The Prime Minister cannot dodge responsibility for the fact that Auckland has yoyoed in and out of level three lockdowns in the space of 10 days.

She’s very cleverly trying to shift the blame to the rule breakers, and yes, they do deserve some blame, but she should’ve built the system to handle this. 

There have always been rule breakers. We had them in the August lockdown holding underground church services. We know this happens. 

The fact is, looking backwards now, you can see what an absolute gamble the Prime Minster took bringing us out of level three.

On the very day she announced it, there were two new cases in the community.  She and her cabinet must have known there were kids at Papatoetoe high school who weren’t tested yet, and weren’t answering their phones, so couldn’t be relied on to be keeping to the rules.

And yet she took a punt and pulled us out of lockdown.

 I’m not a fan of being in lockdown.  No one is.  But it is better to have a seven day lockdown once than it is to have a three day lock down followed 10 days later by a seven day because you didn’t do it properly the first time.

Or better yet, have a contact tracing and testing system that is good enough to handle a few recalcitrants so you don’t have to do a lockdown. Which, clearly, we still don’t have.

This yo-yo-ing between levels is the worst thing for the economy. Jacinda Ardern said that herself on April 20^th last year.

What happened to this approach? On May 3^rd last year, she said “I do not want to make hasty decisions that lead to a yo-yoing between levels.”

I’m sorry but by Jacinda Ardern’s own standards she has done ‘the worst thing’ for the economy. The government cannot take the glory when they get things right but deflect the blame others when they get things wrong.

They got this wrong and this lockdown is a result of their own mistake.