I didn’t cover this subject yesterday because I was sure one of our other esteemed writers would do it and was surprised to find that no one did. I guess we are all so accustomed to this government making promises they don’t keep that we find the latest situation just more of the same. This matter is particularly interesting though, because of the way in which it unfolded, and the way in which the government dealt with it — or, you might say, didn’t deal with it at all.
You may remember that, as soon as Judith Collins became leader, National announced that they would charge those returning to the country for going into quarantine. There is no human rights issue with this; Australia is already doing it, and while no one is saying that Kiwis cannot return home, it does seem a bit rich to expect to receive 2 weeks in a hotel, with all food included, for free. Immediately, Labour jumped on the bandwagon and pointed out that National was only proposing a policy that Labour was already working on. Except that, clearly, they weren’t. They were galvanised into action by National pulling the rug from under them over the question of charges for quarantine.
Yesterday, the policy announcement came and, quite frankly, it is pathetic. With the cost of quarantine for this year alone being estimated at $500 million, most taxpayers think it is reasonable that those in quarantine should pay their way. But the government’s new policy only charges those who are going on holiday. All other returning Kiwis still get quarantine for free.
Mike Hosking doesn’t like it one little bit.
What a convoluted, messy, indecisive waste of time all that turned out to be.
By the time they work out who they are charging, and how they are charging them, they may as well have flagged it, the Greens win. This has been a scam, and it’s an abdication of responsibility.
How the Labour Party told us they favoured having people pay and put this out is a joke.
How New Zealand First told us they wanted people to pay and came out with this is a joke.
The Greens, to their credit, have at least been consistent. Deluded but consistent that charging people somehow breaches their human rights.
The Greens are not in the least concerned with human rights. They are concerned with overseas votes.
Clearly Labour never intended to charge people for quarantine but were caught out by National proposing the policy and then pretended they were going to do it all along. Now it is clear that they were not, but didn’t want voters to switch to National over it. Anyone who was considering switching to National over it will now do so. Labour may gain a few overseas votes from this policy, but it should be very much more interested in voters at home.
The Greens, however, often gain from overseas votes and, as they are still struggling around the 5% threshold, obviously they do not want anything to scuttle their chances of making it back to government. For those that think that Labour might govern alone and not extend a hand to the Greens if they get enough votes, think again. The Greens will be back in government if they make the 5% threshold. The fact that Labour gave in on this policy is proof enough.
The thing is though, that the situation regarding quarantine is now the worst of both worlds. Not only can returning Kiwis come back scot-free and disappear overseas again after 91 days, it means that any Kiwis intending to come back home to visit relatives over the summer will now think again. Already having to face 2 weeks in quarantine, having to deal with the prospect of paying for it as well may be a bridge too far; and many families will miss out on relatives visiting them for Christmas.
I suspect those people will not be voting Labour this time around, and there will be a lot of them.
Winston Peters’ reaction to all this has been a bit… inconsistent. Spitting tacks at the Greens as usual on the Mike Hosking Show on Wednesday morning, he quite rightly pointed out that New Zealanders should not be funding the costs of quarantine and that he was opposed to it. But apparently he and his party voted in favour of the proposal. I find this approach really difficult to understand. If he doesn’t agree with it, as he says, then why did he vote for it? So Winston is going to campaign on being different from the other parties in government and disagreeing with them while voting alongside them? Gee Winston. That is not going to be an easy sell.
All in all, the government’s policy is another cluster of incompetence. Someone really ought to tell Jacinda that you cannot please everyone all the time, because this policy will end up pleasing no one. It may not please overseas voters who want to come back for a short stay. It will not please relatives of overseas Kiwis who were hoping to see them sometime soon. And it definitely will not please the large number of voters who do not think that the government should be borrowing money to pay for returning Kiwis’ quarantine costs. This money will have to be repaid by New Zealand taxpayers at some point in the future. Why we should have to pay for people to stay in 4 or 5-star hotels is beyond most of us, but there it is.
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