National Party leadership: Judith Collins shrugs off questions about coup rumours

A customer at a Queenstown cafe has called out National Leader Judith Collins for not wearing a mask as she stood at the business' counter alongside Deputy Leader Shane Reti. Video / Supplied

National Party leader Judith Collins is shrugging off talk of a leadership challenge, saying poor polls are due to her party holding the Government to account.

And she says while Leader of the Opposition is a "relentless" job she feels well supported in her caucus.

Collins has been under fire in recent days after one poll saw the party's popularity dip to just 21 per cent.

But the National leader says she will never resign from the job even if polls were to drop below 20 per cent.

Speaking to media this morning, Collins claimed the elimination strategy was failing and questioned the decision to open Auckland to level 3 today with cases still in the community.

The city dropped down an alert level at midnight, with hungry people flocking to fast food joints and cafes.

Collins was coy when asked about her safety as leader of the party, telling TVNZ's Breakfast programme she was there to "focus" and talk about Covid-19 and the Government's vaccine rollout failure - "it's not about me".

Pushed about the bad polls, Collins said people did not like the Opposition asking hard questions of the Government.

"It is awful having to constantly tell the Government what they've done wrong."

She believed New Zealand should continue to aim for elimination of the virus, but said the Government was currently "failing".

Collins told Three's AM Show host Ryan Bridge leader of the opposition was always a relentless job, but she felt very supported in their caucus.

In response to a query from Bridge about her wellbeing, Collins said she was doing fine. Sometimes it was best not to watch the news and instead do something positive - she had gone to the gym last night.

National had been asking questions about the Government's plan for what a given vaccination rate would mean for people's freedoms, and was just finalising its own plan.

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"The Government has had 18 months, millions of dollars and we expect they might want to share it with the rest of us," she told Bridge.

"The worst thing really for people with the Covid-19 situation is the uncertainty of what's going to happen. Are we in level 4, are we in level 3, level 2? Because even the rules around them seem to change."

She urged the Government to release the health advice which led to the decision to move Auckland down an alert level while there were more Covid cases in the community.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of 9pm last night there were still 294 active cases in the city, outside MIQ.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been a bit "tetchy" in parliament yesterday when Collins asked "impertinent questions" about things New Zealanders might like to know - such as what the plan was.

Collins also raised concerns about the "no jab, no job" stance of some employers, which she felt was "a bit too tough".

There was no other virus where people had to have an immunisation to stay in a job and it was very important New Zealand didn't end up with two classes of people, Collins said.

Such a policy was understandable in a frontline worker role because their chance of contracting Covid was so much higher. But there needed to be more advice given to other businesses.