6. Question No. 6—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (ACT—Epsom) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 6—Prime Minister6. DAVID SEYMOUR (ACT—Epsom) to the Prime Minister: Ni hao. Does she stand by her statement that Every New Zealander has had an opportunity to be vaccinated now"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. I went on to say "There will be some who may have access issues and we're actively reaching out particularly to those who may be isolated or disabled to overcome those barriers." The Government is working with DHBs and health providers to increase vaccination rates across all our communities. This weekend we reached another milestone with more than 5 million vaccinations administered and 1.8 million New Zealanders being fully vaccinated. That represents nearly 44 percent of our eligible population. In Auckland 82 percent of the eligible population have now had their first vaccine. I've said before it's not enough for the country as a whole to have high vaccination rates. We need to ensure a high uptake right across New Zealand. Our plan reconnecting New Zealand is all about building on our vaccine roll-out though to connect all New Zealanders to the world in a safe way.David Seymour: How can she stand by her statement that "Every New Zealander has … an opportunity to be vaccinated now" when those in group 4 have had only four weeks since 1 September and they have to wait six weeks for their second dose?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Because at the time the member was implying that there wasn't enough vaccine available for someone to access the vaccine today if they would like to and my response was that that was incorrect. We did have the supply. We have walk-ins drive-throughs the ability to be vaccinated today. If the member wished for me to extrapolate—that full vaccination of course would take a minimum of a 21-day delay between the first and second dose and then another 14 days for full efficacy—I would have been happy to expand on that answer.David Seymour: By what date does the Government consider every New Zealander will have had the chance to be double vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Well obviously we now have availability and bookings available up and down the country. For the member's edification we also—I see he's put it up as a new idea—actually already have 867 primary care sites and 325 non-primary care sites so pharmacies and the like where vaccines are available. So there are opportunities up and down the country. I think what you can see though from the vaccine numbers that we have at the moment is that like many other countries—some reached this point sooner than us—we've reached a point now where we now are having conversations with individuals around their perhaps reluctance to be vaccinated and it is taking a bit of that extra effort from those on the ground to work with those who have as yet not accessed a vaccine even though the availability is there.David Seymour: Why were approximately half the pharmacies and half the GPs in Auckland still waiting to be on-boarded into the vaccine roll-out two weeks ago—that is six months after the roll-out started?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: A number have been on-boarded progressively as our supply has increased but I don't think there's any suggestion that people aren't able to access a vaccine quickly and easily at this point in the programme.David Seymour: Will the Government consider its vaccine roll-out to be complete when every eligible New Zealander has had an opportunity to have both doses where 90 percent of eligible New Zealanders have had an opportunity to have or have had both doses or when 90 percent of eligible people in each ethnic group have had both doses?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We've referred to 90-plus. So whilst we haven't said we have this Government proclamation around a target we have said that we want "The higher the better". We've talked about 90-plus because keep in mind 90-plus of the current eligible population only equates to about 75 percent of New Zealanders and we have seen in countries with even rates like that that they are continuing to have to use restrictions. We don't want to use those which is why the higher that we are in our vaccination rates the fewer restrictions we see. I can see the member's point he's trying to make. You are trying to make an assertion that once everyone's had a chance it then comes down to their personal responsibility. But with vaccination it is just not going to work like that because if an individual is vaccinated but they still want to be able to access healthcare then that implies that we don't have an overrun health workforce or overrun hospitals. It implies that you won't have outbreaks somehow but we know that that won't be the case. If we have a proportion of New Zealanders who opt out we will have outbreaks that will lead to restrictions and that will impinge on everyone's lives. So it is not a simple equation of "If you've just had a chance then unfortunately game's up and it's all over for everyone." It is not as simple as that. If only the world were that simple.David Seymour: Can the Prime Minister just give the House and the New Zealand public a straightforward answer to the question: when will she define the vaccine programme or roll-out as being complete?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I did at the beginning of my answer. I said very clearly that we're aiming for above 90 percent because even that only equates to roughly 75 percent of New Zealanders. The higher we have our rates the more likely it is that we'll be able to live without having to have some of those restrictions that have impacted on our daily lives. We've also said we want to see good even spread. If you have large pockets of for instance young people who are unvaccinated or indeed large pockets of towns you will see heavy impacts in those areas because you don't have an even spread of vaccine."