Rapid reaction to Covid outbreak reflects postelection changes
THERE were two immediate signs this week that things are changing postelection in the way that Covid19 is handled.
The Government response to an unsourced outbreak began early and fast under the control of superminister Chris Hipkins, and the National Opposition resisted any temptation to pile into the latest situation — David Seymour’s Act New Zealand has assumed that task.
Hipkins is impressive and one of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s best. He is an excellent manager and communicator, as was reinforced yesterday after Auckland CBD alert.
There was no question that Ardern had to keep his temporary job in charge of the Covid19 response in her reshuffle.
The only issues she had were how much of health he should cover (the answer was none) as well as Covid19, and how much of education he could hang on to (the answer was all).
It is not yet clear that she made the right decision to split health away from Covid19.
That will depend on whether the new lines of accountability make it harder or more complicated for Hipkins to practically deal with cases.
It is not yet clear whether it will be harder or easier for Hipkins to get on top of underperformance in parts of the health system vital to the Covid response.
Andrew Little as the new Minister of Health must also have some responsibility. How it works will be a challenge, as both ministers will have to ensure that the major health sector restructuring that will be taking place after the Simpson review in no way constrains the parts involved in Covid19.
The response to the CBD cases may not have been faultless but to get a mobile testing unit to the apartment block the same day as the test result is a vast improvement on what happened three months ago when the first postlockdown case of community transmission was detected.
It was with some relief Hipkins announced yesterday he would get cabinet to approve compulsory wearing of masks on all flights in New Zealand and on public transport in Auckland.
Every case of community transmission represents a failure somewhere. The Government insists that failures are inevitable, which they are not. Last century it was assumed that airline “accidents” were inevitable.
Act treats every failure as though it were a catastrophe but the public has a fairly well calibrated sense of what constitutes an avoidable failure from makes an unacceptable failure.
The transfer of the virus on pedestrian crossing buttons, for example, may be avoidable but acceptable. But the transfer of a virus from a sick worker who went to work while awaiting a Covid test would be avoidable and unacceptable.
Hipkins has made no obvious errors. It is a safe assumption that
National will have a finer calibration of its response to future outbreaks under its new Covid19 spokesman, Chris Bishop.
He has made his mark in every portfolio, most recently in transport and infrastructure, which leader Judith Collins has now given to her finance duet, Andrew Bayly and Michael Woodhouse.
Bishop is not yet out of the dogbox for instigating the Todd Muller leadership coup but he is still one of National’s best operators. Bishop has only ever known Opposition as an MP. He is so good at finding and prosecuting weaknesses in Government that he should have been a contender for finance.
Finance does not need accountants, as Ms Collins argues. It simply needs people with equal doses of political nous and intelligence who can learn quickly. Finance Minister Grant Robertson on a bad day will be more than a match for Bayly and Woodhouse.
Bishop has been given a vitally important role in shadowing Hipkins, a role that could cross over into health, managed isolation, vaccines, testing, when to open up the border, tourism and the economic response.
At least it will be a more even match that what we have seen so far.