Mike Hosking: Why we deserved a better Covid 19 coronavirus response

COMMENT:

The National Party's border policy smacks of the thinking of a party with recent experience in government.

Essentially, we all got there in the end, didn't we? We need a border force. Labour want a border force, now that they've worked out their Dad's Army approach has failed spectacularly. New Zealand First always, apparently, wanted a border force. Funny we only found out about it this week, as they develop their election strategy of claiming everything that was ever good, and running from everything that wasn't.

National would get you tested before you enter the plane, makes sense. Plenty of others already do that. It would be run by a single agency, not the mad mix of all and sundry the current government seems to have chosen.

But it represents a simple truth when it comes to facing up to the mess we have. There aren't actually any magic bullets. Yes, a border force is the answer, so essentially everyone comes up with the same policy.

But the key, and this is why this past week has been such a disaster for the Government, is how you enact ideas, and how you deliver policy. The idea and the concept are but one part of the puzzle. Making it actually work is the other and it clearly requires a skill, dexterity, dedication, and work ethic Labour doesn't possess.

If Labour lose the election because of this, and only the true apparatchik would scoff now at such a suggestion, this will be the week where the rot really sets in. What was supposed to be 14 days of another lockdown for a chunk of the country and an annoying inconvenience for the rest, actually turned into a full-blown scandal.

Jacinda Ardern in full spin may well have been able to manage the disappointment of a level three due to this "tricky virus".

But when it became clear that the border leaks, the guards were asleep, the social distancing was a joke, and the testing wasn't being done despite all the reassurances, it became frighteningly clear that the Government had learned nothing from the first lockdown, were sensationally lazy in failing to check what they wanted was actually unfolding, and yet again relied on Labour's favourite excuse, that's what the officials told them.

If the officials told Ardern the sky was purple, every Tuesday she'd argue black and blue that it was, until it became obvious it wasn't, and then blame someone else for not looking up to check.

Business has lost faith, we have lost faith. The shots on those beaches told you that last weekend. The conversation for the first time has turned openly and frequently to elimination being suspect, if not wrong and impossible.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, the court ruled and told us that the first nine days of the original lockdown were unlawful.

Yes, a royal commission is required, yes heads should have rolled, and yes, my god yes, we deserved a hell of a lot better.