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New Zealand has secured the delivery of another 36 million rapid antigen tests, upping the stocks to more than 55 million tests for use over the next two months, as the country prepares for a widespread Omicron outbreak.

A total of 123 million rapid antigen tests have been ordered through to June.

The deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said on Tuesday: “the government is preparing for a move to phase two of our Omicron plan, where we start integrating rapid antigen tests into testing, to ensure a return-to-work programme for critical businesses”.

Robertson said modelling shows that during the peak of an Omicron outbreak, the country may need to use 9 million RATS a week, which is equivalent to testing a quarter of New Zealand every day, or all of New Zealand twice a week.
”That scale of testing will go a long way to reducing the risk of an infected person going to work and then infecting others.”

The tests will be used for asymptomatic critical workers so that hospitals, supermarkets and other services can continue operating, added the associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.

“The use and supply of RATs will continue to be prioritised to ensure we are protecting the vulnerable and to enable asymptomatic critical workers to return to work. These additional supplies will go a long way to ensuring those who most need a test can access one.”

Outside the Press Club following his speech, Scott Morrison refused to answer further questions about the text message allegations raised by Network 10’s Peter Van Onselen. As he left the building and got into a waiting car, the PM refused to stop for journalists outside, waving off reporters’ questions.

Protesters had assembled at the exit gate to the carpark after leaving the front of the building. Security cleared a path through the crowd, but protesters ran alongside the PM’s car as it sped away.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, walked through the crowd himself before turning around and returning to the carpark. He told reporters he was looking for his waiting car, which had dropped him off on the road outside the Press Club.

Protesters yelled abuse and insults at Morrison and Joyce as they left.

The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, also shrugged off questions about the text allegations aired by Van Onselen. Stopped by journalists on his way out of the Press club, Hawke said he wouldn’t comment on the texts but called Berejiklian “fantastic”.

Home Affairs officials have insisted the government is not “anti-encryption” while arguing tech platforms rolling out end-to-end encryption are prioritising privacy and security over public safety.

Speaking before the parliamentary inquiry on social media and online safety, Brendan Dowling, the first assistant secretary for digital and technology policy at the Department of Home Affairs, said the department is “deeply concerned that innovation in digital tools, including anonymising technology like end-to-end encryption, is not striking the right balance between the benefits and the risks of harm.”

Dowling accused the tech companies of considering safety of users as an afterthought when rolling out end-to-end encryption for privacy and security reasons:

I’ll start by saying that we recognise there are substantial benefits particularly to cyber security and privacy from the use of encryption. So we’re not … anti-encryption or looking for vulnerabilities in encryption. But we do see that the adoption of ubiquitous encryption across more and more platforms will have serious and real implications for safety, and particularly around the proliferation of child abuse material, around the use of anonymity tools in the conduct of cybercrime.