Ananish Chaudhuri at NZ Herald writes:

It has recently been reported that Air NZ management is planning to lay off nearly 400 pilots and around 1500 cabin crew. I think Foran and others in Air NZ’s senior leadership team are making a mistake. …

Recessions pass. In fact, large scale lay-offs often make recessions worse. Workers who are laid off are pessimistic about their chances of getting work in the future. Even the ones who have work are afraid of losing their jobs and therefore cut down on spending. This exacerbates recessions.

This argument would hold water if this was a normal recession where some external event unrelated to travel caused a recession such as a financial crisis.

But this recession is caused by a pandemic which will mean minimal travel for 18 months or longer.

Quite simply there are no flights, so of course Air NZ has to lay off staff. I guarantee you there will be more to come. They have no choice. You can’t pay pilots an cabin crew to staff non existent flights.

Bob Jones writes:

Have an election today and the government would bolt in, primarily because of Jacinda’s star power induced by the media’s obsession with her. But the election is six months away and then, I’m picking a change of government.

First, to clear the air, I like Jacinda and don’t wish the government’s demise. Long before there was any thought of her rise I admired her and Julie Anne Genter more than any other MPs. That’s because when I occasionally tuned into Parliament and they were speaking they did so enthusiastically, arguing for initiatives they thought beneficial, without ever resorting to the customary and tiresome abuse of the other side. This I found refreshing.

Second, perhaps surprising imagery-wise, I’ve voted National once in the last 40 years, that in 2014 as I was alarmed at the prospect of a Cunliffe Prime Ministership so don’t assume I’m writing this as a closet Nat.

So apart from 2014, Sir Bob last voted National in 1978!

HOW HAVE WE DONE?

Contrary to some of our Jacinda-obsessed non-analytical media, not very well.

We’ve wrongly followed overseas practices to the letter, indeed mostly to a more extreme degree. The advantages we started with meant we need not have gone that far and the economic cost will be enormous.

When the lockdown ends our major employer category, namely small and medium sized businesses will not simply start up again. Instead, a high percentage will have gone broke.

A Dominion-Post investigation revealed 400 Wellington restaurants are pulling stumps for example. They’re broke.

But economically it’s far wider than cafes. Everyone other than company receivers will suffer. The tourist related businesses; hotels, flights, travel agents, motels etc. etc. employing circa 300,000 people are gone. That’s not the governments fault but all the more reason for some common-sense with the balance of our economy which was sadly lacking.

Some economists are talking 10% unemployment. I hope that’s true but will be very happy if it’s only 25% although I expect for a time, an even higher figure.

Sadly many businesses will close and never reopen. Very sad for the staff but even sadder for the owners who may lost their life savings which they have invested in their businesses.

LOCATION – You must lockdown in your home but not a holiday home. Why on earth does it make any difference? It certainly does for the occupants as a change helps tolerating it. Instead the police inspected cars over Easter, turning back those with suitcases.

EXERCISE

1) You may go for a walk but only in the vicinity of your home. What bloody difference does it make if you walk for an hour round and round the neighbourhood or a more interesting one of changing scenery. So too with cycling.

2) You cannot go swimming in beaches. Why? Because you’ll tie up police resources if you drown. Someone drowns roughly once a week in New Zealand, mostly in summer and in boating mishaps or rivers. So dozens of policemen have roamed our beaches to watch out for sinners. Madness! In the hugely improbably event someone drowned in Mission or Oriental Bay it’s an ambulance issue.

This is a fair point that the Police have used up far far more Police time on stopping people swimming than they would use up if people actually could swim.

PURCHASING – You may buy food but only in supermarkets. The result; all day queues. Obviously the more food outlets the better but the half-witted government had butchers, corner grocers and the like closed. In the process they’ve destroyed numerous small businesses.

DRIVING – You must only drive for an approved purpose, i.e. food or pharmacy purchasing. What nonsense! Thus slowly going mad, confined in a small house families, were denied the relief, while still maintaining their bubbles of an outing in a car.

FISHING – Banned. Why? We’re not told. So a bloke surf-casting alone on a beach, apart from the mental relief of escape, and the possibility of fresh food, constituted a massive health threat to the community. It should have been encouraged.

GOLF –  Ban the groundsmen working despite them sitting alone on tractors in a massive land expanse. They doing that was ludicrously deemed a health threat to everyone. Golf courses already struggling now faced ruination.

The Government should have been more flexible with the focus on social distancing, rather than preventing people driving or fishing etc.

The IMF say the world is heading into a 1930s depression. I believe them.

By the time the elections arises we’ll be wallowing in despair with numerous small and medium sized businesses (our major employers) destroyed and unemployment levels that don’t bear thinking about.

Borrowing billions to dish out is no substitute for people working.

I’m not going to predict any election outcomes. I think it is hard enough to know what will happen next week let alone in five months.

Stuff reports:

The Māori Party has announced John Tamihere and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer as its new co-leaders as it seeks to improve its support after failing to make it into Parliament in 2017.

The pair are both set to stand in the next election and Stuff understands their leadership bid was uncontested.

Tamihere was confirmed as the Māori Party’s candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau at an event on March 7, challenging Labour MP Peeni Henare who currently holds the seat.

Ngarewa-Packer will stand in Te Tai Hauāuru, which is held by Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe. Under the party’s constitution it has to choose two co-leaders – one woman and one man.

Tamihere is well known. Ngarewa-Packer is the CEO of Taranaki-based Ngati Ruanui. She has an MBA and has studied at Stanford. She is a former Deputy Mayor of South Taranaki and has been working since she was a solo mum at age 19. She started as a hospital cleaner and now has an MBA and is a very successful CEO – a real role model.

The Herald reports:

There are 20 new coronavirus cases in New Zealand as Jacinda Ardern reveals all Government ministers and public sector chief executives will take a 20 per cent pay cut for six months.

Ardern said the pay cut was about leadership and also reflected what was happening in the private sector.

Good to see this leadership from the Government. Private sector incomes are plummeting, so this is a good move – even if in response to calls from ACT and the Taxpayers Union.

It is interesting however that it only applies to Ministers. Couldn’t the PM get her caucus to agree to it?

Next up should be all MPs, Mayors and Council CEOs and their senior managers.

An insightful analysis by Castalia who have studied how the NZ response to Covid-19 compares to the five main Australian states.

Their summary is:

From this comparative analysis, Australian policies appear, on the limited evidence, to be effective with fewer negative impacts on wider wellbeing. Australia also appears better placed to rebound when restrictions are lifted. New Zealand’s policies have contained people to household “bubbles” with consequential impacts on activity such as work and education. New Zealand may have more difficulty rebounding.

The States and New Zealand are good comparators because all have similar urbanisation rates (between 86 and 90 percent), demographic profiles, cultures and legal systems.

I was supportive of us going to Level 4, but it is too blunt a tool to remain in use for more than four weeks. Going forward we should have a more flexible response, as Australia has.

They key difference:

In summary, while borders are generally closed:

Australia’s restrictions are activity based. Activities are limited where people can randomly encounter one another, but most workplaces are able to continue operating subject to compliance with social distancing rules

New Zealand’s restrictions confine each household to their own “bubble”. Leaving home is only permitted for acquiring essential items and for exercise. A limited set of essential services and businesses may continue.

So Australia hasn’t closed all the education facilities, just required them to operate with distancing rules. Same for businesses – they can operate if they have distancing rules. They also have allowed very small weddings (max 5 people) and funerals (max 10). Also Australia allows you to leave your home provided you do social distancing.

They compare the known infection rates:

And even more interesting is the cases since the respective lockdowns:

So as I said I think the Level 4 lockdown was a good call for the four week period. But this analysis shows that going forward we don’t need to be as restrictive, and can still achieve equally good health outcomes.

Stuff reports:

Controversial television presenter Paul Henry says he has charged a fraction of what he usually would to bring Kiwis a programme about what life will be like after the coronavirus lockdown.

Three announced today that Henry would host a “hard hitting” show, remotely interviewing people about where the country is as it comes out of alert level 4 and what lies ahead.

Rebuilding Paradise with Paul Henry will cover business, global impacts on New Zealand, moral conundrums, health, changes to human behaviour and what the country’s future may look like.

Finally an upside to the pandemic – Paul Henry is back on TV!

Stuff reports:

Wellington’s embattled mayor has suffered a rare and public defeat at the hands of his own council after trying to deliver free city parking till winter.

The winners will be community groups such as Sexual Abuse Prevention Network (SAPN), who now look set to keep council funding that would have been cut to pay for the parking.

As I will show you, this is a red herring.

Wellington City Council has been looking at how to find $1.5 million to fund free parking in the city till June 30.  

Mayor Andy Foster’s preference at Thursday’s virtual and extraordinary meeting to discuss its pandemic response plan was to fund the free parking, which – some councillors argued –  could be better spent.

Now I’m not in favour of the free parking. Unless there is strong empirical evidence it increases retail spending (in which case the free parking should be funded by a targeted rate on CBD retailers), we should recognise it costs money to provide parking, and people should pay for it.

So I’m not in favour of what the Mayor proposed. But what is telling is that the Councillors are not saying “Hey maybe if we don’t fund this, we don’t have to whack rates up by 5% in a recession”. Instead they’re saying “Let’s spend it over here instead”.

This is why they have no credibility when they claim there is just simply no way they can avoid a huge rates increase. Of course they can. It just involves some fiscal discipline, which they seem incapable of.

Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons, who was among those opposing Foster, said the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network faced the possibility of shutting without the funding. 

This got me curious so I looked up how much funding SAPN got from WCC last year. It was $22,500. That is around 4% of their total revenue so hardly huge. And I suspect that the Mayor was in no way planning to propose cutting their $22,500 of funding because frankly it is peanuts compared to the $1,5 million cost. I’m certainly not advocating their funding be cut, I’m just saying that this is a red herring.

SAPN chief executive Fiona McNamara said the organisation, which focused on prevention of and education around sexual abuse, was facing a $400,000 loss this year, largely due to the Covid-19 shutdown. While it was not clear how much of the $1.5m it would get, it would help keep the organisation afloat, she said.

So actually what they are talking about is a massive increase in the funding of SAPN, rather than a cut.

Now SAPN, like the other 27,000 charities in NZ no doubt does good work. But it is not the job of WCC to bail out charities. Every charity in NZ is probably hurting right now. Will WCC bail out the Red Cross? Salvation Army? IHC?

The central Government has rightfully put in place a wage subsidy scheme that will help charities in the short term. This is an appropriate thing for central Government to do.

What the Council however should be doing is recognising that many families and businesses of Wellington have had a massive income drop and can’t afford to have a big increase in their rates bill. If the Council decides not to do free parking, then it should not spend the money elsewhere, but instead not hike up rates so much.

Updated from three days ago

Australia is looking best with the lowest numbers of cases per capita equal lowest death rate and the most tests. NZ 2nd best.

The country that has done the least testing is the UK.

The most infected country appears to be Ireland, but of course how much testing you do can affect that and they are doing the most.

The highest death rate is the UK with Ireland and the US around half their rate.

Treasury has done some high level forecasts for what may happen to key indicators under different scenarios. They scenarios broadly are:

1. Level 4 for 1 month and Level 3 for 1 month
2. Level 4 for 3 months
3. Level 4 for 6 months and Level 3 for 6 months
4. Level 4 for 3 months and Level 3 for 3 months
5. Same as Scenario 1 but lower global growth

They key indicators are:

They also say that the Government spending an extra $20 billion in Scenario 1 means unemployment would only peak at 8.5% and drop back to 5.5% in 2021. That seems heroically optimistic.

AAP reports:

The heartening response to a crisis in journalism has been demonstrated by Press Patron, a homegrown crowdfunding service.

In January, subscribers to the platform collectively distributed $2500 a day to their choice of emerging and non-traditional media outlets.

Over the past four weeks, contributions have jumped ten-fold to $25,000 a day.

“It’s been huge,” Alex Clark, Press Patron’s founder told AAP.

“In the past six months we’ve doubled our all-time revenue and we’re on track to double again in the next three months.

“Media have been honest about their advertising crash … and readers have responded by saying ‘we value you, and we’re going to fund you’.”

Press Patron’s growth could see more than $10,000,000 distributed to Kiwi media outlets this year, and has lured establishment players into the next-gen scheme.

New Zealand’s oldest daily newspaper, the Otago Daily Times of Dunedin, has joined up in the hope of adding a new revenue source. Others are expected to follow.

This is excellent to see and it shows the media model is changing. Yes it is challenging times for media, but we constantly see new models emerging.

Newsroom and The Spinoff have both shown you can start a new media business and grow and thrive. They have a totally different funding model to previous media.

The Government not jump in and start funding private media companies. That makes them dependent on the Government of the day, and would be awful for democracy.

For those saying the end is nigh and the media can’t survive in this Internet age, well they said that about the music industry. And music industry revenues did drop from from 2001 to 2014, but then it started to grow again as digital models thrives (especially Apple Music) and has grown from US14.3 billion to US$19.1 billion.

Same with movies. Once it was all about pirates will drive us bankrupt. Today box office revenues are US $43 billion, with constant annual growth.

And look at what Netflix and other services have done to television.

Yes it is tough and challenging times for media. But people will pay for quality content, as the story above shows.

The Herald reports:

British performer Tim Brooke-Taylor, a member of comedy trio The Goodies, has died after contracting the new coronavirus. He was 79.

Brooke-Taylor’s agent says he died Sunday morning “from Covid-19.”

Brooke-Taylor was part of Cambridge University’s Footlights revue, the breeding ground of several generations of British comic talent. He broke into radio and television comedy in the 1960s alongside future Monty Python members John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

I grew up on The Goodies. I watched the TV show and even got their annuals. Great goofie humour and Tim Brooke-Taylor was my favourite.

A sad loss.

Stuff reports:

Wellington City Council wants to freeze $8 million for events spending over the next 12 months despite predictions public gatherings will continue to be banned for over a year.

The council is proposing to set aside the money in a city recovery fund aimed at marketing campaigns and delivering a “strong programme of early events” once the nationwide coronavirus lockdown ends.

Any spending on events in the next six to 12 months is nuts. Councils need to understand the world has changed.

City councillor Tamatha Paul said the $8m fund needed to be adjusted to provide targeted support for industries and businesses affected by the lockdown measures.

“We know there aren’t going to be any events in Wellington for a while, so there’s no point setting money aside for events that might not even end up happening.”

Paul planned to move an amendment at Thursday’s council meeting to see the money redirected towards environmental and technological advancement, emissions and waste reduction, and Kaupapa Māori innovation.

She believed she had the necessary support among councillors.

Instead of not spending the money and stopping rates going up, the Councillors want to just spend it elsewhere on pet projects. They just don’t get it.

Business and household incomes are falling. The Council needs to restrict spending to essential services, not pet projects.

If you work out $8 million of spending in one area is daft, then can the spending – don’t find other ways to spend it.

If Councillors can’t do it, then voters need to punish them for it at the election when they will still be struggling, yet facing higher and higher rates bills.

The Herald reports:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has thanked a New Zealand nurse – Jenny from Invercargill – for saving his life.

He listed a number of the frontline staff who cared for him during his week-long stay at St Thomas’ Hospital in London but singled out two nurses who stood by his bedside for 48 hours “when things could have gone either way”.

The Prime Minister said Jenny from Invercargill “to be exact”, and Luis from Portugal, were the reason that “in the end, my body did start to get enough oxygen”.

“Because for every second of the night they were watching and they were thinking and they were caring and making the interventions I needed,” he said.

“So that is how I also know that across this country, 24 hours a day, for every second of every hour, there are hundreds of thousands of NHS staff who are acting with the same care and thought and precision as Jenny and Luis.”

Well done Jenny from Invercargill.

I say once this is over we make Jenny our lead negotiator for a free trade deal with the UK, because how can Boris say no to her after this 🙂

More seriously this does show how London especially is a global city with people from all around the world working there. The UK can now set its own immigration policy again. Hopefully they will continue to value Kiwis and others with valuable skills.

The Herald reports:

US President Donald Trump has been mocked on social media for referring to the coronavirus as a “germ that has gotten so brilliant” it’s even outsmarting antibiotics.

As most of us know, antibiotics are useless against any virus, let alone one as deadly and complex as the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 18,700 Americans and infected at least half a million others.

But that didn’t stop Trump from raving about the coronavirus’ resistance to drugs used to treat bacterial, not viral, infections.

I recommend people actually watch the video to see for themselves how bad it is.

How old were you when you learnt that antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, not viral inflections? I think I was nine or ten.

Its possible Trump didn’t realise Covid-19 is a virus despite it being commonly called coronavirus which is a bit of a takeaway!

A guest post by David Garrett:

Over the past few weeks – and particularly since “lockdown” began only two short weeks ago – we have seen police powers growing, seemingly by the day. It began  with what former Commissioner Bush called a “three step process”: firstly educate, then warn, then if necessary arrest. Bush seemed to think the veiled threat of “a trip to our place” for those who didn’t satisfy his men  somewhat amusing. It was made  clear that what was envisaged for persons taken on that “trip”  was a period of detention and then – if the person concerned was a good boy and agreed to whatever was asked of them  – release without charge. So far so only slightly sinister, although it would be fair to say that most people didn’t really see it that way. It was only libertarians like me who had some disquiet from the beginning.

The next step was a exponential increase in police powers granted by the Medical Officer of Health, the apparently very capable Dr Ashley Bloomfield, by way of a Notice issued  under s.70 of the Health Act 1956. It is no exaggeration to say that the powers granted to the police under that Notice far exceed anything seen in this country since the waterfront strike/lockout in 1951; they are arguably greater than 70 years ago.

If any reader thinks that statement is hyperbole, I strongly urge them to read the said section 70  – just Google “New Zealand Legislation” and insert “Health Act” into the box. A Notice under s.70 allows persons acting under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health to: order that animals be destroyed; require persons to submit themselves for medical examination or testing at a prescribed place and time; require persons and places  to be disinfected; require persons to remain where they are until declared free of disease; and most draconian of all – and that is not a word I use lightly –  do anything listed under s.70 (2), which bears quoting in full:

s.70 (2) The medical officer of health, and any environmental health officer or other person authorised in that behalf by the medical officer of health, may at any time, with or without assistants, enter on any lands, buildings, or ships, and inspect the same and all things thereon or therein; and may do, with respect to any persons, places, lands, buildings, ships, animals, or things, whatever in the opinion of the medical officer of health is necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying out the foregoing provisions of this section

In other words, the police – or any other “authorized” person – may enter into your home and do “whatever in the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health is necessary or expedient…”. These are extraordinary powers, seemingly without obvious limit. They are being interpreted to mean inter alia¸ that the  police may enter people’s homes, demand to know who is there and why, and if the answers are not satisfactory to the police or other agent of the state exercising the power, to arrest that person.

While the right to petition the  courts on a writ of habeas corpus has not been suspended  – so far as I know – the courts themselves are not currently sitting regularly, and frankly I do not know quite how I would go about making an application to the High Court – especially over Easter –  if any client of mine was arrested and detained without charge for an indefinite period. But, as the infomercials say wait, there’s more.

Today Stuff reveals that the police have co-opted Aviation Security Officers – those guys whose  job it is to watch the screen as your carry on is scanned – to “assist” the police in the exercise of their powers. Think about that for a moment – a person with no training to speak of, and certainly no training regarding , or even  awareness of,  citizens’ rights under the law – except at the airport –  is now potentially empowered to enter your home and demand to know why your brother or your cousin or your girlfriend  is there, and if they don’t like the answer, have you arrested by a policeman who is just a cell phone call away.

The hapless and incompetent Phil Twyford blandly assures us that such officers “will not be deployed in situations that may put their safety at risk”. How reassuring. Frankly the safety of such “officers” is rather less important to me than the rights of citizens to go about their lawful business without some person  whose usual job is watching a scanner at  the airport demanding to know who is in a house and why, with the knowledge that that entirely untrained person is able to call on all the forces of the state if he or she doesn’t like the answer – or maybe just the “attitude” of the person being questioned.

 What are the limits of the powers now granted to these former scanner operators? Who knows? For me, these people seem to be  uncomfortably close to “Massey’s Cossacks” – farmers who were made “special constables” in 1913, and as with their modern day counterparts at the airport,  given the power to “assist the police” or in actuality, back in 1913, to   beat up strikers on the wharves.

Back in 1951, the government of the day declared that the country was “at war” with militant waterside workers who were demanding higher pay. No disease was involved, or at least no physical one.  Emergency regulations imposed rigid censorship, gave police sweeping powers of arrest, and made it an offence to assist strikers – even giving food to their children was illegal. However, as  Rodney Hide has noted, even in 1951 the entire country was not under home detention, and nor were people prevented from going to their family bach.

What is next? Police Minister Nash has announced that “the defence force remains on standby” which means that martial law must be at least within the contemplation of some. Do we really want a cabinet containing Nash and Andrew Little to decide whether it’s time to call in the army “to assist”?

All of the above surely begs the question “Is the cure worse than the disease?” I would argue that that may well be the case. Today two more deaths were announced, one of them a 94 year old man, and another person in their 80’s. All four deceased were in their 70’s or older. All four  certainly died with, if not of, Covid-19. I mean no disrespect to the families of the deceased, nor  do I wish to sound uncaring,  when  noting that at 94, every day one wakes up in the morning  is surely  a bonus. The common cold, let alone “ordinary” flu leading to pneumonia  must carry off hundreds if not thousands of elderly people every winter.

I should make clear that I am not in the camp of those who see  this disease as “just the flu” in order to minimise it,  although it is worth noting that  the writer of the seminal work on the 1918 pandemic  made clear that it also was  “just the flu” and not a new and terrible form of TB, or worse, a return of the black plague. This is clearly a very nasty illness no-one – particularly the elderly  or the otherwise vulnerable – would wish to catch.  

I have a son who suffers from seasonal asthma who has been hospitalized on a number of occasions – once three times in one winter – for complications from that distressing condition. He is very much at risk if he was to contract  Covid-19, and I am doing all I can to protect him from catching it.

But let us recall that community transmission has remained at about 2% while most cases continue to be closely linked to overseas travel. In other words the chances of anyone getting it from a trip to the supermarket – with or without the largely useless facemask – are tiny at best.  At long last, full quarantine measures are being imposed at the border; in my view they should have been put in place two weeks ago at least, given the clear pattern of transmission from the very beginning.

But surely we must retain some perspective. For the fourth day running more people have recovered than there have been new cases. There have been a total of four deaths, all of elderly people who, it must be said, could have been carried off by anything, or simply died in their sleep. Given everything we now    know, is this a time for extending  the state’s draconian powers to scanner monitors from the airport? Not in my book it isn’t. History teaches that when emergency powers “for the duration” are put in place, the duration has a way of extending way beyond when most people would think them necessary.

National in 2008 made a bold promise. If elected, they would roll out fibre connections to most households in New Zealand within ten years.

This went well beyond what the current Government was considering, which was merely fibre to the cabinet, and copper to the house.

National won, and the policy had to become a reality, which it did under Steven Joyce and then Amy Adams. It was a complex undertaking and less competent Ministers might have seen such an ambitious policy end up like Labour’s Kiwibuild or Light Rail policies – all talk and no action.

Instead we’ve seen over 900,000 households and businesses get connected to fibre. 126 cities and towns have fibre available.

Consider how much worse the four week lockdown would be, if most of the country was still on copper broadband instead of fibre?

So thanks to Steven and Amy for delivering this.

Stuff reports:

Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall, Trade Me creator Sam Morgan and former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe joined forces to help ready the country to fight Covid-19.

Together they ordered 50 intensive care ventilators, seven planeloads of PPE protective clothing and equipment, and met with the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the Sunday before lockdown was announced to urge the Government not to delay shutting the country down to try to limit deaths and eradicate Covid-19.

Thank goodness she listened to them, and changed the strategy from mitigation to elimination.

Ironic that all the Government defenders attacked Sam Morgan for daring to have written an article calling on the Government to move faster. And it turns out he was the guy who was right.

“A number of us guys had a meeting with the prime minister and Grant Robertson on the Sunday before lockdown,” said Tindall.

“Some of us, Sam Morgan and I in particular, realised there was a lot of stuff not getting done. We basically took the bull by the horns along with the guys from Zuru, and used our own money and ordered up a whole heap of PPE gear. There’s actually seven planeloads coming. Two have arrived already.”

Great initiative.

Stuff reports:

Supermarket queues are longer than ever, as shoppers brave the queues to restock after one day closure.

After the supermarkets closed on Good Friday, New World Wellington City, known to locals as Chaffers, had a line around the block by midday. Other supermarkets around the capital reportedly long waits, even by lockdown standards.

People have had to queue up for as long as 90 minutes, just to get in the door. It was madness to force supermarkets to close for a day.

For the last two weeks, many supermarkets have had queues to get in. This is for three reasons.

1. All other food outlets such as butchers and green grocers are closed, so more people are going to supermarkets
2. Many supermarkets have shorter opening hours than normal to give them time to restock
3. Social distancing means fewer people allowed in a store at any one time

So more people trying to shop in fewer hours and with less capacity has meant queues most days.

But when the Government then forces every supermarket to close on Friday, of course you are going to have massive queues on Saturday as you have twice as many people trying to shop.

The Government allowed supermarkets to open today, which was a partial victory. But they should have allowed them to open on Friday also. Frankly making people queue for 90 minutes to get into a supermarket helps no-one.

Interesting to compare across these countries.

In terms of the number of cases per capita Australia is lowest and Ireland is highest.

In terms of deaths per capita NZ is lowest and the UK is by far the highest. Of course deaths are a lagging indicator as it takes four weeks on average to die from Covid-19, if you do die from it.

And in terms of test done, Australia has done the most tests per capita and the UK the least.

Broadly speaking both Australia and New Zealand are doing relatively well. I think being remote islands helps!