David Seymour on Covid response and Jacinda Ardern's whereabouts

Act leader David Seymour. Photo / George Novak

What's good for the Aussies is good for the Kiwis.

Act leader David Seymour is challenging our vaccine response to Covid, after Australia has announced non-emergency approval for Pfizer's vaccine, with rollout in late February.

Seymour told The Country's Jamie McKay our Government needed to give a reason for our slow progress.

He said they've tried to say the delay is with Medsafe, but the Australian equivalent has approved the vaccine as safe.

"Why has it taken Medsafe and New Zealand longer, and if it is taking them a long time, what do they know that the Australians don't? Maybe we should be warning the Aussies."

The move comes as New Zealand is contending with a potential resurgence of Covid-19 in the community, after a 56-year-old woman who left managed isolation after two negative tests later tested positive.

Seymour said the woman should be praised for doing the right thing, as her assiduous use of the Covid Tracer App meant we could avoid a potential lockdown.

"If she hadn't been a 'super scanner', we wouldn't know these 30 locations. She could have spread it at those locations and we would be facing a full blown outbreak with absolutely no hope."

Listen below:

He suggested that Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins seemed to be running the country - and asked where the Prime Minister was.

"Can you remember who the Prime Minister is? Janet Askew, was it? I remember she was around last year but she seems to have disappeared."

Mackay told Seymour he was been cynical, but Seymour said people were looking for her - and pushed back against suggestions she deserved a break.

"She's been out for about eight weeks."

Also in today's interview: Seymour weighed in on his Woman's Day cover piece about looking for love.