Pre-departure testing is now required of travellers from Sydney, prompting ACT leader David Seymour to speculate that the previous lack thereof may have caused the Auckland Delta outbreak.
Joint head of managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) Brigadier Rose King announced on Wednesday a second 'red zone' flight from Sydney to Auckland next week on September 15.
All travellers on this flight must have the right to enter New Zealand, must not have been at a location of interest in the previous 14 days, and must present a negative pre-departure test when checking in at the airport.
Previous red zone flights from Sydney have not required a pre-departure test. The Ministry of Health's advice was that it wasn't needed because travellers on red zone flights went straight into MIQ upon arrival and were tested more than once.
But COVID-19 somehow managed to slip through. The Government confirmed last month that the Delta outbreak in New Zealand was linked to an arrival in MIQ from New South Wales, which is reporting more than 1000 cases a day.
Seymour asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Parliament earlier this week if she regretted the decision not to require pre-departure of travellers from Sydney, "just as Auckland enters its fourth week of lockdown".
"The truth is it was a simple step that could have prevented this lockdown," Seymour said at the time.
Now that pre-departure testing is required of travelers on next week's red zone flight, Seymour suspects the Government now views it as an unnecessary risk not to require it.
"The ACT Party today calls on the Government to apologise for the mistake that most likely caused the current lockdown - cancelling pre-departure testing from COVID hotspot New South Wales," he said.
"The Government was always wrong and now by reinstating pre-departure testing from New South Wales, it has admitted it was wrong. That comes after days of defending its cancellation of pre-departure tests against all logic."
Ardern said in Parliament pre-departure testing was just one layer of defence.
"It is not perfect, absolutely not, because you go and get a test 72 hours before you depart, you still have a possibility of being infected in those 72 hours, or indeed, in your transit to New Zealand, and we've seen multiple situations where people have been infected with COVID-19 in often what is very long journeys back to New Zealand.
"So it is another layer, it is not a perfect layer, we do not rely on it. That is why we test people when they arrive as well, and we continue to test them throughout the duration of their stay."
Ardern said it was "overly simplistic" to imply that had pre-departure testing been in place, the Auckland outbreak wouldn't have happened.
"I don't think that's fear, particularly given what I recall of the timeline of when we believe this person became infected. I just don't think it's a fair summation."
Seymour said for the sake of New Zealanders, he's pleased the Government has introduced pre-departure testing as an extra measure of protection.
"It's just a shame the Prime Minister couldn't show some humility and admit the Government was wrong to have not introduced this in the first place."
Following the Sydney-Auckland red flight on September 5, when 93 people returned to New Zealand, the second flight will enable more people in urgent situations to come home.
With emergency allocations suspended for people in Australia since July, it brings Australia back in line with the rest of the world, where people have continued to have access to emergency allocations.
