The Ministry of Heath says it will investigate the release of a video from Advance New Zealand to its audience after the video featured Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking about vaccinations.
The video was sent last night to email recipients who had signed up for Advance New Zealand and New Zealand Public Party updates.
It focuses on a ‘no jab, no job’ idea which the party believes is “coming next” from the Government.
The video features a seven second clip of the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaking about vaccinations and New Zealand children.
It had been taken from a longer Ministry of Health video shared in July 2019 that focused on achieving equity in health outcomes.
In the clip Advance NZ took, Bloomfield says: “You might need to have dedicated teams who are going out and finding these children… going into their homes and vaccinating them."
Bloomfield was using an example that in the late 90s and early 2000s there were poor rates of immunisation for some children in the New Zealand population.
In the full video Bloomfield said most immunisations for most children would be delivered in a GP setting by a nurse, but some may fall through that gap where “a bit more effort might be required” and degree of resource may differ accordingly.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Health told 1 NEWS an investigation would take place following the release of the video from Advance NZ.
The Ministry also says it will be "raising the matter with the Public Service Commission".
“Protecting the integrity of the Ministry’s documents and communications is important to us. We will be undertaking an investigation to ensure no misrepresentation has taken place.
“The associated transcript [of the video] makes it clear that Dr Bloomfield’s comments (at 2.01) relate to the effort of ensuring access to health care for all New Zealand children.
“This includes instances where it can be more appropriate for care to be delivered in a home setting, rather than a clinic or hospital.
"There is no suggestion that this would be forced or would take place without the usual patient consent.”
Minor party politicians Jami lee Ross and Billy Te Kahia were among those attending the rally.
The Ministry spokesperson said that policy work regarding Covid-19 vaccinations was under development and there has been “no consideration given to changing New Zealand’s current position on patient rights, informed consent or refusal of medical procedures".
“Minister Hipkins has said the Government does not support compulsory vaccination.”
Co-leader of Advance NZ, Jami-Lee Ross said the timing of Dr Bloomfield’s video for the Ministry of Health is irrelevant and that it speaks to the methods the Ministry is willing to deploy in order to enforce vaccinations. Ross said the date was made clear in the video Advance NZ used.
"We used footage of Dr Bloomfield saying this to highlight the approach the Ministry has towards vaccinations,” Ross told 1 NEWS.
"The Government may say they will never make vaccinations mandatory, but so many restrictions on personal rights and freedoms are in place or are being considered. And by both sides of politics.
“If the Ministry has policy work underway about restricting work or crossing the border, that’s a restriction that limits personal freedoms.
"The National Party has candidates that say people should lose benefits or working for families payments for refusing to be vaccinated, these are the coercive mechanisms I am opposed to,” Ross said.
Former National MP, Ross announced he was starting his own political party Advance NZ in May of this year and said it would focus on the freedom and sovereignty of New Zealanders.
In July Advance NZ formed an alliance with NZ Public Party, formed by Billy Te Kahika who is vying for the Te Tai Tokerau electorate.
The top priorities of the new alliance are to restore democracy and repeal the Covid-19 health bill, restore the economy and restore national sovereignty.
Earlier this week, Facebook removed a video from Advance NZ after Trevor Mallard wrote to the social media giant saying it wrongly framed the Government of legislating forced vaccination.
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