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Mike Hosking: Government bowing to travel bubble pressure

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Mon, 22 Mar 2021, 9:55AM

Mike Hosking: Government bowing to travel bubble pressure

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Mon, 22 Mar 2021, 9:55AM

Here's a quick 101 on how to read this government.

Last Wednesday I predicted that the pressure for a bubble reciprocation was so great they were about to fold. I said by the end of the last week, or this week, we would finally get what so many had been calling for, for so long.

At that point I knew nothing, but this lot are easy to predict. By Friday it seemed inevitable. There were enough comments, enough leaks, and too few rejections. The build-up was on.

So, what you get with this government is pushback, BS, spin, and hot air as to why they won't be doing whatever it is they're not doing.

But the pressure gets too great. In this case it was Scott Morrison busting their lie, airports lining up saying they had been ready since October, a region like Central Otago crying out in pain, and a general sense from the rest of us this was stupid. At that point a momentum starts, and the government looks like they're buckling.

Thursday nailed it with the GDP, which was a disaster. So, they need a distraction, and today that distraction will be unveiled.

When it's announced, please don’t forget this. This isn't the thrill it will be painted out to be, we are not lucky to be in this position, this isn't a world first, we are not charting new territory, rewriting history, or any of the other crap the Prime Minster will ladle on for the first 15 minutes of spin from the pulpit of truth.

They didn’t move any mountains, they didn’t shift Australia three inches closer to us, and they didn’t invent planes. It was never that hard, all they have done is get dragged kicking and screaming to a line they should have been at in the middle of last year.

You have never seen a government less interested in making decisions, getting on with it, and being positive.

Stuart Nash last Wednesday warned us all that this is not the silver bullet. Australians come here, but we go there. Almost as though he'd forgotten what two-way travel is. Hipkins got rolled out to tell us if we get stranded, it's on us not the government. Almost as though none of us have ever had a holiday in a foreign land and not rung him for help.

Ardern gave us the big lecture about the risk of outbreaks, closed borders, and locusts in Western Australia.

The subtext of all that is, this simply is a government that hates losing control. They see the end is in sight and they're crapping themselves. Their golden goose, the Covid freak you out show is coming to a conclusion.

So, remember that today, this is nothing more than we should have had last year. It's nothing that Australia didn’t offer up last year. It's nothing the airlines and the airports weren't ready for last year.

The only hold up and hold out has been the control freaks with the keys to freedom. They've looked for every excuse to do nothing, but at least they've folded.

Yes, today will be a great day because it’s a day towards a return to normality and economic growth. But it's at best, about 182 days late.

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