Illegal perhaps - but effective

A lot of Aucklanders don't seem to have much trouble getting past official checkpoints. Photo / NZ Herald

There is little dispute, at least outside the ranks of Tai Tokerau Border Control, that iwi-led traffic checkpoints, any checkpoints not run by the police, Defence Force or the Ministry of Health, are illegal. And there is probably little dispute now that TTBC would do a better job of protecting Covid-free regions from infection than those who have supposedly been preventing its spread beyond the Auckland region since the reinstatement of alert levels 3 and 2.

Tai Tokerau Border Control founder Hone Harawira could hardly have been anything but appalled by the rate at which those checkpoints have been letting people through. The rate has picked up a little over recent days, in response to widespread criticism, but the tiny fraction of drivers who have been told to return whence they came suggests that describing the checkpoints as porous would be an understatement.

Officially people have only been allowed out of Auckland if they have been returning to their primary home, accessing medical services, maintaining a shared childcare arrangement or relocating a home or business. That has to be a joke, given the huge majority who have been let through, supported by anecdotal evidence that thousands of Aucklanders have fled the city for an easier life under level 2 restrictions both north and south.

Last week the Tai Tokerau iwi chairs collective Te Kahu o Taonui urged their people to stay in Auckland. That doesn't suggest a great deal of faith in the ability of the criteria to keep Covid-19 out of Northland.

Meanwhile there were stories last week of hives dying in the Waikato because their owners weren't able to get out of Auckland to feed their bees. Certainly maintaining a business, even commuting to work, is not included in the short list of grounds for permission to pass. This seems to be yet another example of the ad hoc nature of rules that have been enforced, and often re-examined in response to public protests, from the outset of this crisis.

Last week, after reportedly taking 10 days to think about it, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor did at least grant blanket exemptions for sheep and beef farmers. Under the previous lockdown farmers were allowed to travel between properties as essential workers, but not this time, until protests could no longer be ignored.

The criteria do allow for exemptions for individuals and businesses in exceptional circumstances, whatever they are. One gained the impression last week that circumstances that might be interpreted by most as exceptional did not fit the bill as far as the Ministry of Health was concerned.

Take the Northland family who were denied an exemption to drive to Wellington for a service, delayed for almost a year following their grandmother's death on September 2. Now that everyone could attend, family members here were wanting to join others in Wellington to bury her ashes on the anniversary of her death. The Ministry of Health turned them down, despite assurances from the family that they would not leave the city's motorways, or stop within the alert level 3 borders.

A family member suggested using seals, or stickers, on car doors that would prove they had not been opened in the course of the journey. That sort of thinking would not go amiss in the ministry, but made no impression.

The family could have flown to Wellington, from Kerikeri or Whangārei, providing they did not leave Auckland airport while they waited for their connecting flights. That would have provided far greater potential for encountering someone infected with Covid-19, which further shows how dumb some of these rules are. Meanwhile tens of thousands of people have crossed the borders in their cars.

All Northland MP Matt King could do was describe the checkpoints as a farce, having spoken to people who had "rocked up to a checkpoint" with no explanation or justification for crossing the border, and had been allowed through. They included a man who said he'd been to Taupō with a mate on a road trip, and was waved through by police.

A family who wanted to bury an 11-year-old child, who died in Hamilton, at Wainui, near Kāeo, had better luck, but only after begging for an exemption, although police in Hamilton had reportedly assured them there should not be a problem. The family had undertaken not to stop in Auckland, and had agreed to being escorted by police if that was required.

A Waikanae man, who drove from the Kapiti Coast to Whangārei, had better luck, according to a letter published by the 'Northern Advocate' last week.

'I did not seek a special dispensation as I did not need one because I was travelling along the State Highway 1 corridor, which happens to be the Auckland motorway. I was not going into the city. There has been no communication to say the Auckland motorway is closed to those who live either north or south of the city and wish to use it to get to their destination, be it Napier or Tauranga,' he wrote.

'You need to carry proof of you home address (a bill) and the address of where you are going to. That is all. If you don't ask they can't say no. People should not be put off by the lack of clear communication regarding the status of SH1.'

He was quite right in that Auckland's motorways have not been closed, but travellers still have to get past the checkpoints on both sides of the city. He didn't explain how he met the criteria.

This all gives credence to the increasingly popular view that health and economic experts should be running our Covid-19 response, and to ACT leader David Seymour's claim that the government "couldn't run a bath." Those who have no desire to see the revival of iwi-led checkpoints should think on that too. There is no reason not to believe Harawira when he says calls for the return of iwi checkpoints have come from all quarters, Māori and Pākehā, people who believe that iwi are more likely to keep Covid-19 out of Northland than the government and its various agencies. One suspects that Aged Care would do a better job than is being done at present, but it is unlikely that it will step in to fill a yawning chasm in our version of the Maginot Line. Come to think of it, that's not a bad comparison.

Whatever one thinks of iwi-led checkpoints, they will be back if the government's efforts to seal Auckland off continue to be seen as ineffective. And those who argue that they are illegal and should not be permitted will have the government to thank for that. Preventing Auckland beekeepers from tending their hives - how on Earth anyone could see exemptions for them presenting an opportunity for Covid-19 to spread beyond Auckland will be a mystery to most - and a family from burying a child in the Far North might seem to some as harsh but necessary decisions made in the interests of us all, but that's not true.

The reality seems to be, thus far at least, that the Auckland checkpoints are little more than symbolic. On the other hand, Tai Tokerau Border Control means business. If we want Covid-19 kept out of Northland, and we surely do, they are the people to keep it out. And, one would hope, to display a little humanity in the process.