Making it beyond the Thunderdome
In the third of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic Mad Max franchise, Beyond Thunderdome, Jedediah the pilot expresses concern at the shortness of a runway. “We’re not going to make it.” Says Max: “We haven’t got any choice.” New Zealand too has a share of challenges in getting “airborne” after the forced lockdown to break the transmission of Covid-19 coronavirus. Currently, we remain locked in alert level 3, despite there being zero new confirmed cases of infection on Monday and no new cases again yesterday.
That New Zealand hit zero six weeks and three days after going into lockdown is a “badge of honour”, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says, but it coincided with unsettling revelations.
The High Court last week overturned the Health Ministry’s refusal to allow a man out of mandatory lockdown to visit his dying father. Justice Tracey Walker found the blanket approach to refuse all such applications was illegal. “No matter how necessary or demonstrably justified the Covid-19 response, decisions must have a clear and certain basis.”
This ruling gave the Health Ministry no choice but to return to each application it has received and review it. Understandably frustrated at being poorly advised on the situation, Ardern rather unnecessarily said she had asked that this happen.
It is apparent there are questions around the legality of the draconian actions necessary to “go hard, go early” against the threat of the novel coronavirus. Hasty decisions are seldom perfect and it appears these are no exception.
The zero fresh cases announcements also followed a report on the numbers of breaches of lockdown restrictions. Police have been given no recourse but to take enforcement action against 514 flouters since alert level 3 came into force, resulting in 135 prosecutions and 342 warnings.
Meanwhile, discussions around enlarging New Zealand’s bubble to include Australia for unimpeded travel and trade appear premature and Ardern has done what she can to scotch any suggestion this is anything but a long-term prospect. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has done her no favours by promoting it as being worked on now.
Combined with dramatic results being achieved, this fuels calls to be released from the repressive closures to enable commerce to return to normalcy and people to be reunited with loved ones.
Ardern outlined the situation on Monday when announcing the zero milestone, anticipating inevitable calls to lift restrictions to level 2. No new cases was due to the success of the level 4 lockdown, she said. Now we must remain at level 3 long enough to see its efficacy, or otherwise.
“I want to see those numbers after we’ve been at alert level 3 long enough for it to be a reflection of level 3.”
If the level 3 numbers stack up like this early next week, we have pulled off the greatest escape since Mad Max broke out of Bartertown. Flouters and legal matters aside, we are travelling better than Max and Jedediah. This is no time to pull off the runway. We haven’t got any choice.
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