From the house: Camp dismantled, time to move on

Stuart Nash is Napier MP. Photo / NZME

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the London-based independent group that has observed global affairs for almost 80 years, we live in the second most democratic country in the world.  Only Norway ranks higher.

Perhaps if we weren't so tolerant of protest and had taken, for example, France's approach (ranked 22) to dealing with protest, it might have looked different.

Parliament's lawns and surrounding streets, the girls' schools, the train station, bus interchange, churches, courthouses, university sites, shops, cafes, pubs, marae, apartments, libraries, archives and other workplaces might not have been trashed and blockaded by violence and civil disorder in a way that has mightily offended the majority of Kiwis.

Cabinet ministers knew any decision around mandating vaccines would be controversial with some. That noted, the small group of hard-core anti-mandate / anti-vax / anti-Covid health measures / anti-government / pro-Trump protesters who set up camp in the historic beating heart of our capital city have rejected the science of health and wellbeing.

They shun life-saving treatments researched, developed and proven by the world's leading medical experts, in favour of conspiracy theories once reserved for the very fringes of society.

Not only did they use violence, threats, criminal damage and intimidation to force their views on others, they created one of the largest super-spreader sites in the country and made each other sick.  Utter madness in a rather mad time.

Reports of protesters wearing tin foil hats to protect themselves from imaginary radars will, no doubt, lead to a spike in the profitability of those who sell ink to cartoonists, but people are free to make fools of themselves, no harm done.

Daft conspiracy theories aside, the reality of how decisions are made and how our Cabinet operates in these highly uncertain times, is something quite different.

I sat in nearly every Cabinet meeting since the word Covid entered everyday language over two years ago.  In that time, we have had to make some of the hardest decisions any government has had to make in a generation.

The overriding principle and number one objective behind any decision has always been the health and wellbeing of New Zealand communities.

We are acutely aware that many decisions have significant consequences. But we have never ever taken any decision lightly and we ensure that we are fully informed of the consequences - good and otherwise - of every decision made.

We collectively stand by every decision we have taken over the past two years in the knowledge that at the time it was the right decision based on the information we had in front of us, and the expert advice we were able to leverage to guide our deliberations.

As the prime minister and deputy prime minister have stated; we haven't always got it right, but we operate on a 'no regrets' policy. Being wise in hindsight is easy, but isn't helpful in real time when the pressure of urgent decision-making requires us to ensure five million people remain safe and healthy.

Cabinet is extremely representative of the country we serve.  In the 20 people who sit around the large table on the 10th floor of the Beehive, we probably have one of the most diverse decision making groups you will find anywhere in the country.

Contrary to the beliefs of the protesters who want us strung up, we really do have New Zealanders' interest at the heart and soul of everything we do.

The protest camp is dismantled, and we keep moving on. Our priority now is to ensure our health system and our economy continue to be well supported to handle the response to the Omicron outbreak.

Stuart Nash is Napier MP