The Government’s faced criticism this week over an error which plunged Northland into an 11-day snap lockdown last year.
OIA documents of a police investigation revealed three women, who had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus after crossing into Northland, all had correct documentation.
The application to enter the region was mistakenly approved by the Ministry of Social Development.
A woman at the centre of the debacle wanted an “exceptional” apology, while Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam also wanted an apology, after he was wrongly implicated in the lockdown.
The police report concluded the women were not gang-affiliated sex workers and it cleared Tam of any involvement, after NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed Tam helped the women illegally travel.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Apology
NBR columnist Brigitte Morten said a Government apology was warranted.
“I’m not sure quite what an exceptional apology is, or quite what they're looking for there, but I do think there should be an acknowledgement that they did, you know, disparage their character, by the sort of intimations that they made.”
Morten said the Government should learn from the mistakes that happened to try and improve for the future.
“One of the things that we can learn from this, is actually people on the ground understand the practical circumstances.
“We know that this cost them possibly $23 million up [in Northland] because of that 11-day lockdown.”
Housing Minister Megan Woods.
Rotorua’s emergency housing woes
Meanwhile, Rotorua’s emergency housing crisis has been in the news this week, with mayoral candidates claiming it was tearing the city apart.
There have also been reports of bad motel conditions and poor treatment of some housing clients.
Housing Minister Megan Woods said the Government was reviewing its emergency housing tools.
Morten said poverty, people living in cars and public housing waitlists had deteriorated, despite the Government having aspirational goals to fix the system.
“I think it’s an utter failure.
“The number is something like, you know, four times the number of people in their cars than when Jacinda Ardern came to the office of Prime Minister.
“The numbers are just so extraordinary, that they are almost unbelievable. They've got it demonstrably worse with no pathway out.”
New measures introduced to tackle youth crime.
Youth crime
The Government announced it was taking further action to bring down levels of youth crime.
Children under 14 in Counties Manukau and West Auckland – caught doing a ram raid – would be referred to a cross agency social wellbeing board to intervene with support measures.
The Youth Guarantee Programme would be expanded to 1100 more people, while 232 families with children were set to benefit from family functional therapy, intensive mentoring, as well as community-led youth inclusion schemes.
Morten said the initiatives came with whopping price tags and the devil was the detail.
“The intent looks good, but it also looks to be a lot of funds with a lot of million-dollar price tags attached to them. It's not really clear exactly how it will make a difference on the ground.”
She added that a tougher stance may be necessary.
“The Government can't continue to just pretend that they can get away with doing these type of initiatives without also doing some stronger initiatives against some of those youth criminals, because whilst they might be young, they are doing very dangerous and very harmful activities."
