The National Party says vaccinated New Zealanders are being held back from enjoying more freedoms by government delays on vaccine certificates.
Cabinet has decided in principle that Auckland will move down to alert level 3, step 2 at 11.59pm on Tuesday 9 November.
National's Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop told Morning Report it could've been done tomorrow, if vaccine certificates were ready to go.
"A lot of the freedoms that could be given to vaccinated New Zealanders can't be given. So, our view in National would be that if you're vaccinated, you should be able to leave the Auckland prison.
"That can't happen right now, or it's very difficult to make that happen because we don't have those vaccine certificates."
Bishop says it makes for a very messy situation, and he doesn't understand the rationale for waiting a week.
"The point was made yesterday that retail is a low risk environment, well why can't it happen tomorrow."
National's plan involves a deadline for vaccination, which Bishop says would be combined with rapid use of rapid antigen and saliva testing.
"We've said that once we get to 85 percent doubly vaccinated, we should just go for it basically, start to reopen, start to let people have those freedoms and get people some certainty. So, 85 percent or December 1st, whichever comes first."
Bishop said it was the party's view that hospitals would be able to cope if its plan was followed.
