Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

The virus antidote: political leadership, progressive government, public services

Peter Davis 21st December 2021

With still fewer than 50 fatalities, there is much to learn from how New Zealand’s Labour government has handled the pandemic.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Labour Party,NZLP
Jacinda Ardern—never struggles to do human (lexandros Michailidis / shutterstock.com)

Aotearoa New Zealand has had the great good fortune to be guided through the pandemic by a progressive government, led by the New Zealand Labour Party (NZLP)—first in coalition, now in an unprecedented, single-party, majority administration elected under the German-style system of proportional representation.

By a mixture of luck and good management, the country of five million has suffered fewer than 50 deaths to date from Covid-19 and is almost the only nation to have recorded an improvement in life expectancy. Despite the closure of international tourism and education, the economy has barely missed a beat (albeit buoyed by government support for businesses and workers). And despite several lockdowns, the country has paradoxically experienced one of the longest periods of unrestricted internal mobility.

As with others in the region, such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and South Korea, from the outset New Zealand pursued an elimination strategy, with tight control of borders and active suppression of outbreaks through lockdowns, testing and contract tracing. This strategy had overwhelming popular support. Hence the re-election in 2020 of the NZLP with a majority of the popular vote—a feat only matched in the depths of the Great Depression, with the election of the first Labour government.

‘Swiss cheese’ approach

All good things come to an end, however. And so it proved in August after the arrival, through a border breach, of the Delta variant. This prompted the most far-reaching lockdown in the country’s largest city, Auckland, which has only just concluded.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

The government has had to pivot from a cordon sanitaire at the border to internal measures. This vaccine-plus, ‘Swiss cheese’ approach relies on vaccination rates of over 90 per cent allied to multiple layers of protection, which each have ‘holes’ but in combination have a good chance of frustrating the virus. Lockdowns will only be imposed in extreme cases and citizens will have greater freedom of movement and association, although this is contingent on the new Omicron variant.

The government has thus introduced vaccine mandates in key areas, such as border work, prisons, police, and health and education. These cover about 40 per cent of the workforce. Vaccine passes are required for entry to potentially at-risk venues, such as bars, restaurants and places of entertainment. Amid an outbreak these may be extended to churches, and gatherings may be restricted. Private organisations and businesses are free to introduce their own regimes of mandate and pass, if they wish.

The extension of vaccination to the 5-11s and booster shots for at-risk and other groups are due in the new year. The borders will also be opened for citizens and residents and for business and other essential travel, again contingent on Omicron.

Despite the necessity (and evident good sense) of this turn, and despite still widespread popular support, it has been associated with a wave of protests. Vaccine mandates in particular have become a lightning-rod for a range of discontents, bringing together Pentecostal and evangelical Christians, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccination campaigners, farmers opposed to government regulations and far-right groups generally.

These and other measures of opposition have gained strong media coverage. There was speculation about staff resignations over the vaccine mandate in education and health, although in the event only 1-2 per cent of staff failed to get their first dose by the deadline. Similarly, with the vaccine passes—much criticised in the media on technical and practical grounds—within two days of release a million had been downloaded. This is policy-making in an environment of intense political and media scrutiny, even hostility.

Lessons for progressives

There is no predicting how the next stage of the pandemic will unfurl in Aotearoa New Zealand. But there are potential lessons for progressives everywhere wrestling with the pandemic.

First, leadership makes a difference. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has been on the front foot throughout the crisis. While the gloss may be starting to wear off as the social consensus frays, this has crystallised public support and confidence.

Secondly, public discourse matters. The government has openly debated the options and the basis for them, with weekly press conferences and using standard parliamentary procedures.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Thirdly, prioritising a health response turned out to be not only ethically correct but also best for the economy, since it avoided repeated surges and lockdowns. That said, business will always push for reopening, no matter how premature, and the media will magnify every misstep, no matter how compelling the strategy overall.

Fourthly, a professional bureaucracy and effective public services are essential. Key elements of business subsidies, quarantine, tracing, testing, vaccination and so on were established, one after another, within months. And yet a decade of conservative government had left public services hollowed out and key infrastructure in health run down—including a threadbare immunisation register.

Finally, Covid-19 provided a stress test for the welfare state: eldercare proved poorly supervised, boarding houses were unregulated and many citizens were not properly registered with the health system. And we were reminded of basic social inequalities and vulnerabilities: Māori (the indigenous people) and Pacific peoples, comprising 70 per cent of cases and hospitalisations in Auckland, have been affected disproportionately.

Real agenda

In its handling of the pandemic Ardern’s administration has shown the best of what a progressive government can do. This has earned it trust while underlining the importance of public services and the state in modern liberal democracies.

At the same time, it detracts in many ways from what one might expect to be the real agenda of progressive policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. That is alleviating poverty and reducing inequality, tackling housing supply and affordability, meeting the aspirations of the indigenous Māori, addressing climate change and the green economy, reversing a history of environmental despoliation and breaking New Zealand’s excessive reliance on commodity production and on cheap and imported labour.

In the second half of the 20th century the NZLP enjoyed just four three-year terms in government: one in the 1950s, one in the 70s and two consecutively in the 80s—meagre rations indeed. The Labour-led administration of Helen Clark, from 1999 to 2008, was the first to serve three consecutive terms since the 1940s.

With Ardern’s government now in its second term, one can only hope that a successful handling of the pandemic is not its only legacy, important as that is. There is much unfinished business for a progressive party in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Peter Davis
Peter Davis

Peter Davis is chair of the Helen Clark Foundation, an independent public-policy think tank. He is emeritus professor of population health and social science at the University of Auckland.

You are here: Home / Politics / The virus antidote: political leadership, progressive government, public services

Most Popular Posts

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse

Most Recent Posts

EU social agenda,social investment,social protection EU social agenda beyond 2024—no time to wasteFrank Vandenbroucke
pension reform,Germany,Lindner Pension reform in Germany—a market solution?Fabian Mushövel and Nicholas Barr
European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
artists,cultural workers Europe’s stars must shine for artists and creativesIsabelle Van de Gejuchte
transition,deindustrialisation,degradation,environment Europe’s industry and the ecological transitionCharlotte Bez and Lorenzo Feltrin

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube