31 Mar 2021

Shane Reti's decision not to get vaccinated with government his to explain - Judith Collins

From Morning Report, 7:30 am on 31 March 2021

National Party leader Judith Collins says her deputy’s decision not to get a public vaccination early is his own to explain.

The Government is allowing ministers and spokespeople who hold portfolios on health or Covid-19 to get vaccinated early and in public to help boost confidence in the vaccine.

Shane Reti, the National Party’s health spokesperson and a GP, however decided he did not want to take advantage of the offer and get the jab.

He told media yesterday he does not want to jump the queue, and MPs shouldn’t need to get the vaccine to prove its safety.

Collins told Morning Report she would get the vaccination if asked to, but it’s up to Dr Reti to decide what he does.

"I'm happy to do it, but it's not for me to tell Dr Reti when to have a vaccination."

Collins said there is no hesitation from Dr Reti about getting the jab, rather he just doesn’t want to appear to be a queue jumper.

 

No support for rent caps

Collins also spoke to Morning Report about rent caps, which the government has not ruled out introducing to control the country’s soaring rents.

Renters fear they'll pay for the Government's crackdown on investor income last week.  

The Finance Minister says he "can't predict" what effect the housing package will have on rents and says the Government will "take action if necessary".

But opposition leader Judith Collins says caps have been nothing but a disaster in the past and she wants the government to promise not to bring them in.

"We have, already, a rental shortage. The last thing we should be doing is having fewer people wanting to be landlords or fewer people having places they can rent."

When pressed for an example of the caps not working Collins said they had been tried in New Zealand in the 1980s but wouldn’t give other examples.

"New Zealand is what I'm looking at, I don't need to look at Colombia or somewhere else."