Am I reading this right?

In this mad old world of mixed messages, we seem to have an admission from the government that more specialist workers are going to be let into the country.

Good. We need them. We needed them yesterday, and last week, and the reluctance was driving various industries nuts.

But one step forward, one step back. The same government appears not remotely convinced over private enterprise getting into the quarantine business. Not good. Why not? Many of the scenarios are in fact the same people. In other words, some of the workers are required for large business that have a problem, like labour, and have a solution, like the where with all to do the quarantining and cover the costs.

This, by the way, isn't about the tertiary sector. Which it actually should be, given they too, offer a problem and a solution.

Why is the government not interested in being a hell of a lot more proactive than they are?

CRL, for example, the company building a massive hole through half of Auckland, have machines that cannot be driven by anyone in this country through lack of skill, and for a project massively behind schedule and over budget, you'd think the government would be bending over backwards to address that.

Even Helen Clark, who you would have thought might have an “in” with this lot, said so eloquently last week that we can do so much more. Yes, we can. What happened to "let's do this?"

So migrants in, but no to quarantine. It's sort of like, "haven't we done so well? But hold on, can you go stock up on masks and get a cotton bud up your nose and wear a lanyard?"

So which is it? Are we doing well? Or we going to level two?

Are we getting more workers? Or we letting the government be the sole provider of quarantine? And a massive choke point as a result that serves no ones demands, needs or purpose, or provides any sort of professional, well managed solution.

It's hopelessly piecemeal, it lacks coordination, and there doesn’t seem a plan. It's whack-a-mole with an economy that needs adults in charge. Where are the adults?