Ele Ludemann: Not just Auckland

Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 suggests he doesn’t understand the full impact of his government’s response.:

. . . Hipkins, the former Covid-19 response minister, said he agreed the pandemic did affect social cohesion as a whole.

Vaccines and the lengthy Auckland lockdown were particularly difficult.

“I’ve spoken before about that that I think we lost the room in Auckland,” he said. . .

He’s right about that but does he understand it wasn’t just Auckland where they lost the room and not just the city that paid, and is continuing to pay, the costs?

Obviously Auckland. and Aucklanders, bore the brunt of the extended lockdown, but that affected the rest of the country too.

Building and other projects that depended on parts or materials manufactured in Auckland were delayed and businesses which sold in Auckland lost a lot of their customers.

Families and friends who couldn’t cross the borders were prevented from being together to celebrate with, or comfort each other.

And the ongoing impacts on education, health and the economy are still imposing costs on, and contributing to, high national debt and the sluggish economy.

Labour kept Auckland sneezing for far too long and the whole country caught a prolonged cold as a result of that.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.