If there’s one thing Covid has increasingly illustrated it is how different Auckland is to the rest of the country. Without wishing to be insulting to those outside of Auckland they could probably be best described as our country cousins. This was very apparent in the current lockdown. Most JAFAs gave two fingers to the prime minister and her idiotic government’s stupid rules and got on with their daily lives. Apart from most of retail being closed, life went on pretty much the same. Even in level four from what I observed.
The difference between that attitude and the rest of the country could not have been starker, perhaps with the exception of the Waikato who have recently endured their own significant lockdown. While Aucklanders would like the borders removed now, there is a sizeable portion of the rest of the country who are dead scared to see a JAFA rolling towards them. Maybe we should be mandated to wear orange coats so people can see the danger from afar.
Auckland, by the very size of its population, is somewhat removed from the rest of New Zealand. Sorry, Aotearoa. It is more akin to Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney only smaller. So with regard to Covid, Auckland has moved on. The rest of the country it seems is still in the grip of the fear instilled in them by Ardern herself, Wiles, Baker, Hendy and her other friends including those in the media. These people are either in denial that Aucklanders simply did their own thing or simply don’t want to admit it.
The country would be a lot better if everyone else followed Auckland’s lead and did likewise. Covid/Delta is here to stay. We have to learn to live with it. Borders, as they are, have to go and so should the ridiculous traffic light arrangement. That is nothing more than a means of socialist control. It is also about Ardern being anointed as the Global Covid Queen for reaching 90 per cent vaccination levels. It has only ever been about her, and the country has paid a hefty price economically for her socialist madness.
Trevor Mallard has epitomised the arrant nonsense with his initial rulings around Parliament and the movement of Auckland MPs in particular. Then there was his silly ruling re the press stand ups where the journalists had to stand so far apart nobody could hear the questions being asked, according to Barry Soper. The 1 pm presser seemed to be exempt though. This is the behaviour of people who are so far removed from the real world they may as well join Alice in Wonderland. Mallard’s hosting of Question Time often resembles something akin to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
If Auckland became a state we could give two fingers to Nanaia Mahuta as well and prevent the blatant stealing of our water assets. We could do the same to Michael Wood and tell him to shove his tram, not down Dominion Road but rather in a place where the sun doesn’t shine. We could have our own parliament made up of people who understand Auckland and its issues because, as Heather du Plessis-Allan has frequently pointed out, Wellington surely doesn’t. They might as well be residing in Timbuktu, so removed are they from the reality that is Auckland.
I daresay a large proportion of the rest of the country would be delighted if Auckland became a state, judging by some of the comments heard from time to time. To be fair though, they do like us visiting and spending money, and those in business would like that to happen now. Except for the self-appointed ‘His Highness of the North’ Hone Harawira who appears to indeed want a state: a police state where nobody is allowed in. Watch this space.
The chance of this happening of course is entirely off the radar. The fact is the rest of the country cannot exist without Auckland, something else Covid has proved. When Auckland shuts down the rest of the country suffers from both a tourist and a manufacturing point of view. We have now reached the point where these so-called experts and their maniacal modelling need to be ignored and normal life resumed. Regular jabs will become the norm for those who want them, just like for the ‘flu.
The rest of the country needs to catch up to Auckland, not by tricky traffic lights but by kicking the fear can well and truly down the road. Ardern needs to be given the message that using Covid as a means to instil fear and diversion in the population while implementing her socialist agenda is completely unacceptable. At the end of the day Covid has to be treated as just another virus which, in reality, it is.
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