GUEST BLOG: Hone Harawira – NORTHLAND IN REAL DANGER FROM DELTA

ByThe Daily Blog
When the PM announced a Level 4 Lockdown last Tuesday night, families were given 48 hours to travel home, which left Auckland’s borders open for the critical first 24-hrs.
“In that 24-hrs, hundreds of Aucklanders fled north to their baches, and thousands more followed in their campervans and caravans”
“By midnight, the main highway into Whangarei was lit up for miles by Aucklanders fleeing their city”
Northland police told Tai Tokerau Border Control (TBC) they had it under control, when in fact they had set up no checkpoints at all.
Aalthough they later apologised, Northland police failed in their duty to protect the people of the north from Delta, the deadliest strain of Covid-19 ever to reach our shores.
“In one week, NZ went from 1 to 150 cases, zero to 15,000 contacts, and a flood of CLOSE contacts right across Northland from the Auckland exodus – the price for failing to slam the gate shut on Day One”
“The Māori population of Tai Tokerau is particularly vulnerable (see below), so we’re going to focus on working with whānau, hapū and iwi to help limit the spread of Delta.
“Delta is a threat to everyone” said Harawira “Everyone has a role to play in defending their communities from its threat, and we intend to play our part”
Tai Tokerau Māori live in some of the most under-invested and deprived communities in NZ. Housing standards are poor and state housing waiting lists are long. Poverty and unemployment are widespread, resulting in many of the social, whānau and individual harms reaching epidemic levels, such as drug and alcohol abuse, violence and suicide. A lack of access to resources, and an inequitable health system mean Māori suffer disproportionately from weakened immune systems, liver disease, cancer, kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes – the medical conditions that are natural breeding grounds for Covid-19 and its descendants, Delta and Delta Plus.
Hone Harawira is a Tai Tokerau Border Control Coordinator and the Leader of the MANA Movement 

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49 Comments

  1. Yep, the horse has bolted. An outrage that police and health officials were not on to it. More focus needed on middle class entitlement.

  2. Pandering to the wants of wealthy Aucklanders is what keeps Adern in power.

    Don’t expect that to change any time soon.

      1. I don’t necessarily agree; but 2 bits of evidence one could bring to the table would be the America’s Cup, and the harbour bike bridge.

  3. We’re all going to get it eventually so you might as well face it now.
    The tone was set 2 days ago in Aussie :- It was agreed that once the vaccination rate hits 70% that’s considered herd immunity and lockdowns must end.

    1. You sound like Scott Morrison.
      We set our own tone Andrew, we are not Australia, it’s not that hard to comprehend.
      However Australia might suit you better.

    2. Who agreed that a vaccination rate of 70% constitutes herd immunity?
      I think you’re making stuff up again.

    3. That may be the tone from NSW and Morrison. But its not the view of peoole and politicians in Vic, Sth oz and the West. Theyre pissed with the government leadership failure in NSW.

      1. The tone of Andrew’s comment is enough to piss any thinking Kiwi.
        Scomo or Scumo does not work for the Aussie bloke but for off shore investors. Money not lives is a short term disastrous thinking.
        Fully vaccinated folk can still catch Delta as has been shown. Herd immunity is a myth that has not become a reality anywhere yet so dream on Andrew.

  4. Dear Andrew
    ”It was agreed that once the vaccination rate hits 70% that’s considered herd immunity and lockdowns must end.”
    Who fucking agreed?
    Scott Morrison having a public power wank does not mean agreement to anything by the Australian public.

    1. Let’s hope he doesn’t but let’s not be head in the sand ostriches and dicks about it.
      We cannot stay covid free with shut borders forever, whether we want to or not, delta already got here anyway.
      Adults would discuss the best way forward. It’s disingenuous in the extreme to paint plan B discussion in the same bracket as Kyle Chapman as Liz Gordon did – oven Hipkins is planting the seed of living with covid.

    2. Having known someone with the long covid I would not wish it on my worst enemy . Low blow and not worthy of your usual input.

      1. Trevor Sennitt: “Low blow and not worthy of your usual input.”

        Low blow, right enough, but regrettably of a piece with cip’s previous commentary, I’ve noticed.

  6. For all those that espouse personal responsibility. “Aucklanders” is the common denominator.

    Selfish and arrogant comes to mind.

    “In that 24-hrs, hundreds of Aucklanders fled north to their baches, and thousands more followed in their campervans and caravans”
    “By midnight, the main highway into Whangarei was lit up for miles by Aucklanders fleeing their city”

    1. And where were the Police???????????

      As usual – turning a blind eye for their middle class mates.

  7. Yes Hone, but don’t keep expecting micro-management of this problem by the government or police; they are limited in what they can achieve. It is indeed a sad indictment on the human condition that such behaviour is thought acceptable by those in a privileged position. Our ongoing complacency about simple things like scanning in proves to me that we don’t deserve the high quality of leadership we have in this country; escaping Auckland whilst possibly spreading the virus just proves many don’t get we are fighting a virus, not the government.

    1. We deserve high quality leadership but more and more I feel that is what we are not getting. We had months to prepare for this current event and all I see is problems that should not have happened. Small businesses that should not have been closed forced to close and possibly be lost as the business folds.

      1. Trevor Sennitt: “We deserve high quality leadership but more and more I feel that is what we are not getting.”

        Agreed. The current schemozzle – along with the botched vaccine rollout – are evidence of that.

  8. I wish I was up in Paihia with whanau but decided the right thing to do was stay here in Auckland. It sucks but it would be worse to pass on Delta to the old folks up there

    1. I wish my daughter had been able to spend her birthday with us but she said “I’m not going to behave like a dickhead”

    2. Well done roblogic, taking personal responsibility, rather than blaming others is the intelligent thing to do.

  9. Northland Maori have had a year to get vaccinated, either by relying on the State or (since they have their own mana) on their own initiative. They were happy to set up roadblocks last year based on their rights as iwi. What did the iwi do for twelve months about vaccination?

    1. We’ve only had the vaccines in NZ for a few months & not universally available mate.

  10. It is quite despicable that people who can afford holiday homes in Northland should travel there at a time like this, their actions make a mockery of the term ‘lockdown’ really.

    1. It is hard for police to turn people around who own and pay rates on a property who claim that they are ” going home”

      1. Not so hard. A question like is this your main place of residence should clear that up, followed by where do you work.

  11. Hone the first task for you and the Runanga is to get your whanau and friends up north vaccinated as soon as possible, leave the road blocks to others. If your whanau are like mine (especially the young ones) then they need a good boot up the nono to have it done – we don’t want them infecting our koroua/kuia and other sick whanau. My grandmother and her sister are lying in our urupa, killed by the spanish flu’ in 1918.

  12. We deserve high quality leadership but more and more I feel that is what we are not getting. We had months to prepare for this current event and all I see is problems that should not have happened. Small businesses that should not have been closed forced to close and possibly be lost as the business folds.

    1. Trevor, like many you obviously don’t get it; we are fighting a virus, not the government. For every business that is open staff and patrons have to leave their bubble increasing exponentially the risk of virus spread. So it comes down to how long you want the lock-down to last?

    2. The irony Trevor is there are people posting on here who believe that it’s acceptable to have loss of lives and we just accept it as we do the flu yet the same people( yourself excluded) cry blue murder about the loss of a business. Think about that for a moment and ask if you were our leader, what is your foremost task?
      If it was me I would be doing my utmost to support both small business and no deaths, which I believe is what Ardern is trying to do.

  13. Ngapuhi and the Federation of Chiefs felt the British were the best people to work with as they were concerned other Nations such as the USA and the French would result in poorer outcomes. Hongi Hika went to Cambridge University for a year in 1820 with Thomas Kendall from the NZ Land Company and witnessed the power and strength of the British Military.

    They decided the British were the best alternative. Hence the Declaration of Independence signed with the British Crown in 1835 and the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

  14. “…..Delta, the deadliest strain of Covid-19 ever to reach our shores.”

    Not the deadliest, but the most contagious. Thus far, there have been no deaths reported.

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