One year ago the Government moved fast and decisively when it needed to, and can be proud of its achievements. But its current slow pace on moving forward and chipping away at our isolation means it risks losing the goodwill it has built up
What an extraordinary twelve months! It has been just a year since the onset of Covid-19 turned our lives upside down, as we entered Alert Level Four Lockdown for several weeks, followed by other shorter term, lower level lockdowns over subsequent months. In many ways, it seems hard to believe that it has been only a year of disruption, yet, in other ways, the time seems to have passed very quickly.
Remarkable things have happened along the way – good and bad. On the positive side, we quickly rediscovered the power and worth of families and local communities and rekindled some of the spirit of looking out for each other that many felt had been lost over the years.
On a lighter vein, we have got used to a virtually new language based around words like lockdown, managed isolation, asymptomatic, contact tracing and genomic sequencing to name a few.
But there was a darker side too. We have the seen the spectacle of large city streets eerily empty of people and cars at the peak of the day. As time passes by we are hearing more of the economic consequences of the pandemic with many stories of people in professional and skilled occupations needing to completely retrain because their jobs were there no more.
While it appeared for a long time that the tourism sector was bearing the brunt of the downturn because of the cancellation of inbound tourism following the closure of the borders, we are now hearing more about the impact on jobs generally.
Recent reports have highlighted the thousands of business collapses since the outbreak of the pandemic and the reality that unemployment is at a level not seen since 1988 and the aftermath of the Global Sharemarket Crash in late 1987.
And we have taken many things in our stride, including the early jarring potential shock to our freedom of the then Commissioner of Police threatening to detain people who strayed too far from their homes during lockdown, an idea his successor was quick to distance himself from.
We developed new rituals – tuning into the radio or gathering round the television at 1:00 pm to hear the latest government pronouncements quickly became a virtual “de rigueur” daily pastime.
However, the more perceptive of us soon realised these broadcasts were far less about the transmission of useful public information than they were very cleverly crafted, and as it turned out to be at election time, quite deliberate and highly successful political propaganda.
All of us will have our own memories of the last twelve months which we should not give up or toss aside, as they help shape our individual character and collective nationhood. The lives of today’s children and young adults have been changed forever by the impact of the virus on education and community activity. Our literature, drama and art will reflect many of these memories and social changes in the years ahead.
But, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, valuable and important as the recollections are, it is now time to move forward and to look at what a potentially post-Covid19 world will look like.
Already, in the United States, the public and governmental focus seems to be moving in this direction, despite there still being nearly 6,000 new cases being reported each day.
The optimism is based on the success to date of President Biden’s vaccination programme. His inauguration pledge of 100 million Americans being vaccinated within his first 100 days in office was in fact achieved in just 65 days, allowing him to double his target to achieving 200 million vaccinations within the 100 days period. Americans are beginning to see there is light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel.
At the same time, the White House is reportedly seriously considering lifting for a temporary period the intellectual property shield on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to enable generic manufacturing countries like India to replicate vaccines more cheaply and quickly for developing and less well-off countries.
While progress has been slower in Europe because the spread of the virus has been more relentless, European Union leaders made two important decisions when they met by videoconference last week. The first was to urgently accelerate the authorisation, production, and distribution of vaccines, supported by strong vaccination programmes.
Although they agreed to keep existing restrictions, including those on non-essential travel, in place for the time being, they also resolved that the eventual decision to start to lift restrictions should take place on a co-ordinated basis, based around what they called “Covid-19 Interoperable Digital Certificates”, effectively Covid-19 passports to facilitate safe travel across international borders.
All these moves are relevant to New Zealand where, despite the Prime Minister’s exhortation to look to the future, progress to date in establishing a travel bubble with Australia and Pacific neighbours has at best been ridiculously snail-like. This is despite the fact that we start in a better position than the United States or any of the European states, even though our national public vaccination programme is yet to get fully underway.
The barricade of our isolation means that we have had nothing like the community spreads that have swept through those other countries, so we should be better placed than most to resume travel relations with our near neighbours, as a prelude to opening up to the rest of the world as other nations do likewise.
Yet the delays in establishing even a trans-Tasman travel bubble appear extraordinary and unnecessarily protracted. Australia first announced a limited travel bubble with New Zealand in October last year, but the New Zealand government has consistently ruled out the prospect of quarantine-free entry to New Zealand as premature. This is despite the fact that there have been only three cases of Covid-19 detected in inbound flights from Australia in the last eight months.
It is a similar case with regard to the Pacific Islands, the Cook Islands and Niue in particular, where there have been no recorded cases of Covid-19. The economic interdependence of both countries on New Zealand means their fragile economies have been severely impacted by the lack of tourists due to the absence of quarantine free travel to and from New Zealand.
Ironically, the establishment of one-way quarantine free entry to New Zealand from Niue and the Cook Islands is having the most perverse impact. Because Niueans and Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens they are coming to New Zealand in increasing numbers seeking jobs here to replace those lost at home because of the lack of New Zealand tourists. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown estimated last week that his country could lose up to 40 percent of its workforce to New Zealand by the end of the year. In frustration, he suggested the Cook Islands might have to look to Australia for a two-way travel bubble if one could not be established soon with New Zealand.
While Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins has conceded that a Covid-19 travel passport is “probably inevitable” within the next year, the Government does not appear to be doing much to advance the concept.
This is a surprise, given that for most of the last decade – certainly until 2017 – the New Zealand passport and the technology behind it was regarded as amongst the most sophisticated and secure in the world.
In view of that, and the consistently high regard in which the New Zealand passport has been held internationally, one would have expected the New Zealand government to be playing a far more active role in developing an Australasian and Pacific regional Covid-19 passport that could align well with the similar document being developed by the European Union.
The Prime Minister’s recent announcement that she will soon “make an announcement” about when a two-way travel bubble with Australia might be established risks becoming a metaphor for a Government now looking increasingly hesitant and unwilling to face up to the growing emergence of the post Covid-19 world.
This week's Cabinet decision that people who have been vaccinated overseas will still not be allowed to enter New Zealand quarantine free strongly suggests the Government has no intention of moving ahead anytime soon, no matter what the rest of the world might do.
The Government can look back with justifiable pride and satisfaction on how it has managed the last twelve months – but the far bigger job lies ahead. Rebuilding the economy, vaccinating the population and re-engaging with the world in a safe way are massive challenges to be confronted. The Government’s previous good work and the goodwill that it established could be quickly undermined if it is now seen to be unwilling, or too slow to do so.
The Prime Minister is right – now is the time to move forward. If only her Government would show some signs it is able to match the worthy talk with action.
