The “team of five million” has become a well-worn but still powerful call to arms in the past 18 months as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield have tried to rally a sense of national unity in the fight to save lives in this Covid-19 pandemic. Those five million Kiwi have been showered with praise and thanks, and rightfully so, as we’ve so far limited our death toll to just 27. 

The use of “five million” emphasises that we’re all in it together; that united we stand, but divided we could yet fall. Putting that with the idea of being a “team” plays to our sporting soul, making us think of those ‘per capita’ charts that we always excel on at the Olympics. We are used to being near the top of those each Games, alongside a handful of smaller, island nations, often in the Caribbean. We feel special. Exceptional. And the same is true with Covid when it comes to death rates, right down to sitting alongside those smaller island nations. But this time the medals are lives saved and the hard work and victories really do belong to us all. 

But our victories don’t just belong to those five million New Zealanders living in the country. While we are feeling rather splendid in our healthy isolation, we’re at risk of forgetting those others on our team who are also responsible for our life-saving success during the pandemic so far.  

The sacrifices made by the half million to a million New Zealanders living overseas, unable to come home, separated from loved ones outside ‘Fortress New Zealand’ and temporarily denied their birth-right of access to their own country, have also been key to keeping out Covid. The diaspora is doing some heavy lifting for us all, yet are seldom praised and lauded from the pulpits of power.  

Where is the recognition for the other members of what’s actually a team of nearer to six million? Because both ordinary citizens and the government could be doing way more by way of thanks. 

As the MIQ booking restrictions are lifted next Monday and the heart-breaking lottery of who gets to enter New Zealand begins again, it’s time to give more recognition to those who have taken one for the team by staying away.  

At 8am on Monday 3000 beds will become available. Those wanting to travel have one hour to get into the virtual lobby before they will be put in a randomised queue. It’s an improvement on the bot-winning race for rooms that we’ve had previously, but it’s still short of what we should expect for those on the team who are trapped on the outside. Because as well as priding ourselves as a nation that boxes above its weight on international tables, we’re also a country that prides itself on its commitment to fairness. 

And I’d like to see anyone, including Ardern and Bloomfield, try to argue that this system is fair. The government’s position seems to be “we’re trying out best”. But is that good enough? 

It’s important to acknowledge that this is a global pandemic. And as in a world war or other century-defining global disaster, rights and norms are sacrificecd. It sucks, it’s no fair, but it’s no-one’s fault. The argument from New Zealand is that, given our elimination strategy, it’s a no-brainer to keep the borders closed. Anyway, it’s not like those overseas have a choice, right? They just have to lump it. Safety first. And hey, they chose to be out of the country. They could have come home before delta struck, between lockdowns. 

What’s more, much of that comes down to practicalities. There are only so many rooms, so many security guards, so many medical workers and we have to cut our cloth to fit. 

All reasonable arguments. Except, it’s not as simple as that. We’ve never had enough rooms for all our diaspora to come home, so there was always going to be winners and losers. Some people have been trying since before delta to come home, but for myriad reason haven’t been able to. We’ve set a high threshold for emergency applications. 

Most of all, the way we close our borders, how many we allow back and who gets in are all political choices. None of those decisions are written in stone.  

Given we have so many New Zealanders overseas and we’ve known for many months the high demand to return home, for business and sports people to come and go and much more, why haven’t we done more to change that formula? Knowing a “game-changer” of a variant was on its way, where was the game-changing urgency to prepare? 

Where are the designated MIQ facilities being built? Why haven’t more people been trained so that’s no longer an excuse? Given one of our greatest fears is our hospitals being overwhelmed, why haven’t we done more to adapt or ready for ICUs? Why don’t we have a booster plan yet? Why was our booking system created without any way to prioritise those with the highest needs? 

Do the answers to all those questions outweigh the price being paid? 

As National’s Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop said yesterday, “The system doesn’t discriminate based on why you want to come home to New Zealand”. A holiday-maker has as much chance at a room as someone wanting precious days with a dying relative. How is that fair? Surely it is past time we had a system that involved some level of human judgment and compassion? 

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins has spoken to the complexity and slowness of human judgement, but that’s hard to accept when the booking system has been closed for months and when we see government ministers picking who should get in ahead of these desperate Kiwis, according to a set of criteria. And we know the criteria are always under review, as Hipkins has closed the door to, for example, some mariners who were due to be let in under these rules. So if it’s good enough to establish criteria for these sports teams, workers and businesses, why don’t other members of the New Zealand “team” deserve the same treatment? The same chance to at least make their case? 

As it stands, those who need more than 20 rooms, have support of a government agency and are “a government priority” get the golden ticket of discretion, while the rest have to play the lottery. The government has created a two-tier system that goes against Kiwi values. 

Now you can make a good case for many of the preferred groups to be let in. Maintaining at least some refugee intake seems critical. We need construction workers. We need RSE workers, both for their labour here and to be good neighbours in the Pacific.  

As a trading nation I have no problem with the need for us to put some places aside for exporters to travel to Dubai for the belated Expo 2020. We need to balance short-term pain with long-term national and economic interests. The continuity of science work in Antarctica is good for all humanity, so I understand the choice to make space for scientists coming and going to the ice. Seeing New Zealand athletes at the Olympics and sports teams pull on the silver fern can raise national spirits and be sacred to some.  

But surely it’s a legitimate question to ask whether the Bangladesh cricket team needs to come to New Zealand twice in 2021, taking up 70 rooms in the process. Is that more important than the birth of a child or the death of a parent? 

And is it more important for us to welcome in competitors at a mountain bike festival or a New Zealander stuck in America with an expired visa and no place to live, whose emergency applications have been turned down more than once?  

Maybe in each case we’ve made the right decision. Maybe not. I’m not arguing about the results, but rather the fairness of the system.  

Surely New Zealanders desperate to come home should have as much right to discretion as sporting and business bodies.  

Surely the reason someone wants to come to New Zealand should matter… and it’s time to review our emergency criteria. 

Surely, after more than a year of discussion around the need to build MIQ facilities or adapt military facilities, it’s unacceptable for MBIE to say in a statement “We are still in the early stages of investigating potential options”. We have long known the desperate need for more room to accommodate the diaspora, RSE workers, professional sportspeople, exporters, refugees and others. Yet nothing.   

So surely – hopefully – we can rely on New Zealanders of all stripes who are not in desperate need, who just want a holiday or for their sports team to travel or their event to go ahead, to stay out of the virtual lobby next Monday and let those in real need get to the front of the queue. 

And surely (ahem, Prime Minister and Director-General) we can remember to say thanks over and again to the rest of the team of more than five million for all there are sacrificing for our wellbeing.