Judith Collins thinks the Government is sending "mixed messages" by talking about a Cook Islands travel bubble while asking Kiwis to prepare for a second COVID-19 wave - but Jacinda Ardern says it's "fairly straight forward".
Collins, leader of the National Party, said she's confused about progress on a travel bubble being announced on Monday when last week Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield warned Kiwis to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19.
"I want her to answer why we're doing this at the moment and talking about it when we're being promised that she's got 100 percent success rate in her quarantining," Collins said on Tuesday. "I'm saying very clearly we have mixed messages out of the Government over the last few days."
Collins said while she doesn't like to politicise the Director-General of Health, it doesn't make sense to her that he warned Kiwis to stock up on masks and prepare for a second wave as the Prime Minister talked up a quarantine-free travel arrangement.
"Well, which is it? It's either safe or it's not safe. Just tell us the truth and don't try on the one hand say you need to be prepared for level 2 and on the other hand it's all great and dandy," Collins said. "I want a straight answer from the Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister did not share Collins' confusion.
"I think it's fairly straight forward," she responded on Tuesday. "While we still have COVID in the world and while we are still in a state of preparedness at level 1, it makes sense for us to have those things on hand that will help us should we see any resurgence.
"The travel bubble with the Cook Islands is solely because they are a realm country and so New Zealand passport holders who are also COVID-free, so it's about supporting travel safely when it's right to do so with a country that can maintain our COVID-free status."
It's not the first time the National Party leadership team has accused the Government of mixed messaging on COVID-19.
National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee said last week the Government "needs to come clean on what they know about the state of COVID-19 in New Zealand" after Dr Bloomfield asked the country to prepare for a second wave.
"We have had three-months of no community transmission, then inexplicably, the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield tells the nation today that a second wave was a likely prospect," Brownlee said.
"It doesn't add up. Why announce this now when there are few cases? What do these guys know that they are not telling us?"
Dr Bloomfield and Health Minister Chris Hipkins asked Kiwis last week to keep a supply of masks in case New Zealand needs to be put back into alert level 2.
If the country moves to alert level 2, Kiwis will be encouraged to wear masks in situations where physical distancing is not possible, such as on public transport or in shops.
"If there are further outbreaks of COVID-19, masks will be another important component in our strategy for containing the spread of the virus so that we can - if at all possible - avoid further lockdowns," Hipkins said.
"We're asking members of the public to view face masks as they view pieces of their emergency supply kits - important tools that we can all use if we need to use them in the future."
It came after the Australian state of Victoria experienced a second outbreak, with the capital city of Melbourne now in a state of lockdown similar to New Zealand's alert level 4. The state recorded 331 new cases and 19 deaths in the past 24 hours.
It has been 102 days since the last case of COVID-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source in New Zealand.
