The Act Party calls on Govt to create business travel bubbles with Covid-free countries

Act leader David Seymour holding a copy of their Covid 2.0 Response Plan during a press conference at Parliament in Wellington today. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Act leader David Seymour is calling on the Government to create a business travel bubble with a number of Covid-free countries, such as Australia and Singapore.

He also wants to relaunch the Epidemic Response Committee and bolster its use of technology to fight Covid-19.

His party today delivered, what he has called, the Covid-19 Response Plan 2.0 – a plan which sets out what New Zealand's next steps to responding to Covid-19 should be.

It pulls together a number of issues Act has been talking about for a number of weeks, such as introducing daily saliva tests and making using the Covid-19 tracer app compulsory.

The plan also has some new ideas, such as a business travel network – whereby business people could travel freely to Covid-free countries.

This is a system that is already in place in Taiwan, where people can enter the country for business purposes under strict conditions.

"The Act Party has done what the Government hasn't but the business community and others have been crying out for – develop a plan for the immediate next steps of New Zealand's response to Covid-19," Seymour said.

He has been critical for a number of weeks about, what he said has been, a lack of leadership from the Government over its longterm Covid-19 plan.

Speaking to media this afternoon, Seymour called on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to adopt Act's recommendations.

"We're confident following this strategy will make New Zealanders safer, more prosperous and eventually more connected in the Covid environment."

Among the 15 policy recommendations Act has laid out, four of them should be adopted "immediately," Seymour said.

These include:

• Compulsory Covid-app use including Bluetooth functionality to improve contact tracing.

• Introduce daily saliva testing and the use of Datamine's ëlarm technology to the border and MIQ workforce to alert them to early signs of infection.

• Begin establishing an Epidemic Response Unit modelled off Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre to replace Covid-19 response leadership by the Ministry of Health.

• Reactivate Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee.

"Act's position all along has been to propose sound policy solutions to the challenges we face while holding the Government to account," Seymour said.

"Act just wants to make the boat go faster."