New Zealanders have done it tough in 2021. Photo / Alex Burton
New Zealanders have done it tough in 2021. Photo / Alex Burton
OPINION:
Today, Parliament sits for the last time before rising for Christmas and MPs will soon head home to their families for the summer.
Anyone who's vaguely interested in producing stuff can breathe a short sigh of relief that at least for the next two months no new laws that harm the economy will be passed while the politicians are away from Wellington.
It's been a long year. New Zealanders have done it tough. Parents have homeschooled kids while working from the kitchen table, and grandparents in rest homes have been isolated from families and unable to cuddle little ones.
The uncertainty of Covid-19 has taken an emotional and financial toll and it feels like we all deserve a break.
For those New Zealanders whose businesses run on people physically walking through the door, like hospitality, retail, or tourism, they won't be getting much of one. The next few months could be the difference between keeping the lights on for another year or switching them off forever.
This year will be remembered as the year of the vaccine and the variants. The Government was slow off the mark ordering vaccines and rolling them out up and down the country.
It's only the individual actions of New Zealanders quickly rolling up their own sleeves that's seen us get to one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world.
The Government was also unprepared to respond to a wider Covid-19 community outbreak.
Hospital ICU capacity and contact tracing and testing systems were no better than the first lockdown. So, when a new Covid variant, Delta, hit our shores and case numbers climbed, the only tool we had was to lock down again.
That our hospital system hasn't been overrun with positive cases is a credit to New Zealanders who've listened to announcements and advice on how to keep their communities and families safe and prevent spread and infection.
Kiwis who run hospitality, retail or tourism businesses won't be getting much of a break over summer. Photo / Alex Burton
We've put our lives on hold and missed breast cancer screenings, surgeries, haircuts, and coffees with loved ones, all because the Government wasn't prepared.
Now Omicron's circling. I hope it will not be worse than Delta, because I think we deserve a little bit of luck at this point.
We deserve a Government that puts New Zealanders first by thinking ahead, and that seeks out and uses new ideas and technology, because Covid-19 hasn't finished with us yet and we need to be prepared for whatever 2022 throws at us.
In their response to Covid, real New Zealanders got forgotten by this Government and are now starting to see the delayed and hidden cost of the pandemic.
We feel the pinch in childcare bills, prices going up at the petrol pump, and by house prices going up faster than people can save. New Zealanders are being squeezed from every direction by the cost of living.
The Government's relentless borrowing, spending and regulating has added to the cost of just about everything.
We've been handed a mountain of debt and rising prices. We have to manage our money, while the Government is outbidding against private developers to buy land, raising the price of that too.
It's also a result of the Reserve Bank printing an extra $60 billion. Money sloshing around the economy is causing prices of goods to increase and making it more expensive to prepare the same family meals and school lunches than it was last year.
The natural reaction to rising prices is for interest rates to also go up, and that means a homeowner's already tight budget will get tighter as mortgage rates increase.
What we need next year is some straight talk, if hardworking New Zealanders are to have the future they deserve. We have the right to a government that is efficient and effective, and which lives within the same constraints as the rest of us.
• Brooke van Velden is the Act Party deputy leader.
