Trust those who keep economic heart beating
It’s becoming a cliche´ , but it’s worth reinforcing that level 3 and 4 lockdowns are principally a phenomenon of the middle and upper classes. Lawyers, accountants, university lecturers, and other professionals spend the lockdown levels within the confines of their homes and neighbourhoods.
But for essential workers – which is more or less a synonym for working class people – levels 3 and 4 are, to some extent, business as usual.
Under the current alert level thousands of South Aucklanders head to work at supermarkets, distribution centres, trucking depots, the airport precinct, and all manner of other essential workplaces.
Pre-Covid, the commentators might’ve said that the retailers, lawyers, and bankers in Auckland’s CBD were the country’s economic heart. But post-Covid it’s clear that, no, the transport, logistics, and retail workers of South Auckland are.
In Britain, at the beginning of the old country’s first outbreak in March 2020, ordinary people were walking down their driveways and ‘‘clapping for carers’’. The particularly creative were banging pots and pans or blasting patriotic tunes (God Save the
Queen and God Save the National
Health Service, naturally).
It was a touching gesture, a mark of respect for the healthcare workers who only weeks later were dealing with thousands of deaths and tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands of cases.
From distant New Zealand we could recognise this as the noble thing to do. Healthcare workers deserve respect and recognition. And yet it also came across as vaguely pathetic. Instead of locking down ‘‘hard and early’’, to borrow our prime minister’s words, her British counterpart, Boris Johnson, who later caught the virus, just told the British people to clap.
What made that pathetic is that the ask – clapping – came in the absence of any material support. The best recognition for nurses is a pay
If we want to keep case numbers low, we need to resource people to follow the rules.
rise that properly reflects the lifesaving work they do. Did it come? No.
In New Zealand, it’s easy to sneer at the inertia and stupidity of our former colonial masters. But it’s worth remembering that before the current Delta outbreak our own nurses were preparing to strike for better pay and conditions. The cost of living is increasing and the cost of housing is still – excuse the pun – through the roof.
This is hard enough for the lockeddown middle classes, but at least the lawyers and bankers can draw on their wealth to protect themselves against the worst. For essential workers – that’s nurses too – there are fewer protections. They bear the economic burden.
In an ideal world the Government would come to the rescue. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would immediately announce an essential worker bonus and instruct DHBs to do the same for nurses, doctors, and other hospital and caring staff.
In Auckland, to recognise the unique sacrifices the city is making, Finance Minister Grant Robertson would implement an Auckland Basic Income, a spin on the Universal Basic Income, to ensure that families like those at Tangaroa College – where 40 per cent of year 13 students are now working full-time to support their families – could make ends meet.
But instead we get the wage subsidy. This is fine as far as it goes. The subsidy is a simple, effective system where the Ministry of Social Development transfers cash to businesses who self-assess that they qualify. The system is built on trust.
Instead of directing bureaucrats to assess every single application against the criteria, the Government appeals to a sense of collective duty, asking business owners to make honest applications as part of the Team of Five Million.
This is a fine principle – trust – but if the Government is willing to make direct payments to business owners, why is it not willing to make direct payments straight to workers and their families? Not only would an Auckland Basic Income reproduce the best elements of the wage subsidy – trust – it would also plug that subsidy’s holes. It would cover the survival of sex workers who broke lockdown rules in Northland, Wellington, and Blenheim. It would cover the gang members who are (presumably) doing drug runs to maintain their income.
And it would cover the essential workers who (we’re told to assume) are breaking their bubbles because they need to work and someone (outside of their bubble) needs to care for their children.
You can dislike sex workers, gang members, and working class people. Fine. But that doesn’t matter when it comes to stopping the virus. If we want to keep case numbers low, we need to resource people to follow the rules.
The Government continues to tell us that ‘‘rule-breakers’’ are responsible for increasing case numbers. These same rule-breakers are apparently why the Government can’t rely on the desperately-needed level 4 circuit-breaker. But people can only follow the rules when they have the means – that is, the money – to do so.