“I have said it before, and I will say it again: the same political or journalistic treatment applied to any episode of seasonal flu would terrify us just as much as the current epidemic. Just as the staging – with real-time counts of victims – of any major health problem would make us shudder with fright just as much, if not infinitely more!”
– Jean-Dominique Michel, Geneva, Switzerland.
CLICK TO VIEW
As New Zealand’s state of house arrest moves towards the end of week two, more information is emerging about Covid-19. In spite of wall-to-wall news coverage of the disease as it rages around the world, it turns out that in the absence of pre-existing pathologies it is relatively benign.
A new study from Italy’s health officials confirms this. It shows that more than 99 percent of COVID-19 deaths involved older people with pre-existing medical illnesses. The average age of those patients was 79.5 years and almost half had three or more chronic pathologies.
In other words, for the majority of infected people, the disease is so mild that many don’t even know they have it. Most who develop symptoms, find it’s not too different from the flu.
However, for the group that’s known to be at risk, namely the elderly and those with pe-existing medical conditions, it can be extremely serious, even deadly. While there are also isolated cases of younger people who have succumbed to the disease, their numbers remain relatively small.
This information challenges the need for a country-wide lockdown, since those most at risk from COVID-19 are a relatively small and readily identifiable group. If they remained in self-isolation until a vaccine is available – or until the country develops widespread ‘herd’ immunity – with stringent social distancing and good hygiene, as well as effective testing and case management, surely there’s no reason why the country shouldn’t be able to return to some semblance of normality.
Although reports are now showing increasing success in treating serious cases of the disease with anti-viral agents such as chloroquine – and in preventing unnecessary deaths through the timely diagnosis and treatment of cytokine storm syndrome – opening up the country would require the Government to be effective in preventing the spread of the virus.
Yet the latest news reports highlighting how people still cannot get tested, how frontline health workers still cannot access protective equipment, and how officials are still in denial over the benefits of facemask protection for the public – see HERE, continue to cast doubts on the Government’s capability in that regard.
Furthermore, since COVID-19 is an imported disease, questions are being asked about why our border controls haven’t been tighter?
The island nation of Taiwan – a country of almost 24 million people located just off mainland China – took control of its borders almost as soon as the epidemic emerged. They ensured anyone infected was isolated and heavily monitored. All citizens were required to wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of the disease. Temperature screening was also widely used to identify anyone displaying early symptoms who needed testing. As a result of these measures, the country has recorded only 376 cases and five deaths. A lockdown was not needed.
With the virus now spread widely around the world, everyone arriving in New Zealand from overseas should be quarantined.
At present, only symptomatic arrivals are quarantined for 14 days. Those without a self-isolation plan are placed in an isolation facility, but everyone else can travel to their place of residence to undertake self-isolation there.
Since mid-March, when the Prime Minister announced that border controls had been tightened, we were led to believe that all returning travellers going into self-isolation were being monitored. It now turns out they weren’t. For weeks travellers in so-called self-isolation have been visiting supermarkets and other public places potentially transmitting the virus.
It’s only in the last few days, that the Police have told us they have finally put in place a monitoring system that works.
The reality is that most of the jurisdictions that have successfully contained COVID-19 have isolated those carrying the virus. Instead, our Government sends them home, and as a result, other family members are being infected. That’s one of the main reasons why the number of cases has risen to over 1,200 and why the ‘cluster’ outbreaks have continued to grow.
It’s not as if there’s a shortage of isolation facilities either – every community will have motels or hotels that could be used for the purpose of housing those with COVID-19 until they test negative and have developed immunity. There’s also no shortage of campervans, should they be required.
On March 23rd when the Prime Minister announced she was ordering the country into a lockdown, New Zealand had only 102 recorded cases of COVID-19. This raises the question of why the Government wasn’t able to get on top of the spread, without needing to close down the economy.
Those countries that have successfully contained the disease – namely Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and China – have all shown what needs to be done: comprehensive testing and tracking, the isolation of known cases, effective social distancing, good hygiene – including the wearing of face masks in public, and self-isolation for at-risk groups.
Had these measures been put in place by our Government, the spread of COVID-19 could have been controlled without shutting down the country.
The effects of the lockdown are evident in a new survey of 1,000 Auckland businesses. Over a third believe they will not survive the four week lockdown and will be forced to close permanently. Not only will there be massive job losses, but the impact on those who’ve spent years struggling to build their businesses, only to find them being destroyed by Government policy, will be devastating. Economists warn there will be “higher rates of suicide, heart attacks, strokes and long-term health problems as a consequence of the pressure being faced now” – not to mention when “the Government eventually tightens the reins, to repay the costs of the current rescue package”.
And what about the impact of the shutdown on those who are seriously ill, whose hospital treatment has been cancelled? Will the Government’s obsession with being seen to be saving the country from this disease end up killing New Zealanders who could otherwise have been saved?
There’s also concerns about the potential for COVID-19 to spread through public hospitals. It’s why countries that have successfully contained the disease, treat those infected in isolation hospitals, allowing public hospitals to continue treating their other patients.
The offer of help from the private hospital sector should have been accepted from the beginning. The thankfully small number of COVID-19 patients that have so far needed hospital care could have been accommodated in their facilities. That would have avoided the present situation where front line public hospital staff and patients have already had to go into isolation as a result of cross-infection with COVID-19 patients.
The lockdown provisions that have effectively put us all under house arrest, are quite extraordinary for an outdoors loving nation.
While most New Zealanders have accepted the situation without question, the Prime Minister’s call for people to ‘dob in’ their neighbours on one hand, while telling us “be kind” to each other on the other, is of particular concern. Turning the population on itself during a crisis is fundamentally damaging Kiwi democracy.
With signs that public tolerance is now wearing thin – more so when a government Minister (of Health no less) flouts the rules being forced onto others – more people are now expressing the view that this Government is out of its depth.
The shock closure last week of Bauer Media, publisher of many much-loved magazine titles such as the New Zealand Listener, Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, North and South and Next, is a case in point. Jacinda Ardern responded to the news by saying, “I am extraordinarily disappointed and frankly gutted to see, what has been a part of New Zealand history, close its doors fairly abruptly today.”
She blamed the closure and loss of 230 jobs on the company for not accessing the Government’s business support package. But what the PM failed to acknowledge is that it was her mindless decision to ban magazines from supermarkets that triggered Bauer to close the doors.
The Magazine Publishers Association revealed it had worked closely with them and other publishers to try to convince the government to reverse their ‘non-essential’ ruling, pointing out that magazines have tightly controlled supply chains and are not a safety risk.
But their appeals fell on deaf ears and small minds. The industry claims that magazines are the only media format now banned from operating during the lockdown and the only product banned from supermarkets.
Such we-know-best Government madness is intolerable, especially when magazines should have been available to help millions of families endure this prolonged period of forced home detention.
There’ve been many stuff-ups.
The Warehouse was told it could trade, then it couldn’t. Now it can – but only on-line for State ‘approved’ goods.
Butcher shops understood they could open, then they couldn’t. Then, after the pork industry revealed millions of pigs would have to be slaughtered, they were told they could open after all to process pork – but not sell it – except to supermarkets. Now, after millions of tons of meat has been destroyed, butchers have been told they can open and sell to the public – but only on-line.
Vegetable, fruit and flowers growers have also been forced to destroy their produce even though they assured the government they could produce their goods for market safely.
They are now amongst the hundreds of thousands of businesses throughout the country that are watching their losses mount as their life’s work slowly but surely ebbs away.
Meanwhile, under State orders, Kiwis patiently wait for food in lines reminiscent of the bread queues of the Soviet Union.
During the lockdown, Parliament’s Epidemic Response Committee has been meeting to scrutinise the Government’s actions. Chaired by the Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges, their meetings are live-streamed on Parliament’s website on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9am.
The former Vice-Chancellor of Otago University, renowned epidemiologist Professor Sir David Skegg, addressed last Tuesday’s meeting, suggesting that Singapore is a country that has managed the epidemic well (the NZCPR outlined their plan HERE). He was critical of governments that rely too heavily on modelling: “There’s a limited role for mathematical modelling, but I’m worried that some are dazzled by the maths and don’t realise how uncertain the estimates are.”
We all know from the Armageddon projections of climate change that have been thrust upon us over the years, how modelling is sometimes used to frighten the public.
Bizarrely, the government commissioned Otago University to produce a ‘worst case’ scenario about the virus infection that was so far-fetched it predicted doctors and nurses could strike in the midst of a COVID-19 health crisis: “In other worse case scenarios hospital staff could go on strike…”
The university’s scaremongering, which claimed that without the lockdown there could be up to 27,600 deaths, was released by the Government in time for it to lead the six o’clock news.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, Medical Anthropologist Jean-Dominique Michel, a public health expert from Geneva in Switzerland, is scathing about exaggerated modelling and governments that rely on it:
“Most projections aimed at imagining the number of possible deaths are nothing short of madness. Many rest on an artificial, maximal ‘forcing’ of all values and coefficients. They are established by people who work in offices, in front of computers, and do not have the slightest idea of the real world of field work or of clinical infectiology, resulting in absurd fictions.
“We might credit them with being creative and producing science fiction, but unfortunately their projections cause massive damage.
“I appeal to my colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine and other academic institutes to stop producing and peddling false, anxiety-provoking models. These experts protect themselves by recognizing the excessive nature of their formalizations, while journalists scrupulously mention it (to their credit), but they are nevertheless just as diligently constructing the impression that the world is coming to an end. Not only is there absolutely no reason for this, but in addition, it is in itself profoundly harmful!
“The reality, once again, is that this epidemic is far less problematic and dangerous than what is claimed. It is the lack of an accurate policy that is hazardous.”
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.
THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
*Do you think the Government has underestimated the economic damage their lockdown is causing?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| Not only do we need an election this year but a snap election after home detention has been rejected as it will take another government to clean up the mess after this command and control, no vision, economic- illiterate, comrade princess-led shambles of a coalition is voted out for one if not two generations. | Monica |
| Without doubt. As you say, many small businesses could have continued to trade while observing social distancing in the same way supermarkets have done. | Shane |
| If they had quarantined ALL arrivals into the country from the beginning there would have been no need to destroy the economy through a total lockdown. This is another example of a government who has no experience of owning and running a business. They were ill-equipped to govern, showing that by wasting the first 2 years through the establishment of committees that “reported back” but without any follow-up action. I hope that most NZers wake up to this at the next election. | Kerry |
| There are reportedly over one thousand corona viruses with periodically new variants appearing. 150 years ago Claude Bernard the renown French physiologist famously stated the host is everything, the microbe is nothing. Pasteur even eventually acknowledged this. Raising host resistance with vitamin D, C, zinc and selenium would render the host essentially immune to any virus. 82 year old retired GP | Michael |
| The economic consequences of the lock down will be severe but not evenly spread across the economy. Immediate casualties are tourism and tertiary education (international students). Many more of course. | Alan |
| Draconian lockdown measures taken with uncertain ‘facts’ to model the risks on. | Truly |
| Concerned for the future of NZ. No credible opposition or strong leadership evident, who are we going to vote for to get out of this. Marching on the streets is likely the only way we will be heard. But maori radicals will be standing along side police to shut down democracy. JA has no glue. | Sam |
| Most definitely. We need a clear path description of how we exit this situation now so we can plan for the start of work ! | David |
| They are out of touch, if they ever knew, how much small towns rely on passing travellers. These are not tourist towns, just everyday people with a small cafe somewhere on the roadside. The concept of reporting our neighbours to the police for imagined breaches of “lock down” has produced a breakdown in trust of neighbours. The climate of informers smacks of dictatorship at worst and is extremely distasteful at the least. We have the beginning of socialist control with a sticky sweet flavour of “be kind” and condescension. | Paloma |
| Without a doubt. | Sue |
| Definitely “yes”. But it is election year, and people are being conned . | John |
| In relation to a vaccination for this CCP virus released on the world, take not of Bill Gates’s answer to reducing the world’s population by15% or more is “vaccination”. So that means he is proposing to kill off 15% of the world’s population, this round! Do I trust him? Not!. I don’t trust our Govt in this. I see where J was recently seeking at a Gates funded function. Mmmm. Guess who I won’t be voting for. | Neil |
| In addition , in those other countries that have done so well the population at large respect the law, our people have shown that the same respect is not here | Tom |
| A large number of business are inefficient and it is hoped that only a few of these will return . As for the others this situation will force the to work harder and smarter | Tom |
| It’s amazing how fast our democracy has turned into a police state. I was stopped at a police checkpoint because there were two people in the car heading to the supermarket for food. We are both in our mid 70s | Bob |
| Hard to know whether the government’s ineptitude is driven by pig ignorance or malice – the outcome will be disastrous either way. | John |
| Maybe the government could commission Otago University do produce a worst case scenario of the economic damage their lock down is causing. | Bob |
| Had the boarders closed when we knew that there were 5 cases of Covid 19 we would not be in this economic mess. Why not learn from over seas countries that are succeeding.What else would you expect from a Gaggle of Gays in charge of NZ | Ross |
| Jacinda is all about Jacinda , votes and seeing NZ is doing the best with no compromise, and treat Kiwis like shit. | George |
| Absolutely.. a totally unbalanced reaction.. with no forethought on the future ramifications on wider society… I voted for this government to my great shame | Tony |
| Nanny takeover by stealth | Michael |
| It been a crisis lead by irresponsible journalism IMO | Chris |
| The economic effect will be devastating to the country. | dene |
| Too much economic damaged being caused by politicians with few skills | Geoff |
| They have been too quick to cut down the tree. It will take some time for a new one to take root. | Kerry |
| We deeply resent the monopoly of the two large supermarket chains and the exclusion of independent butchers, fruit & vegetable shops and bakeries. We urge the Government to let them re-open before any further food goes to waste, and livelihoods are increasingly threatened. Most people resent being treated as cattle queuing to be milked, while the supermarkets increase their prices at a phenomenal rate, and provide poor service in their advertised online shopping. | Julia |
| And where is the exit plan & what is its content, when will butchers & green grocers shops be allowed to open on a 1 i, one out basis? | Don |
| This is a warning shot over the bow in regards to future outbreaks or times of immediate lock down. Yes all incoming passengers either from sea or air would need to be quarantined upon arrival. A small price to pay to allow the countries economy to continue. And this could be done by repurposing and equipping the army and navy to effectively do the job at the border. After all, who better to use for portable screening and quarrintine at places such as Aucklands Novatel and Christchurch’s Sofitel hotels and others. Returning passengers should not have been allowed near the domestic terminals until they tested clear. | mark |
| They are naive. Totally inexperienced of the actual rather than the theoretical outcomes which they have relied on because they don%u2019t live in the real world | Mike |
| The Govt response was not well though out. To me it was a knee-jerk reaction rather than a well thought out response to the problem. | Brian |
| Marxist governments, communist governments, the UN and WHO, MUST be held accountable for this crippling damage that they have inflicted on the worlds global economies. | Rod |
| They have such shallow experience in the real world, they wouldn’t have a clue. When NZ can’t afford quality healthcare in the coming years, I hope people remember who put us on this path. | Fiona |
| This government has shown a total lack of understanding of finance from day 1 | Bev |
| They sure have – without defining a pathway to ensure it’s going to help those it’s meant to reach. | cm |
| With no-one in control who has ever managed a business, let alone managed a country this was always going to happen in any crisis | Garry |
| Without the lock-down the economic damage would be a lot worse, proven by overseas damage and deaths. | George |
| hopefully most of the population will remember this when the election comes long, and changes the Government | alan |
| The destruction of the world’s currencies is planned and deliberate and commanded by the UN. Business failure collateral damage. | Craig |
| definitely | Graham |
| There was an overkill on the types of businesses that were required to be closed. I only hope when all of this is over that an action plan is devised to include all the “should of done” items in preparation for the next pandemic. | Dennis |
| As far as I am concerned we are governed by an empty headed ” Queen of the Left” and her Govt are full of people with no common sense and very racist – giving more to those claiming to be Maori than to the rest of the community. Also N.Z. is full of very left wing journalists. | Kay |
| Can’t see anyone in Govt with any business experience or acumen. Labour has never been business friendly. Easy to see the influence of the Labour Unions over the Govt when Jacinda failed to delay the introduction of the increased minimum wage on April 1. Making it even harder for employers trying to kick start their business. The Govt flip flopping to date confirms they have absolutely no idea as to the magnitude of the economic disaster they will be facing in the months ahead. The only currency Governments have is what they collect from tax payers. The amount of tax they will receive from the first prov tax payments on august 7 will be an awakening. Very easy for Politicians to be generous with other people’s money. Life in the future will not be changed for the better unless some well informed advisors are employed by the Government to plan the way forward. N z needs radical changes. Outdated draconian ideals will not deliver results for the better for all New Zealanders. | Edward |
| We should have had strict border protection from January. | Robert |
| I believe the strict lockdown which is currently in place is a waste of time if when closing the borders, strict monitoring of everyone coming into the country wasn’t carried out. Political grandstanding I wonder and beefing up the PM’s standing overseas in election year. | Janet |
| Unsurprisingly we are in uncertain times. It’s all too easy for people to fall into the trap of underestimating difficulties and complexities. I think the Government is doing pretty well under the circumstances. For instance, yesterday, relative to their populations, NZ had 1/200 of the number of Covid deaths of the USA. We should be thankful! Finally, the emergency measures give us a chance to see centralised command and control in action. Clearly a warning that it’s not something to live under in normal times. | Colin |
| Yes you have said it. | Christine |
| Why does our stupid government consistently ignore the experience of overseas countries who have tackled the problem without shutting the entire country down, with disastrous economic consequences to businesses in this country. Thank goodness we have an election in the very near future. | David |
| She has pushed the panic button. Much trouble ahead for NZ. | William Clive |
| out of a generous spirit, I accept that our Govt. is overwhelmed through not having a well thought out plan. Plus they have demonstrated a desire to lean on the opinions of so-called experts. However, I remain skeptical that a “caring” Govt. could unknowingly carry on to the ruin of many businesses. I wonder what things will look like in say, 5 years time. Will we be “worshipping” the Communist China Party for their “help” and selling to them our productive capacity ? I wonder if we will even be permitted to write opinions like this ? | Jim |
| No doubt | Peter |
| How could this govt, having done what they have done to the economy, be accused of knowing what they were doing? I believe they probably acted in what they thought was, in the best interests of the country, but I think it will become clear as time goes by, that it was not! | Peter |
| The big spending, including the large amounts on what is more properly called political rather than being related to covid-19, such as raising minimum wage rate, huge amounts to Maori organisations, raising heating subsidy for superannuitants. There is little or no practical and financial support for small to medium businesses, for instance to help with rent payments while they have been forced to close down. This will undoubtedly see many of these businesses go under unless action is taken very soon. | Laurence |
| Totally underestimated and in line with other countries will destroy the lives of millions. | Ducky fluff |
| They have no concept of where the money to run the country comes from – tax – to pay tax you have have profit | Alan |
| But, then they can, when it calms down, pull the rabbit out of the hat and announce ‘didn’t we do so well’ and expect to be reelected at the next election after all there cannot be any other reason for the numerous boof head decisions going on | Carolyn |
| 1984 has arrived. Government want total control. It is as simple as that | John |
| definitely – look at Singapore | Colin |
| Yes. it’s sad, but the Singapore example makes our present government look like a bunch of ninnies. | Rob |
| WITHOUT SCREENING , NO FACTS, WITHOUT FACTS , BAD JUDGEMENT | Philip |
| The Government is obsessed with ‘eradication’ while ignoring the long term damage the lockdown will do to the economy and the effect it will have on many families. | Owen |
| The GOVT is acting, I believe, in line with New World Order intentions , to bring about change and manipulating the public through fear. | Harvey |
| Certainly Did! | Jim |
| This Government has grossly underestimated the long term damage and cost to the economy and were too quick to put us in lock down and yet no strict boarder control. I get the feeling that the public are getting a bit tired of the Prime minister repeating stay at home when her own minister has failed.I for one have grown tired of Jacinda and her bleating so lets take a common sense approach and get the country moving forward. If I was the National leader I would not be keen to take the treasury bench when the cost becomes known. | Ken |
| our stupid government does NOT know best, they have proved it by destroying the economy. | Christopher |
| Absolutely ! | James |
| She loves running a police state | Brian |
| It,s VERY PLAIN they are DESTROYING a ONCE ROCK ECONIMY.jacinda is a communist & it,s plain she lLOVES the power she now has & giving iwi OUR TAX MONEY when it should have gone to hospitals,those SHE made unemployed just shows her CONTEMPT for Anyone who isn’t a maori,she CLEARLY wants their vote & keep maori seats .We are ALL in the same situation BOTH maori & other N.Zealanders so WHY was OUR TAX MONEY not spent on ALL N.Zealanders | Cindy |
| By a long way. They have been scared into believing too much “expert” theory. NZ is an isolated country. The only way this virus got here was via travellers. Our airports should have been immediately shut and every one arriving tested and locked down under supervision.. There was panic after the horse had bolted. And now many small business owners will go under. | Graeme |
| Needed to lockdown to get on top of it, but time for commonsense to prevail and relax a little. All borders should have been quarantined, then we wouldn’t have needed a lockdown | anne |
| unfortunately they were not ready to act at the onset of the Virus . and even now I long to see them grasp the nettle. When will they stop watching the country being ravaged | John |
| There is a slim chance for some business to survive if we go back after 4 weeks however few will survive after that | Stan |
| Very few of this government have lived in the real economic world .There are so many small businesses that could have kept operating.Lets hope that that there is a slow but well thought thru relaxing of this lockdown | Bryan |
| time to kick this govt and comrade ardern to touch, she has no idea I’m afraid | Paul |
| This Government is totally out of its depth. One example is the Minister of health not being sacked as there is nobody in their lineup who could take over. They are all career politicians and not business people and therefore lack the understanding of real financial issues. However they are all good socialists and they will never let a good crisis go by without using it to the fullest extent to further their socialist aims. Wait till all this is over and the bills need to be repaid. There will be massive tax hikes but the money won’t be used to pay off debt but to enhance their socialist utopia. I heard about an internal poll today (Thursday) that had the Labour Party on 46% God help us if that is right | Robin |
| lots of business closures are stupid, and just favour big business. One small example [one of many,] butcher shops, why close them? takes over an hour standing in line to enter super market, then meat is marginal, and almost gone, while local butcher, with good meat, is having business destroyed, does not make sense! | Norman |
| None of them have ever run a business so their experience is nil.The entire situation is run on ideology and socialist principles. Control control control . | Ken |
| yes they our making the People rely on The Government more than ever, this is great for Socialisim !!! | Stan |
| Labour are so lost and we still have people coming into NZ and moving around with immunity…. | Carl |
| This is about people not money, we will recover | Bryan |
| Your article today has high lighted just how badly the Labour Govt have really stuffed this whole “pandemic”, house arrest (I like that phrase), especially when I hear what Taiwan did and we procrastinated closing our borders except to Kiwis returning home who ought to have been accommodated in Hotels & certain Motels until they prove they are safe. NZ will suffer immensely for many years to come purely from poor decision making at time when we could have handles it better! | Bruza |
| We must have a royal commission of inquiry with very broad terms of reference into this whole thing. What about a referendum, on this issue. | Hugh |
| There is no logic behind the lockdown other than socialist govt control. | Bruce |
| Essential to read what is rationalized and so obvious. | Peter |
| The prime minister is more interested in virtue signalling to the world of how well she is handling the pandemic, rather than put her country and people first. That is apart from the list of minority groups that are always pandered and supported by her identity politics, to the detriment of honest, hard work, law abiding silent majority, how hopefully will find their voice at the next election. PS: National Simon Bridges cannot win the next election, you have to change leaders win! | John |
| She is using this opportunity to inflict her natural socialist state control mentality on all us to the absolute detriment of New Zealand’s long term future. | Mike |
| Yes but they have concentrated on the present issue very well | David |
| The PM was so determined to have her March 15th photo opportunity and “tearfest” that she refused to see that delaying a border closure to protect the citizens of this country would result in letting in dozens of infected people. Because she left the border closure too late, we are now in a disastrous lockdown situation costing $billions, and our borders are still not adequately sealed!! Unbelievable!! | Roy |
| All the Channel’s for good news have largely been shut down. I am tired of being deluged with virus,virus virus! | Brian |
| They should have tested and perhaps quarantined absolutely everyone arriving from overseas, right from day one. Followed the likes of Singapore and kept over 70’s at home in isolation, others to wear face masks in public, good hygiene, and not closed all businesses willy-nilly. But what do I know? Maybe even that’s wrong. Hindsight is wonderful. | Sheila |
| Small business will be the most affected. Butchers, bakers, greengrocers cafes restaurants. With no competition the supermarkets are making major gains | Graham |
| Once again this Government has over reacted to a Crisis But this time is taking us all back to the ‘Stoneage’ with a broken Economy. It is becoming very evident that that People in this Government do not grasp the big Picture or think things through!! | Geoff |
| but also using it sneak in other social spending which is not needed and which the country cant afford now | Richard |
| Did they underestimate it or was it intentional? rise of the communist state, we control all | Michael |
| Sir John Key made a comment in the last few days that ‘NZ is dealing with a problem we have never had before and he would not do too much different’. I believe there will be business hardship and failures. Decisions have had to be made and tweaked based on information coming to hand from back room advisers all the time. And yes, 6 months down the track when we are wise in hind sight there will be ‘the I told you so comments’. These comments will come from the greedy people like the Fletcher and other over paid empire executives that have removed themselves from reality. | Chris |
| Yes, it has, but Hindsight can have 20-20 vision, whereas the future is hard to predict. Hopefully, our leaders will let us out of this lock-down early and get on to a saner course. Old and ill people should stay in isolation. | Joyce |
| My wife is a direct marketing consultant (Scentsy) and the number of products now available is down to cleaning, laundry and body which have been classified as “essential”. All other products are unavailable. Items ordered on 30 March were supposed to be let through however a decision earlier this weeks saw product halted at the border and rejected causing a ripple effect of missed income at multiple levels, upset customers and a nightmare for head office. All products can be delivered safely and now ordered online. Then yesterday we see that a certain large NZ retailer is selling online as essential products that we can’t. On a different but similar theme, a local bakery had to shut down then this week got told they can do online orders and delivery but not for all products, yet the same products they can’t make can be bought from supermarkets, however they are struggling to supply the products. This is nuts and just shows how poor centralised control really is. Even Civil Defence in Kaitangata had to get involved to get an exemption for prepared meal delivery. If the above examples weren’t true, it would make a great Yes Minister episode, or two, or series. And what is the governments’s highest on COVID-19 priority right now? Giving prisoners voting rights. | Bill |
| Climate Change fraudulent modelling by bureaucrats once again | Michael |
| you have to do the hard yard if you want to save lives | John |
| But I am not so sure that any other Government would have done any better. It has been a very grave and unusual situation and any Government can only do its best at the time | Laurel |
| Maybe socialism or communistic ideals are not dead in the Labour Party. What an opportunity. !930’s depression will be nothing compared to our future economy. They have borrowed another $29billion dollars. Racism is rampant. $56M dollars to Maori for additional treatment. Dairies, operated by mostly Asian are allowed to stay open.The European is now the under dog. | Denis |
| They’ve relied on the same type of computer generated projections as the climate change scaremongers with, predictably, the sad sort of damaging results. | Alan |
| One gets the feeling that this is yet another “crisis” that is being used to further a socialist agenda, not something that is effectively protecting the countries citizens. Yet again, using contrived and unproven models this Government has, just as the Global Warming “Crisis”, used their projections to drive their actions. No recognition of what was, and still is, being achieved by comparable sized nations who have chosen not to close down their economies seems to have been completely ignored by the Government, Parliament as a whole and those with executive authority managing this supposed emergency. As pointed out by Dr Newman, if the same statistics of the annual influenza attack were published and monitored the way COVID 19 is being addressed, the figures would be similarly frightening to what seems to be a large gullible audience. It is not hard to form a view that escalation of the “crisis” is exactly what Miss Ardern and her ardent disciples desire – tear the existing structure apart and rebuild it in the manner they advocate. Without question, this Government’s actions are 1. tearing the heart out of our nation and its economy; 2. reinforcing the division between those claiming Maori as their heritage and the rest of New Zealanders; and 3. increasing the nation’s dependence upon the largess and benevolence of the Government Unfortunately, they are eventually going to run out of taxpayer contributions to their schemes – how does the saying go – “the problem with socialists is that they eventually run out of other peoples’ money”. There have been many commentators that have applauded the actions of Miss Ardern and her Government, even declaring them the second coming. I am afraid I do not echo these praises. I chastise Parliament for their failure to be more proactive in effective border controls, early detection and tracking through effective and widespread testing, and supervised, segregated isolation, rather than second-besting the situation by enforcing a complete shut-down of the economy and isolation of the nation including both healthy and persons and hidden carriers. | Michael |
| Totally. Those who can, do. Those who cant go into politics. | Fred |
| But they really don’t care about that — it’s the pushing of their ideology that is more important.Maori and the so called at risk people will do well out of this , while as usual the hard working, law abiding non bludging sector of society will carry the country through. | Warwick |
| I wonder if Otago University could be commissioned to conduct a ‘best case’ scenario to find out what would have happened if Jacinda had followed the Taiwanese model. Just to get some balance. | Geoff. |
| Jacinda and her clowns have not succeeded at any promise that they have put forward.This is just another fiasco. | Steve |
| Ignored rather than underestimated the economic damage | Jacob |
| Massively | Philip |
| I still say JA is setting the economy down a path where the State will take over the food supply chain. Everyone else will have gone broke. | Russ |
| This is the worst case of getting your strategy wrong ever in NZ! | Pete |
| How do we pay for the Govts largesse, with Our Money, with the prospect of much lower economic activity generating much lower govt income…..It will be some time before the worlds trade links fire on all cyclinders, and tourism will be further out again…… | Lionel |
| Our demented, socialist, puppet prime minister is doing exactly as she has been directed in line with the UN Agenda 21/30. She and Labour should be removed as soon as possible | Phillip |
| Decisions were made too quickly with not enough thoughts. | Chris |
| Totally! It will need the government to back off restrictive regulations and create an environment conducive for the private sector to innovate and start the economy again. | Willy |
| Yes definitely, I believe this Government could be facing millions of dollars compensation claims from small businesses, large Companies and rank n file workers who have now lost their jobs and livelihood. | Colin |
| I think the whole issue of potential economic damage has been paid scant regard and sidelined by a Government, made up of individuals who have no idea of how these things work! | Scott |
| When she lives in LaLa Land what do you expect | Rod |
| Yes, I certainly do. It seems to me Jacinda is imposing a massive power grip over this country. And so often, when challenged, with her clever way with words she creates her political answers as she continues her stranglehold on New Zealand and New Zealanders. So many genuine people are hurting. Both small and large businesses are being squeezed even to the point of collapse – those remaining will likely be controlled by Jacinda’s rules by her tightening the grip taking control of the key to New Zealand’s (or is it China’s?) vault. Very scary stuff! | Stuart |
| They are making it up as they go along | Lloyd |
| Socialist Government seeking to control business in NZ. | Darryl |
| The “Go hard, go early” strategy being fed to New Zealanders is a misnomer on both counts. Government action, or lack of, was at least a month too late, and nowhere near as stringent as should have been concerning those entering the country from overseas. | David |
| This Corona Virus is a FLU Virus. It is not a novel virus but a NEW strain of an old FLU virus. It is a SARS FLU virus and governments are responsible for the impending economic collapse of many western countries including Australia and New Zealand. The amount of economic destruction reaped by the actions of the WHO and political systems unable to analyse the realities of seasonal FLU will be far more fatal to people than this new strain of the SARS virus. In AUS and NZ, winter is coming and with it hundreds of thousands of seasonal FLU infections. The likelihood of ordinary FLU being confused with the SARS (Corona Virus) is huge. This will likely result in a permanent LOCKDOWN until the total destruction of our economies is achieved. The numbers based on infection, recovery and death rates are available and this is the current picture: – If infected your chances of MILD Symptoms only are: 95.0% If infected your chances of making a full recovery are: 96.6%; also The FLU virus, in every form, has been with us for thousands of years and cannot be eliminated by vaccine. The price for community immunity was and is exposure To enable the TRUE statistics to emerge our governments must sever the umbilical cord joining us to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The confusion with seasonal FLU and the Chinese named Corona Virus will distort the actual numbers of Corona Virus (SARS) cases – UPWARDS. The re-naming of seasonal FLU cases as the Corona Virus will cause further Hysteria and Panic amongst politicians and bureaucrats as they continue oppression against the public to preserve lives that are normally lost in every FLU season. Too many of us will become, jobless, homeless and incapacitated by a deep and lasting economic recession created by dysfunctional political systems. Thus, leading us down the path of self-destruction and economic collapse. An EXIT strategy must start NOW! | Frederick |
| Too much for them to understand | Warren |
| the whole thing is beyond words, | Mark |
| A Prime Minister and Cabinet who are career politicians, no life experience in the real world. | Richard |
| The damage to businesses will likely be astronomical. So many will go under financially and there appears to be no plan by the government to get the large number of small businesses up and running profitably. | John |
| Very inflexible when could easily retain Covid security like golf and bowls clubs with large downstream costs | Mike |
| At their peril they have over reacted. | Basil |
| The community has been taken in by a huge hoax of sensational speculation | Michael |
| Cindy’s timber slated podium reminds me of Mr Ed’s stable gate. | Mike |
| Good article. | Neville |
| Massive mismanagement by idiots OR a planned socialist conspiracy to control us. | Geoff |
| Great article, as I read it I thought that the writer had read my mind. thumbs-up “the Government’s obsession with being seen to be…” No other country cares about little ole NZ with a huge chip on its shoulder. | Geoff |
| Very badly underestimated. Time will tell who was right. | Tim |
| The best way to beat respiratory diseases is to get out in the fresh air. | David |
| the list goes on, 1st the Oil, then zero carbon (end of farming) Guns, now the virus. we must get rid of these idiots, urgently | David |
| This excuse for a government is an embarrassment to the world and totally destructive to our economy. | Maurice |
| Probably, but what are/were the alternatives? Desperate times desperate measures. Could the Opposition have done any better? I don’t know. As a National party supporter once, but now a swinging voter, I admire the way the Prime Minister has fronted up. But a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. Minister of Health???? | Bruce |
| Closed borders at the start would have saved numerous SMEs. Hesitation to make a good decision has lost that opportunity. We will be paying for a long time now. | Steve |
| We must look into this now | Mike |
| The lack of sales will deliver cash shortfalls that can’t be recovered from. Few SME’s are debt free or have substantial reserves. | John |
| But time will tell if it was worth it. | Hugh |
| by miles and miles | wayne |
| Some great points in the article. Stopping it entering the country would have been the right decision. | Peter |
| We ain’t seen nothin yet ! She’s over rover. | Alan |
| Yes because there is not a business brain amongst the leaders.Ardern doesn’t know GDP from a piggy bank Have a look at the rabble, Ardern and her let’s do this and then our year of delivery Lees Galloway, Tryfiord and now Clark can simply be described as the village idiots. There will be mass business failures and unequalled levels of unemployment. | Don |
| Hasn’t even considered it more likely and don’t care. They see it as a great opportunity to further the goals of universal socialism. | Richard |
| Too many businesses were not permitted to open with no logic used to decide.Businesses will fail and lives changed unnecessarily. | Peter |
| The incompetence of our leaders is wide open for deserved criticism. An arrogant minister.of health who typically thinks he is too important to obey rules for everybody else. Police at road blocks enforcing those same rules, leaning on car doors speaking to drivers and not one of them wearing a face mask – rules and safeguards don’t apply to them either! Straight out of Animal Farm, ‘Dont do what I do, do what I say!’ Typical Communism! | Rex |
| Absolutely, they have no idea about how business runs as all of them are just academics and in many cases have never been in the real world, let alone worked for themselves. This will be a real disaster sadly. The sooner they are gone, the better. | Graeme |
| There is no clear, equal message being delivered to business where one selling a product the same as another, but one is penalised and labeled ‘non urgent’ while the other is allowed to continue. All food should come under the same rules, not selective ‘picking’ by ill-informed decisions from COl.3. This country cannot get through this under these chaotic rulings. If JA is thinking she is protecting her pre-election audience by her haphazard decisions then Heaven help NZ… We are done for… | Robyn |
| As most of them have never managed or owned a business out in the real world they are greatly out of their depth and heaven help us in the aftermath | Murray |
| How can a Socialist/Red Government understand business. They have not a clue about it, how it operates, they seem to think if they paid money for wages for the employees, that the business can survive.Time for people to revolt & appose these Government restrictions and get NZ back working. | Peter |
| took to long to act, look at pike river | Francis |
| The Govt is allowing businesses to fail and some businesses will never recover. Someone must be held to account. The virus is now being referred to as the CCP virus because the Chinese Govt allowed the virus to be exported knowing full well that it is highly contagious. The CCP must be held to account for what I believe was a deliberate biological attack on the world. The reasons for this opinion is based on many factors, and also that others “of influence” in the world with particular interest in viruses are more than implicated and are also culpable. No one believes for a second the this started in a market. The CCP cannot be trusted and will withhold the truth to suit their own agenda. Don’t believe for a minute this was some sort of natural occurrence. | Neil |
| They have no idea about how a business is run | Graeme |
| Just watching the news – the government is spending millions on teaching kids via TV – it doesn’t seem like they have any plans to end this lock-down any time soon! | Frances |
| This has been a classic gov stuff up sounds great if you want to believe it | Peter |
| I was very early convinced that this Covid- 19 is just a new, somewhat worse than “seasonal flu” and perhaps more infectious. So, although I am abiding by the lock-down regulations, I consider the whole approach has been panicked by epidemiologists [some], and the IT spread of the panic. See Dr Wodarg’s short Youtube from quite early. | Rochelle |
| Yes and quite deliberately being socialist globalistsshar …. | Sharon |
| Exasperating stupidity forced on us by State of Emergency police powers akin to communism applied by bureaucrats in no danger of losing their livelihood. Where the fuck is the opposition?! | Mark |
| attacked the wrong area of prevention borders should have been closed immediately; tourists sent back home with 2k compensation nz returnees forcibly isolated for 14 days; total cost 20 mill not 20 billion | keith |
| They have no idea! | Don |
| jacinda needs to control her ego,and think of ordinary kiwis. Get out of her well paid ivory tower, and come down to our level, comrade jacinda!! | Norman |
| Unfortunately this shut down has other agenda – enough said | Anon |
| They are making the mistake that we can borrow ourselves out of debt! | Paul |
| The labour govt has no more idea of the economic consequences of their lockdown than the minister of health had as far as his future was concerned when he went travelling . | Maurice |
| Ardern and her team have no idea of the lasting effect on business. Locking the border would have been cheaper and allow most businesses to survive | Jeff |
| But if the Government hadn’t acted thus, their political opponents would have been just as critical! | David |
| It seems like the world has caught the flu and as a remedy we have gone out and bought 2 handguns, pointed them at our knees and simultaneously pulled the triggers! | Grant |
| So few of the government have ever had a job in private enterprise. Their lack of experience and knowledge of real business will be costly for all New Zealanders. | Frank |
| Sure they did!! But what can one expect from a bunch of clowns lead by a circus princess who has no better idea than throwing (borrowed) money at a problem and otherwise messing up one thing after another. The only thing these loonies manage to do is exploit this crisis to their own ends with the upcoming election on their minds. Just look and listen to this incessant propaganda spat at us by the media , opinion pieces dreamt up by pseudo journalists without any regards to proper research or reality for that matter. The real shit will hit the fan in due course. Our economy is falling apart ( tourism industry as a prime example) as we speak ( write) ) and further massive borrowing will be the only thing the muppet show will manage in order to deal with our problems.( which the princess and her dwarfes have started in the first place). We have seen many times over that once a country reaches the critical threshold of a debt to GDP ratio of around 50 % , snowballing towards 100 % plus is only a matter of time and we can join the club of economically failed states. If we had decent and intelligent people at the helm our predicament would have been kept to a manageable minimum. But alas———— | Michael |
| Although if one is a conspiracist, then no they are just putting in place a policy whereby everyone has to relay totally on the Government. Somewhat Stalinist? | Gareth |
| We are on the road to State dependency… | Richard |
| For the last two and half years it was recognised that the Labour Government would borrow to the maximum, spend it all and more, control every possible human activity and bankrupt the country. The virus was the answer to their prayers. They had the perfect excuse and support of huge numbers of people to do exactly what they wanted to while the publicity mad leader and show master was able to dance to world adulation for her foresight and courage. Then to be sure of winning the Maori vote she gave them $56 million to buy their vote after the millions given to the marginal electorates where most of them live. Of course that was distributed by the NZ First Party stalwarts to buy their obedience, | Chris |
| Labour, greens, nz first government government what do you expect. | Laurie |
| To our combined detriment, most definitely! | J J |
| I think they definitely have. Initially the reported COVID19 cases all were traced to people coming from overseas. The answer is simple – stop this source of people coming into the open public environment and test ALL and quarantine all that are positive or potentially positive. We have sufficient facilities to do this. In would then have been necessary to have a lot more retail and services open with the economy still almost totally operational. | Keith |
| With out a doubt | John |
| They are such a bunch of nitwits with absolutely NO business experience at all and again National will have to come along and spend 10 years getting our country on the road to profit again like they have had to for decades in fact in all my 81 years on the earth they have done this every time they get in Why do NZers have short memories | Eric |
| Yes the underestimation and reliance on so called modelling resulting in the creation of a major coming economic disaster hopefully will result in a complete clean out of the powers that be with the ninnies in the dept of health to be the first to be shown the door.I hope these incompetents haven%u2019t created a recipe for massive civil unrest with its potential consequences in the next few weeks | Phil |
| ‘Cinders & her band of gay men & misfits, know fully well that a bankrupt national economy is one step closer to implementing the N.W.O Global government, that all Globalist Agenda politicians crave.. Total control of the entire population {except for the elitist part Maori } is this Marxist Socialist P.M’s dream come true… | A.G.R. |
| Socialists completely out of their depth | Greg |
| The government and the news media are destroying the best little country in the world, It was all predicable. | Howard |
| This government , simply acted in favor of media hype and pressure to remain as if in control in an election year , the whole fiasco has been miss managed and illogical from the start | Bernard |
| Ardern is only about her name recognition and as such is very dangerous. | Collin |
| True to form for this government. They are incapable of understanding the consequences of their policies on business and the economy in general. | Lee |
| Yes. Just as they have over estimated the severity of covid – 19 to normal healthy people. Borders should have been closed earlier, quarantine facilities established and business could have continued. | Mark |
| I don’t think the Govt should have stopped single owner operated business to close. These are peoples livlihood and they are struggling for no reason. | Barbara |
| Failure to quarantine incoming passengers. | Robert |
| If the majority of apathetic cowards that live in this country don’t very quickly wake up and start to take very strong (non violent) positive action towards ridding our country of totalitarian politicians, bureaucrats and police then we will have sold our children and subsequent generations into a future almost to horrific to contemplate. How much more does this government have to destroy of our lives before we stand up, say no more and then enforce it. | ROBERT |
| Every life is precious. A little pain shows a caring society not the Trump version | Alan |
| Devastating | Andi |
| There are times when it’s possible that the remedy is worse than the ailment. Why did our govt. not pursue a similar policy to other island nations similar to ourselves without unduly creating havoc to our economy. I’m thinking of the astute plans implemented by Singapore, Hong Kong & Taiwan whereby they vigorously quarantined only those directly and indirectly infected but did not isolate the healthy majority. | Tony |
| Absolutely. Uncertainty,bullying,are beginning to raise their ugly heads.I am almost of a mind to shop anywhere but supermarkets, to help get our butcher and greengrocers back on their feet (if they still exist) as possible. Not the supermarkets fault, it is just the obvious destruction of small businesses. i know the govt, is vaunting the $ help available, but for people already in stress, being ‘held’ on the telephone,etc, the pressure will be too much. One of our grand-daughters friends from boarding school has taken her life @ age 15. In addition to economic damage the damage to lives will be high – possibly more deaths from suicide than C-19. Excellent article Muriel. | Dick |
| Given that Comrade Ardern did not know the meaning of ‘GDP’ upon her appointment as PM it is hardly surprising to observe the economy accorded any respect. | James |
| Yes, because they’re extremely clueless. An example is the closure of Bauer Media. Our Government thought that a wage subsidy would suffice to keep them afloat in NZ. Obviously Labour MPs including our Prime Minister have never seen a Profit & Loss Account [sheet]. They just didn’t understand revenue and expenses (fixed and variable) | Peter |
| Comrade jacinda merely carrying out Globalist Orders. had the virus but was refused test as failed to be able to prove I had shaken hands and been coughed on by a Ruby Petridish Princess.It’s just a farce and psyops. I went back to bed…. | zoran |
| I am sure they are full aware of the damage and frankly think that Comrade Cindy is pissed that they acted (maybe forced to act by Nationalists in the government) too early thus causing less damage than they would have liked. They ant the country in distress as they seem to ram through laws during these times that support their socialists’ push. | Bruce C |
| what can we expect from this lot, never held down a proper job, never owned a business, always lived off the tax payers. Important thing is as public servants they have forgotten who their paymasters are, we the tax payers. They just infuriate me. | Merryl |
| Will the day come when the people rise up and march on Parliament to put an end to this lockdown? | Maureen |
| No. Nor has National, which steadily recovered NZ from the world 2009 crisis. President Trump says the 100,000 deaths forecast would be a “good result” . A comparable NZ result might take me as I am 71. Am I just being selfish? | Jonathan |
| They have o idea about the number of lives that will be destroyed | Peter |
| Govt is made up of people who have never run their own business | Terry |
| The government has grossly underestimated the economic damage. They did not understand the complexity of the supply chain for essential industries. | John |
| They have no trading sense. It seems that they have tried to do using politicians and bureaucrats without proper reference to manufacturers and distributors. | June |
| The labour Gov is out of its depth. They have no idea of how to employ people and run a business. | merv |
| Underestimated? Goodness, the one or two within this Peters -installed, 3-steering-wheeled debacle who’ve had any remote connection to business or anything akin to relevant experience certainly haven’t seen their views touted by the coalition’s “leadership.” | Jim |
| They are acting like the amateurs they are. The “lockdown” is a farce when they continue to let into the country people who are not immediately isolated into a secure facility for the required 14 days, with appropriate testing. The lockdown itself is so open to interpretation that a significant portion of the country does not appear to understand what it means. This is a failure of the Government to clearly delineate the parameters at the outset. The economy has been jeopardised unnecessarily and the future of the country has been given a bad outlook because a pack of incompetents are in charge. | Ronnie |
| The good news is that as a result of this cluster**** Ardern and Labour will never be voted in again | Garry |
| I would guess that they have a good idea of the economic costs of the lockdown. Do you really want a trade of lives for money. Look at what has happened in the states and elsewhere where people have dithered. I think in the circumstances a good job has/ is being done. Don’t agree with her politics but this isn’t about politics. Don’t think mr Bridges would be as on the ball as the present PM is. | Brian |
| The PM has put public health before the economy. OK, so where is the voracious appetite for the latest and greatest of cures, nutritional advice, abandonment of the 5G roll out development of a ‘herd immunity’ response plan? | Robert |
| About 4 weeks ago, in the early stages of this problem, I said that the “self isolation” of those coming into the country wouldn’t work, – and it hasn’t. We needed to do for all that came into the country what was done for those who came back from Wuhan; put them in a facility like those folk were. | Ted |
| We are being run by a pack of non thinking idiots | John |
| Massively. When this is realised, no one will vote for Ardern – too late… | Peter |
| The government’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak is mind boggling in its ineptitude. I am a supplier to an essential industry and at present am experiencing in excess of a 90% reduction in trade. My staff are working from home though there is almost nothing for them to do and yet they must be paid. Frankly the government should be held to account with full disclosure and subjected to a confidence vote. It seems that there is no one in cabinet with small business experience which is a critical flaw. Small businesses employ more than 90% of the workforce and yet are forced to close whilst big supermarkets have a near monopoly on trade. How incredibly stupid and arrogant of the present government. | Peter |
| Of course they have, as is becoming clearer every day they are totally out of their depth and are just looking at total state control. Jacinda should stop being a tv front person as well. Can we ever recover from this debacle? | Fraser |
| Absolutely | Barbara |
| a bunch of elites playing out of their depth | Barry |
| Politics on a grand scale. Designed to win an election. Many, many businesses will not reopen. Just waiting for gov. to extend lockdown and nail the NZ coffin shut | Prue |
| If our tenants go bust our pension wont even cover rates and insurances. 55 years of work all gone for what | keith |
| The attitude is all business owners are wealthy and only the favourites should be assisted, Air NZ received a massive injection but is still going down the redundancy road shows just how serious the damage to the economy the shut down will be. | John |
| The person who said `the cure is worse than the disease’ said it in one ! How to lead a country to disaster | sheryl |
| Yes, because there is not one of our lovely coalition who have been in business and have know clue or responsibility regarding employees as they always had pay day without worry | Allan |
| and their minister of health should be fired. | Sharon |
| none of their politicians have any brains | Graeme |
| I still cannot figure out why they topped up the Pike River nonsense with the first, supposedly Covid -19, financial package. If that was not politicking, nothing is. | Pete |
| It was always going to be massive … | Kevin |
| Its a well designed shambles from the UN | David |
| This country with Jacinda in the public eye and James Shaw behind her are taking this country to economice disaster but the majority can not see past the end of there nose to realise what those clowns at the top are doing with 200 million a day being borrowed of China Jacinda will be the office girl before to long | Russell |
| The approach has been : Do as we tell you, and follow the rules. Sound deductive practical reasoning is non existent. | Pierre |
| Nzers are largely a healthy lot and should be able to assess their own need for total isolation | Catherine |
| Ardern and her party of science fiction writers and clowns, need to be tossed out on their collective ears. Unless this happens, watch our economy go down the tubes. As to pandering to interest groups (their political base – this shouldn’t happen in a time of crisis. Get the elderly and those with pre existing medical conditions (of which I am one) confined to lockdown and get the rest of NZ back working | Steve |
| yes and by a long shot, we must remember that the labour gove did not win the last election ,only by joining forces with the other lame brains(brown green and red) are they there. as alibaba & the forty thieves. | James |
| What worries me is that in Germany’s election of 1928, the NSAPD received only 2.5% of the vote. In that of 1933 that rose to 34%. We know what happened after that. There is real reason to fear a depression more severe than that which started in 1929, and the absolute priority of any reasonable person is to do whatever to mitigate it. | Richard |
| Again it’s a rhetorical question. It’s either underestimated or over estimated. It’s an assessment right now. You didn’t ask this question when we had an earthquake. So this voting is a political issue in an environment of managing a pandemic. Shame on the question. Perhaps you should as…..is the assessment on the economy a fair assessment at this stage. | Greg |
| David Icke says it all and makes some good sense in not locking everyone up. Quarantine those who are susceptible and let the others get on with life. | Kevin |
| ..’to err on the side of caution’.. is the only way ,when all the ‘garbage’ numbers from other countries arrive about there case numbers etc.. | ChrisH |
| They have no idea how economies actually run – they only know how to spend. Not one of these people have owned a business and don’t realize the fine line between pleasure and pain, success and failure. | Chris |
| Yes, yes, one thousand times yes. Unless this suspect policy is reversed and quickly, this country will face an extended and very bleak financial outlook. Jim | Jim |
| They are career politicians and have never run a business or had a real job and do not live in the same world as the people they have power over so what could they possibly know?. | Kevin |
| Summary: the people voted in a smiling ships captain who is trying to steer the titanic that hit the iceberg. Now pumping out the water at the moment with sourcing massive debt to create financial stimulus that will later lead to massive taxes and losses for NZ. While sitting on a trillion dollars worth of buried assets in State Land in resources, minerals, and precious metals that are kept buried by “the Green” ideology. Pursuit of ideologies in history have proven to kill off nations over time. Whether it’s an ideology to hold back the nation with emphasis on becoming aligned to a primitive culture or not recognising science that allows extraction of minerals in favour of Green ideology. | Bob |
| Yes definitely! This will kill many businesses. | Kate |
| Small business cannot pay rent for premises, manage redundant stock (esp of perishables) and maintain staff. While foreign owned mega stores (Countdown) flourish. Madness. | Bill |
| They are clueless. We are doing our bit, they are not doing theirs. Frustrations are building.. They need to get their act together. There are so many countries we can learn from. Czech Republic and Slovakia have also kept this virus well under control. | Gail |
| A survey of small business today reported that 30% would not start up after the shutdown ! The government focus is on a power grab and expansion of the public sector at the expense of the private sector. All the focus in the media is in creating alarm and on how tough the public sector and beneficiaries have it while ignoring that hospitals are running at 50% occupancy (and not 90 to 95% occupancy) by cancelling all elective surgery while treating 12 patients 4 in ICU across the 12,000 bed health system. There is no sympathy displayed to particularly the small business owners who will go under as a direct result of the “kindness” of government in shutting them down.It will be interesting to see how many suicides are directly caused by the lockdown vs how many die of CV19 that would not have died otherwise. To be expected from a “kind” socialist government with absolutely no understanding of who adds value in an economy.. | Mike |
| The damage will be horrendous but I suppose the master plan by this present administration is to return the country to the Government Controlled Central Bureaucracy that sent the country broke prior to 1987. After all Comrade Jacinda and her Socialist (Communist ) buddies know what is best for us. I can see a Venuzuela situation occurring here if this bunch of incompetents remain in Government for too long. We are being set up for a total collapse of the NZ economy and way of life as we know it. The extra powers being given to the Police are just the start. | Allan |
| By a huge amount. | Don |
| the fallout will be horrendous | John |
| Computer modelling is always suspicious | Gareth |
| Oh yes yes. I believe the unemployment (that I mean true unemployment not people on dreamed up government schemes) will be in excess of 40%.How are we going to pay???? Remember the top 10 in this government have never been in private enterprise | Les |
| It will take a long time for all the bills to come in. Horrendous costs. | Maurice |
| They just don’t have clue about economics and how it works. As long as they keep so called maori happy and their own bank account top up they don’t worry at all. | Peter |
| A more sensible approach would have been to allow all food businesses to operate but with the safeguards in place ie window pick ups and home deliveries | Chris |
| Unfortunately the present government lacks the intellectual capacity to grasp the seriousness of this very complex problem. Catastrophic damage has been done and it will take a very clever team to get the economy back on track. I regret the present government lacks the nous. | Lee |
| We%u2019re all in a lockdown to stop a virus what doesn’t exist. Covid-19 is proven to be an exosome, produced within our own body. Testing Andrew Kaufman, M.D and James Hildreth, M.D. former Professor at Johns Hopkins the virus is fully an exosome in every sense of the word. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=Xr8Dy5mnYx8&feature=emb_logo Worldwide approx. 80,000 people died of this covid-19 although most of them with underlying complications, while the mortality rate in the first 3 months of this year with seasonal flu is 130,000, HIV/AIDS 450,000 and suicide nearly 300,000, something we are doing really well with in this country. Yet our government has put out a massive fear factor we blindly follow, regardless the building amount of evidence that this covid-19 is not more then a mild lung infection which has so far nobody killed in New Zealand while every day around 90 people die of all kinds of affects. We no longer have any freedom left, our country is turned into a lockdown police state, being prisoners in our own home and without visiting hours. Jacinda Ardern, Winston Peters, Grant Robinson and all the rest of them need to be hold accountable they have pushed our economy into a free fall what is going to cost our country trillions of dollars, if we ever come out of it, and the blood on their hands from the thousands of lives going to be lost from their actions. | Kobie |
| Forgive them for they know not what they do! | John |
| Like most things this government, lead by the PM, has done, have been knee jerk reaction without a lot of thought to the downstream effects.While we all agree that action was needed and urgently a lot of that which has been implemented or suggested has been modified or altered after negative response | Barry |
| It suits socialists to control the economy so think this has fallen into their lap to have a socialistic outcome they will been we advised of the outcomes just look at the money they are spending | Robbie |
| They are a bunch of evil, agenda ridden clowns not fit to run a playground, let alone a country. They should have followed Sweden’s socialist Government not Marxist agendas. | Chris |
| The whole episode s a massive knee jerk reaction without positive evaluation of the economic damage they are creating to business, employment and many other aspects e.g repatriation of the economy , particularly countrys recovery from this political panic. | IAN |
| as usual, absolutely clueless | Wolfgang |
| Without as doubt. It is going to take years for our industries to recover | Terfy |
| Definitely | Graeme |
| Following the government’s frantic efforts to keep tourist and ‘students’ coming in to spend their dollars for as long as possible, the draconian, and suspiciously selective, lockdown is too late to be effective. If Jacinderella thinks she will have control of this in 4 weeks, I want a pint of what she’s drinking, it must be good stuff! From the look of the economic situation, the maoris, with their massive state handouts, will come out if this better than the rest of us, and Labour will retain the support of their maori lapdogs. Ultimately, it’s not about medical care or economics; it’s all about politics. What a surprise! | TOBY |
| And wrecked and already deteriorating economy for years to come | Trevor |
| The smart Asian economies have demonstrated what could have been done differently. Hopefully after 2 more weeks we will follow suit. | Doug |
| Teddy Bears and hugs don’t make economic sense. | Don |
| Socialist Cindy & her cohorts are about as useless as tits on a bull. | Allen |
| Grossly and foolishly underestimated. | Bill |
| As is the case with this idiot mix of government, they are still engrossed in playing politics. There are many businesses that could have been permitted to continued to carry on operating, which would have lessened the amount of money that they been throwing at those who do NOT need it,. $56m granted to Maoris absolute bullshit .. but that is what this government does … it gives to those who cause the most damage. | Des |
| They balanced it with life and death of its community. Are you prepared to go out and about jubilantly expounding your views instead of being behind a computer . . . | Levonne |
| The fallout will be huge. Not only in business terms but in lives and livelihoods ruined. | Ann |
| There’ll be many working people who don’t fit the criteria set by the government who will find it very difficult if not impossible to restart again after this crisis. | Ray |
| They have absolutely no idea of the damaged caused through this Labour Party Virus! | Norm |
| Yes, they have. They hit the panic button without thinking it through. | Andrew |
| Ardern is an economic is illiterate. It really is that simple. She is not a leader at all let alone qualified to be a PM. It is really hard to understand how she got the job? How many business owners would allow her to run their business . Correct – none! I rest my case. | Luke |
| as they do in many cases. | john |
| probably doing better than National would. | ross |
| Absolutely!! | Sandra |
| This woman is anti-cpaitalist and she is destroying the economy. Her criminal cohorts, the Greens, have stated the want to take NZ back to pre-Industrial Revolution days. Gold help us! this woman is too weak to stand up to the criminals in Parliament. | Jenny |
| They haven’t underestimated anything, they know exactly what economic damage it’s doing | Jay |
| Do we really think that Govt and that includes our Treasury and Economic depts are really so inept as to very hugely underestimate the reality or is it that the fear is part of the Gvt Propaganda to introduce virtual martial law, communism by stealth and prolong House Arrest until the middle class is so shattered it can no longer resist the communist NWO. | Richard |
| All the small family butchers, grocers etc that will not survive this mad shut down of their shops should get a class action going to sue ahern and her half wit gang that has caused them to go bust as well as the whole country but she and the idiots in the white house in wgtn dont give a monkeys toss for the ordinary people who keep this country ticking over. | Richard |
| very poor judgment on their part and they will not anyone who is not in their party to help | Cherryl |
| The solution was simple: isolate the ‘at risk’ 70 year olds, while shutting the borders tight, and let the rest of the population and the economy continue. | Robert |
| They have no understanding of business at all; which is not surprising given none of the people in charge have any experience running a business. or have done anything other than rely on others for an income. | JD |
| They are less interested in economic damage than in electoral disadvantage. | John |
| They lack experience so wouldn’t know | Dennis |
| Your article has almost perfectly echoes the concerns I have discussed with my family. On the one hand it is comforting to find I am not alone but on the other I am almost terrified at what this awful government is doing to our economy. We are so screwed. | Alan |
| Unless the economy is intact all the hugs in the world will not suffice | Alan |
| Prevention is always better than cure. February was the lost month for the Govt who failed to act hard then and spare NZers years of financial misery. Taxes will no doubt need to rise to pay for Jacindas rescue measures. | Ron |
| Absolutely they have underestimated how fragile the NZ economy really is. Even businesses that were doing well cannot cope with a month-long halt. It’s a disaster. | Jason |
| This lockdown is Jacinda Ardern’s utu on businesses for not having confidence in her government. | Bryan |
| This government has been a disaster for NZ. The lockdown was unnecessary. The country will take decades to recover. | Francis |
| The government is completely out of its depth. They are destroying the country. | Robert |
| Jacinda Ardern and her comrades are ignorant about what makes a country operate. That’s what makes them so dangerous. | Murray |