COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is standing by the end of February date for Kiwis arriving from Australia to skip managed isolation - but he also admits "everything can change".
The Government in November announced that on January 17, Kiwis arriving from Australia would be able to skip state-run managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) and isolate at home instead. But this was delayed until the end of February due to the threat of Omicron.
The only way for Kiwis stuck in Australia to get home was to hope for the best and try to secure a room via the MIQ lottery. But the Government on Tuesday announced the decision to postpone the March and April room release scheduled for Thursday.
Chris Bunny, the head of MIQ, said in a statement issued on Tuesday evening that the delay was due to an "unprecedented" number of Omicron cases coming into New Zealand.
"We appreciate that this will be disappointing for many people wanting to come back to New Zealand," Bunny said, but there had been a "10-fold increase in positive COVID-19 cases at the border compared to December" which had put MIQ under pressure.
The Opposition criticised the Government for making a major border announcement via the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)'s Twitter page.
"This is no way to run a border, let alone a country," said National's COVID-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop. "The impact of ongoing uncertainty and delays on Kiwis abroad should not be underestimated. The anger, pain and heartbreak is palpable."
Hipkins, speaking at Labour's caucus retreat in New Plymouth on Wednesday, said the Government simply wanted to "get the information out to people as quickly as possible".
"I typically haven't been involved in making announcements around when room releases are going to be," he said, while admitting the decision to delay the room release was his.
"This is a relatively operational matter. It's a delay for a period of time while we figure out exactly what's going to happen at the border. As soon as we're able to give people more certainty around when the next room release will be, we will certainly do that.
"MBIE has always put out information about when room releases are going to be - whether there have been changes to room release availability and so on. MBIE has always made those announcements."
While the Government delayed the ability for Kiwis arriving from Australia to skip MIQ and self-isolate instead until the end of February, Hipkins said no decision had been made to delay it further, nor plans to allow vaccinated Kiwis arriving from other countries to do the same from February 14, and vaccinated non-Kiwis from April 30.
"At this point, there's no change to the end of February date that we put out there. It is something we will be considering. But at this point, we've made no decision to change that date," he told reporters.
"The further room release that was going to take place is for rooms in March and April and I think people would prefer some certainty before we did that room release anyway."
Hipkins said there was "no question we are moving to a self-isolation model".
"We obviously want to give New Zealanders time to get their boosters, we want to keep Omicron out of the community which we've been successful at doing over the summer break... But we acknowledge we will be moving to a self-isolation model. The question of what exactly the date is, that's the question for us at the moment.
"We have not made decisions to change those... Everything can change, but at the moment, those are still the dates we have."
ACT leader David Seymour says there is no accountability for the Government essentially shutting the border without any warning and no fixed end date.
"We can't go on like this. Families have been torn apart and businesses can't get workers. It's time for honesty and certainty."
He also criticised the Government for not having a clear plan for dealing with Omicron when it reaches the community.
"Four weeks since Chris Hipkins last fronted on the COVID-19 response, he couldn't tell New Zealanders anything new about how the Government will confront the imminent landfall of Omicron."
Hipkins said Cabinet will make decisions on Wednesday and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will have more to say on Thursday.
"We've been discussing that over the summer break. A lot of planning work has gone into how we will deal with Omicron when it does make it into the New Zealand community. Those plans are well advanced and Cabinet will be talking about those today."
