The leader of the Labour Party, Chris Hipkins, said there was a “certain irony” to losing five campaign days to a covid infection as he left self-isolation on Friday morning.
Covid-19 had disrupted “everything over the last three years”, he said outside the Cordis Hotel in Auckland, and now it had disrupted the last two weeks of the campaign.
It's not likely that those five days on the campaign trail would’ve changed the course of the election. Polls show Labour has found a floor at about 26% of the vote.
But any chance to boost those numbers back above 30%, where the party was a month ago, would’ve been severely hampered with the leading man locked in a hotel room.
While politicians don’t like to talk about it, this whole election has been about Covid-19.
Three of the biggest issues in this campaign — the cost of living, crime, and education — are all part of the fallout from the pandemic.
National has repeatedly accused Labour’s spending as being “economic vandalism” but the bulk of new debt came from Covid response programs that had the full support of parliament.
These are things like the wage subsidy, small business loans, managed isolation, and buying vaccines and other health resources.
Slow economic growth and the high cost-of-living are the final turns of the Covid rollercoaster the New Zealand economy is still riding.
The pandemic caused a supply shock, central banks overstimulated the economy, inflation became embedded, and now those central banks are trying to engineer a recession.
There was a crime wave after the pandemic in many countries, but most notably in the United States where the murder rate suddenly spiked.
In many countries, lockdowns disrupted ‘business-as-usual’ crime and forced criminals to form new patterns. This may be the cause of the sudden uptick in ram raids, for example.
Social service agencies and police told the Guardian NZ that the higher rates of crime could be put down to social deprivation, the stresses of the pandemic, and some New Zealanders missing out on Government support.
Less people in the inner city, due to changes in working habits, may also have encouraged more crime. The housing shortage has also left more people living on the streets.
School kids have lost months of learning days over the past three years and that is driving much of the underperformance in education statistics.
A report by the Education Review Office found that covid illness caused a drop in school attendance that has continued even as the infection rate has fallen.
“The cumulative impact of the past three years means that education in New Zealand has ‘Long Covid’ — a situation that will not easily bounce back to business as usual,” the authors wrote.
Some other key issues — such as housing and healthcare — already had structural problems prior to the pandemic, although it hasn’t helped either situation.
Another key feature of this campaign has been division and anger. Hardly a week went by without Karl Mokaraka popping his head over the fence, or a political candidate being threatened.
Even Hipkins would agree the vaccine mandates turned an “otherwise rock-solid response” that united the nation into a source of division and resentment.
At a virtual town hall event, he said high rates of vaccination had helped NZ have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world but he regretted the division that mandates caused.
If he had his time over, he’d try to find a different way.
Labour has not talked about the pandemic all that much in this campaign. The party’s incredible success at preventing deaths has been overshadowed by the inevitable detritus.
And, while most voters are grateful for the Covid response, they are thinking to themselves that they’d rather have the other team in charge of the clean up.
National have a near unassailable lead in the polls now, but the pandemic has one final twist of irony for the incoming government: Winston Peters.
New Zealand First ridden a wave of dissatisfaction, conspiracy theories, and lightly-disguised racism over the 5% threshold — often railing against the Government they helped to install.
Christopher Luxon’s announcement that he would work with Winston (but only as a last resort) seems to have sealed his fate; National will need his votes.
115 Comments
Wow Dan.What a great gaslighting spiel...
Shame on us plebs for not wanting anymore "saving" from covid from Labor.
You can't lay all the blame for NZ, s current ills on the altar of covid.
Invariably the response to the pandemic was the cause of these ..not the disease.
The major players (Dame Jacinda,Sir Ashley and soon Hipkins/Robertson) will have all exited stage right and left us and future generations to clean up the mess.
Early measures, border closure & lockdown were essential because there was so much that was unknown. The opening up with Australia was premature & introduced Delta causing the drastic Auckland second lockdown. According to WHO at the outbreak of the pandemic NZ was 39th internationally in preparedness. The government did not move swiftly enough to address this. For instance PP gear for hospitals that private industry had to go out and import, extraordinary refusal to adopt saliva testing, convoluted and tardy vaccine ordering process and planning for vaccinating itself, only at the eleventh hour. During all of this while hospitals and frontline health workers were pressured and under resourced and under equipped $millions was being spent elsewhere on the restructure of MoH in Wellington. To sum up the government, following the valid advice of health experts completed the initial stages as was necessary but then failed to organise the priorities and that resulted in more and more controls and restrictions being enforced which became more and more repressive and torturous, mandates and all, hence the growing public resentment that has continued even after NZ finally opened up.
Poverty. And the failure of the 'Labour' government to deal with it.
Not always actual poverty, but perceived poverty, awareness poverty: the ever-widening gulf between the bottom decile and the top decile, between the bottom quartile and the top quartile.
Labour could have entered government in 2017 with the determination to build 100,000 state houses for lifetime income-moderated rent by all who want them; instead, it opted for futile KiwiBuild.
Labour could have responded to Covid in 2020 with a universal basic income; instead, it fostered policies that poured billions into the private housing market, ensuring that the people who did not already own homes, or have parents who owned homes, could never own homes.
Now it props up the economy by welcoming 100,000 immigrants a year; the reverse of its declared policy in 2017.
Crime and ram-raiding are manifestations of alienation and despair; the knowledge that one is at the bottom, and there is no way up.
And Labour is to blame ... because it has long ceased to be Labour.
Great comment.
Yes, not tackling inequality aggressively enough was definitely a failing - the Ardern Govt ran budget surpluses while people slept in cars, they could have got close to ending child poverty in a year.
What I would add though is that Labour inherited a public service that had lost the capacity to actually do anything. Ministries happily bid for the money to deliver Govt ambitions and then found that (i) they didn't know how to spend it and (ii) what they wanted to buy was not available.
Housing is a great example. HUD / Kainga Ora had to build the internal capacity to get shit done, and then build the partnerships & supply chain to deliver homes. Same with temporary accommodation etc. At the same time, RBNZ was letting the housing ponzi go off, meaning that all of our (inefficient) construction capacity was in hot demand and builders were able to make easy money doing one-off houses on quarter acre sections. It is only now - 6 years later - that we are seeing delivery hitting meaningful numbers.
It is a shame that Labour did not start out by setting out a realistic 10-year infrastructure plan with clear medium-term deliverables (clean energy, houses etc). I pull my hair out at how much energy and people were wasted on doing stupid restructures and reorganisations - the senior public servants that said structural changes were needed to improve outcomes should be ashamed of themselves.
The crime (and types of crime) that we are seeing are what every criminologist would predict you get when you turn the heat up on the cost of living in an unequal society. Ditto the mental health crisis. NACT's policies will turn up the inequality heat and make things worse. Their answer will be 'social investment' - trying to fix a few of the people they break by throwing money at charities and consultancies to hit meaningless KPIs.
" and then build the partnerships & supply chain to deliver homes. " I recall Labour employed a high powered ex CEO? to deal with the housing. He lasted about 6 months before the usual civil servant brigade trotted out he was bullying. Most likely because they were asked to achieve something and when not carrying out the duty requested were admonished. A confidential agreement and he departed.
"the Ardern Govt ran budget surpluses... they could have got close to ending child poverty in a year"
That assumes, like so many do, that child poverty can be ended by governments, it cannot. Whilst I agree with the the fact that child poverty is terrible, the reality is that Child poverty is caused by their parents.
that child poverty can be ended by governments, it cannot
Depends on how you measure it and even if you're correct we could at least come close by providing a house instead of propping up businesses with cheap labour options only to have to pay the resulting immigrants housing and food.
the reality is that Child poverty is caused by their parents.
That might have been true once, but for the last 20+ years housing, a need, has been getting further and further out of reach. If you weren't on the band wagon, then exceptional effort was required to make it and that isn't possible for 'the average' person.
Off topic but while I'm replying to you. The comments on this thread by the likes of Don m, Foxglove, JohnTrz and Jfoe above are why I'd like to pay the commentors instead of the article writers (which I didn't actually read I must admit). If they want me to pay for the platform then fine, but independence is missing in action.
Pretty sure that I said that Govt can get 'close to ending child poverty'. They can because they control the redistributive mechanisms in the economy - the tax system that ensures that the Govt spending and credit that flows into the economy does not just 'pool' in the bank accounts of the folk that extract huge rent from the people that do the work (and the planet).
They wouldnt have ended poverty, their policies have been deliberately designed to entrench it. By rewarding beneficiaries for not working, they simply encourage more people to become beneficiaries.
Currently NZ has record low unemployment, there are jobs available for everyone who wants one, we have had to import more than 100,000 people to do these jobs - simple ones that require no skills like waiting tables, cleaning a hotel room, making pizzas. Yet Labour have overseen a massive increase in the number of people on JobSeeker and the Single Parent Benefit. A 51% increase in the number of Maori on JobSeeker Work Ready, which is an appalling statistic for a party that is supposed to be "In It For Them".
Why? They raised benefit levels so high that an unemployed family with 2 kids now earns more on the benefit than over half of all workers in NZ (benefit pays $63k a year, median wage is $61k a year). They got rid of the need to look for work for those on the Single Parents Benefit, and now pays child support to the parent in addition to the benefit, so now having a kid on the benefit is a ticket to years of uninterrupted Govt handouts. They dialled back sanctions and didnt pursue breaches so everyone knows that they dont really have to even turn up for job interviews anymore, or they can turn up in pyjamas and they'll still get paid their benefit. And they have promised everyone on benefits they can have a brand new "warm and dry" KO house for life.
Where in any of that is the incentive for people to get off welfare? Overseas studies have proven that there are three factors for not ending up in poverty. The first is finishing high school, the second is full time employment, and the third is not having children out of wedlock (or an otherwise stable, supportive, two parent family environment for those who object to the term wedlock). Labour's policies have actively encouraged people to do the opposite of those three things thus ensuring poverty is entrenched, not just for for current adults but for the younger generations following.
Did we have to import 100,000 people to do those jobs? Or did that just make it cheaper for business to hire people, and prop up the property market?
What is the magic number of people we need in NZ to fill all roles? Will that magic number grow higher if we import more people?
Here's an example of a Labour government that takes its housing (and therefore taxation) responsibilities seriously:
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/124642/melbourne-house-prices-rise-…
Two takes on socialists. Firstly Orwell something like - it’s not that socialists so much love the poor, it’s their hatred of the rich that drives them. Secondly a couple of Americans encountered, she a district judge he a litigation attorney, in transit at AKL international at the time of Obama - socialism means taking money that I have earned, paid tax on and saved and giving it to someone who has done none of those things. There it is?
Businesses are fleeing Victoria. When the businesses go, so do the jobs. Unemployed people cant buy houses.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/lets-not-panic-victorian-busin…
"Victoria is the only Aussie state to experience a drop in registered businesses, but industry heads are pleading with everyone not to panic.
The head of a prominent industry group has advised against overreacting to startling recent data indicating a significant number of businesses leaving Victoria.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Victoria was the only state to experience a decrease in the number of registered businesses during the last fiscal year.
In the year 2022/23, there was a decrease of 7606 registered businesses compared to the previous year. However, New South Wales and Queensland experienced an increase of 11,031 and 8147 registered enterprises, respectively."
When they tell you not to panic, its usually a sign that its the time to panic.
it was the Reserve Bank who inflated the housing market by lowering interest rates, the government never poured any money in itself and that was all done by the banks. The Reserve Bank operates independently of government in its monetary policy decisions and so a National Government would have made no difference. More houses have been constructed under this government than at any time since the 1970s. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/record-number-of-new-homes-consented-in-…
A UBI is not a sensible policy as it gives money without any basis of need and would be very costly..
And yet we have a UBI already - for the generational cohort who have the greatest concentration of wealth in the country. That’s right, national super or boomer benefit - $17 billion a year and climbing, not means tested inflation linked payments for 800k boomers (soon to rise to 1.2mm within a decade).
Dont also forget this generation voted to slash taxes and investment and move to a user pays self-responsibility model. Except of course when it comes to themselves (UBI, free healthcare, travel cards etc)
It was the Norman Kirk Labour Government who introduced a self funded superannuation scheme in the 1970s and the National Government of Robert Muldoon who then scrapped it and introduced the present scheme.It is a Labour Government who has also introduced the superfund and kiwisaver to help with future funding.
I don't believe there was any political lean in the comment you replied to above. The point I read is that it is isn't important which major political party created it, it is the historical and cumulative benefit enjoyed by the baby boomer which abdicated for self responsibility, only to reach retirement and claim a universal pension which sways more on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum than the policies that were voted for and benefitted them.
the Reserve Bank who inflated the housing market
Agree, but the finance minister was a very good pen pal of Orr at one point there.
More houses have been constructed under this government than at any time since the 1970s
Relative to population growth?
A UBI is not a sensible policy as it gives money without any basis of need and would be very costly
We have a range of benefits such as job seeker etc that are very costly to administer. If you have a UBI then it acts like a tax-free threshold on income for those that don't need it but more importantly encourages people into work. Notice all the over 65's still working while they receive a UBI? Do you think more over 65's would quit working if super was work tested? I do.
I can tell you that the after effect of COVID is very similar in other countries - a proportion of the population are still spitting feathers about the Govt having taken control of their lives for a while. I have a few nutty uncles and aunties in the UK and Germany who are still ranting and raving about mandates - unable it seems to talk about anything else at family gatherings (unless someone mentions the 'climate hoax').
What is different in NZ is that none of my family and friends here died. Everyone I know in the UK lost someone they knew well.
Agree with Don m above,
Chris Trotter was spot on: “The best guess as to what made society’s key institutions suddenly feel powerful enough to challenge – and even to overrule – such deeply embedded cultural and political concepts as science and democracy, is the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
Interestingly, Dan mentions 3 big issues but omits co-governance which we can’t define but the parties slated to gain control share in rejecting it.
I think we can all agree that the ongoing lockdowns in Auckland because of the milder Omicron variant was heavy handed. Also the strict mandates on those not wanting to get the jab was draconian. Labour overplayed their hand, it’s what usually happens to those in power. This approach has ripped families apart and there’s a huge feeling of resentment which doesn’t get a lot of media attention.
Agreed. If Auckland swing voters choose not labour, they are done.
Must say the fact that Nats are not running away with this election is a clear signal that Kiwis don't want the ponzi restarted, mass immigration, and restarting the sell off to foreign interests. Anything but a clear win should be seen as an epic failure.
It is the mentality people have, leading them to vote in this ways, that is the key issue here. Many wouldn't vote for a smaller party as they don't think it would have any benefit or effect, however how else will smaller parties ever gain traction if everyone thinks like this???
Independent thought appears hard to come by in NZ when the pressure is on. I seem to see a large number of people in the last couple of months reverting back to this way of thinking and when it comes crunch time, they will likely vote accordingly. I can only imagine what the election results would look like if every NZ'er voted according to their own true beliefs for the countries direction as opposed to who might get a coilition with who, or who might benefit them at the time vs benefiting the rest of the country. There is still hope however, that all of this COVID and RBNZ fuelled increases in inequality will lead to a greater involvement in politics, and those who don't or have not voted recently may re-engage as arguably they should.
The ponzi has already restarted and there is already mass immigration. Just as there was pre-Covid under Labour. I'm not sure why you would expect things to change under a third Labour term. The only thing different is the sell off to foreign interests - and on that, that $150B in debt has to be repaid somehow. There is probably no choice in the matter. And selling them is far better than Labour simply closing them down or forcing them out of business like they have been doing (farming, forestry, oil & gas, refining)
Not to mention that it was completely against "The Science" that they pushed down our throats as justification for the mandates. Why would you lock up a fully vaccinated population with peak antibody levels from their very recent vaccinations and instead wait until all their antibodies had waned and were useless before letting them out and the virus in? Makes zero sense.
Three of the biggest issues in this campaign — the cost of living, crime, and education — are all part of the fallout from the pandemic.
No
They are the fallout from an incompetent government that kept outsourcing any brain related stuff to consultants whilst publicly denying there was any problem with the issues above.
A bit like a quack doctor who first makes you sick and then claims to have the cure for the sickness that they created.
I doubt a different government would have had a significantly different outcome, Covid was a massive cause of inflation and crime and inequality. The big question is which party has the best policies going forward, it has to be Labour IMO but it seems like few people agree with me.
3 years with the handbrake and 2 years of Covid. I’d rather vote for a party that can’t execute their good ideas than one that will execute their bad ideas. Everyone is voting NZF to handbrake National but then accuses labour of not delivering with that handbrake!
Kiwibuild, light rail, child poverty, homelessness. To be fair, the last two have built over decades, but I still think Labour have been poor on them.
They also opened the floodgates on immigration, which is exacerbating a number of problems.
And the awful ‘captain’s call’ on ditching any further progress on wealth tax.
A huge, absurd bloating of the bureaucracy in Wellington which is incredibly wasteful - money that could have been used on overloaded frontline services.
And an absurd, excessive and hugely impacting final Auckland lockdown.
An echo from history:
"How Paper Money Turns Governments into Predators"
https://www.profstonge.com/p/how-paper-money-turns-government
There is not a single mention in the article that the majority of the worlds money supply is created by the commercial banks banks and issued through their lending and this is about $600 billion in NZs case alone. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/money-creati…
The governments spending is the only source of debt free money that households have and can net save for retirement or save up for for a house deposit.. https://theconversation.com/how-government-deficits-fund-private-saving…
I have provided a link to the Bank of England which describes how banking operates and MMT is also an accurate description of how our monetary system operates and has nothing to do with cake. Why do some imagine that its OK for the banks to put almost limitless quantities of money into the housing market but having the government running deficits for the public good is somehow irresponsible. A little bit of independent thinking on your part would not go amiss. https://www.gmo.com/australia/research-library/why-does-everyone-hate-m…
“And, while most voters are grateful for the Covid response….”
Are they? Any polls or references to support this (un) substantiated claim?
if you asked 1000 NZers to rate the countries performance on COVID considering health, social and economic outcomes using a 1-5 scale, I’m guessing it would get a middling score. 1-terrible, 5 fantastic. I’d give it a 2
They could have said "hey, only the extreme elderly and people with several co-morbidities will die. They need to be protected. But everyone else will be fine". And Sweden has double the population of NZ and no lockdowns, and hasnt even come close to 80,000 people dying over 4 years. Even now they are saying they "saved" 20,000 - another lie. That would still be double the death rate of Sweden. And the fact that all the elderly and extremely sick still died anyway, they just didnt catch a virus at the same time.
No fan of this government but they did inherit a Ministry of Health that was not fit for purpose. Bad lapses and nonobservance issued from the offices of the “shiny arses’” in Wellington that the government had to take on the chin, otherwise undermine public confidence in NZ’s health services even further.
Problem is NZers are a extremely pessimistic bunch. The Government could cure all cancers and people would give them a 2 while rambling on about all the negatives they can stretch out of it. How long it took, how much it cost, how easy it was to cure (in hindsight) etc.
Meanwhile articles overseas at the time often ranked NZ the best at handling the Covid outbreak.
For a point in time, largely due to our geographic isolation rather than any inherent genius on part of the politicians or public.
And then when the rest of the world started aggressive vaccine rollouts but we wanted to wait until kaumātua had months to decide if they would or not, whilst the rest of us waited in lockdown, we sank like a stone
During Labours term I lost 6 friends and familly members with easily curable and treatable conditions under 30. Their graves are directly due to negligence and lack of medical care. Who do we send the funeral bill to. Their families have been out of work picking up the pieces and also affected by the same conditions and some family followed them into the grave due to lack of income and professional support. But that is ok because it has been fine for you. How nice for you.
Not only did they force people to take an experimental medical treatment which looks like it’s killed more people than it’s saved according to the peer reviewed lit that I’ve read, (look at the excess deaths as a function of c19 vaccination rate) but they actively stopped people from being able to help themselves by confiscating ivermectin at the border. It’s unbelievable. They violated section 11 of the human bill of rights. They substantially eroded democracy with the PIJF by funnelling 60 million dollars into the MSM which itself is now a mouthpiece for the labour government. And the money… closing the country for all that time when the whole of Europe was obviously doing just fine. On just the RAT tests alone they wasted 1/2 a billion dollars. Just think about that for a second. Over 531 million dollars of government procured RAT tests will expire by April 2024. Nobody even uses those things anymore. Why wasn’t RAT testing left to the private sector? Why did they stop people from being able to help themselves? Why was the country closed at all? All of it was unnecessary.
Er 1. It was not experimental. Not unless you consider all medicine in history to be experimental including the panadol you likely take for minor ills.
2. We actually have clear records and data showing nowhere near the number of deaths you state. Far less than 1/100000 means the vaccine was actually safer than going to the toilet in your own home, and safer than leaving the house. I suspect you do both daily without thinking. If you were truly worried about things with a similar or greater risk of death good luck living in a hamster ball stripped of any contact with the outside world and a tube coming out either end.
3. Having access to the medical reports on deaths we can clearly prove this evidence. We have such clear evidence on the deaths from the virus that are overwhelmingly high that they now also number as one of the leading causes of death in the world across countries that record deaths and collect medical evidence.
4. Most claims of peer reviewed journal articles are false and it is well known several scam journals and articles exist for the simple purpose of marketing money, and because the general public are clueless as to what actually is needed in a medical study and what is needed for peer review. Which is fine if the public are primarily listening to qualified medical professionals (aka those kept tightly to an ethical code). Sadly it is also well known many in the profession are not really professionals and often their code is closer to what increases their bank balance. Like the guy who published vaccines cause autism articles so he could personally benefit from supposed cures he was also marketing at the time, a "study" based on using less than a handful of children as literal hand picked examples years later who were known to have autism prior to vaccination. Articles are frequently published without peer review in case you did not realize it. Peer review in medicine is also completely different to say that for civil engineering and more stringent involving millions. Hence most articles published in a "peer reviewed" journal are not actually peer reviewed per se. Just that they eventually may be down the line and there is an editorial group who picks articles on popularity. You can trick formal journals with computed rubbish, and many have just republished word soup and got it accepted into prestigious journals as a joke. It is also why so many grads can get published with cheap psychology surveys as evidence.
5. So much money and resources (human, labs etc) is needed to run thousands of repeated trials and studies before anything comes close to testing in the market. Ironically when you infect a bunch of bank managers with something that might kill them, money and resources rapidly open up. It is why after decades of stalling once a bank manager was diagnosed with FSHD they had better clarified genetic tests and discovered the cause for the disease in less than a 10th of the time than it took for most other MD. 40 years of waiting and all it took was infecting someone with hundreds of millions to hand and the ability to coordinate international research teams. Who knew. Perhaps like with covid we should regularly have bank managers infected and diagnosed with other deadly conditions just so that medical research was better funded. It certainly would have helped if we had more politicians with CFS, or MS. So instead of stalling and killing NZders before they reach 30 they could access the existing proven medical treatments, and you know, survive to see their children's 5th birthday. Protip many get MS from viral infections and those with CFS find viruses far more deadly risks.
6. It is not on vulnerable people to avoid us it is on us to not kill them with ignorance and negligence. Just like when we drive it is on us not to plow into a footpath filled with people without thinking about the consequences that it could hurt and kill those same people. Taking down your colleagues with illness, killing some who are vulnerable and causing their families to also get infected just because you think you are a strong man is not a strength nor a freedom. You could carry a loaded shotgun into the office with a similar effect. The loss of productivity from illness, death and disablement from viruses is huge. It numbers into the billions. Just ask Queenstown how less than a handful of people sick with something minor with easier methods to limit spread and contagion have affected their businesses in the past couple of weeks.
The aftermath of Covid will continue for a while a huge amount of the population didn’t want to have vaccine but were mandated or would be cut off from society, Hipkins said they didn’t make people take vaccine this is a big mistake and bull crap because we all know how people were treated if they didn’t many lost jobs and businesses couldn’t even eat in a restaurant or get a coffee shunned like lepers. Most people would of happily taken vaccine but days of Jacinda talking like the population were 5 year olds pissed many off. Nobody really knows what the after effects of vaccine will be but it did seem to help many,now most of the population have had Covid it seems a bit controlling to think that government has the power to lock the population up for months and mandate us all to take a vaccine which has not been fully tested. Many of labour supporters will not forget being kept from seeing family locked up and isolated,families not able to have a proper funeral for loved ones even if they died from something other than Covid.
It is not on vulnerable people to avoid us it is on us to not kill them with ignorance, negligence or a psychopathic disregard for human life. Just like when we drive it is on us not to plow into a footpath filled with people without thinking about the consequences that it could hurt and kill those same people. Taking down your colleagues with illness, killing some who are vulnerable and causing their families to also get infected just because you think you are a strong man is not a strength nor a freedom. You could carry a loaded shotgun into the office with a similar effect. The loss of productivity from illness, death and disablement from viruses is huge. It numbers into the billions. Just ask Queenstown how less than a handful of people sick with something minor with easier methods to limit spread and contagion have affected their businesses in the past couple of weeks.
Regardless of whether you were pro- or anti- vax, it doesnt change the fact that the Govt breached the Nuremberg Code. And they should be held to account for that, because if you just memory hole it, they will do it again.
Article 1 of the Nuremberg Code:
The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision.
Both mandates, and the censorship of doctors and media talking about side effects, breached the code.
Whoa,Just look at all the promises labour never competed and all the unmandeted nasty stuff rammed through under urgency. No they have to go and hopefully a biography of their blatant dishonesty will make the best sellers list.
But I fear that National is no better.With only a third of the population supporting him/them they are hell bent on blaming everyone else but themselves.
National have a problem and for the country to embark on a 9 years National stint is risky.
Nationals' constant bombardment that the doom and gloom is all caused by NZ First is unhelpful. The country will thank its lucky stars that it is there to moderate Nationals secret agenda in the near future.
National where polling ahead of Labour in late 2019 prior to the start to the Covid-19 pandemic. Labour where handed a second chance by voters.
I don't think they counted( pardon the pun) on voters worrying about the details of the taxcut. maybe the majority still won't . I said before i didn't think they would even bother releasing costings before the election, maybe they are now wishing they didn't.
the footage of Luxon giving the wrong change is very apt.
Given he has private healthcare paid for by us he likely had the best access to vaccination, GP support and anti virals when needed. So he is in the best position to recover. Unlike the rest of the population and especially those vulnerable to the worst effects who were even denied access to vaccination sites and have limited access to GPs (often none especially if they are already poor).
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.