Our faces of the day today are three against one as Judith Collins, David Seymour and Winston Peters have all come out against Jacinda Ardern’s decision to keep the South Island in a level 2 lockdown.
National leader Judith Collins says South Islanders have had enough and slammed the Government’s decision to extend alert level 2 restrictions for the island another week.
[…] National Party Leader Judith Collins disagreed with the Government’s approach saying alert level 2 had gone on too long outside of Auckland.
“Why is the South Island still at Level 2 when there hasn’t been a case recorded there since the end of May?
South Islanders were paying the price for an outbreak happening hundreds of kilometres north of them.
“South Islanders have put up with the inconvenience of restricted gatherings, cancelled sports fixtures and half empty businesses. They’ve had enough.
She said the response to the pandemic in March was sound, but the country was now in danger of using “a mallet to crack a nut” when it comes to handling Covid-19.
“For many under continued lock-down, far from the outbreak, the worst effects won’t come from the disease itself but the economic fall-out of how we handled it.”
“The Prime Minister’s claims about the positive state of the economy do not line up with the number of people out of work and the even larger numbers who have retained work due to the wage subsidy.
“If Labour had a clear plan at the border, this outbreak could have been tracked and traced much earlier.
[…] Today’s decision had majority support in Cabinet and followed the advice of director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Ardern said.
But NZ First leader Winston Peters disagreed and invoked the “Agree to Disagree” provisions.
“The director general of health has stated that the Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland is contained. Additionally, he believes there is a low risk of transmission outside of Auckland,” Peters said.
“New Zealand First notes that it will be around 120 days since the last community transmission or reported case – with the sole exception of the four Tokoroa cases, all linked to the Auckland cluster – outside of the Auckland region.
“Despite modelling suggesting a small risk of undetected cases outside Auckland, no evidence has yet emerged that this risk has been realised.”
He said the economic costs were taking a toll, and people in the South Island were already in a level 1 mentality.
[…] Act leader David Seymour also disagreed with today’s decision.
“The restrictions on the South Island are particularly harsh. There hasn’t been any community transition there in the latest outbreak, but they’ve been unable to go about their daily lives.”
“Many in the hospitality business are allowed to open but cannot make money doing so. It is death by two thousand cuts. A thousand last lockdown and another thousand now.”
If you enjoyed this BFD faces of the day please share it.
