National Party leader Judith Collins supports mandating the Covid-19 vaccine, but only to a point.
A large protest was staged at Parliament yesterday where, among a range of frustrations being shared, some were railing at the prospect of being forced to get vaccinated or face losing their job.
Collins told Morning Report her party supports compulsory vaccinations, including for health, education and border workers, but she doesn't want to see them forever.
"We cannot go down this path of simply having a mandate that lasts forever. It's really important that where there are mandates that there is a sunset clause that people know when that finishes."
She said that doesn't necessarily mean a timeframe for ending, but could be around what is currently happening with the pandemic.
Collins was at Parliament for the protest yesterday and said she did not want any of her MPs to see the protestors.
"I made it very clear that I didn't expect any of our MPs to be able to be there. Number one, we had a caucus that went to about to 1230, which is pretty normal. But secondly, it was clear from parliamentary service that MPs were not being encouraged to go out of the building. We had doors locked."
MP Harete Hipango had told media she was considering attending, but Collins said she did not ask.
She added if anyone should have attended the protest it would have been from the government, but the decision was made to keep MPs inside and she supported it.
"I think that the move was made, the decision was made, that MPs stayed inside, as did our staff, and I think that was obviously ultimately the right decision because we had no instances of real concern."
Education policy coming
Collins also said the party has a planned policy announcement today, and wants to put a halt to any curriculum changes for the next two years to allow teachers and students to catch up with all the learning they have missed through lockdown.
She said children have missed out on 22 weeks at school in the last eighteen months, and National doesn't want teachers to have to spend time learning new curriculum.
