ADDENDUM 18 FEB 22: Found this from downtown Wellington businesses:
This video from Hospitality New Zealand is fantastic, effective, and saddening, all at the same time.
Every time you hear a prominent academic epidemiologist – without actual skin in the game – talk about the need to maintain restrictive policies like face masks, social distancing and restrictions on concerts and social events because of the continued deadly risks of COVID, think about the New Zealand businesses who wear the cost of that opinion translated into government policy, and who are facing tremendous financial losses from the effects of the current restrictions.
And then think about:
- New Zealand has a 94.8% double vaccination rate.
- The policy effectiveness of maintaining venue capacity limits on businesses, and event cancellations. These restrictions come from the red zone, currently in operation in spite of omicron manifestly ripping through New Zealand. With COVID doing this with the red zone restrictions, actually how effective has the traffic lighting policy been? The costs of the policy to business are manifest, but I’m not seeing its benefits.
- The extra government-induced cost to New Zealand businesses through a 6% lift in the minimum wage applied to businesses in difficult trading conditions.
- The justice of obliging businesses to pay at least 4 weeks salary (in difficult trading conditions) and forcing them to fire good people in a tight labour market that the government has created, because it wants to force people to vaccinate against their wishes.
And then tell me whether this is a “kind” government from a Prime Minister who prays To be kind, To be compassionate, To be grateful and To do good?
PART OF A BIGGER COVID SOCIAL TREND
The cost to businesses are part of a bigger social trend, kicked off through vaccination not being the political solution for ending COVID restrictions on people’s lives.
We thought that being double vaxxed would allow us to travel overseas, to socialise, to work, to live. And now we’re finding that belief to have been demonstrably untrue.
But its not all Labour: both sides of our current parliament are united behind the government’s vaccine policies. Under Collins, National wanted mandates removed at 90% vaccination, under Luxon, National lacks a basis for when mandates should be removed.
And politicians wonder why protestors feel aggressive towards them, and 30% of New Zealanders are starting to support the protest?
All of New Zealand is in “the red zone”.
Everyone in Wellington is staying away. Here’s Lambton Quay, Wellington’s “Golden Mile”, at 12:15pm today …
Businesses are struggling because economic demand is being strangled by the government locking New Zealand down