Despite new data in the US showing half of the people with the virus have no symptoms, the government still stubbornly refuses to quarantine all Kiwis returning home.
Back on February 18th Michael Woodhouse, shadow health spokesperson, was saying “The government needs to make sure adequate quarantine facilities are available for those affected and protect New Zealand from this disease.” Plus from February Woodhouse was relentlessly questioning the Health Minister in the House, to no avail.
Fast forward 6 weeks, the strongest possible measures are still not being implemented to prevent the virus creeping across our borders carried by returning Kiwis unaware they are infected.
Jacinda Ardern cannot impose strict self-quarantine restrictions on the New Zealand public and not instruct her government to also take strong measures to prevent this killer virus taking hold.
This is not about ‘human rights’ (Willie Jackson on the AM show). If one of his children died from an infection transmitted by a Kiwi showing no symptoms and not quarantined at the border, he would not be defending the returning Kiwi’s ‘human rights’ then!
The ‘high trust environment’ Mr Bloomfield defends is dangerous, as it depends on everyone following the rules, which they don’t. The first week of the shutdown attests to that.
When life or death is at stake, trust is NOT sufficient.
The left always like to take a bob each way. Ardern’s rhetorical response ‘It’s my expectation that Ministers set the standards we are asking New Zealanders to follow’ when clearly one is giving her the two-finger salute (David Clark, on his bike), is laughable.
She then proceeded to take no action, which illustrates impotent governance and double standards during a crisis, when authorities have greater powers but set poor standards. The public are getting confused!
Her invisibility after the incident and getting her finance minister Grant Robertson to front the issue is plain cowardice. This ministerial breach of the rules the majority of New Zealanders are following demanded a special press conference by the PM and nothing less.
In a week where the cracks were beginning to show in the government’s pandemic response, Ardern could have shown leadership and sacked the incompetent minister, whose track record has been abysmal.
Waiting in the wings is Labour list MP Dr Liz Gordon, whose decade working in public health included serving as Director of the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service of the University of Otago. A competent government MP? Where have they been hiding her?
However, the reality is that Dr Gordon may be just a little overqualified and overshadow our less qualified PM, so I don’t think that will be happening any time soon. Better to stick with incompetence so Ardern can continue to appear to be a shining beacon in a confusing and uncertain world.
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