Front line security guard not tested since November!
Derek Cheng reports:
A security guard who tested positive last week was previously last tested in November last year – six months ago – even though he is meant to be tested every fortnight.
The information has emerged during the health select committee this morning, when MBIE chief executive Carolyn Tremain said the last test in their system was November 20.
This should be astonishing, but it isn’t as we know how bad the management is. New Zealanders were promised that all frontline staff would be tested every two weeks and this guy hasn’t been tested five months, or 20 weeks.
National Party Covid-19 response spokesman Chris Bishop asked: “How many workers have missed tests they should have had in the border workforce?”
Tremain said she didn’t know.
So there could be hundreds.
Bishop said the committee hearing – where he was only able to ask two questions – was a joke, with a “20-minute lecture” about how Covid-19 is transmitted and an explanation of the end-to-end MIQ process.
He confirmed that he already knew that returnees spent 14 days in MIQ.
“The Opposition gets very few opportunities to question officials about the Covid response. To have that curtailed by, frankly, Government MPs asking patsy questions to make it easier for the officials is pretty depressing.”
Bishop was visibly frustrated during the committee hearing, and at the end tried to move a motion to have the session extended for an extra hour.
Committee chair Liz Craig then closed the public session without the motion being voted on.
This information only came about because Chris Bishop asked the right question. The public only knows becauses of the Opposition.
Labour is desperately trying to stop the public from knowing this information. So Labour MPs wasted around 75% of the time of the select committee by asking patsy questions which they are not even interested in. They are simply trying to block opposition MPs from asking useful questions.
Jo Moir is a press gallery reporter. Remember when the Government preaches kindness, they don’t really mean it. If they did, they would not instruct their MPs to block opposition questioning of key Covid-19 officials.