Barry Soper: The truth of bubbles we are living in

COMMENT:

Living in a bubble usually means you are content with your own world, you are impervious and unaffected by what is outside of it.

Well nothing could be further from the truth for the bubbles we find ourselves in today.

And the message from the Beehive is clear, don't burst it under any circumstances. If you do the chances are you will be enveloped for even longer than the four weeks you'll have to endure now.

Stay at home, but feel free to stretch your legs but avoid places where the virus could be lurking.

Jacinda Ardern's even advising against letting the kids on a playground, warning the deadly lurgy could be lurking on a piece of equipment used, or even leaned on by someone else.

Treat yourself and everyone else as though they have Covid-19, keep everyone outside your bubble at more than arm's length.

For most of us working out of home for the next four weeks, while inconvenient and maybe a little lonesome, it isn't the end of the world. If you do whinge about it, spare a thought for those who are forced to live in overcrowded, damp and cold dumps.

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And if you have been laid off but are still earning 80 per cent of your wages, thanks to the taxpayer funded subsidy, spare a thought for the Kiwis living across the ditch, and there are around 650,000 of them.

More of them were in work, and in higher paid jobs, than anyone else who has settled in Australia. That means for almost 20 years they have paid more tax but in that time the rules changed and the Aussies are now all take and no give.

They're not entitled to welfare support and given that many of them are in the hospitality industry they are left struggling to make ends meet. Compare that to an Aussie who has come to live in this country who, after just a month, can pick up a welfare cheque.

If they've been laid off like their Kiwi cousins they will of course qualify for that wage subsidy.

The Australian leadership is forever waxing on about how close we are, how we're more than just friends, we're family. Just before his bollocking by Ardern in Sydney last month, Scott Morrison was again laying it on with a trowel.

The only concession they have made for Kiwis over Covid-19 is that they have put on hold their deportation of criminals to this country.

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A petition began this week pleading with the Government there for some welfare respite for the Kiwis there who have made their hospitality industry so successful. Most of them have now been laid off but they are on their own.

The petition is now nudging 200,000 signatures.

The Beehive boffins have been asked whether they have made representations to their colleagues in Canberra about their plight. They shrug their shoulders, as if to say, what's the point?

The point's been made time and time again. The Aussies are happy to live in their bubble, they're content with their world and are certainly unaffected by anything outside it.

Perhaps it's time they made some tougher decisions to combat the current Covid climate or their bubble could just end up bursting.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

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Last updated: Fri 18th December at 12:17 am

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