New Conservative
Paul Deacon
New Conservative Spokesman for Covid Response
There are a million New Zealanders living abroad, most of them in Australia. At any one time, 30,000 want to come home. Families are separated. Workers cannot return to their jobs. People cannot access medical care in New Zealand.
The government has once again messed overseas Kiwis around, this time by refusing to open a route for New Zealanders to return home from Australia. And once again, this was done with the customary delays, obfuscation and incompetence.
How difficult is it to arrange for citizens to return on Air New Zealand (owned by the government)? They have had nearly 2 years to sort this out.
It’s time to recognise that New Zealanders living abroad are in an abusive relationship with the government. This abuse must stop.
New Conservative will ensure that all overseas Kiwis can return to New Zealand “without delay or hindrance” (as it says on our passports).
What Can New Zealand Expect from Omicron?
In other countries, the Omicron variant has proved to be highly infectious. It is much more infectious than previous variants, and of human viruses, only measles is more infectious. Lockdown measures have proved ineffective against this highly infectious airborne virus.
The Omicron variant appears so far to be very mild, with symptoms similar to the common cold. Hospitalisations, serious cases and deaths from Omicron are to date well below the same for Delta.
Robust public health data from other countries strongly suggests that you are more likely to be infected with Omicron if you are vaccinated. Susceptibility to the virus appears to increase with each dose of the vaccine. Another way of expressing this is to say that the efficacy of the vaccine is negative (for Omicron). This is a new development from mid-December onwards.
Omicron was spread around the world by the vaccinated (international travellers).
Australia is currently experiencing higher daily cases per capita of Omicron than Europe or the USA, and is about to overtake the UK.
There is no good reason to expect a different outcome in New Zealand. If the virus now disproportionately infects the vaccinated (and is spread by them), what is the purpose of discriminating against the unvaccinated?
Will the government continue blindly with its 100% vaccination and zero-Covid policies? Will the government use Omicron as an excuse to lock down the country again (“red” traffic light), regardless of the mildness and high infectiousness of the disease?
New Conservative calls on the government to learn from the experience of other countries and stop the abuse of overseas-based Kiwis wanting to return, by lifting the requirements of MIQ and trusting returning pre-tested Kiwis to self isolate with tests until day 10.