Auckland’s second Level 3 lockdown this year, which began on Sunday (28 February) at 6am, has dealt another blow to the economy and our industry. The cost of having Auckland at Level 3 and the rest of the country at Level 2 is estimated to be $240 million per week.
Each time the Government yo-yos in and out of levels without some kind of articulated long-term plan for dealing with Covid-19, businesses and their workers get more fatigued. Each lockdown, some businesses don’t survive.
I am worried about what I am hearing from our industry regarding everyone’s health, safety and wellbeing. We need to look out for each other and recognise the extra mile that transport operators are going for their customers – and in many cases to accommodate their fatigued or stressed staff. Do you have the support in place to cope? If you don’t, please reach out to one of your associations for assistance.
Sunday was a nightmare for trucks trying to get into Auckland. As I have repeatedly said, the border to Auckland has been closed enough now that you would think there was a concrete plan in place to make traffic run smoothly. When people were told to “go home” why was it necessary to stop everyone going into Auckland? Not many people would be going there if they didn’t have to. Shouldn’t the focus have been on people trying to get out of Auckland?
Truck drivers were queued for up to six hours. Some had livestock, which raises animal welfare concerns; some had perishable goods and it was a very hot day, which means someone loses some revenue somewhere; and some had already been on the road for hours, which raises serious health and safety concerns. Not being able to deliver on time causes many drivers a lot of anxiety.
The messaging from government was that they had to be patient. We have been patient. But we have also asked that we see measurable improvement each time there is a lockdown because surely, someone is recording “how to do this better next time” and surely, there’s a better action plan. For this Level 3, the waits at the border roadblocks were worse than the previous time a couple of weeks earlier.
Other countries are moving ahead with Covid-19 recovery plans and New Zealand should be past these rapid level changes. There are plenty of examples of managing Covid-19 in 2021 without locking down a major city and the economy. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian contains flare-ups in Sydney without a city-wide lockdown or closing businesses. Her nuanced approach focuses on lockdowns on the most affected suburbs and limits on gatherings, without banning them altogether.
This week in New Zealand, business leaders called on the government to share its planning on a clear path out of Covid-19, given we are going to have to live with it for some years and as a trading nation, we simply cannot remain locked off from the rest of the world. At the moment we can no longer even fly into Australia from New Zealand. The Australians don’t have confidence in New Zealand’s response to this latest outbreak.
There are also calls for the New Zealand Government to be like their contemporaries in Australia, and articulate the plan for the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine. The RTF has asked when truck drivers will be vaccinated, given the risks their jobs involve and their essential role in keeping the economy moving.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield is a wonderful human being and there is no doubt, his advice throughout the New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been outstanding.
However, if we are ever to make it from what seems to be a series of knee-jerk responses, to the planned ongoing “life with Covid-19” recovery, leadership now needs to come from politicians. They are who the people of New Zealand elected to lead the country, not a health department public servant.
We have seen good leadership from Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Can we change his portfolio to Covid-19 Recovery Minister and get on with it like Israel, Taiwan, Australia, and even the United States – population over 330 million – where they now say they will have enough vaccinations for the entire adult population by May.
