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Dear John --
10 days ago, I launched our campaign to end the lottery of human
misery that is MIQ right now. The response has been extraordinary
– over 90,000 people have signed our petition, the biggest the
National Party has ever done.
I’m very proud of the
campaign that National has run on this issue. I think it’s one of the
most important things I will ever do in politics. I’m not going to
stop until MIQ is ended.
MIQ made sense at the start
of the pandemic. But now it’s just cruel and callous to stop fully
vaccinated Kiwis coming home for Christmas when there are 5000 people
alone in the North Island isolating with COVID (or close contacts) at
home.
As I said in Parliament this week, it’s ludicrous that fully
vaccinated travellers with no COVID go into MIQ, while people with
COVID isolate at home in the community when they would be better off
in quarantine. Public health experts agree with
us.
Jacinda Ardern’s compassion has turned into cruelty for
the one million Kiwis abroad, who are shut out of the team of 5
million.
Every day there are new stories of the hardship that
MIQ causes. Yesterday it was announced the NZ Mens U19 cricket team
have cancelled going to the Cricket World Cup. Greg
Murphy can’t get to Bathurst. And then there’s the
stories that just break my heart – like that of Shelley Grierson, who wasn’t allowed
to leave MIQ early to see her dying sister despite being fully
vaccinated and passing multiple negative COVID
tests.
For every Greg Murphy I know there’s tens of
thousands of cases of people who are desperate to return home for
Christmas or summer but who haven’t secured a slot in
MIQ.
The government won’t even open up the
Trans-Tasman Bubble for Christmas. They’re stuck in Fortress New
Zealand mode while the rest of the world opens
up.
John, if you support the campaign, could you sign the petition and share it far and
wide? I’d like 100,000 signatures by the end of the day. Gossip
around Wellington is that the pressure is starting to tell on the
government and I want to keep the heat on.
Thank you
for your support.
Chris
Chris
Bishop
List MP based in Hutt
South
National COVID-19 Response
Spokesperson
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