A Government health order making COVID-19 testing of border-facing workers compulsory has failed to convince National Party leader Judith Collins.
"I don't believe it... I don't believe these people could organise anything and that's what we've seen," she told Magic Talk on Monday. "They told us in July that this was happening - it's now September and now they're saying they're doing it."
The health order, which came into effect on Sunday at midnight, requires all air and maritime workers, as well as staff at managed isolation and quarantine facilities, to take regular tests or else face fines of between $300 and $1000.
Workers in managed quarantine facilities such as the Auckland Jet Park Hotel where confirmed COVID-19 cases are taken, as well as those who transport them there, must be tested every seven days under the order.
Other border workers will need to be tested every two weeks, including staff at managed isolation hotels where travellers not known to have COVID-19 stay, as well as port workers and airport staff, although air crew are exempt.
Auckland University Professor Des Gorman, a public health expert, said the new rules are a "very good idea", but could not make sense of the exemption for airline crew.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said airline crew are currently covered by a testing regime but the Government is working to tighten it up.
"I'm expecting in the early part of this week we will finally resolve some of those talks with Air New Zealand," Ardern told The AM Show on Monday.
"They're just around, for instance, how we treat those who are only dealing with freight versus those who are dealing with international passengers."
The Government faced serious pressure through August after Newshub revealed more than 60 percent of all border-facing workers in Auckland had never been tested the week before the latest outbreak.
That was despite a new testing strategy on June 23 which outlined the prioritisation of testing of border workers and airline staff, who were supposed to undergo "regular health checks and asymptomatic testing".
The health order will ensure the directive is implemented.
"We have had testing since July in those areas but this is a much more rigorous regime that's supported by a health order that means we have people on a rotational basis in those high-risk jobs who are being tested even though they're asymptomatic," Ardern said.
"There will be, of course, thousands who go into our port who have zero contact with anyone who's come in from overseas, so it's just making sure that we're targeting those who we need to be targeted and that's what our health order does."
Collins suggested the failure to live up to the original border testing directive was ironic given the Government has an elimination strategy for COVID-19.
"There's no point in saying you're going to have an elimination strategy if you're not actually fulfilling the actual requirements of it," she said.
ACT leader David Seymour said the Government hasn't live up to its promise of going "hard and early" in its response to the virus outbreak.
"The testing of border-facing staff in particular has been poor. The Health Minister said in June there would be 'asymptomatic testing of all border facing workers'. But it never happened," he said.
Ardern said last month border staff testing "did not meet" Cabinet's expectations, but Newshub revealed the Government was advised that testing all border staff was not a viable option - advice the Health Minister admitted he hadn't read.
The Ministry of Health says the new border testing order is "complementary" to strict infection prevention and control measures including physical distancing and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and daily health checks.
Four new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Ministry of Health on Monday, two in the community linked to the Auckland cluster, and two in a managed isolation facility.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 118, of which 41 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities, and 77 are community cases.
