Christopher Luxon speaks on Covid 19 strategy and kiwifruit industry

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said he broadly supported the themes of the Government's Covid-19 announcement yesterday.

Visiting Te Puke for the day, he welcomed the announcement that free masks and rapid antigen tests (RATs) would be more widely available, millions of masks would be provided for students and school staff and the use of anti-virals would be increased, alongside campaigns encouraging mask wearing and boosters.

"The thing I would like to see added would be the addition of a fourth booster being available to anybody who wants it."

Luxon also reiterated his view that the traffic light system was too complex and hard for people to understand.

"What we need is some very simple rules on masking and isolation and encouraging people to get that fourth booster."

He welcomed the availability of anti-virals and said he would like to see them made more widely available.

"Over the last six months, many countries have had those anti-virals available to more of their whole population and they've been very effective."

He said he did not feel more regulation was needed on, in particular, mask-wearing.

"Kiwis just need some basic direction and they will follow the guidelines pretty well."

He was, however, scathing of the state of the country's health system.

"We have a system that is 4000 nurses short, 1500 doctors short and 1500 hospital specialists short, and when you see New Zealanders waiting in a leaking tent in heavy rain trying to get into a hospital, then that's not good enough.

"We've got a minister [Andrew Little] that's distracted on building a massive health bureaucracy in Wellington rather than spending money on frontline services with doctors and nurses and extra ICU beds that we need, and that's just not good enough."

Being in the Kiwifruit Capital of the World, Luxon recognised the contribution the industry makes to the country's economy but said more could be done to assist in getting the crop to market.

"Zespri is one of the best-performing firms New Zealand has in terms of exports, but it's not just Zespri, it's the whole kiwifruit industry - we should be incredibly proud of the industry, it's become sustainable, it has very, very good economic conditions and pay rates for people and it's a really positive story for New Zealand and we should be backing the industry big-time."

The shortage of labour, he said, was clear.

"That means they are leaving the product on the vines and it potentially means product going out to market has got a risk of being lower quality and that's not acceptable."

While Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) workers fill many roles, more labour could be encouraged through the working holiday visa.

"We are doing a poor job of making that work for us across New Zealand. We need it in kiwifruit, we need it in hospitality and we need it in tourism."

He said to encourage more people from overseas into those industries he would like to see the application fee refunded.

"And let's extend the age to 35, and if you've been here once before on a working holiday visa, we are happy to have you back a second time or even a third time because it's a competitive market out there in the world.

"We need to do everything we can to entice those holiday working visa workers to come here."