I know this may come as somewhat of a shock to all you good people, sober of mind (in varying degrees) and firm of conviction, but I am going to suggest The ‘Artful Codger’ Winston Peters and his frightful sidekick “The Fisherman’s Friend” Jacinda Ardern, the duet masquerading as Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister respectively, are liars both.
The polished pretence offered in defence of the failure to shut New Zealand’s borders earlier, preventing the need for our draconian lock-down nightmare — to wit: the claim that this move would have forced New Zealand citizens into an awful statehood loss, or, at best, dreaded limbo — is simply an untruth. The readiness of the prepared fib’s silky delivery should have alerted any minimally conscious journalist to its origins in high nonsense.
Prior to considering the Health Ministry report of March 6th “Rationale for Border Control Interventions and Options to Prevent or Delay the Arrival of Covid-19 in New Zealand”, restrictions had been placed on travellers from China and Iran, from which restrictions New Zealand citizens and residents were specifically excluded.
The report itself states:
As part of a precautionary approach to preventing and delaying the arrival of Covid-19, the NZ Government has imposed travel restrictions for people travelling from China (with special provisions for NZ citizens). The logic for this move comes from the well-established knowledge that air travel can facilitate pandemic spread.”
The proposed travel restrictions were never, ever, intended to apply to any New Zealander, and to claim that they were, or that the report recommended the expansion of travel bans from rampant Covid countries to include everyone exiting such places, including our own people, is pure propaganda; it ain’t true.
I hope this doesn’t curdle your milk or otherwise upset your digestive system, but I suspect it won’t, because you’re all smart enough to know that when Laurel and Hardy perform together in unison it’s a practised pitch and pure piffle.
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