An Open Letter to Jacinda Ardern

Dear Prime Minister

It’s been well over two years now, over 90% of the country is double jabbed, nearly the same number have their booster shoot, COVID’s down, for the most part, to a little snivel, asymptomatic or nothing.  We’ve well reached the point of herd immunity; you asked us, you begged us, you set us against the unvaccinated, you divided us, all to get to 90% double jabbed, yet where are our freedoms?

• We are mandated to show our Vaccination Pass wherever we go, we are compelled to wear masks, we are asked, sometimes demanded, to contract trace or sign in, regardless that it is not a legal requirement;
• Any business establishment, particularly hospitality have to close their doors once again if just one case enters and regardless if that person infects anybody or not;
• New Zealanders returning from overseas still have to isolate for 7 days, regardless if they don’t have the virus;
• When we can travel overseas, you have placed the deterrent of 7 days self isolation on our return, regardless of the fact we have to be vaccinated to travel out of our country and regardless if we have no symptoms of Covid on return;
• Our first allowed visitors, our Aussie mates, even have to isolate for 7 days on arrival in New Zealand, again regardless if they have been vaccinated or test negative to the virus;
• And all this nonsense carries on till October (at a minimum, as well as at a considerable cost to our economy) when you are going to allow visitors from other countries to visit our shores with the proviso that they self isolate on arrival, again regardless that they must be vaccinated and regardless if they test negative to the virus.  Do you really think that overseas visitors will be banging on our doors to get in?

All of this is in an environment where the latest weakening variant of Covid 19, Omicron, is starting to ‘run rampant’ in the country but only if you regard it by counting the inputs rather than the outputs.  The truth is, as of today, there are only 71 people in hospital and not one person in ICU.  So why are you doing this and why are we putting up with it?  You have the whole nation running in fear of a ‘cold like virus’ and keeping or deterring others from coming in to New Zealand.  There’s simply no justification and no point to what you’re doing.

On top of what you’re doing to the vaccinated you are making the unvaccinated pariahs in their own country.  Whatever you, or the Speaker, or the Labour Government think of the unvaccinated, they have a right under Section 11 of the Bill of Rights Act 1990 to ‘refuse to undergo any medical treatment’.  That’s the Bill of Rights, the legislation that is supreme in protecting the individual against any other Legislation that a despot or overpowering Government might try to do.  And that’s what you did, didn’t you.  You did it by trying to pit the vaccinated against the unvaccinated when you were acutely aware you couldn’t force people to get vaccinated.  You even agreed that ‘it was a war between the vaccinated and unvaccinated’ in an interview.  How callous can you be?  In previous times, we sent young men to war to protect ours and others freedom and millions in the world gave their lives to protect our freedoms.

So, why do you think you can invade our privacy, restrict our freedom of movement, play fast and loose with the Bill of Rights and leave thousands of our countrymen stranded overseas when you had an obligation under the International Bill of Rights to bring them home, not on the dribble feed, but bring them home immediately!

The last straw is not only your total ignoring of the unvaccinated protesters currently in the grounds of Parliament but also the Speaker of Parliament being so immature, he thought it was a fit action of his office and position to turn sprinklers on the protesters and play music continuously to annoy and disrupt their sleep.  Despite your apparent view that the protesters are either conspiracy theorists or mad anti-vaxxers and your total ignorance that a great many of the protesters were ordinary New Zealanders protesting the vaccine pass mandate that severely restricts their right of movement at a time when the vaccinated numbers are such the unvaccinated are more at risk than the vaccinated and they no more will spread the virus than us vaccinated will do.  Yet, you, your Government and the Speaker, show utter contempt for these protesters who have a perfect right (under the Bill of Rights Act) to refuse vaccination and not have their movement restricted.  Good on you, Sir Russell Coutts, for putting your hand up and defending the rights of the unvaccinated.

Ms Ardern you have mismanaged Covid in a way that shows you have a greater regard for what you think is right than is enshrined in the Bill of Rights Act and have divided or allowed this country to be divided to an extent that probably has never before been seen in this country.

Enough is enough, it is time to pull you to heel, and I will play my part by practising the utmost in civil disobedience.  From now on, I will not wear my mask, I will not sign in to contract tracing and I will not isolate after travel if I test negative to Covid.  I also intend to urge everyone I know to do the same.  It’s time you had the country join the rest of the sane world, lift our domestic freedoms of movement for all, stop putting healthy people into isolation and open our borders up to at least vaccinated travellers without requiring any form of self isolation.  Stop destroying the economic future of New Zealand.

The virus is now well established, it is mild and will not overrun our hospital system.  Stop this madness, it’s time we all got off this two year ego trip.  We’re all done.

Yours sincerely

Wayne Collins