We are all aware of the large number of Kiwis who have struggled to get home in the last two years due to limited spaces in MIQ. This has been described, somewhat kindly, as a ‘lottery’, but in reality, it is something that contravenes the NZ Bill of Rights which allows New Zealand citizens always to be able to return home when they wish.
You may have been fooled into thinking that the whole idea of MIQ was to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID coming in from overseas. Most people still believe that. Some actually want to close the borders altogether, claiming that those who want to return have ‘had their chance’… although exactly how they work that out is a complete mystery. I wonder if they would feel the same way if they had a family member who had been trying for months to get a MIQ spot and kept failing because of the ‘lottery’ that returning Kiwis have to face.
Included in those who can enter MIQ are essential workers – those deemed ‘essential’ by our esteemed ministries, and might be expected to include doctors, surgeons, ICU nurses, seasonal workers and the like – you know, those people of whom we have a chronic shortage to operate our health system, stop our fruit from rotting on the ground and perform other essential services that keep the wheels turning in our little country.
By now, you will all have heard about the British DJ, Dimension, who was granted essential worker status to appear at the Rhythm & Alps event in Queenstown. You may wonder why an overseas DJ is suddenly counted as an ‘essential’ worker, or even if we have absolutely no other DJs in the country?
Wonder no more.
On the far right is the organiser of the Rhythm & Alps festival… you know, the festival that the British DJ was attending?
You may also be wondering why he is ‘essential’ enough to have qualified for 3 MIQ spots in the last 12 months? Yes. That’s right. He deprived 3 returning Kiwis of their MIQ place in the last year.
There is nothing quite like being ‘essential’ is there? Or, to put it another way – All immigrants are essential, but some are more essential than others.
The really disgraceful part of this sordid story is that, had it not been for his blatant disregard for the rules, resulting in him introducing Omicron into the country, we would never have known about this. We would never have known how Jacinda’s friends and favoured people always manage to get into MIQ just when they want to. After all, this is not the first example of it.
“Leader of a New Regime”. I wonder who she is referring to by that? Our new Creator of a Two-Tier Society, in which Lorde herself is a favoured member, perhaps?
Other New Zealand citizens, who do not matter, are denied spaces or exemptions if they have dying relatives, are separated from family members, or are hired to do an essential role in our society. Apparently, Invercargill hospital has been trying to bring in a surgeon from overseas for some time… but DJ Dimension is more ‘essential’ to our society than a surgeon for a southern hospital. Make of that what you will.
It seems that there is a new visa category. ‘Friends of the Prime Minister’ seems to allow a number of people through the closed borders and into MIQ where returning Kiwis, who have rights here, can be ignored. Think of The Wiggles, Ru Paul, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Lorde, the UN worker from Fiji. They all got in while returning Kiwis could not. And now we have one who couldn’t be bothered to obey the rules. The MIQ rules say he should be subject to immediate deportation for flouting the rules, no matter how many apologies and ‘mea culpas’ he issues. It won’t happen, though, and we all know why.
Jacinda Ardern is not merely dividing our country along racial lines. She is also creating an ‘upper class’, an elite class. To belong to it, you have to be in favour with the PM, her partner or certain other ministers. That’s it. Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung would be proud. Their legacy did not end up in tatters after all.
Never forget. All New Zealanders are equal, but some are more equal than others.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.