Fran O'Sullivan: Please, Jacinda Ardern — just show us the Covid plan

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

Advice released from this week from a five-person advisory group headed by Sir Brian Roche makes painful reading.

The Roche team's review of the February Covid outbreak found a lack of coherence among central agencies, conflicting messaging that could undermine public confidence, and a Government that had failed to learn the lessons of past reviews.

Jacinda Ardern's own Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet — which is central to the co-ordination of a "whole of Government" approach to the Covid-19 pandemic — clearly needed to lift its game.

My question is, why leave Sir Brian as an adviser? Why not put him in charge of the Covid-19 response with a clear prescription to "get stuff done" instead of reporting to ministers who sit on his reports for another couple of months before releasing them?

Businesses are looking for clear signals that underscore that the Government now puts a priority on ensuring their people can safely travel offshore (and back) to drive up exports and financial returns to underpin the economy's success.

That question is echoing in boardrooms and senior executive suites as businesspeople continue to wait for a concrete signal from the Government that their ability to get out of New Zealand will be expedited.

Political leaders from the UK's Boris Johnson, to Australia's Scott Morrison and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong have staked out plans to allow more people across their borders this year as the vaccination tallies in their own countries reach certain thresholds.

But so far Jacinda Ardern and her team have yet to give the level of future detail that has been tabled by the three other leaders.

There is a general acceptance in Singapore, the UK and Australia — certainly at senior political levels — that the Covid-19 virus will become endemic and that vaccinated populations will have to adapt to living with it.

These plans maybe somewhat heroic given the virulence of the Delta variant and the surges taking place in some places, now including in Sydney, where the lockdown is expected to be extended. (I have some sympathy for Ardern's approach here.)

The point is that plans can always be amended.

In May, the Government said it had welcomed CEOs, engineers, financiers, research and development practitioners, digital and IT specialists, agricultural workers and film industry people, to support New Zealand's economic growth while our border is closed. In the 12 previous months some 8000 had come across the border.

Companies to benefit included Wisk, which had tested its revolutionary air taxi technology in Canterbury, and LeoLabs, an American space innovator that unveiled its first "next-generation" space radar in Naseby, Central Otago.

Sir Brian Roche (pictured in 2013) should be given the power to get things done, not just give advice. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Border exceptions had also been created under two programmes: the Innovative Partnerships Programme and the NZTE Enterprise Investor Programme, which were forecast to enable over 200 people, representing high-value international investment interests, to come to New Zealand over the next 12 months to conduct due diligence and transact the sort of deals which the Government expects may play an important role in supporting economic recovery.

This is important to New Zealand's long-term economic health.

But what about the companies already domiciled here?

They also need to get out into the world and do business.

Businesspeople have watched sports people get their vaccinations and preferential treatment to travel offshore.

But as we know, that is not the whole story.

What New Zealand businesspeople want to know is whether the Government will allocate them a preferential place in MIQ facilities when they come back across the border after a period spent hawking their companies' wares internationally; or renewing contacts and cementing relationship with suppliers; checking in on staff who might themselves have been cooped up since the Covid pandemic struck; and checking out potential investments.

It is an important element of doing global business from an archipelago stuck in the bottom of the South Pacific.

They also want to know when and if they will be granted a preferential place in the vaccine queue so they can leave our hermit kingdom with a degree of protection in the first place. What is the story with vaccine passports? — the list goes on.

Businesses have to plan ahead.

But so far there is precious little coming from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to give them comfort.

There was a hint of forward thinking earlier in the week when the Minister for Covid Recovery, Chris Hipkins, hinted that the Government was still considering proposals for private MIQ facilities to be established. A number of companies including Fletcher Construction and City Rail Link ponied up proposals last year.

But they were turned down by officials.

It's been close to 16 months now since New Zealand's border was closed.

New Zealanders can now travel to some Australian states as part of a "bubble" arrangement with that country and to the Cook Islands. Kiwis will get used to operating in a flexible fashion and adapting to going in and out of lockdowns.

Hopefully that frequency will lessen as more of us become vaccinated.

There is a growing acceptance that it won't be all business as usual in the future.

Among a plethora of statements released yesterday was this one from DPMC deputy chief executive Cheryl Barnes: "It's good news the public recognise that New Zealand is entering a new phase and the vaccine will not be a silver bullet when it comes to moving on from the pandemic."

Polls suggested many New Zealanders were happy with tight controls.

But among the percentage that wants change are businesspeople.