Mike Hosking: Labour is strangling business out of business

The rules set out for level 2 by Jacinda Ardern are 'hopelessly complex' , writes Hosking.

Comment

The test of good messaging is in determining how many people can answer questions correctly at the end of the message.

If you missed it, listen to the Prime Minister's dissertation on what level 2 looks like, how it's supposed to work, and what the rules are around it are. Then - if I fired off 10 random questions - how many would you get right?

And given the answer is not many, the message is too confusing, and the rules are hopelessly complex.

It's classic Wellington, classic school ma'am, and destined to fail miserably. Not that it's a bad thing. What it simply means is, despite their determination to make this whole mess as descriptive as possible, we will simply get on with it.

I feel bad for hospitality. The rules they will have to follow - single servers, spacing, and all the other S's Ardern tried to turn into some sort of cute alliteration fest - is going to be a problem so large for some that they won't be able to turn a profit. And so will add to the unemployment pile. Same trouble for malls. Can you really imagine taking names at doors for contact tracing?

What business wanted most, and they said it on the show yesterday, was to be trusted. Trust them to do the right thing, to have a brain, to be sensible, to look after ourselves. And that is the New Zealand I love.

Sadly, it's not the New Zealand that's being allowed to prosper right now. This lot in Wellington are control freaks that could teach established control freaks how to tighten things up. They are literally strangling business out of business.

At one point, the Prime Minister in her seemingly neverending list of rules said, "finally, actually not finally". It was almost as though she had wanted it to be "finally" given she was even boring herself.

A lot of comment has been made on how much traffic is back under level 3, even though level 3 isn't much different to level 4. You know why that is? People are over it, people are sick of the rules and sub-rules, the rules they didn't know about, the rules that make no sense, the spectacular inconsistencies, and the overt unfairness. So they've simply set their own agenda.

This thing from Wellington is being done by committee. It looks and sounds like it. It's pocket protectors, white boards and wonks. It's the lecture or class you dreaded at school from your most earnest, out of touch and tedious teacher.

Lockdown was simple. Stay home, and don't be an idiot.

What this should be, and should have been weeks ago, is "given how well it's all worked out, don't blow it. Go make a living, work hard, dream big, and let's put this country back together again. We trust you."

Instead, it was nanny with an A4 pad of delusion of which little, if any, will be followed. The goodwill they had is going, if not gone. That's because they don't know how to be normal.