Pick 2020: Heather Du Plessis-Allan’s The Front Bench – Why is the rest of New Zealand still at Tier 2?

See: Newstalk ZB’s Heather Du Plessis-Allan, political commentator Trish Sherson, former Labor MP Chris Carter and ZB political editor Barry Soper discuss the Prime Minister’s alert level announcement.

COMMENT FROM HEATHER DU PLESSIS-ALLAN:

Why is the government choosing to keep the rest of the country out of Auckland still at Alert Level 2 for another week?

Today’s decision to do this doesn’t make any sense to me.

There is no community broadcast in the rest of the country, the regions are clamoring for undue restrictions on their businesses, and if that party of 90 people throwing up on the balcony in Dunedin on the weekend is something to go by, people don’t seem to be following the rules very closely.

You know what, everything suggests to me that the government is moving forward with its stubborn and overly conservative response here. And nothing illustrates that better than the current facial mask decision.

What has changed in the last three weeks that has caused the government to remove the requirement for social distancing on airplanes?

August 25, three weeks ago, Michael Baker said that if everyone wore masks, airlines wouldn’t have to vacate the middle seat.

The government said no, then suddenly yes today. Why?

Nothing has changed. The only thing that has happened is that Air New Zealand has suffered a financial hit, Jet Star stopped flying, passengers have had to pay for flights and regions have been affected by the lack of arriving travelers.

Both Nelson and Queenstown mayors have spoken out today about how tough these collective restrictions are on their regions at this time.

Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult says the restrictions are “killing” Queenstown.

This mask flip flop is the perfect illustration of the conversational approach that this government continues to take.

Even when experts say it’s okay to take a small risk, they refuse.

And it costs people, regions and companies because of their stubbornness in things like this.

So let me ask you this question again.

Do you think the rest of the country should be at alert level 1 right now?

When transmission only happens in Auckland at really low levels and is limited to one group.

Or do you trust the government when it says you just have to be safe and bear the cost to everyone else?