The Herald's Tim McCready looks back at the stories and headlines that shaped the front pages of the NZ Herald this year.
OPINION:
A year ago, people were saying things like "screw you 2020". We didn't think 2021 could possibly be worse. Now, heading into 2022, we're much warier, and the Government will have to think much smarter to avoid a much tougher year ahead.
When Covid first hit our shores, we locked down, doused ourselves in hand sanitiser and kept 2m distances. We really could win by locking down and locking out, helped by enormous reservoirs of cheap borrowing. In hindsight, they were happier, simpler times.
We all sacrificed because the Government asked us to do the right thing. In exchange, the expectation is that the Government will do its part.
We could have hoped it would be constantly thinking ahead and preparing plans B and C for what might come next. It wasn't, and this is where things started to go wrong.
A one-country eradication strategy was never going to be sustainable. So long as Covid was loose somewhere, it was always going to get here. We needed a plan to fight it on home soil when that happened.
The Government had more than 18 months to prepare before the Delta variant arrived. Instead of spending that time preparing the country, it spent the time patting itself on the back for its eradication strategy, at one point even "doing a little dance".
The Government announced the ill-fated bike bridge, restructuring Three Waters and the entire healthcare system. Anything but building up ICU capacity, partnering with the community to roll out vaccines, and working with businesses to operate safely under Covid conditions.
The result was a draconian lockdown for a third of the country, even as other countries opened. There were preventable deaths from a hastily put together home-isolation plan, missed surgeries, cancer screenings, funerals and births. Families are still separated by border restrictions with no end in sight.
Fool me once. This is all new and a little forgiveness goes a long way, but is the Government learning at all? With Omicron it's like we're facing a new more infectious variant for the first time all over again.
We can and must do better. We need a proactive and nimble Government that thinks ahead and partners with people other than the Ministry of Health. We can't afford to continue for years to come being caught between trying to keep Covid-variants out of the country through a hard border and a future we are unprepared for. It's unsustainable.
Adding to the challenge now is that the big buffers of cheap debt and printed money can't paper over the cracks of an overly simple response to Covid this time. That cheap money is showing up as inflation, people feel it with every shop. The Government is running out of options in the face of a new variant so it must be nimbler.
Photo / Supplied
In the spirit of New Year Cheer, here are three suggestions for New Year's resolutions the Government should pick up in 2022:
Set up an Epidemic Response Unit
The Government is hell-bent on restructuring the health system and water infrastructure, but it hasn't touched its Covid response. It needs a new unit that brings together the best people from Government, business, and community sectors. The alternative is more of the same; disorganisation, gaps of knowledge, rushed policy and a lack of foresight. Workforce planning would be a good place to start, how is it possible that health needs ICU nurses but immigration has not prioritised them?
Be ready for new vaccines and treatments
New Zealand ran one of the latest Covid vaccine programs on earth. As new Covid variants emerge, new vaccines and therapeutic treatments will be developed. The Government needs to make sure that procurement, approval, roll out and validation of new variant specific vaccines and treatments, really do put us first in the queue this time. A good start would be some openness about what really went wrong with vaccine procurement last time.
Find a place for all aspects of wellbeing in the response
Covid is very important, but it's not everything. It was once true that "the best economic response is the best health response", but not anymore. If the best health response means that reopening plans are thrown into chaos every time there's a new variant, we will not last. We need to ensure we have the best testing, treatments, vaccines, and operating rules for each business, then be prepared to live in a Covid world.
The response to Covid in 2022 cannot be the same as 2020, or even 2021. But if we get this right, we can come through this year more resilient, more balanced, and ready for the long road back from the debt and inflation that's underpinned our response to date.
• Brooke van Velden is deputy leader of the Act Party
