'Glad there is an expert' – Ardern appears frustrated at interjections during Covid-19 debate at Parliament

David Seymour and Chris Bishop were both invited by the PM to join in at the next Government briefing.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared frustrated at interjections from across the House during a debate on Covid-19 testing in Parliament's debating chamber this afternoon.

It began when National leader Judith Collins began pressing Ardern on why daily saliva testing of border workers hasn’t been widely implemented in New Zealand.

Ardern pushed back, saying it had begun saliva testing and more research into it was currently being undertaken by health authorities with a view to perhaps introducing it as a mandatory requirement for border workers rather than a voluntary one.

ACT leader David Seymour injected himself into the debate by asking whether the Prime Minister was aware of studies overseas which outline saliva testing for Covid-19 yields quicker results and is just as affective as nasal swab PCR tests.

There has been a massive testing push since the virus reappeared in the Auckland community.

Ardern answered that New Zealand is in a different situation than most countries, with a smaller Covid-19 outbreak meaning saliva testing may not yield the same results here.

“Are we testing saliva testing in New Zealand for ourselves because New Zealanders have different saliva from other countries?” Seymour asked in a follow up question.

“The Member misunderstands, the point is we have to do a validation process to get it underway in New Zealand, we don’t have the same level of Covid-19 present in New Zealand so that makes it a little more difficult,” Ardern replied before offering Seymour a briefing from her experts.

As the debate continued, Ardern appeared to get frustrated at interjections from Seymour and National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop who called out from across the House during one of her answers.

“I’m glad there is an expert sitting there on saliva testing, maybe I should bring him into the briefings,” she said after Seymour’s interjection.

She made the same offer to Bishop later in her answer after he also offered his opinion on the matter.

It comes as there were no new community cases announced in New Zealand for the second day running, following on from Sunday's announcement of three Auckland community cases.

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