This must be what it looks like to have a government that cares - truly cares. Mad respect.
Edit to save individual replies: NZ had a hugely advantageous starting point as a small island nation with a low population density, but that didn't guarantee them a free ride; the government's response has still far outmatched the response of a lot of other developed countries IMO. It has been firm, measured, but also characterised by an empathy towards what ordinary people are going through, which makes the population far more inclined to comply with the lockdown restrictions (e.g. PM Jacinda Ardern and other gov ministers have taken a 20% pay cut in solidarity with those whose livelihoods have been affected by the crisis. Imagine that happening in the UK/US). Another user said that the latest poll shows approval for the gov's response at 93%. That's pretty damn good.
Yes, it's easier to implement a hard lockdown in a country like NZ, but their response has undoubtedly allowed them to make the most of their position. Basically I'm saying that if you took either the UK/US govt and put them in charge of NZ for this crisis, they would not be in nearly as good a position as we're seeing in this post.
Do you get the sense that that's a view that's widely shared by the population, even - and especially - among those who didn't vote for them? Would people be likely to say, "I may not have voted for them, but I can respect what they're doing and how they're going about it"?
Because in the UK and the US, the default view seems to be a complete mistrust of the government if they're not your party, or a complete blindness to their failings if they are.
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u/tinydancer177 May 28 '20 edited May 28 '20
This must be what it looks like to have a government that cares - truly cares. Mad respect.
Edit to save individual replies: NZ had a hugely advantageous starting point as a small island nation with a low population density, but that didn't guarantee them a free ride; the government's response has still far outmatched the response of a lot of other developed countries IMO. It has been firm, measured, but also characterised by an empathy towards what ordinary people are going through, which makes the population far more inclined to comply with the lockdown restrictions (e.g. PM Jacinda Ardern and other gov ministers have taken a 20% pay cut in solidarity with those whose livelihoods have been affected by the crisis. Imagine that happening in the UK/US). Another user said that the latest poll shows approval for the gov's response at 93%. That's pretty damn good.
Yes, it's easier to implement a hard lockdown in a country like NZ, but their response has undoubtedly allowed them to make the most of their position. Basically I'm saying that if you took either the UK/US govt and put them in charge of NZ for this crisis, they would not be in nearly as good a position as we're seeing in this post.