Is this the most expensive operational failure in New Zealand history?

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Most Kiwis stake their lives on the operational safety of airlines. They squeeze us into metal tubes where our very lives are dependant upon the care and attention to detail of the maintenance engineers, pilots and many ground staff. We expect thorough operational processes to ensure that “the mistake” that causes a lot of damage is minimised.

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The operational failures at our border over the last 100 days will cost many New Zealanders their liberty, health, and hundreds of millions per week. Worse, it will cost us confidence in the ability to plan our lives and our businesses – prompting many to stop investing, stop creating jobs and close.

Given the failure, a lockdown seems like the only option, but no-one is happy that a well communicating cabin crew is shouting “brace, brace, brace” – we should have avoided the crash.

It is clear that all border workers should have been tested regularly. Strike 1.

We all operated with confidence based on an assurance one month ago that the government was testing all border workers. This was untrue. That no-one in Cabinet noticed that border and MIQ staff – the thousands of people who were most likely to get Covid-19 – had not yet all been tested is unbelievable. Strike 2.

Testing numbers fell dramatically in July. People at community testing centres have faced seven-hour delays. Staff at MIQ facilities have been photographed without PPE. This is the equivalent of watching the cabin crew forgetting to close the door before take-off, while assuring us of their thorough procedures.

Last week the Government told us it had set itself one job – test, trace and isolate the virus in three days – but it has failed. The mechanisms that were supposed to control another outbreak and protect failed. We were told for 100 days another outbreak was a matter of “when” not “if” – so Mt Roskill residents will rightly ask ‘what preparations were made during the last 100 days? Strike 3.

Finally, if the strategy was always for restrictions to last one incubation cycle of 14 days, the Government should have said so rather than announcing just 3 days. It’s fair to look at the decision to extend Auckland’s lockdown by 12 days is an admission that the Government is out of its depth. Strike 4.

The border should have always been the Government biggest focus. Now we will all pay a heavy price.

A lockdown in March was OK given the information we had at the time, but it’s clear the subsequent strategy hasn’t worked.

The costs of lockdowns – in terms of mental health, delayed health treatments, small business failures, unemployment and debt for future generations – are just too high.

It’s easy to criticise, what ACT is proposing is a new strategy. We need to revise the way we’re dealing with Covid-19 and operating our border because it’s simply unaffordable not to.

ACT has set out five principles for better public health: stop preaching fear, have an open debate about our national strategy, treat travel to different countries differently based on risk, use better technology, and use private sector solutions for testing, tracing and isolation.

Taiwan has managed to have low rates of death and infection without imposing severe lockdowns.

It’s time for an honest conversation about what our overall strategy is. We cannot afford a rolling maul of blunt and expensive lockdowns. We need competence, not just good communication.

While Mt Roskill breathes through its oxygen mask of (yet more) wage subsidies and debt for our children, we are saying to ourselves that we will never fly on this airline again.

– by ACT’s candidate for Mt Roskill, Chris Johnston, who has outlined above, what principles and policies ACT stands for. Chris is a Project Manager who was born in Whanganui and has lived around Mt Roskill and Dominion Road for eight years with his wife and children.

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