Jacinda Ardern famously claimed she’d never told a lie (there’s a lie right there) and also believes that it is possible to be in politics and never lie.
When the border leaks hit in August we were told by the Prime Minister and the Health Minister that they didn’t know that their “policy” for testing wasn’t being implemented.
Cabinet was repeatedly told prior to the August outbreak that the regular asymptomatic testing of all border-facing workers was still being rolled out, despite ministers claiming ignorance, Marc Daalder reports.
Just days after the re-emergence of Covid-19 in New Zealand, a scandal erupted over the lack of testing of border-facing staff.
A national testing strategy announced in June was meant to include regular testing of all border-facing workers – that is, people who work at managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities, airport staff and marine port workers. But it quickly became apparent that the regular testing had never begun.
Over the almost six weeks between the June 23 announcement and August 3, just 1089 border-facing workers in Auckland were tested for Covid-19, according to Ministry of Health data released to Newshub. That amounts to less than 36 per cent of the border-facing workforce there. Air Commodore Darryn Webb, who is in charge of the MIQ system, revealed on TVNZ1 Breakfast that, in MIQ facilities, just two in five staff had been tested prior to the advent of mandatory testing on August 12.
At the time, Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Chris Hipkins insisted they had been told that testing was further along than it in fact was.
Pants on fire.
“It has not been happening at the rates that, A, we have asked for, and B, we were told was happening,” Hipkins said.
“When we ask as a Cabinet for something to happen, we expect it to happen. So of course that has not met our expectations. No one, of course, said to any point – that I recall – that what we asked for was not happening,” Ardern said.
All lies. Even Ashley Bloomfield said as much when he said there was a “dissonance”. He clearly meant dissonance amongst ministers and the Prime Minister.
But documents proactively released by the Government reveal that isn’t the case. Cabinet was repeatedly told that the border testing was still being rolled out and was never given a date for completion. Cabinet was also provided specific numbers of tests of border-facing workers on a weekly basis.
So, the government was re-elected based on lies.
Alongside the comments, Cabinet was provided with a breakdown of the number of workers in each cohort and the number who had been tested. Of the 2000 MIQ staff, just 290 had been tested in the previous week. Of 5000 Auckland Airport staff, 211 had received a test. At the ports, where 2100 people were estimated to be eligible for testing, just 12 had been tested in the past seven days.
Yet, just a week later, Ardern told reporters: “No one of course said to any point – that I recall – that what we asked for was not happening.”
She also said when asked about lying that if she ever lied she would own it?
Well, is the Prime Minister going to own this bout of repeated lying? Shall I hold my breath waiting.
No, didn’t think so.
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