New Zealand’s total confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reached 451 on March 28, an almost nine-fold increase in seven
days. Twelve people are in hospital and two are in intensive care. No deaths have been reported, to this point. Most
cases are linked to overseas travel, but there are also cases of community transmission and there could be many
undetected cases.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the media she expected NZ’s cases to increase sharply for at least the next 10 days.
A nationwide four-week lockdown began on Thursday, with schools and most businesses closed and “non-essential” workers
instructed to remain home.
The lockdown, imposed after petitions from medical professionals, supported by tens of thousands of workers, is
necessary to prevent a catastrophe. Auckland University modeling shows that without such measures the virus could infect
89 percent of the population, overwhelm the underfunded health system and kill as many as 80,000 people.
In the best-case scenario, the number of deaths could be lowered to about 20. Researchers have warned that achieving
this goal requires a strict lockdown, contact tracing, quarantines and travel restrictions, most likely lasting much
longer than four weeks.
Like its counterparts internationally, the Labour Party-led government’s priority is to defend the interests of big
business. Multi-billion dollar subsidies, tax cuts and loans have been announced, including a $900 million loan to Air
New Zealand even as it lays off thousands of workers—all with the support of the trade union bureaucracy. The Reserve
Bank has promised to make up to $30 billion (equal to 10 percent of gross domestic product) available for financial
markets through quantitative easing.
These enormous sums dwarf the $500 million injection into the severely underfunded healthcare system, and the miserly
$25 a week increase to unemployment benefits and pensions.
The state of emergency declared on March 25 is being used to test authoritarian forms of rule. Police have been given
broad powers, including the ability to enter homes to enforce self-isolation rules. The military has been placed on
standby.
With the agreement of the opposition National Party, parliament was suspended on Thursday until April 28 and replaced
with a smaller cross-party committee. All parties in parliament put their campaigns for the September election on hold
and pledged support for the government. Some media commentators are suggesting that the election could be postponed, as
happened during World Wars I and II.
These measures, accepted by the unions, pseudo-lefts and liberal pundits, go well beyond what is needed to enforce the
lockdown. The state is preparing to confront working-class opposition to the worsening economic crisis, attacks on
living standards, and the appalling state of the public health system that has been sharply exposed by the pandemic.
Gross domestic product is widely expected to fall up to 10 percent in the second quarter of 2020, with hundreds of
thousands of job losses. Shamubeel Eaqub from Sense Partners compared the crisis with the 1930s Great Depression. He
told Radio NZ that unemployment could rise from 4 percent to 15 or even 30 percent. During the 1930s, governments used
emergency measures to suppress demonstrations by unemployed workers.
Already thousands of workers in the forestry, tourism, hospitality, retail and other industries have been laid off, due
to the shutdown of markets and supply chains throughout the world.
Workers who have for now kept their jobs could face savage wage cuts. Employers receiving the “wage subsidy” of $585 a
week per full-time worker, or $350 per part-time worker, are required to pass it on, but do not have to top up the
payments to a liveable income.
Workers in industries deemed essential are being placed at risk. A 28-year-old New World supermarket worker with asthma
told Radio NZ yesterday that he walked off his shift. Articulating the views of thousands, he said: “I just didn’t feel
safe… I know there are a lot of workers around me in the same situation. There are workers with families, with kids, who
have had surgeries or are immuno-compromised, and are still working.”
Workers for Sistema, a plastic container factory in Auckland, walked out on Wednesday to protest the lack of social
distancing and other protective measures. Sistema management had initially claimed to be an essential service but,
following the strike and a subsequent inspection by the regulator WorkSafe, the plant will close for four weeks with
workers receiving full pay during the shutdown.
Numerous factories have been allowed to remain open, including Imperial Tobacco’s cigarette factory in Wellington. A
spokesperson for the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation told the media the decision was “outrageous,” particularly “given
the emerging evidence that COVID-19 infections may be more severe among smokers.”
The Otago Daily Times reported yesterday that workers at Alliance’s meat processing factory in Oamaru felt like “cannon
fodder” due to inadequate precautions. An anonymous Change.org petition calling for all meat processing factories to be
shut gained more than 2,600 signatures this week.
One comment on the petition stated: “I’m signing as my son has lung issues and I want to keep him safe.” Another said:
“Lives are more important than profit.”
Another wrote that workers at their factory “are not supplied with masks, many carpool with others outside their
isolation group & have been told that if they can’t go to work because they haven’t got alternative transport, that’s their problem.”
One worker explained: “There is absolutely no way we can keep a safe distance from one another, there are far too many
variables out at the meatworks and a perfect breeding ground for this virus to spread quickly.”
The Meat Workers Union has asked that workers be allowed to stay home if they feel unsafe, but did not endorse the
petition. The union is working with the Meat Industry Association and the government to ensure that factories remain
open during the lockdown.
Many healthcare workers still lack basic personal protective equipment (PPE) despite the government claiming there are
enough masks, gowns and goggles. District Health Boards (DHBs) have a thoroughly disorganised response to the pandemic.
One nurse wrote yesterday in the Facebook group “New Zealand, please hear our voice”: “My DHB has just informed me that
we are not allowed to wear masks for direct patient contact, only if the patient is symptomatic.”
Caregivers who work with elderly and disabled people have also reported inadequate PPE. “This is a prime route of
transmission of COVID-19,” one worker told Newsroom yesterday, “Thousands of support workers going through goodness
knows how many tens of thousands of homes every day.”
Radio NZ reported yesterday that NZ Post courier drivers in Wellington said they did not have sufficient PPE and hand
sanitiser, and up to 100 people must share a few, unsanitary toilets.