Heather du Plessis-Allan: Get PM and ministers up to speed on coronavirus details

COMMENT:

The Government better sit the PM and the health minister down and get them across the details of our coronavirus response.

I am astonished at what these two key ministers don't know.

Our Health Minister doesn't know how many testing kits there are in this country.

We have been asking about this for days, because we're being told behind the scenes we only have limited supplies.

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Until this morning … when David Clark said: "I can't tell you that exact number. It's a number that I have myself been trying to get my hands on."

The PM was asked as well and she also doesn't know how many kits we have.

How do you feel after hearing this exchange this morning … the Prime Minister being asked by Mike Hosking why there are cruise ships in Auckland's harbour … and her then flat out denying there are, saying "that is untrue, we have already barred cruise ships."

She repeated twice more that cruise ships "have been barred".

Well you can run around saying they "have been barred" all you like but if you looked out the window yesterday you would've seen the Noordam and the Azamara in the harbour.

One of two things just happened there: either the PM was hoping to play a game saying something often enough and forcefully enough until we all eventually believe those cruise ships weren't really there after all, or she literally didn't know that there are cruise ships in Auckland.

We either have a Prime Minister trying to pretend… or a Prime Minister who doesn't know the most basic details of what's actually happening in this country right now.

So, a piece of advice to the government:

Get your PM and your ministers up to speed.

Forget about flying around the country in a private plane to make announcements.

Put her and David Clark behind a desk … make them learn the details.

Because they are leading this… and we need to have confidence they know what they're doing.