Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • New Zealand Listener

    THE HARD YARDS

    Oct 25, 2020 7 minutes

    Freedom and democracy have a long, difficult history, but our newly elected government may be the first modern administration to face as its most urgent question: when can we set our citizens free? Equally pressing, and not at all Iron Curtainchic either, is: when can we let others in?

    Jacinda Ardern’s Labour landslide in no way makes the decisions easier about when and how to reopen our border. If anything, the mandate to govern alone risks being taken as confirmation of the public’s globally conspicuous patience with the Covid-wrought curbs on their freedom, and therefore permission to extend them.

    However, without the earliest possible restoration of mobility – both of labour and tourists – this country will struggle to restore economic growth, let alone make progress on Labour’s flagship “well-being” reforms.

    Though our globally unusual “elimination” strategy has been a matter of both pride and success, it remains possible the new government will have to dial it back to a “living with Covid” approach, either because of new discoveries about the virus’ nature or simply because that’s what most other countries are doing and our economy cannot survive as a fortress.

    It’s a. Meanwhile, the Opposition parties, freed from the grimness of their “I don’t love you any more” campaign mode, will have more scope to challenge any prolonging of controls – the more so now that creative ideas are emerging.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from New Zealand Listener

    New Zealand Listener1 min read
    Friday May 10
    Ruby is a bright but out-of-place scholarship student at Maxton Hall private school, trying to slip through unnoticed to her dream of studying at Oxford. But when she becomes witness to a secret, she attracts the unwanted attention of millionaire hei
    New Zealand Listener1 min read
    10 Quick Questions
    ❑ Madonna ❑ Taylor Swift ❑ Blondie ❑ Lady Gaga ❑ Paris ❑ Lyon ❑ Orléans ❑ Montreal ❑ Julius Caesar ❑ Hamlet ❑ Cymbeline ❑ Romeo and Juliet ❑ Beatrice ❑ Eugenie ❑ Charlotte ❑ Louisa ❑ Animals ❑ Trains ❑ Plants ❑ Microbiology ❑ Oste
    New Zealand Listener5 min read
    Good For A Laugh
    Alice Snedden could be considered Larry David to Rose Matafeo’s Jerry Seinfeld. After a five-year stand-up hiatus, the collaborator on Matafeo’s excellent romcom Starstruck steps back into the spotlight with Highly Credible. Hoping to take home the

    Related Books & Audiobooks