The National Party's deputy leader Dr Shane Reti has set his political career to one side and is back on the tools, going door-to-door vaccinating Māori in Northland.
Across Northland, 70 percent have had their first jab and roughly 50 percent are fully vaccinated. But for Māori - Northland's most vulnerable - only 50 percent have had their first dose and just 30 percent are fully jabbed.
Dr Reti told The Hui the 20 percent gap between the two fully vaccinated groups needs to be filled up because the most at-risk across New Zealand is Māori under 40 years old.
"There is a sense of tension here in the North. We knew it was going to come our way. We have done this before and we can do it again, but there is tension and anxiety."
Dr Reti believes the Government should be getting local GPs to go through their patient lists to see who is unvaccinated and they should then be paying home visits.
He says we need to incentivise primary care GPs and pharmacists to carry out the largest door-to-door home visits in history.
"For a lot of Māori, part of the action that takes them from not persuaded to persuaded is a person of trust giving them information that they can have some confidence in."
Next week, Dr Reti intends to do his own campaign of going door-to-door. He will take a local kuia with him to talk to Māori whānau about getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
Watch the full interview above.
Made with support from Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air.
