'Someone who should've done their job on the ground didn't do it' - Deputy PM Winston Peters talks to Mike Hosking, June 19th.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged that the public has lost confidence in the Government's management of Covid-19 at the border.
Her major focus is to now "restore public confidence and, indeed, confidence in the Government and [its] ministers".
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health.
Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline.
He did not want to specifically point the finger of blame directly at Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield for the border bungles.
"It stops with the people who have the protocol in their control... at the place where it had to be exercised, and they didn't do their job. That's where the buck stops, and with anyone who knew they weren't doing their job.
"It's not good enough...some people are letting us down."
Finance Minister Grant Robertson also added his voice to the issue this morning, saying the gaps were "unacceptable" but that the PM had moved to ensure these were fixed.
He said the fact that Clark has not been fired was a disgrace.
Meanwhile, Robertson told Hosking this morning that NZ's biggest GDP drop in 29 years was significant.
The economy fell 1.6 per cent in March, the first quarterly fall since December 2010 and the largest fall since March 1991, Stats NZ said.
When asked by Hosking if he was "gutted", Roberston said: "No".
"The specific number, you need to be careful as Stats NZ says it will bounce around a bit," Robertson said.
"But I am not denying it is significant. I've said from the beginning this is a 1 in 100 years shock. We took a part approach, go hard and early, and the benefit of that is our economy is operating in a way others are envious of, but the impacts will be significant in quarter 1 and quarter 2. I've personally been saying that since early March and most commentators have too."
Hosking pressed Robertson that things could look even worse for quarter 2, given quarter one only took in the first week of lockdown.
"We all know the June quarter will be more severe because we were in lockdown for longer," Robertson said.
"Then the way these things work with GDP, the third and fourth quarters will likely see a bit of a rebound."
Robertson said the quarter 1 pressures were not only from the Government-enforced lockdown, but issues in the forestry sector with a "glut" of logs from Europe heading to China, and border restrictions with China around the Chinese New Year.
"There are a number of factors at play here, not just the lockdown."
Yesterday, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield revealed New Zealand had a new case of Covid-19, taking the number of active cases to three.
The man is in his 60s and is now in a quarantine facility in Auckland's Jet Park Hotel.
He flew from Pakistan to Doha and on to Melbourne on June 11, and then to Auckland on Flight NZ124 on June 13. He developed symptoms on June 15.
But the focus of much of Bloomfield's press conference was on how the two Covid-19 positive sisters were allowed to travel to Wellington to visit their sick mother.
Meanwhile, Ardern and her deputy, Winston Peters, are on very different pages when it comes to what should be done to those responsible for the blunder.
Peters told the House that the Government would find those people "at the coalface who didn't follow the protocols".
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters speaks to media during a press conference on Budget 2020 delivery day at Parliament. Photo / Pool
"The only way we can eliminate this sort of irresponsible behaviour or failure to fulfil the protocol requirements is to identify those people and make sure it doesn't happen again."
But Ardern said told reporters she does not want to see a "witch hunt".
"This has been a failure of the system; I'm not interested in going down into individuals and finding out exactly who."
At a press conference, Bloomfield acknowledged that New Zealanders were upset by the Government's blunder.
Work is now under way to contact trace more than 350 close contacts of the women and Bloomfield said the "vast majority" had been tested.
He said he couldn't say how many of the 200 people granted compassion leave has been tested before they were allowed to leave quarantine facilities.
But the rules have been changed and now no one is allowed to leave a facility unless they have a confirmed negative test, even if it's under compassionate leave.
Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield during his press conference at the National Library in Wellington. 18 June, 2020. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchelll
The story of the Covid-19 positive sisters was made worse when National MP Michael Woodhouse told the House that the pair had got lost while in Auckland and were given directions by a family friend.
Woodhouse alleged they gave the helpers a "kiss and a cuddle" but Bloomfield said put their "arm around them" and said that was the only contact they had.
This is despite the fact that Ardern and Bloomfield had claimed the pair had gone from Auckland to Wellington and made no stops.
