National Party leader Judith Collins denies having any knowledge of a 'misleading' advertisement for the National Party that appeared to be authorised by her.
Judith Collins has denied any knowledge of a National Party ad that said it was authorised by her. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, told the National Party to remove the "misleading" social media ad, which looked like it was written on letterhead from Labour's Health Minister Chris Hipkins.
The ad suggested Hipkins had said it was not compulsory for people to have a Covid-19 test on day three in managed isolation.
However, this information is incorrect, because people cannot leave isolation for an extra 14 days if they refuse to have a test.
Collins agreed it was wrong for National to publish an ad that appeared to be on a Labour minister's letterhead and said the ad had been removed.
"I didn't even know about the ad, which I was really quite annoyed about," she said.
"The use of my name was in fact unacceptable and unauthorised by me.
"You can imagine it's going to be sorted."
Collins said Covid-19 tests could produce false negative results, so the National Party supported compulsory testing before people travelled to New Zealand.
"We can't afford to go in and out of lockdown, because some people think it doesn't apply to them," she said.
Collins' husband of 41 years, David Wong-Tung, has been criticised for sharing Facebook posts that some regard as racist or sexist.
Collins said her husband made his own decisions.
"I've always believed a woman doesn't have to answer for her husband."
Earlier this year, the National Party lost an appeal to the Advertising Standards Authority over another ad that was deemed misleading.