The plunging of New Zealand into heightened alert levels has been extremely disappointing.  Not just because I had tickets to the Blues versus the Crusaders. 

My real disappointment is in a growing belief that as a nation we are ill-equipped for a long term battle against the virus. 

There is a level of incompetence and ignorance and plain bloody-mindedness that unless it’s addressed will continue to leave us vulnerable. 

We are used to hearing the complaint that our government has been incompetent.  I have levelled such complaints at them. But my fear is that the incompetence is even wider than that.  With our second wave of partial lockdowns, it was painfully obvious that the general population is just as bad, if not worse.  

When the latest cluster was discovered, the government decided upon a hard and fast lockdown for the Auckland region. Primary to that was that Aucklanders were to go home and stay local to prevent the virus spreading to other regions. 

Cue a mass migration to secondary homes in other regions. Tens of thousands of Aucklanders left Auckland in direct violation of the health edict and the government’s regulation. 

What part of stay at home, don’t leave Auckland, did these people not understand? I’m sorry but it’s unforgivable in my eyes.  It didn’t concern me so much in the first lockdown as the whole country was affected and infected.  But this was a health measure to keep the virus contained in the Auckland region, ignored by so many of the Auckland population.

It was part of the complacency that made new outbreaks inevitable.  In July a survey of 800 New Zealanders showed half with symptoms chose not to get tested. In August a quarter of those asked by their GP to take the test refused. Residents in quarantine were refusing to get the test. This is not governmental incompetence because their only answer to this sort of behaviour is to impose a police state. 

Last week, testing stations were overwhelmed with symptomless citizens who hadn’t phoned either Healthline or their GP for a referral.  Workers in quarantine facilities chose not to take matters into their own hands to get regularly tested.  Wouldn’t you.  To keep your family safe from anything you may bring home. 

There is a responsibility of citizens to figure out how things work. Not being told how to wipe their own bums by the government. 

It was interesting a month ago when the PM outlined the future of alerts in the event of Covid outbreaks. She mentioned that partial lockdowns could be as geographically small as an apartment block, a street, a suburb, a school or a workplace.  Allowing everyone else to keep working and keep the domestic economy rolling. But that would be dependent on compliance and personal responsibility.

The experience from the selfishness and irresponsibility of so many Aucklanders shows that this is unlikely to fly.  We have to learn to live with this virus.  We’ve been fighting it for more than 150 days and yet so many haven’t got a clue. Auckland had the chance to show us they could do this.  They couldn’t.