Now is not the time to play politics or act like some sort of martyr as our country faces this next challenge

Politicians, a word that elicits huge emotions in us all depending on what side of the political divide we tend to live on, stray towards or hang out. The last few days I have read some comments from some politicians that could be construed towards political points scoring. Now is not that time. Not one country on earth was prepared or well equipped to face a global pandemic as we are experiencing now. Nor was anyone prepared for it to be this prolonged – but more than two years since it began we are still only on the edge. Now is not the time to debate the wherefor all of who would have been prepared than someone else or who’s plans would have been better. In life we don’t get to, in the moment, turn some clock back. Hindsight has always been a wonderful thing but in the reality we all deal in – there is not magic time machine there is only the present and the future.

At some point there will need to be a Royal Commission into the whole of New Zealand response to COVID19 to the state of our health and hospital system to MIQ, from our workforce to our logistics supply chain, from our housing and social issues to our Maori response and community response. During that process those who made decisions will be called to sometimes account and often to reflect. But now is not the time for politicians to wax lyrical because we have a job to do. That job is to keep our whanau and communities safe – to overcome what is going to be an anxious and nervous period of our modern history and to avail ourselves of every opportunity to see the best in ourselves as a nation and not the worse.

Every day New Zealanders are worried and anxious – they don’t need that worry or anxiety amplified any further than it is.

Now I want to address the self-named freedom movement. Right across the world the freedom of human beings was being taken advantage of long before this pandemic. Whole nation states in Africa and the Middle East have imploded with tens of millions of people forced from their homes, murdered or wounded for a wars largely based on ego and the desire of one group of people to hold power over many. In Hong Kong a democratic voice has been silences, in parts of China human rights abuses on ethnic minorities have been unfolding and in parts of Eastern Europe freedom of the press is under pressure. In Africa children are being kidnapped by terror groups and forced into marriage. In Asia children are routinely trafficked and unless people have either forgotten or chosen to ignore it in South and Central America hundreds of thousands are on the move to escape poverty. In New Zealand if you think for one moment your freedom is under attack take a reality check. In this country you are free from the shackles that many of our fellow human beings face each day.

Your freedom is not under attack – and if you still don’t believe me how about advocate for the starving children of Afghanistan?

I have seen the evils first hand that humans perpetuate against each other as a former UN representative - evils i wish for no other person to witness.

There are no Martyrs to this pandemic or heroes trying to game or test the system that is attempting to keep us all safe. And while people are free to have their views on the vaccine what is intolerable is adults standing outside vaccination centres hurling abuse. My message to these people, as it is to those politicians who seek headlines, is exactly what country would you have preferred to have been?

Now is the time for us to settle down, get on with the job and ensure that the same experience of other countries does not become our story.?

#covid19 #omicron #politics #nz #newzealand #aotearoa #health