What a difference some bad economic news makes. Earlier last week Scott Morrison was blaming our government for holding up the trans-Tasman bubble, saying if they don’t want Aussie tourists in Queenstown then Cairns will happily have them. This, as it was designed to do, raised the hackles of both Hipkins and Robertson. Hipkins listed a whole raft of problems, mainly in Australia, that he said were preventing an early start to the bubble. Both Hipkins and Robertson banged on about the visa Australians were required to have to visit here.
Robertson said if more New Zealanders went to Australia than vice-versa, the tourism regions could lose out on the domestic market as well. “This is a two-way street, and if Australians still require an exit visa, we could end up with a net loss to New Zealand,” he said. “So what we would have to know is just how many Australians were prepared to go through the rigmarole of that; in return, in terms of the net benefit to New Zealand, how many New Zealanders would go to Australia?” In what timeframe exactly Grant? A month, six months, a year? Is this guy for real?
So out came all the so-called problems which were nothing more than excuses for keeping the border closed and exercising control. Later in the week, out came two pieces of unpalatable news: the GDP figure for the December quarter, and a threatened protest in Queenstown over the Government’s lack of action in both assistance and a plan for the tourism sector. The GDP figure showed a drop of one percent and an annual decline of 2.9 percent to December 2020, the largest decline in the country’s history.
Suddenly, as if by coincidence, all those dreadful problems, mainly Australian evidently, magically disappeared and there was immediate talk of a travel bubble within a matter of three weeks.
Hipkins says the Government is now looking at a unilateral decision-making framework for the bubble, rather than a joint framework with Australia. Surely this should have been the strategy from the start. How Australia handles it at their end is their business. Stuart Nash, Minister of Tourism was dispatched to Queenstown so a protest could be avoided. For all the help he was, the protest should have gone ahead. His speech was full of maybes with no sign of a plan.
As a point of interest, given the amount of money the government has given to the media to buy them off, both the 6 pm news bulletins made only brief mentions of the GDP figure. The effect of this on the economy should have rated it a headline item. It would have been if National were the government. Does one need a better example of controlling the media?
Think how much better that $105 million could have been spent in trying to keep businesses in the tourism, hospitality and horticulture sectors afloat. This government has proven time and again they are not friendly to business, and that is simply because they don’t understand it. Businesses are closing in all these sectors while the Government wastes money on the media. Can’t have our left-wing buddies going to the wall can we?
Friday a week ago was a good example of control when Ardern held up the Auckland Covid level announcement. How on earth she thought the hospitality sector could gear up for lunch in thirty minutes is beyond comprehension. The excuse that it was the length of the lockdown that was important is pathetic. A major strawberry business is closing after forty years – just given up – and the government is to blame. Tourism on the West Coast and Queenstown is in dire need of a plan. But there is no plan because this government doesn’t have the ability to come up with one.
This is a government fixated on control above all else. This is Ardern’s raison d’être, to control the comrades. She needs to realise trying to turn this country from a democracy to some sort of totalitarian state will not work. The personal popularity hit that she took last week should be a wake-up call. It is unlikely to register, however, which may turn out to the country’s advantage by the time of the next election.
We don’t need any more control, we need a plan. Not just for Covid but in all major portfolio areas. The arrows are all pointing in the wrong direction. We shouldn’t hold our breath, though, with this bunch of incompetents. More bad economic news is no doubt on the way. The solutions will be beyond them.
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