National charges into border politics battle
Todd Muller got burnt by the border. Before the Hamish Walker mess, and longbefore the new community cluster in Auckland, Muller publicly mulled the idea of the border staying shut for good, noting that this was not realistic.
‘‘A strategy that says we stay completely closed to everybody for the next 12 to 18 months is simply untenable. We won’t recognise this country in terms of economic impact,’’ Muller said in late-June.
It didn’t exactly match the mood of the nation at the time, and Labour pounced, with Jacinda Ardern saying it would be ‘‘untenable’’ to allow Covid-19 in New Zealand. It played into a narrative that Labour is always keen to paint about National: That it cares more about the economy than the health of Kiwis. When Judith Collins became leader she immediately dialled down the open-the-border language, saying any opening up would only be done ‘‘when it was safe’’.
In the face of a series of screwups at the border and public disdain for several escapees, the political opportunity definitely appeared to be in going more restrictive on the matter, not less. Which is exactly what National did. It beat the
Government to announcing a charge for returning Kiwis, made that charge apply to far more Kiwis, and then proposed a brand-new border management force to oversee the whole regime.
But as Muller said back in June, keeping things locked up to just Kiwis forever is tricky for a nation dependent on tourism, foreign students, and cheap agricultural labour. And just as the Government have started to signal some more space for
essential workers to come in, National has updated its border policy to allow more people to enter the country.
It would do this by partprivatising the existing system, which already uses private hotels, and by allowing travellers from low-risk countries to go through a shorter quarantine.
The partial-privatisation would let businesses set up their own managed isolation facilities to expand the current capacity, which is about 7300 at any one time. These facilities would still be run by the Government and would have to meet certain safety standards, but would be allowed to charge their own rate and allow non-residents in, whether those be essential workers or long-stay tourists.
The details on this are not quite set in stone yet. National’s border spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, told Stuff a legislative structure would be needed to work out exactly how liable these private providers would be if, say, someone escaped.
He also pushed back against the Government’s requirement that every managed isolation facility be near a large hospital, which has stopped them using large hotels in places like Queenstown, arguing that the new requirement National would put in place for travellers to return a negative test before boarding a plane would de-risk the situation.
Labour hit back with a similar attack to the one it had used on Muller. Housing Minister Megan Woods, who is handling managed isolation, told media ‘‘New Zealand cannot afford a Melbourne-style managed isolation regime’’ and said ‘‘our priority is keeping New Zealanders safe’’.
The problem for National is that it has to essentially argue two sides of the same argument. The borders will be more secure under a Government National leads, but also more flexible.