NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / New Zealand

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Covid wiggle room - Government's jaw-dropping inconsistency

Heather du Plessis-Allan
By Heather du Plessis-Allan
NZ Herald·
6 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

If The Wiggles can have the rules bent for them, why can't a cruise ship?

If The Wiggles can have the rules bent for them, why can't a cruise ship?

Heather du Plessis-Allan
Opinion by Heather du Plessis-Allan
Heather du Plessis-Allan is the drive host for Newstalk ZB and a columnist for the Herald on Sunday
Learn more

OPINION:

Government MPs may come to rue the decision to give The Wiggles an exemption to come into the country. This is now the benchmark by which all future declined requests will be measured.

If The Wiggles were given emergency MIQ spaces on first request, why wasn't target="_blank">ex-pat Kiwi Trevor Ponting who is dying of brain cancer?

If The Wiggles got fast-tracked, why not the same treatment for five crane operators needed by the Ports of Auckland workers to clear the ship backlog holding up national supply lines?

If The Wiggles can have the rules bent for them, why can't a cruise ship?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The contrast between Labour's treatment of The Wiggles and the Le Laperouse cruise ship is jaw dropping.

In both cases, the parties hoping to get into the country put the cart before the horse: the promoters sold The Wiggles concert tickets, the travel agents sold cruise packages. The Wiggles had visas but no MIQ spaces. The cruise ship had permission from Ashley Bloomfield for 90 staff but no visas.

So why did Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern step in to smooth the path for four Wiggles and their groupies - but not for the 90 staff on board that ship?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
The contrast between Labour's treatment of The Wiggles and the Le Laperouse cruise ship is jaw dropping.
The contrast between Labour's treatment of The Wiggles and the Le Laperouse cruise ship is jaw dropping.

The excuses run out by Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and Immigration Minister Kris Fa'afoi are multiple and misleading.

Nash's go-to is that the ship was a Covid danger to New Zealand. That's obviously nonsense given the crew and ship had been at sea since mid-December, which meant that by the time they were due to arrive last weekend they would've been in effective isolation for six weeks - much longer than the required two-week isolation at the border.

Discover more

New Zealand|politics

'This year': Ardern addresses conversion therapy ban bill

04 Feb 10:53 PM
Opinion

Experts: Too soon to relax border rules for 'low-risk' travellers

05 Feb 05:29 AM

Fa'afoi's go-to is that the ship had broken the rules. It's not clear what rules it had broken. After getting Bloomfield's sign off, it set sail for New Zealand, applying for visas along the way. That's not a breach of any rules. At worst it's a naivety in believing that two separate departments in one government might actually be working in tandem with each other.

The truth appears to be that the ship was turned around because of Labour's ideological objection to the foreign staff onboard. The ship was told to dump 61 of its staff in New Caledonia and instead hire 61 Kiwi staff in order to be allowed in.

This is apparently not as easy as it sounds. It would have given the ship roughly 10 days to recruit and hire the replacement staff before the first cruise, if they could even find staff with the necessary qualifications to work at sea.

Fa'afoi's decision to turn this ship around is brutal and unfair on Kiwi tourism operators.

Kiwi businesses stood to earn $6 million from the tickets they'd sold to other Kiwis who would be taken on these cruises around New Zealand. This is an industry on its knees, trying desperately to find creative ways to make a buck in the absence of international tourists. The $6 million they would've made is small change compared to the $6 billion the industry has lost through closed borders.

The Government's ideological opposition to bringing in foreign workers - from cruise staff to fruit pickers to port workers to sheep shearers - is baffling. Sure, it's more challenging than normal with closed borders, but it's not impossible. Saying no as a default robs local business owners of the ability turn their rotting crops or wool into income.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's an unhappy reminder of Labour's 2017 promise to cut immigration back by 30,000 people annually. It raises suspicions that perhaps the anti-immigration position is closer to Labour's values than they would like to admit.

In any case, we've learned where the priorities lie. Glamour workers like children's entertainers, Netflix actors, America's Cup rich-listers, Cup sailors, cricket teams and rugby teams rate far higher than any normal punters who graft for a living.

What's the value of four Wiggles to this Government? Clearly more than five port workers, a dying Kiwi and $6 million lifeline for the tourism industry.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Campylobacter hospitalisations up 70% as contaminated chicken blamed

New Zealand

End to open-plan classrooms and bootcamp reoffending stats | NZ Herald News Update: July 17, 2025

Watch
New Zealand

Israel bombs Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus

Watch

Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Campylobacter hospitalisations up 70% as contaminated chicken blamed
New Zealand

Campylobacter hospitalisations up 70% as contaminated chicken blamed

Hospitalisation rates for the bacterial infection rose nearly 70% in 17 years.

16 Jul 08:13 PM
End to open-plan classrooms and bootcamp reoffending stats | NZ Herald News Update: July 17, 2025
New Zealand

End to open-plan classrooms and bootcamp reoffending stats | NZ Herald News Update: July 17, 2025

Watch
16 Jul 06:59 PM
Israel bombs Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus
New Zealand

Israel bombs Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus

Watch
16 Jul 06:21 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP