Former COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins won't apologise for last year claiming women who crossed the Northland border during the Delta outbreak used "false information" to get approval.
The minister, who no longer holds the COVID-19 portfolio, said he was relying on the information provided to him as the Government quickly responded to a potential COVID-19 outbreak in a region that had low vaccination rates.
"Our first and foremost priority at that time was to protect the people of Northland as much as we could," he said on Wednesday.
Northland went into lockdown on October 8 after one of a trio of women who crossed into the region from Auckland subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
Hipkins said at the time the women had used "false information" to obtain travel exemptions on October 1 to cross the border. The exemption was revoked on October 5 - after the group's visit - when police raised concerns.
The minister said on October 13 the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had made an error in approving the women's request to enter Northland.
Police this year ruled out laying charges due to insufficient evidence of deception, but Hipkins told AM in March that "doesn't necessarily mean there is no evidence at all".
Further details of the police investigation into the border crossing were revealed by RNZ on Wednesday morning. That includes correspondence showing that while a detective thought information used by the women to get their exemption was incorrect, police concluded it was "bona fide".
Hipkins was asked on Wednesday whether he would apologise for accusing the women of using "false information" to travel across the border.
"I don't want to get into all of the ins and outs of that. At the time, we were making decisions based on the information that we had available," the minister said. "I was very, very clear in all of my comments at the time that much of the information that we had was not fully confirmed."
"The decision that we took is not one that we would change now. It was to do with protecting Northland in an environment where vaccination rates were low and where we knew COVID-19 and Delta in particular was making its way up there."
At his October 8 press conference, Hipkins did say he wanted "to be clear" that his information "is not yet verified".
The minister said on Wednesday that the Government did "make it clear at the time" that there had been a "clerical error" made by MSD.
The women who crossed the border received backlash following the press conference as well as after comments were made linking them to the Mongrel Mob and suggesting they were sex workers - claims police have found no evidence for.
Hipkins stressed on Wednesday the Government pushed back on the "unsubstantiated allegations" and asked the public "not to make judgements based on the fact that we didn't have accurate information".
"I think it reinforces the overall view that we took at the time that actually we shared information as much as we could so that people were informed about the decisions we were making. But judgments and some of the commentary was not particularly helpful."
Carmel Sepuloni, the Minister for Social Development, said the error at MSD was acknowledged at the time, but said there was "a lot going on" with regards to fighting COVID-19.
RNZ's report details the trio's time in Northland, including that two were kicked out of a hotel and how individuals in the hotel reported to police that the women may have breached COVID-19 rules by crossing the border.
The women were reported not to be cooperative after it was found they had travelled to Northland. One spent days evading police but was later taken into custody to spend time in MIQ.
One of the women previously spoke to NZHerald, rejecting allegations made about her by politicians.
