OPINION

If a week's a long time in politics, then surely three weeks are an age. Just three weeks ago, the Minister of Finance told Parliament that although the upcoming Budget would need some "refining", for the impact of COVID-19, otherwise the economy was "strong". He bravely said, "Yes, we have to grow jobs".

He could have said, we are going into a period of financial meltdown, where, as a trading nation, some markets will dissolve. All the relationship building between nations and trading partners will be for nought if we cannot trade.

Three weeks ago, the Prime Minister was still speaking of proceeding with a mass-gathering to commemorate those murdered in the mosque attacks on 15 March, until suddenly, she wasn't. New Zealand was given a 4-stage COVID-19 response plan and we were at level 2. Then we were at level 3 and two days later we were at level 4 and in lockdown. A committee decided what are essential services and products and, surprisingly, butchers are not - unless they work in a nationwide chain of supermarkets. Top quality food to feed families has been consigned to the rubbish tip because it wasn't deemed essential by the committee.

Lockdown hard for older people

Timaru octogenarian Olive Crossman believes the Covid- 19 lockdown rules don't take into account people who live like her.

Things have moved quickly. Businesses are failing. Exporters are asking themselves how long will it take to resurrect their markets and is it worth it? Directors are concerned that they are trading insolvent companies, in contravention of the Law. Tourism, hospitality, and tertiary education are seriously damaged. We are trebly grateful to our primary producers especially if their markets in China hold up.

As a nation, we will be changed. The economy will have changed. We will be changed socially, politically and constitutionally.

We will decide to end social isolation and take to the cafes (those that have survived) with gusto. It will be our duty to support what is left of the economy and keep people employed. We will rush to businesses that the COVID-19 Czars deemed non-essential and hope we have the cash to spend and hope they survived.

We will wait for the second wave of COVID-19 virus and hope that a vaccine will be found soon and available more readily than hand sanitiser is now. Our supply chains will change.

We will wonder if we should import product that can be made at the engineering shop down the road. Yes, it's more expensive but it's here. We will be more about New Zealand and less about the World.

We will regret the 'dob-in' culture currently being encouraged. We will have lost some respect for the Rule of Law when we see 'the law' being made up on the hoof. We will ask ourselves, why did we not question the government more in the early days of COVID-19 and then remember that to have done so would have opened ourselves up to condemnation for being either alarmist or, even worse, uncaring.

We will look again at Australia and wonder how their government managed to give every business and sole trader a wage subsidy of A$1500 per fortnight of each staff member and we will regret that our government thought that NZ$585 a week would be sufficient to keep us working when the JobSeeker ("the Dole") already pays up to $428 a week for not working.

We will note the Aussies called theirs a JobKeeper payment. We will spot the difference. We will wonder how the Australians managed payments of up to A$100,000 to every business and NGO that employs people to pay their rent and other costs.

We will wonder why the government that talked so much about housing development decided to add climate change into RMA decisions by local Councils and we will wonder how that could happen without adequate public consultation. We will be ready to embrace infrastructure on a scale not seen since the "Think Big" days.

And when anyone mentions Greta, we will ask, "Who?"

(Source; Stuff, Judith Collins, National MP)