The Prime Minister remains cautious on a potential travel bubble saying it will be a "significant amount of time" before Victoria is Covid-free.
Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Chris Hipkins are speaking at the final post-Cabinet press conference ahead of the election on September 19, in the Beehive Theatrette.
She has also spoken about new Covid-19 messaging for New Zealand and shed light on how the virus response will be maintained in the lead-up to the election.
Ardern said the Covid-19 response would continue and Cabinet will meet once a fortnight. The Ministry of Health would still release its daily updates.
Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield and the Health Minister will hold a weekly press conference.
Voters would have to decide in September whether they continue with the Government's plan or stop and go with other options, said Arden.
"We're asking to keep going."
Labour's plan to address debt was investing in people and job creation while the Opposition's was austerity, Ardern said.
She wouldn't rule out campaigning on another top tax bracket.
Ardern said she took nothing for granted heading into the election when asked if she thought she had the election "in the bag".
"We will campaign hard every single day, we will assume nothing."
Travel bubbles
Ardern said she hasn't put a timeframe on a transtasman bubble but it was clear it wasn't safe to do that now.
She said it would take "a significant amount of time" before Victoria was Covid-free and that would slow down any progress for a travel bubble.
"We wish Victoria all the very best as they continue to combat what is a devastating situation."
Ardern said there was a lot of pressure on the Government to open a travel bubble, but she said it had to be done with caution to protect the Pacific Islands.
Airports were "high risk" zones so the Government needed to be absolutely sure there was no interaction between groups before a Pacific travel bubble was set up.
She said we had to move very carefully.
There would need to be extra checks and balances happening in New Zealand to ensure there was no community transmission here before opening travel up to the Pacific.
New messaging
Ardern said the Government was also dialling up its Covid-19 messaging calling on New Zealanders "to be ready" in response to "some behaviours" they'd seen New Zealanders doing - including rejecting tests.
"We cannot afford to be complacent.
"Perhaps people will be dimissive, perhaps that think what they've got it just the flu and they don't need to worry."
When asked about the new messaging, Ardern said that when New Zealand moved into alert level 1, the intent was for Kiwis to maintain good hygiene, contact tracing and testing but those practices had fallen away.
"We still need people to be on guard."
She urged everyone asked to get a test if they were offered one as testing would help ensure there wasn't community transmission.
"Please say yes to the test."
