Category: Democracy
The Covid-19 outbreak has not only precipitated a health emergency, but an economic crisis unparalleled in modern history. For New Zealand to emerge from that crisis in a healthy state, the Labour government will need to provide a clear framework for recovery.
Instead of questioning the accuracy of the computer models, the Prime Minister appears to have been spooked into making another of her disastrous 'Captain’s Calls' - to lock down the country and ‘eliminate’ the virus.
Public anxiety at the way these blockades are operating – and not just in the Far North, but on the East Coast and reportedly in the central North Island as well – has reached such a level that National MPs can’t ignore it.
The PM has taken New Zealand down the path to State control so far and so quickly, that there’s now a very real risk that the architecture of a socialist state will underpin the rebuild.
If the government wants to get New Zealand working it should get rid of the Resource Management Act. Even one of its architects, Geoffrey Palmer, has said the RMA is broken.
Instead of locking down the nation and trying to stamp out a virus that cannot effectively be contained, we should be quarantining and supporting those who are vulnerable to keep them safe, while enabling the rest of society to get back to normal. Within a month or so, it should be safe for those vulnerable groups to re-enter society, and to re-open our borders.
Fear of widespread infection in the community of a virulent disease is now sufficient to lock people up in their homes and suspend Parliament. Really! This not the first such plague to affect New Zealand and it will not be the last. Yet this is the first time our civil liberties and our democracy have been suspended in order to minimise its effect on public health.
With all of the indecision, contradictions, and failure to follow the lead of countries that have controlled the virus without destroying their economies, one can’t help but feel our leaders are making this crisis deeper than was necessary.
German immunologist and toxicologist Professor Stefan Hockertz says, “Covid-19 is no more dangerous than influenza, but is simply observed much more closely. More dangerous than the virus is the fear and panic created by the media and the ‘authoritarian reaction’ of many governments.”
Any restrictions anywhere in New Zealand on public movement under COVID-19 Level 4 national emergency criteria should apply equally everywhere and to everybody, regardless of race, and only be imposed and enforced by legitimate authorities of the state and not Maori amateurs.
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