It
is unforgivable what New Zealanders are doing to New Zealanders now.
The
ill-conceived, cumbersome, and intransigent MIQ Lottery System is leaving
thousands of New Zealanders overseas unable to return home, and confronted by
the debacle of a totally inadequate quota system.
We
have, effectively and, in the government’s case, inefficiently, abandoned these
people.
The
Government will point to what in their view is a fact—that we are living in an
unprecedented time. We’re not. We have faced pandemics before: Spanish Flu in
1918, SARS from 2002 to 2004, Avian Flu between 2013 and 2017 and ongoing
cholera. In none of these cases, did the then governments close our borders
stranding our people on the other side of them.
As
a further rationale for their actions, or inactions, the Government tells us
that the lack of MIQ facilities is a direct consequence of our inability to
staff them. Their hands are tied.
Again, not the full story. It’s been almost two years since covid reached our
shores and almost from the outset, there were calls for the Government to build
a dedicated MIQ facility staffed by dedicated staff in a relatively compact, safe,
and secure environment. Instead, we still have a hodgepodge of facilities which
amount to little more than cattle pens, with staff spread thin throughout the
country and struggling to cope.
The
system has failed those people overseas. Yet the Government’s sticking to it,
trying to explain and rationalise it and showing a grim and cruel determination
to keep it going.
Regardless.
What
it (the Government) is not doing is changing it, let alone apologising for it.
Then
there is the case of Winston and Rae Wallace. Stuff reported their plight earlier
this week.
Mr
& Mrs Wallace are stranded in Australia. They went there in mid-April, when
travel was allowed, to help their daughter, who they say was desperate for
support in these difficult times.
They
could not return before trans-Tasman travel closed in July but hoped to return
on October 29.
Their
flights were then cancelled, leaving them stranded and unable to get space
in a managed isolation and MIQ facility.
And
now comes the point. Under the law, a person is entitled to the first 26 weeks
of their normal rate of superannuation while overseas, provided they return to
New Zealand within 30 weeks.
The
Wallaces have been told their payments will be suspended on October 22 and, if
they cannot return by November 11, they may have to repay six months’ worth of
their pensions – estimated to be between $13,000 and $14,000.
In
other words, they have the potential to be penalised severly for the failures
of this government and MIQ.
I
have a friend in a similar situation, though he is not yet overseas, but would
like to do so for compassionate reasons.
When he wrote to the Ministry of Social Welfare seeking clarification on the
pension situation, he received a reply which stated in part:
“I
can advise that people who leave New Zealand after lockdown started on 26 March
2020 would not meet the criterion of being an unforeseen circumstance. This is
because COVID- 19 and the effects on travel are widely known and accepted;
therefore, it is reasonable to foresee that there could be issues returning to
New Zealand.”
Again, really?
What my friend is being told is the Government
expected us to know back in March 2020 that MIQ would be totally inadequate and
there would be no compassion or flexibility offered.
Many
months ago, the Prime Minister went on television and told us to be kind.
She
didn’t need to.
It
is my belief that, at least until recently, New Zealanders are inherently kind.
It is who we are.
The
only people not being kind, it seems, is the government she leads.
They
are strangers to us.
This
is not who we are.
