Kate Hawkesby: It's time for a green light, surely

In the wake of a couple of revealing surveys, I’m pleased to see businesses agitating for change a bit more. I’m talking about the traffic light system. Two surveys recently showed how much we’re fed up with all this. TV1 had a survey showing 65 percent of us want all Covid restrictions dropped, not surprising at all. Then a survey the Government did showed them the reality of what’s going on – fewer of us are wearing masks, fewer of us are reporting RAT results, fewer of us are willing to isolate for seven days. So given that, why are we still sitting in Orange with all these restrictions? We’re over it. And so it turns out are international tourists. If we truly want to be an open country, ready for business and tourism and holiday makers, then we need to unshackle ourselves from all this ideology keeping us looking like a hermit kingdom. “Global hotels and management operator Accor wants New Zealand to move to a green light setting as the industry works to bring international tourism back to pre-pandemic levels..” it was reported yesterday, they want to get the message out that we are indeed “fully completely open” for business.  Accor Pacific’s Chief Exec was reported as saying that ‘green is that signal.’ She also said that, “some tourists were cautious about travelling to New Zealand under the orange light status.” And I’m not surprised, it’s out of kilter with where the rest of the world is at, it makes it look like we have a problem, which we don’t, it makes us look backward and introspective. No one feels that more acutely than the Kiwis currently all returning from their overseas jaunts to Europe or warmer climes. Having gallivanted around the world mask-less and without any news of Covid interrupting them, they come home only to be greeted by a bunch of people in masks handing them RATs. One to do straight away and one to do in seven more days’ time and to self-report on.  How many do you reckon are doing that? My hunch is zero. Not even the acolytes are doing it. But if we are trying to be truly competitive and get back to pre-pandemic levels with tourism and travel, then surely we have no choice but to remove all this bureaucracy and BS. Accor for their part [were reported saying] that, we’re “competing with the rest of the world for international tourists and [we] needed to make it clear that it was easy for tourists to come and go.” We’re not though. We’re flagging impediments like RATs on arrival and masking up and being in an Orange setting – and that’s before we get to the part where many people won’t have a clue what that is, all they’ll know is that it doesn’t sound fully open. Two of our kids are travelling right now, one in the States, one in Europe, both say when people hear they’re Kiwis their first response is ‘oh you guys have been locked down for ages right?’.. They go on to ask why NZ is still closed, that’s their impression. We used to be known internationally for the All Blacks or Lord of the Rings, but sadly now when people hear you’re a Kiwi the first thing they mention is Covid and being shut. Cool.  Great reputation that is for our little slice of what used to be paradise. It needs to change fast, and I just hope more businesses start to get more vocal with this Government on fixing it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.