Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Jacinda Arden on the vaxathon and Three Waters

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Data shows that rural Kiwis are lagging behind when it comes to vaccination rates, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hopes this week's Super Saturday will change those statistics.

The Super Saturday vaccination drive will also include a "vaxathon" - a telethon-style event that will take place from 12pm-8pm on various TV channels and social media outlets.

The vaxathon will include real-time data on how regions are going, prizes, information from experts and competition between towns and regions.

Ardern hoped both Super Saturday and the vaxathon would allow local communities to get through to isolated rural people.

"They know which parts of the communities they haven't reached. They're working alongside community groups and business organisations to both target those groups, and also add incentives, if that's relevant, for those groups," she told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

Ardern also hoped the event would encourage rural people to realise that Covid-19 was not just an issue for Aucklanders.

"It is, I think, a view that it's not necessarily relevant outside of Auckland and that's why some of the areas that I've been visiting recently, as part of our vaccination drive, have been those more rural and isolated areas."

Rural communities couldn't afford this mindset when it came to the Delta variant, she said.

"Just to highlight again – Delta moves quickly – and it finds the unvaccinated."

"We've already seen it's popped over up in Kāwhia, Raglan, Karāpiro – it would not take much for it to move very quickly through unvaccinated communities - no matter where they're geographically located."

Meanwhile, Ardern defended the Government's Three Waters Reform Programme, even though only six out of 67 local authorities supported it.

Under Three Waters, all 67 local and regional councils' drinking, waste and stormwater assets would be absorbed by four large regional entities.

The proposal had proved controversial so far but Ardern put this down to a reluctance to change.

"We've been working alongside local government on something that essentially would fundamentally change up something that they're doing now.

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"So, it's not necessarily the case that when you're having [this] debate that ... everyone's going to welcome the fact that we're proposing significant change."

Doing nothing was "not an option," Ardern said.

"We have to move on this issue because if we don't, we will continue to see a decline in our critical infrastructure and we'll continue to see issues with safe drinking water."

Doing nothing would cost ratepayers more than the Three Waters programme, she said.

"If we just leave things as they are, analysis shows us that the cost per household could be between $1900 and $9000 depending on location.

"Whereas, with reform [it's] much, much lower - $800 to $1600."

Ardern also dismissed concerns over iwi governance in the programme, preferring to focus on the "nub of the issue".

"If people don't support the idea of consolidating these entities down what is their alternative?

"Because doing nothing is not an option."

Also in today's interview: Ardern talked about Sir Ian Taylor's private MIQ trial and Brian Tamaki's lockdown protest.