Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Judith Collins on Govt's virus response, Parliament's return

National leader Judith Collins says she would rather be at home with her family during the lockdown but felt she should work like other essential workers.

National leader Judith Collins says the Government's Covid-19 vaccine rollout is "as slow as a slow waltz".

Collins said some parts of the country will be feeling restless about the amount of time in lockdown.

She was disparaging of the vaccine rollout. She said there needed to be some prioritisation of vaccines around risk.

"This issue has to be where is the greatest risk. The best thing the Government could do is get more vaccines and get more people vaccinated. What we do know is our vaccine rollout is as slow as a slow waltz."

Collins was scathing of reports Pacific Island people had been asked for passports when getting vaccinated.

"I couldn't believe that. Does Covid know what ethnicity you are, what race you are, what ethnicity you are? I couldn't believe such a stupid decision had been made," Collins said.

Parliament's return

Collins said it will be "very strange" at Parliament tomorrow because of the small number of MPs in attendance. MPs will gather at Parliament on Tuesday for Question Time - the first time the House has sat since the country went into alert level 4 nearly a fortnight ago.

Collins, who is the only National MP so far to have travelled from level-4 Auckland for the sittings, will also begin holding her own press conferences, akin to Ardern's 1pm briefings. These will take place in the legislative council chamber, Parliament's old Upper House. The first was held at 3pm today.

The National MPs who will be attending Parliament will be Todd McClay, Shane Reti, Chris Bishop, and Louise Upston - along with Collins.

Collins said National has four or five questions in Parliament tomorrow, so she will swap MPs in and out of the chamber as needed to ask those questions.

She said she would rather be at home with her family during the lockdown but felt she should work like other essential workers.

"Members of Parliament are essential workers. I would much rather be at home with my family and they would rather I be at home with them," she said.

National's staff will not be at Parliament in person.

There will be tension in the air tomorrow. A large anti-vaccination protest is scheduled to take place on Parliament grounds that day.

Speaker Trevor Mallard said the protest had not been "applied for" like other protests on Parliament's grounds.

"We are going to have a discussion about how it is going to be handled," Mallard said.

While the protest will be outside the building, it will make life unpleasant for the small number of staff on site who have been working at level 4.

In-person Parliament has only returned after National and ACT refused to agree to a proposal for a virtual Parliament worked up last week.

After that proposal was shot down, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could have opted to request another delay of the House sitting, but chose not to.

Ardern said she was "not willing, without the consensus of parties, to individually suspend Parliament again".

"We're asking the public to do things differently; I think Parliament should be willing to do things differently too," Ardern said. "I will participate, despite the fact that I totally disagree with the position that they've taken."

The Parliament that will sit on Tuesday will look different to normal. There will be 10 MPs in the chamber - 11 counting the speaker.

The Clerk will be present, but the usual Parliamentary support staff, including Hansard and messengers, will be missing.

The Speaker's grand procession with the gold mace into the chamber will be canned. Instead, the Speaker will enter, on his own, via the Speaker's door. The mace will be placed on the table ahead of the House sitting.

Parliamentary rules have been tightened since the last time it operated at a heightened alert level.

The House met, socially distanced, under level 3 conditions in 2020, passing a flurry of important Covid legislation.

This time, MPs will be required to wear masks in the chamber, taking them off only when speaking. Advice sent from the Speaker to MPs has requested the masks do not contain any party logos.

Parliament will continue to sit on Wednesday, following Wellington's move to the slightly less restrictive alert level 3 restrictions. However, the precinct will continue to operate at elevated level 4 settings.

Mallard said that Parliament will have to operate at "alert level 4 while the country is at alert level 4 because of the movement of MPs".

ACT will send only leader David Seymour to Parliament. He travelled to Wellington at the beginning of the outbreak and has been in the city since then.

Labour said it would not be sending its Auckland-based MPs to Parliament.

The Green Party will not send MPs while Wellington is at alert level 4 on Tuesday, but will send one MP when Wellington moves to alert level 3 at midnight on Tuesday.

"Parliament could be sitting virtually like Select Committees have been. There is no good reason for MPs to travel right now, putting our communities at risk," said co-leader Marama Davidson.

Te Pāti Māori said it will not send anyone to Parliament for sitting.

"We will not allow National or ACT to dictate what oranga looks like for us and so we will not be travelling to Wellington in level 4 conditions this week," said co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

"We believe it is our role as leaders to lead by example, to continue practising alert levels 3 and 4 and proceed with caution in order to protect our whakapapa. National and ACT are putting us all at risk, and it wreaks of white privilege" she said.

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Parties across the house have agreed to minimal or no staffing. Some staff had raised concerns about coming to work with MPs who had recently been in Auckland.

Labour's decision to not send Auckland-based MPs to Parliament makes it difficult for National to use Question Time to quiz ministers, as many of Labour's most important ministers will be stuck in Auckland.

Parliament's business committee will meet again on Tuesday to decide what the business of the week should be.

While the return of Question Time will be the focus of attention, the Government will also need the House to pass legislation, including the budget.