It is absolutely staggering our border controls should be so lax, so inexplicably porous as to allow two people, subsequently diagnosed with Covid-19, to leave what was supposed to be a 14-day managed isolation and drive from Auckland to Wellington without being first tested and declared clear of the virus.
As details emerge, it is horrifying to think our exposure to Covid-19 is at the whim of officials who thought it was acceptable to simply ask if the women felt OK before sending them off on compassionate release and, in so doing, bypass a testing procedure there as a bulwark against the global pandemic.
This is not a hyperbolic over-reaction. "Managed isolation" and "quarantine" are not flippant "buzzwords’ — they are formally described and deliberately designed components of our crucial border security. They are a "total" response to an unseen menace. We have a right to expect they will be rigidly applied.
And it is hoped they will be from today, after a clearly frustrated Prime Minister tightened the quarantine and managed isolation rules in light of what happened in Auckland. In one fell swoop, official thoughtlessness has ended travellers’ recourse to even carefully-managed compassionate release.
Jacinda Ardern called the bungle an unacceptable failure. It should never have happened and it cannot be repeated.
There is now a new and urgent focus on whether our borders are being controlled in the way New Zealanders expect, and had been assured they were. Ms Ardern said the procedures her ministers were advised were in place, were not. This is unacceptable to her, and to everyone who does not want our collective sacrifice wasted.
Appointing Assistant Chief of Defence Air Commodore Digby Webb to oversee all quarantine and managed isolation facilities is to be applauded, and not before time. Our border security is a singular response to the pandemic, and it needs singular oversight and direction.
This is a significant task and one that will now have even more resources available to it. Air Commodore Webb will be able to call upon military logistics and personnel, and there is a chance such personnel could be used to help run the facilities.
There will assuredly be concerns about military creep into what remains a civil response to the pandemic. Equally, there will be relief from some that our last line of defence is, finally, to be managed as though our national security depends on it. Because, as we continue to learn, it does.
One of the first tasks ahead must be to ensure quarantine and managed isolation is being managed in such a way as to minimise, or eliminate, all non-protected contact between those in quarantine and those outside.
Over the past few weeks, there have been reports of those in managed isolation, especially, mingling with others. This week, it emerged two teenagers were able to "abscond"; Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier was "livid"when his staff came into close contact with people in quarantine at an Auckland hotel, and did not immediately know.
He will inspect Covid-19 isolation and quarantine facilities himself as Air Commodore Webb audits the existing systems and written protocols, and prepares to report what he learns to the Government. Even now, it is clear his report will identify failings.
The Auckland debacle will be chief among them. The women reportedly did as they were asked and had every right to ask for compassionate leave to see their dying parent. But they, and all New Zealanders, had every right to expect someone in charge to test them ahead of their trip. They had every right to expect officials to do their job.
Our first— and frankly only — line of defence against Covid-19 is our border, and it is only as strong as its weakest link. That weak link must be removed and our defences must be strengthened; ill-discipline and a lack of rigour cannot be allowed to jeopardise our communities and our rebuild.
