Well, the government has gone into damage control on the rapid antigen tests situation today. 

They’re holding a post-cabinet press conference right now. 

In which Grant Robertson is announcing that they’ve managed to buy another 36 million rapid antigen tests, which will arrive in the next two months. 

This, plus the 5.1 million tests we already have in the country means that we will have 41 million. 

Which is a good number, but context is important. 

41 million equals out to 8 for each of us. 

And if we’re all using two a week, like you would expect us to at the height of an outbreak, we’ve got enough for about four weeks. 

So, this is just the start of what’s needed.  

But here’s the irony in what’s being announced today, 20 million of those tests are coming from Kudu Spectrum. 

They were ordered last week and over the weekend. 

You might know the name Kudu Spectrum if you read Ian Taylor's column last Friday. 

He put the government in touch with Kudu Spectrum two weeks ago, and voila. 

What’s more, kudu spectrum, according to Ian Taylor's column, actually approached the government two months ago and offered the government 1 million tests every 10 days and up to 30 million tests delivered in six weeks.  

And apparently, not at a huge cost.  

It would cost the government between 50 and 60 per cent below what they were being charged by others at the time.  

That offer sat there for two months, until two weeks ago. 

If they’d ordered when that offer first came in, we’d have those tests by now. 

There’s no point in complaining about this. In fact, it’s worth celebrating that we are getting these tests and hopefully they get here before omicron takes off and we really need them. 

But the lesson here is that the government should stop freezing out the business community. 

The Labour government has pitted itself against business both privately and publicly, and the Ministry of Health has refused to accept any help from agile and nimble business people. 

Look what happens if you let them help. 

Our problem solved, very quickly.