Blind ‘Trust’ in returning kiwis carrying the virus, caused the problem. Now Ardern struggles to trust her team of five million to move to level 2.
“It required a high level of trust” was how, back in March, Bloomfield (and the PM) explained why thousands of returning Kiwis were allowed to waltz back into the country, many unchecked and most untested, unknowingly bringing the coronavirus with them. They avoided quarantine because there wasn’t one, even after full border closure, for almost 3 weeks.
This bothered me, given what a smart guy Bloomfield obviously is, that he would condone such an action.
It turns out that we now know Bloomfield was just parroting Ardern’s orders. Back in February, he had advised the government that we should close and quarantine the borders and ban all returning kiwis. I would love to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting! (Winston, helpfully, let the cat out of the bag).
So we have just Ardern to blame for NOT “going hard and going early”. Don’t blame Ashley.
At a time when it is never more important for the government to have “a high level of trust” in their team of five million, the PM struggles. Being the boss of us in incarceration is intoxicating for her and she is clinging to her power.
You just have to watch her at her briefings, playing secret squirrel with information. It’s like pulling teeth and she is loving every moment. The PM is still playing games with thousands of people’s lives as daily our economy goes down the tube.
Her slowness to “go early and go hard” had National (and others) harping on about quarantining, and Bridges’ successful 24 hour 55,000 signature quarantine petition didn’t help, along with an (admittedly unscientific) AM Show poll that had 99% of people favouring quarantining.
It just made the vacuous PM dig her toes in defiantly. When common sense tells you it is a good idea, you change tack. She does the opposite, shooting herself in the foot, then declares victory when she is dragged kicking and screaming (from her cancelled Christchurch massacre commemoration) to completely close the borders on 19 March and much later, on the 7th of April, to quarantine.
Then she spins the line she invented the idea, with her propaganda machine repeating it a thousand times in case anyone missed it.
Her lack of discretion and judgement are obvious. As we head towards level 2 she continues to create fear and place the onus on New Zealand citizens, who are not spreading the virus anymore, rather than celebrate our enviable position, publicly put the responsibility on the Ministry of Health — who are finally up to speed — and let them do their job.
She is loath to take a leap of faith as that requires risk, and she lacks faith in long-suffering New Zealanders to do the right thing.
Infectious Diseases Physician Ayesha Verrall, who has been very critical, recently was very positive about our testing and tracing status quo. That will give Ardern the impetus to return to doom and gloom merchant epidemiologist Michael Baker to confirm her worst fears. He wants us to all to wear masks. Phew, Bloomfield has not succumbed to that idea, yet. And I predict he won’t.
That same “high level of trust” she so willingly gave to returning kiwis bringing the virus into New Zealand, Ardern now needs to rightfully transfer to her team of 5 million when going into level 2. However, our perfectionist is not going to relinquish her control without a fight for a perfect COVID outcome.
Let’s be clear, Jacinda did not go hard and early. That is a fallacy which her propaganda machine keeps churning out for eager left-wing media to consume, blind to the facts.
All the signs are that she does not trust us, as she did so easily with her misguided “captain’s call” which by default brought the virus into New Zealand.
As Sean Plunket said very eloquently on his Working Group, “Now is time for the government to give the people back their lives, their freedoms, their discretion”.
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