The Ministry of Health’s admission that its confiscation last month of rapid tests ordered by the private sector included tests already in the country is deeply concerning and Ministers need to front up on the matter, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“This has been a debacle from the start. First the Government didn’t get around to ordering enough rapid tests in time, so instead they confiscated tests bought by private sector companies who were proactive and keen to do the right thing by their employees.

“Then when the lid was blown off that, the Government claimed all they were doing was ‘consolidating’ orders – a deliberate piece of sophistry to try and hide what was actually happening, which was confiscation.

“To make matters worse, the Government then denied they were taking rapid tests that had already landed in New Zealand and claimed they were simply taking ‘forward orders’ of tests.

“We now know that was incorrect. The Ministry of Health has admitted that the Government ‘did take the full February allocation from Roche and their stock on hand in New Zealand as part of having our orders fulfilled by Roche’.

“The Government has been evasive throughout this whole saga. Why haven’t they been upfront with the public about its confiscation of rapid tests? The obvious conclusion is that they were trying to cover up their own incompetence in not ordering enough, quickly enough.

“They need to put this whole sorry saga in the past, apologise to the companies concerned, make sure they get the tests they actually ordered, and then legalise rapid testing in pharmacies and supermarkets.

“Ministers need to front up and explain what has actually happened here, rather than deflecting questions to the bureaucracy.”