How lockdown was pieced together
As coronavirus pandemic concerns grew, officials sent thousands of pages of advice to ministers to help shape their response to the unfolding crisis. The advice led to decisions which saw billions being invested in all areas of the economy. The policy advice was released yesterday. Here is a selection from the material. Human rights
The full extent of human rights New Zealanders gave up during lockdown and alert level 3 have been revealed with a paper saying it had “the most significant impact on human rights in living memory”.
Included among the Government’s dump of hundreds of documents was the implementation of moving down alert levels and the Solicitor-General’s advice on the legality of the nationwide quarantine order.
Some of the rights Kiwis gave up included: the right to manifest religion in worship, observance, practice or teaching; the right to peaceful assembly; limited freedoms to swim, surf, hunt and tramp; limited the right of freedom of movement.
All measures had the potential to limit the right to be free from discrimination due to the disproportionate impact on people of faith, M¯aori, Pacific people, older people, those with disabilities and women, and restrictions on gatherings could limit the rights of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their culture, religious practice or language.
Kiwis also gave up some international human rights, including: the right to work; the right to the highest standard of physical and mental health; the right to education.
The border quarantine could also amount to “arbitrary detention” under the Bill of Rights Act (BORA).
Also included in the paper was the general advice the Solicitor-General provided on human rights issues.
On the lockdown, she advised the order would “probably not” breach rights in the BORA if voluntary compliance wasn’t sufficient.
And on the quarantine at the border, the paper said: “Giving weight to the director general’s expert assessment as to what is necessary to protect public health in the current circumstances, she concluded that a direction for quarantine within managed facilities could lawfully be made.”
Lack of data
The Government was mostly flying blind on how essential workers were being protected during the alert level 4 lockdown or whether people with Covid-19, or suspected of having Covid-19, were properly keeping to themselves.
A report from the All of Government team, dated April 15, noted that the number of daily cases at the time had been flattening for a week, and there were signs that there was no community transmission of Covid-19.
But the paper also noted that there were gaps in the data that had the potential to undermine confidence, including a lack of end-to-end data that could show how much time it took from the onset of any symptoms until contacts had been traced and isolated. That data was only just published by the Ministry of Health for the first time two days ago — more than three weeks after the report.
“A significant number of cases have missing information and some others have been under investigation for a long time. This somewhat reduces our confidence in the data on community transmission.”
Wage subsidy warning
The Government removed the need for companies to prove they had suffered a drop in revenue to obtain the wage subsidy, despite warnings this would lead those that could survive without it to take it anyway.
As the country moved towards lockdown, Treasury officials warned that the initial scheme was not designed for such widespread disruption to the economy.
Any hurdles could encourage companies to keep operating, which might hinder attempts to control the spread of the virus. As a result, the Government was urged to broaden the scheme to include even industries deemed essential.
“There is a public health objective reinforced by maintaining broad eligibility to the wage subsidy. There is a risk firms not covered by the subsidy would not provide special leave to workers who are required to selfisolate and can’t work from home. This could create an incentive for essential service workers to go to work.”
Treasury advised that the “30 per cent income-loss eligibility test” be removed to ensure broad take-up, though it acknowledged this would mean companies which could afford not to take the subsidy would do so.
Now businesses will be eligible for the subsidy where they have experienced a 30 per cent decline in actual or predicted revenue.
Stranded
As Covid-19 closed borders and flight routes, at least 11,000 Kiwis were in countries assessed as high or moderate risk — with little chance of getting home.
Other New Zealanders with a way back but unable to pay for an airline ticket received loans, and officials also mulled asking banks to help out with credit-card limits. Taxpayer spending on repatriation flights alone is expected to be about $10m-14m.
“The demand for repatriation will likely continue for some time. Despite clear Government advice over the last several weeks not to travel from New Zealand and to return home if they are able to, there are stranded New Zealanders all over the world. Many are located in comparatively low-risk countries but a number are in moderate- or high-risk countries with no commercial airline options,” the briefing states.
All New Zealanders would not be able to be brought home, the briefing notes, and organising charter flights in “low risk” countries undermined airlines’ efforts to maintain commercial routes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had already spent more than $2.2m on repatriation flights by mid-April.
Learning at home
The number of laptops and modems available in New Zealand for students doing distance learning was “significantly less” than what was needed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins was warned at the start of April.
Cabinet documents show the struggle and costs involved in trying to quickly roll out distance learning nationwide as schools closed for the lockdown period. The papers show Cabinet agreed to a $36.4m funding for distance learning on March 23, and just two weeks later, Hipkins sought a further $51.34m from Cabinet.
About 82,000 families with students were thought to lack internet connectivity. A report to Hipkins said the ministry thought it could get just over 2000 of them connected before the school term started on April 15, with work to ramp up further in coming weeks.
There were 145,000 students thought to need devices or connections before online school started up. But with too few modems and laptops available — and a worldwide scramble to provide them to students as schools closed across the globe — the Ministry of Education warned it would have to ration the devices, sending them out in “tranches over time” to ensure the most disadvantaged got them first.
There were thought to be about 7000 devices available within New Zealand, according to an early April briefing. These would be “supplemented with offshore supply”, with the first shipment to arrive four weeks later.
Online risk
Justice officials feared children would be increasingly subjected to internet predators during lockdown, as a result of spending more time online.
Documents from the Joint Venture on Family Violence and Sexual Violence say “additional risks” also included young people accessing or viewing inappropriate content such as online pornography. Data from Pornhub shows a massive spike in traffic the day NZ went into lockdown.
And the officials were worried about children being particularly vulnerable to under-reported abuse, and to witnessing violence at home, as abusive behaviours escalated in isolation.
To combat this, the Government put an extra focus on prevention and early intervention, including messages about promoting the right behaviours and supporting people to ask for help as well as for people to provide help. However, it still expected family and sexual violence to rise, including as lockdown restrictions eased — but that it would go unreported for a time.
It was particularly concerned about the under-reporting of child abuse, about abuse of older people, and how withdrawal from alcohol and other drugs could lead to an escalation in family and sexual violence.
“There is an increased probability that children and young people will take additional risks when online for longer periods at home, like accessing or viewing inappropriate content such as online pornography,” it said.