The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Quarantine free travel to and from Sydney is now paused. It remains to be seen whether Sydney itself will go into a lockdown.
But it raises the question of complacency.
Which we here should be very aware of too.
We have, for all intents and purposes, gone back to our normal daily routines and lives, we are enjoying our freedoms, and Covid here feels like a distant memory.
And we've taken our foot off the gas.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the decision to move to level 2.
I was fully expecting the government to take Wellington straight to the usual level 3 lockdowns Auckland’s been forced into, so I find myself feeling grateful for a reasonably measured response today.
What failed to surprise me though was the immediate public reaction to the news of the imported case.
The first caller to Kerre’s show this morning said we should never have opened the bubble to Australia until we’d all been vaccinated.
Come on, that’s ridiculous. You cannot be that risk averse.
Not that I want to gloat, again, OK I’m fully gloating, winning two bets in a row against my husband is just a little bit thrilling. The fact he misread the government not once but twice, is something I can’t just ignore. Especially when he bet against me, twice.
So we first of all had the announcement of the announcement as I bet there would be, then yesterday we had, as I rightfully bet again, a bubble opening on the 19th, just in time for school holidays. Two nil to me. I’m on a roll.
If there's one thing this Government's good at, better than any of its predecessors, in fact standing head and shoulders above them - it's making an announcement about an upcoming announcement.
The hospitality industry was on the edge of its bar stools, hotels were remaking the beds, the snow field chair lifts were being oiled and more generally the tourism operators were filling up the jet boats, the Kaikōura whales were being brought out of hibernation and the bungy cords were being stretched to ensure they will be able to take the weight of a a desperately needed Aussie influx.
There was an expectation we would have at least had an indication of when we would be enveloped by the Antipodean bubble.
So are we getting a trans tasman bubble announcement this coming Monday?
The jungle drums are certainly beating that way and it would be great timing for the government.
They’d save face after being shown up by Scott Morrison, it would help the PM’s cred after that 15 point drop in the latest preferred PM poll, and it would take the glare off that shocking GDP figure out yesterday.
There’s never been a better time for some good PR for a govt that loves good PR.
If we do get the announcement Monday, word is it will be mid to late April that the bubble opens up.
Was Stuart Nash misleading us yesterday when he said the reason we don’t have a two-way bubble with Australia is because of the Australian government?
Scott Morrison was asked about National's position raised on the show yesterday with Judith Collins who told us the bubble needed to be up and running now. 72-hour negative test, jump on a plane, land here, and get on with your holiday.
Morrison said the only reason Australians weren't on holiday right here, right now was on our government. As we suspected.
