When kindness endangers: Why Labour need a kick and why a sacrifice needs to be offered up to the public next time
Nigel Haworth was the President of the Labour Party and he had to resign because of a false sexual assault allegation published by The Spinoff and promoted by Fairfax Feminist Reporters from the ‘If a woman says it, it must be true’ school of Journalism, (we all eagerly await the possible defamation action the day after the election in September).
If Nigel can be sacked for a false sexual assault allegation published on The Spinoff , then what the Christ do incompetent Public Health staff who allow the plague back into the country have to do to get sacked?
As I have been pointing out for sometime, the extraordinary emotional attachment NZers feel in this unique universal experience can turn on Jacinda if voters feel their sacrifice is squandered because of Public Servant incompetence by allowing the plague back into the country.
Bringing the military in to run the border allows for more staff to be directly involved (yes the military were involved 4 weeks ago but they weren’t in charge)…
the Defence Force has taken charge of an urgent end-to-end review of the system to get the bottom of recent blunders and doubled its on-the-ground presence from 32 to 72 personnel.
… and harsher penalties for breaching quarantine are being considered…
An overhaul of the border regime will see Kiwis held for up to 28 days if they refuse a test and punished with a $4000 fine or jail if they break isolation rules.
And the Government is looking into options for how to fund the system long-term, including potentially a co-payment, with it costing $81 million so far at an average of $3,295 per person.
…but the Government should have known that our Ministry of Health was an underfunded joke who couldn’t manage this task based on the obscene incompetence they showed over last years measles epidemic.
Post this we need a serious conversation about an enormous refunding of our public health service that goes beyond the current neoliberal suggestion.
This matters because the plague is only growing and going to get far worse…
Covid 19 coronavirus: WHO warns pandemic is ‘accelerating’
The coronavirus pandemic is “accelerating” and has reached “a new and dangerous phase”, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
More than 150,000 new cases of the virus were reported to the global health agency on Thursday – the most in a single day so far – WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.
“Almost half of those cases were reported from the Americas, with large numbers also being reported from South Asia and the Middle East,” he said.
…we are facing economic meltdown, certain industries being dead until a vaccine and we are barely able to keep our domestic population safe despite having the biggest moat in the world.
The enormity of what we face means kindness can be a weakness right now.
If there is another fuck up that leads to the plague spreading inside NZ, Jacinda must offer the public up a sacrifice or else it will reflect on her personally and risk Labour the 2020 election as voters turn on her in backlash.
The good news for Labour is that National are in disarray but most importantly our response is seen in comparison with everyone else’s response and Jacinda’s leadership to date is far better.
NZers may fume at public servant incompetence, but that fuming is in the shadow of American, British and Chinese dead.
We may be furious but we aren’t stupid.
Labour are still on track to be the majority Government, but some sacrificial lambs will be needed.
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THIS HORIZON POLL WAS JUST RELEASED TODAY MARTYN; – AS A BIT OF COMFORT TO US; – AND BITTER TASTE FOR HATE FOR NATIONAL PARTY.
AS THEY ARE GRINDING THEIR TEETH RIGHT NOW HOPING SOME MYSTICAL CHANGE WAS IN PLAY WELL SORRY NATIONAL THE PUBLIC SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU LOT AS ‘DIRTY POLITICS MERCHANTS’.
https://horizonpoll.co.nz/page/582/large-majorities-think-ardern-best-to-manage-pandemic-economy?gtid=9A71453D-0107-4C1C-B83D-CD872F819ED4
Large majorities think Ardern best to manage pandemic, economy
20 Jun 20
Jacinda Ardern: 63% say she’s best to lead on pandemic, 56% on recovery
Jacinda Ardern is seen by large majorities of New Zealanders as the best parliamentary party leader to manage both the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recovery from it.
She is favoured by
• 66% of adult New Zealanders as best to manage the pandemic response, and by
• 53% to manage the economic recovery.
An independent Horizon Research nationwide survey between June 10 and 14 (midnight Sunday) finds National’s new leader, Todd Muller, is regarded as best to manage the pandemic response by 14% and the economic response by 24%.
Pandemic response – other leaders:
ACT leader David Seymour is regarded by 4% as best to manage the pandemic response, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters rates 3% and the Green Party leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson each rate 1%. 10% say none of the six leaders of the five parties currently in Parliament is best to manage the response.
Economic recovery response:
Jacinda Ardern has a 29% lead over Todd Muller as best to manage the pandemic economic recovery.
We may be furious but we aren’t stupid. Correct we can see through the last 9 years and what our public service has become.
If the gnats were in charge I would have been burying half my whanau by now. so yup she needs to do better and so do the lazy bureaucrats they need to start thinking consequences and using their fucking brains and some judgment FFS. Also glad to see consequences if returning kiwis think they are just going to find a way around the system. fine and jail is a good start.
Well said Tuibelle, I agree that “If the gnats were in charge I would have been burying half my whanau by now” because they do not ever put a price on human health but only in financial rewards from any effect to our health.
This Labour Coalition Government is doing what is needed to stop harm coming to us firstly as a model of “Preventative medicine”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventive_healthcare
“Preventive Medicine” redirects here. For the peer-reviewed journal, see Preventive Medicine (journal).
Immunization against diseases is a key preventive healthcare measure.
Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for disease prevention. Disease and disability are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, and lifestyle choices and are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primal,.primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
National don’t want to give us the power to prevent disease.
Why? – as ‘disease is a potential financial gain to make money from when it totally incapacitates anyone.’
See the difference from Labour and National’s health policy’s.?
Yes to beat this pandemic we must follow the global use of two separate testing protocols, the current swab test and the blood test to find any a”Antibodies” (called a Antibody serology test) and even in severe cases also an Xray of the lungs. China did this lung Xray test when their swab test failed in 28% of their cases.
Get ready to beg on Queen Street to pay your rent, MB.
Listening to RNZ’s Focus On Politics roundup on the way home it struck me that the failures to test those in isolation on the schedule prescribed and the mixing of incoming travellers of different arrival times , it stuck me that 99.9 % of ordinary new Zealanders off the street would have been doing a more conscientious job .
That led me to wonder if this might not be just sloppy incompetence , it might be deliberate sabotage .
How did Woodhouse know all the detail of their journey ? Who are the sisters and their family? Would every bodies penny drop in unison if we knew?
At least it’s a wakeup call . Presumably everyone coming in will be tested as we have all assumed they were being. Who the hell have they been testing at 2 or 3 000 a day ?, and why ? if they have not testing overseas travellers on the schedule laid down.
D J S
Nobody needs to get fired. It would only make the sorry spectacle worse. It’s already embarrassing internationally.
For some perspective. USA has 20,000 cases a day and we freak out about two women who did everything right (including wearing masks), got followed up on, got tested, now isolating, part of a system WORKING AS Designed, and so well it could catch it’s own mistake when some clipboard holder having a bad day skipped a step.
Well done us on outcomes but room for improvement. Get on with it.
Shame on us for behaviour. Introspection needed.
It’s important to understand that the border can’t be perfectly sealed it’s a matter of when not if a case slips through the controls. This has been clearly forewarned. There could have also been a false negative test which can occur a small percentage of the time.
This is precisely why there is multiple layers of safety nets. Easy access to testing, contact tracing, and thorough follow up.
Those later back stops functioned flawlessly to catch this.
The women must be feeling terrible being political pawns in a country that is far to over sensitive, cheerleading media and a desperate political opposition. While a pandemic rages, a number of countries with nukes are having societal meltdown.