Peters potentially opens loophole for funerals

There has been growing pressure on the Government to change the restrictions around funerals and tangi in level 2.

But the rules seem to have confused Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who may have opened up a possible loophole when he indicated gatherings of 100 could be allowed ‘‘afterwards’’.

Last week when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern set out gathering rules for level 2, she said weddings, religious events, funerals and tangi could be limited to 100 people. But on Monday, following health advice, she backtracked and announced they would be limited to 10 and reviewed again in two weeks.

Yesterday, Peters said it was possible to have an after event and be within the law and also attend a funeral ‘‘outside the fence line’’.

He insisted he was not Winston Peters confused.

After a tangi or funeral, people could go to a hall or a restaurant and sit down with 100 people but obeying distancing rules, he said.

‘‘Properly distant, 10 at a table, served by one person in each case . . . that’s possible,’’ Peters said.

When asked how a hall was different from a marae, he said on a marae the circumstances were much more closed-in and the distance rule would be impossible to keep.

When he was later asked to clarify his position, he said: ‘‘When you go to a funeral [inside] it is 10 but if you are outside the funeral gate and down the fence line, that is a different matter. It is common sense.

‘‘If after that, you decide to go to a restaurant [with] bookings of 10 and no more — up to 100 would be allowed. Instead of going there socially, you are going for a respectful wake to share with other families as long as you stick to the rules.’’

When asked if the different groups of 10 (all there for the same thing) was a loophole, he said it would not breach the rules. ‘‘A funeral is a funeral. A wake is a cultural thing. Going to the funeral burial is not like going to the function after.’’

On Monday Ardern made clear that restaurants or bars would not be able to take group bookings for larger than 10.

When asked about the view put forward by Peters yesterday, she said: ‘‘No, you heard me clearly outline them [rules] this is only intended, we hope, to be a very very short period, but we are asking new Zealanders to unfortunately stay with us in what is a very difficult thing to do’’.