"You can't walk down the street without having to see signs about kindness and calmness; signs on the street telling me to keep left," O'Connor, MP for Tamaki, said.
"In fact, even in this building there are signs on every stairwell telling me how to walk up some stairs - we're beginning to live in some bizarre dystopian world and it needs to stop. It is simply a form of propaganda. It is just completely unnecessary.
"I've been calling for a while for us to return to normal on the fundamental principle that New Zealanders are smart, intelligent people and we know how to manage our lives and we've had enough of the Government constantly telling us how to do this."
O'Connor said left-leaning politicians "love a crisis because it allows them to justify getting into every aspect of our lives".
Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick questioned the speech in a tweet, saying: "There's legit a [National] MP in the House right now declaring that 'keep left' signs.... for physical distancing are dangerous left wing propaganda".
She added, "You couldn't make this up."
O'Connor's office has been contacted for a response to Swarbrick.
