Jacinda has said so. In amongst her 1 pm electioneering stunt, she said Aucklanders and New Zealanders (her team of five million) have stuck to the plan that has worked twice now and beat the virus again. “We put our heads down and we got on with it”. One thing’s for sure, there’ll be plenty of heads down when her economic chickens come home to roost. The so-called plan she keeps banging on about is the one where no one was allowed to work, when a lot could have, for which the country is about to pay a hefty price.
“Much was at stake with this resurgence of COVID, it was a test of our plan” she said. As most of those affected by community transmission were in the one cluster it hardly needed a plan. The non existent plan she talks about was needed back in March when she finally decided to close the border having had to forgo the Christchurch fancy dress kisses and hugs. The plan for the border, if there was one, wasn’t working despite her protestations to the contrary.
Jacinda also said that the continuation of high rates of testing was important. I looked up where you could get tested and of the eleven, five are closing tomorrow. And of course, she wants us to keep using the app. I wonder if she will recommend that as a permanent piece of apparatus as a means of keeping tabs on her five million comrades. She also would like you to continue wearing your masks. She’s keen on masks, she also uses them verbally when talking about things of which she should know something but in fact knows nothing.
By the grace of Jacinda and her partner in crime Dr Bloomfield Auckland is now at level one. From my perspective, apart from public gatherings and boarding through the back door of a bus wearing a mask, Auckland has been at level one for quite some time. People are on the whole over the silly little rules because they know they have to get on with life. Unlike Jacinda, whose salary we pay, most people have to go to work or they don’t get paid. That’s a reality with or without the wage subsidy.
Professor Shaun Hendy says there’s a high probability we’ve eliminated the virus in the community. That to me signals the end of this being a COVID election. We can now get on to more important matters such as policies designed to solve bigger long term problems than the virus. If the debates are anything to go by, only Judith has the policies and the answers to address them.
Things have just got tougher for Jacinda. Flanneling your way through COVID using it as an election tool is one thing. Debating policies with “The Crusher” is quite another.
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