Todd Muller on why David Clark has to go

National Party Leader Todd Muller. AP Photo / Nick Perry

National Party Leader Todd Muller had some blunt words for Health Minister David Clark and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on The Country today.

"This is completely unacceptable. He has to go. She needs to stop being kind to him" Muller told Jamie Mackay.

Muller said that he would "continue to push hard" for Clark's resignation after news that two women with Covid-19 were allowed to leave managed isolation in Auckland on compassionate grounds without being tested.

This was not the first time Clark had "erred", and this was another example of his "track record of failure" Muller said.

"When we're all locked down he's on a mountain bike – not only once, but twice. When we're all locked down he's moving a house. When we're dealing with the greatest health crisis of a generation, he's back home – he's not in Wellington – the Prime Minister's largely running it".

Listen below:

The fact that Clark still had his job was an example of Ardern "covering for him", and was a bad look for the Coalition Government, Muller said.

"When you look at the scale of the impact that sits in front of us as a country – 40,000 people lost their jobs in April, another 80,000 are expected to lose their jobs by September, 120,000 by Christmas and we've got a border that's shambolic – unacceptable".

Meanwhile Muller was also unhappy with reports that Speaker Trevor Mallard had spent $243,000 on a kids' slide as part of a children's playground at Parliament.

The slide was $76,000 over budget and engineering and architect fees were $73,000 over.

Muller said this was an example of the Coalition Government's lack of experience with financial matters.

"When you look at this lot, they just spend money, they've never valued it because they've never worked in the private sector, because they don't understand how hard it is to earn it in the first place; they don't value it".

A Government that did not understand the value of money could be detrimental to New Zealand's future, according to Muller.

"From their perspective it's totally cool to have a 20 billion dollar contingency fund in the next 10 weeks to try and win an election; without any regard to the fact that in four years time we've got 140 billion dollars worth of debt that my kids and their kids have to pay back".

Also in today's interview: Muller talked about the rise of David Seymour, why the National Party can "run the show properly and get the job done" and discussed Mackay's suggestion that Nikki Kay is a bit "woke and left".