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HDPA: The Govt needs to accept blame for testing failures

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 19 Aug 2020, 8:17PM

HDPA: The Govt needs to accept blame for testing failures

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 19 Aug 2020, 8:17PM

I think it’s fair to say people are angry about what’s going on at the border, so I want to talk about blame.

I don’t blame the government for the fact that Covid is back, and honestly, I don’t think anybody should.

Covid was always going to come back. It’s a virus, you can’t see it, it transmits from even people who have no symptoms. So there is just no way you can be 100 per cent. sure that you can stop the border from leaking 

It is not the government’s fault that Covid is back, and it might not in the future be the government’s fault when it comes back again, so I don’t blame them for that. 

But I do blame for what they have failed to do.

Given what’s been asked of families and individuals and businesses around this country, given the sacrifices asked, the least that we could expect is that the government, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health, the Minister of MIQ, Ashley Bloomfield, and the Health Ministry did everything they could, and everything they knew they should do, to try to minimise the chances of Covid coming back. 

And then to find it if it did come back, and then to stop it spreading without needing to shut an entire city down. And that… they didn’t do, and that is what I blame them for.

They weren’t testing at the border, they weren’t testing people in the community (the man in Otahuhu was rejected from a test), and they don’t have ways to track and trace without locking down.

For days, the responsible minsters have made excuses about this. They’ve blamed border workers, pretending they were refusing tests. They’ve blamed kiwis in the community, pretending they were refusing tests: remember say yes to the test? 

Now they’re blaming the Ministry of Health for not doing what was expected, and that doesn’t wash. Any leader worth their salt knows that when you ask someone to do something, you check that they’re doing it, you don’t assume it’s being done.

Especially when you know that last time you asked them to do something – the day 3 and day 12 tests - they didn’t do it. That makes it even more important that you check.

Especially when 5 million people are relying on you to lead and keep them in a position to keep working and putting food on the table. 

I’m disappointed that no one from Jacinda Ardern down in that government is prepared to front up, say we made a mistake, we won’t do that again.

Unless they accept their portion of the blame, it’s hard to believe anything is going to change. I expect we will have many, many more mistakes like we’re seeing right now.

 

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