PM Jacinda Ardern tells NZ Herald’s deputy political editor Derek Cheng about the freedoms the unvaccinated will miss out on and how NZ will look under the new “traffic light” system. Video / Marty Melville
It's all bureaucratic red tape – a nightmare of authoritarianism that could have you waking up in a cold sweat but we live with the restrictions that government bureaucracy creates for us every day of our lives.
We can't drive a carwithout a licence – something that requires us to study the Road Code, take driving lessons and pass strict practical tests.
We can't buy alcohol or cigarettes without being old enough or sometimes proving our age.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the new traffic light system on Friday. Photo / NZME
Buying something via hire purchase, opening a bank account, applying for a job or social welfare - these all require paperwork, signatures, declarations of honesty.
Even store loyalty cards rely on us giving up our personal information in exchange for some type of reward or benefit.
Information is something we all freely hand over, sometimes without a second thought.
The Government's new traffic light system, announced on Friday, sounds like another round of government-imposed red tape, designed to make our lives more difficult. The irony here is that this red tape may give us back more of our freedoms.
The system includes a requirement that vaccination certificates be used in the red, orange and green settings.
The new settings will not come into force unless all district health boards have at least 90 per cent of their eligible populations double vaccinated, so until then, we're in limbo.
If businesses and organisations choose not to use the certificates, they will essentially have to operate at a level 3-type setting, be contactless, gatherings will have capped numbers and close contact businesses will not be able to operate.
They may also not be eligible for Government financial support packages.
If individuals choose not to produce their certificates, they miss out on all the fun. It's just supermarkets, GP clinics and pharmacies for them.
It's a rather shrewd tactic, in my opinion, putting the onus on the public and business operators to enforce the rules, for their own livelihoods. Something shrewd enough that only a bureaucrat could come up with.
It's like a council bylaw requiring food premises to display their licence to operate. Or doctors and other professionals displaying their degrees on the wall in their offices.
They're saying: "I've done the work, I'm qualified to be here, you can trust me."
The way I see it, that's what this new system is trying to replicate – I've done the hard yards and I'm willing to prove it.
The message to anti-vaxxers and the vaccine-hesitant is clear. If you're a business and you want to operate at full noise, you must enforce the rules. If you're a customer and you want to be served, you must be vaccinated.
