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National | Māori

Government 'behind the eight ball' in Covid vaccination rollout for Māori and Pasifika - Winston Peters

Credit / Q + A

Winston Peters has told Q+A he cannot understand how the Government has got behind in the vaccination rollout for vulnerable groups such as Māori and Pasifika because it has known since the beginning that they are the "seriously most vulnerable".

"We began way back at the very beginning knowing in our first Cabinet meetings in 2020 that old people, Māori and Pasifika were seriously the most vulnerable and that we were going to do something about them as a priority," the former Deputy Prime Minister said.

"And I don't know how it was but when we got into 2021 and the vaccine rollout it showed demonstrably that we were behind the eight ball so-to-speak and that we'd lost so much time."

Peters said steps being taken now to reach these vulnerable groups should have been taken months ago.

"We've got all these buses being used and things like that, and all these utilities being used, when they were available five months ago."

Peters told Q+A he has been vaccinated for Covid-19 now but it was nowhere near as "easy" as advertised in the Covid-19 vaccine "propaganda".

"You won't believe how long it took to get them," he said, of his two months' wait.