National leader Judith Collins. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Most National Party MPs have got back into the same room together after a caucus meeting was made possible after politicians' travel restrictions out of Auckland were lifted.
The meeting yesterday was held as thousands of anti-vaccination protesters marched to Parliament, forcing security to be ramped up substantially.
It was preceded by several MPs being quizzed by media about their support for leader Judith Collins.
Collins told Morning Report the caucus had been "very upbeat", her MPs were solidly behind her and focused on "the job at hand - which is all about the people of New Zealand".
No MPs from any party addressed the demonstrators, and Collins said her MPs were told to stay inside.
"I made it very clear I didn't expect any of our MPs to be there.
"It was clear from parliamentary services that MPs were not encouraged to go out of the building; the doors were locked."
The potential threat the crowd posed was not taken lightly, she said.
"It was quite clear that Parliament was in a lockdown situation yesterday to a level I have never seen.
"It was a very large group of people, but it was peaceful and we should acknowledge that - but there was certainly some cause of concern, otherwise I would not have seen this level of police.
"We do need to be careful about this. It was best not to do anything ... that could rark anything up any further."
She said anti-vaxxer threats of attempted organised gridlocks were "concerning".
However, Collins said the Government needed to give more clarity around vaccine mandates where possible, particularly the length of time they could be in place.
"We cannot go down this path of having a mandate that lasts forever. Even if it's not a timeframe, it needs to be around what else is happening in terms of Covid."
"But the big thing really has to be ... get yourselves vaccinated and you won't have anything to be concerned [about], because if you do get Covid you're very unlikely to end up in hospital or ICU units."
This morning the party released its stance about whether primary school students should go back to classes.
"Our kids have missed out on so much education ... about 22 weeks in the last 18 months.
"We would put a stop for at least the next two years on any curriculum changes, because actually there's going to take a lot of teacher-only days to prepare for these curriculum changes, and we have to have our kids back learning their maths and English - it's really important for kids right across the country."
As younger children return to classrooms, the possibility of community spread among children increases.
"Which makes us wonder why it's taking so long to get approval the approval through for those under 12 to get vaccinated, " she said.
"Obviously kids will get viruses, they get diseases, they do all that sort of thing - it's really important though. Our children, right at the moment they're missing out on the ability to be able to have a decent education. And for our most deprived children, it is even more concerning. "
Collins said some schools had indicated as many as 60 per cent of children might not come back to school.
"There is a huge tsunami of the Covid cohort of kids who are going to be missing out on having the opportunities that the rest of us and our children are able to have. That's a massive problem."
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