ACT leader David Seymour is hitting out at the Government over what he says is a self-congratulatory complacent attitude as New Zealand faces its fourth lockdown.
Speaking to Newshub Nation on Sunday, Seymour says the Government should stop self-congratulating themselves and start to combat its border and isolation problems.
"The Government needs to have a major reset attitude from complacency and maybe a little too much self-congratulation to reflection and continuous improvement," he says.
"Because fundamentally, the defences that we have against Auckland's fourth lockdown are very little different from those that it had against the second lockdown that was put into place five months ago in August."
The ACT leader is calling for compulsory QR code scanning and penalties for people who don't self isolate when told to do so.
"All of those things need to be done, and ACT has called for most of the things [listed] but I'd actually start earlier," he says.
"How you organise is how you execute. In my view the Government has a problem in that it created the cult of Ashley [Bloomfield] because its own minister was busy mountain biking and the Prime Minister was unprepared to sack him.
"Having done that, it's totally dependent on the Ministry of Health."
Seymour says the Government should look into adopting the 'Taiwanese-style' COVID-19 response.
Taiwan has been praised for its successful response to COVID-19. The country relies heavily on extensive contact tracing and a culture of wearing masks, even during periods without evidence of community transmission.
"Where is the saliva testing? Where is digital contract tracing? Where is compulsion on the digital tracing?" Seymour asks.
"In Taiwan, if they can't find you on your phone, they come and knock on your door. And that wasn't happening."
