Sir John Key is being provocative but his ideas make sense, writes Jack Tame

No person or party has a monopoly on good ideas.

Sir John Key’s 5-point plan to improve New Zealand’s Covid-19 response is a collection of sensible ideas worthy of consideration. Indeed, on most of Key’s ideas, the Government agrees.

Fortunately, most New Zealanders avoid the black hole of Twitter’s ‘Trending Now’ function, but most of the response to Key’s op-ed speaks to the inability of the Twitter mob to separate partisan bias from a rational critique.

According to Twitter, Key and National want to throw open the borders tomorrow and kill New Zealanders en-masse. Apparently Key only cares about border restrictions so he can visit his holiday home in Hawaii, and news outlets in New Zealand shouldn’t dare to publish an op-ed by a former Prime Minister.

Granted, Key is no literary titan. The way in which he packaged his op-ed was designed to get headlines, and it worked. The “smug hermit kingdom” line was deliberately provocative. The comparison he drew between New Zealand and North Korea was flat out hyperbolic.

Any objective observer would agree that for the majority of the pandemic, daily life in New Zealand has been better than in almost every other country on Earth. But it’s also true that 18 months since our first case, New Zealand is one of the few countries on Earth to actively deny entry to its own citizens. On Sunday morning on Q+A, Chris Hipkins acknowledged as much.

These aren’t just Kiwis who want to return home for summer. Part of the cost of aggressively protecting lives from Covid-19 within our domestic borders, is that New Zealanders are denied precious time with family members dying of other illnesses. In 18 months, we’ve added very little sophistication to the MIQ system. Many of our best and brightest are being actively dissuaded from bringing international experience and skills back home. Is it more dangerous to have a fully-vaccinated-and-recently-tested New Zealand citizen self-quarantine at home, than it is for an unvaccinated person to visit a supermarket in South Auckland? In principle, Sir John Key and the Government agree on this point. The Government is planning a self-quarantine trial. Key just wants it sooner.

The former PM suggests a carrot-and-stick approach to vaccines. Sensible stuff. As we reported last week on Q+A, the Government is already planning to introduce a proof-of-vaccination system for businesses and venues. Maybe the former PM missed our programme, but on this point he and the Government are also in agreement.  

As for vaccine incentives, why wouldn’t we incentivise holdouts and groups with higher levels of vaccine hesitancy? The cost is negligible in the context of the pandemic response. Surely to get above 90% we should do whatever it takes to get everyone vaccinated. If Ministry of Health officials had been more open to outside advice earlier in the vaccine rollout – from numerous Māori and Pacifica public health experts - they might have avoided the situation in which we currently find ourselves, with enduring concerns about vaccination rates within those populations. No one scoffed at vaccination buses or the suggestion a mobile unit be established outside KFC. Whatever it takes.

Key wants wider use of rapid Covid-19 testing systems. So does almost every expert in the country. He wants Pharmac to study and potentially invest in more treatments for Covid-19. Again, reasonable stuff.

Perhaps Key’s most contentious point is the suggestion that Government officials set a hard date for relaxing some of our border restrictions. The truth is, at some point relatively soon we will have to do this. I asked Hipkins if, a year from now, we haven’t hit the golden 90 per cent vaccination mark, will New Zealand continue with the same strategy as today? Hipkins said no.

At what point do we decide that eligible New Zealanders have had sufficient opportunity to receive the Covid-19 vaccine? At what point do we decide other New Zealanders will no longer be burdened with hard lockdowns and a closed border? We’re certainly not at that point yet and probably won’t be this year.

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John Key backs move to 'take away liberties' to make people get Covid jab

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But, in all the terrible payoffs of the pandemic response, this is perhaps the most difficult question facing our leaders. Key and Jacinda Ardern might have different answers. The debate is critical for New Zealand’s future.