Aucklanders will struggle to forget and forgive the long Covid-19 lockdown – Editorial

Police and the Army talk with motorists exiting the Southern Motorway at Bombay, or Checkpoint Charlie as it became known as among Aucklanders, during the Covid pandemic.

THE FACTS

• National Party MP Andrew Bayly has urged the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 to examine the extended 2021 Auckland lockdown.
• Bayly highlighted the severe mental health impacts and forced family separations during the lockdown.
• Former Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins has previously said that in hindsight, he would have scaled back the Auckland lockdowns faster.

In today’s Herald on Sunday, we talked to National Party MP Andrew Bayly about a subject many of us probably wish we could forget.

The MP for Port Waikato has written to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 in the hope we learn some lessons for future New Zealand emergencies.

It is the extended lockdown in Auckland in the second half of 2021 that Bayly draws attention to, which is also one of the focuses of the second phase of the inquiry.

Every Aucklander will carry their own mental scars from that period and Bayly, whose electorate ran through the southern border and included Checkpoint Charlie, as locals began calling it, will know better than most what individual families went through.

He recalls talking to people dealing with being separated after the deaths of loved ones, including suspected suicides, or children being prevented from seeing one of their parents.

In his letter to the inquiry, Bayly describes the forced separation of families as the “most profound impact” of the lockdown.

He says some of the examples still haunt him today.

Then there is the individual toll, the isolation and uncertainty that has left many Aucklanders dealing with increased stress, anxiety and mental health challenges every day.

In his candid letter and interview, Bayly says his wife is one of those still traumatised by the period.

“She spent so much time on her own, and we lived in a remote area and she couldn’t have visitors. She’s just one of many who lived through that period,” he said.

Those who weren’t in Auckland during those days struggle to comprehend the impact it had. We saw our friends and families suffer in isolation and lose their livelihoods as their businesses closed, never to reopen.

As Bayly describes, there remains a “disconnect” between those who experienced the Auckland lockdown and those who didn’t. It was like living in different worlds. It was a different daily reality.

The decisions from the Beehive were no doubt made with the best intentions on the information available at the time. But there was also legitimate real-time criticism, while former Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins has previously said if the Labour Government of the time could redo the Covid-19 response, he would have scaled back the Auckland lockdowns faster in the last three months of 2021.

Ultimately, Aucklanders quickly fell out of love with Dame Jacinda Ardern, then the Prime Minister, and punished the Labour Government at the polls in the 2023 election.

The psychological significance and collective impact on the lives of so many should be one of the lessons we learn from Covid.

Because for many Aucklanders, they will not forget, nor will they forgive.