I looked at Chris Hipkins forlorn face on Friday at his Covid briefing telling us we just didn’t like getting tested.

This, of course, at least in part is a sham. It's at least part of the charade the government is desperate to spin as they approach election day.

To be fair, it's probably partially true. We don’t want to get tested. We have all seen the pictures, who wants a cotton bud up your nose?

The only person I know who actually had a test is my daughter who got out of isolation in Australia on Saturday. She got tested twice, and they did nose and throat both times. Her experience varied widely, and I think this is the key. It's not the test or the probe per se, it’s the approach of the operator.

She had one who was determined to stick it up and out the other side and clearly couldn't give a monkeys about discomfort or pain. The second test was done by someone more kindly, and the reports from my daughter were the experiences were night and day.

Before we leave my daughter, small tip to this government; do what Australia is doing. 14 days isolation means you don’t leave your room, literally. Simple, yet effective. And if you do that, guess what? You don’t have absconders and bad headlines. It seems remarkable we haven't worked that out.

Back to the sham, why aren't we really getting tested? Because why would we? We don't have Covid, we haven't for months now. You can't have it both ways. You can't tell us how successful we are, and then tell us to keep panicking and getting tested.

The government are playing us for votes. Scaring us has worked and they just need to keep freaking us out until September 19.

Why would you get a test for something you don’t have, and for something no one else has?

There is no community spread. The only Covid is in a hotel in a handful of people. Keeping on testing for something that isn't here, doesn’t make sense. Unless, of course, it suits your political agenda.

The economic implosion, the government has realised, isn't going as well as the health response did. Hence the forlorn face and the pretence we still need to act the way we did.

The lack of testing is merely proof we've worked that out, but they don’t like it.