Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - MINI: We Caught Up With Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern To Discuss PICNICS!

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

After the "road map" out of Covid was announced, we caught up with the Prime Minister and discussed all the new rules around picnic-ing, bathroom-ing, and socially distancing. And why aren't the rest of the country in Level 1 yet?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits with Jono and Ben, New Zealand's breakfast. Now after nearly two months in lockdown isolation, Aucklanders can finally burst their bubble with some loved ones. There's a lot of rules, there's a lot of things to kind of get your head around and we're joined right now. How are you? By the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who nominated a $9 bottle of Chardonnay into the nation's picnic basket before 8 o'clock. Jacinda, welcome. Good morning, how are you? We're doing alright, how are you? I don't even really drink Chardonnay.

Yeah, we put you on the spot there. You panicked. I just thought, what does Auckland need, to be honest? Probably a drink. Yeah, she panic purchased Chardonnay. We've all done it before. How are you going, Jacinda, alright? Oh, not too bad.

More worried about how everyone in Auckland is doing. Yeah, well the road roadmap out of Auckland, does it lead to open roads or does it lead to a dead-end street? I mean, where are we sitting on this roadmap to out of Auckland? We're going... For out of Auckland, do you literally mean a road? Well, no, I was just thinking in the plan, the three-step plan that, you know...

He's tried an analogy. It hasn't quite worked. It's quite confusing, right? I literally switched immediately to whether you were asking me about the regional boundary. Yeah, you're like, I can't leave Auckland, you idiot! We are going to have to be careful, and so that's why

we've really just signalled, obviously what we're going to do is the first move. I just wanted to give Aucklanders a bit of a sense that rather than the usual where we just flip straight from three to two, this has been a harder outbreak. And you'll see after seven weeks of really hard restrictions,

we haven't managed to get those cases down to zero. So it does mean we have to be really careful. And that's why you'll see that the stages are all about how do you move down into what we usually get to with two. So we're going to have to take it slow. Hey, taking economics, the economy out of it, taking politics out of it, purely on a health level, what would Dr Ashley Bloomfield have ideally wanted Auckland

to stay in level 3, 4? How long? You know, what we presented was what came from the public health team. Almost, I can't think of, apart from the odd time where we've had different views on where we use face masks, we are very, very careful about ever doing anything that Dr. Bloomfield and the public health team don't recommend. Yeah, right. What we stand up on the podium and share is almost always exactly what they have advised. Because Susie's saying she's gutted.

Susie Wilds. She's like level one as we knew it over summer, you know, last summer. It's never going to happen again. Well, I think just what Susie's expressing there is that this outbreak, and look, I can't speak for her, but, you know, everyone wanted to see those restrictions managed to get those cases down to zero. But it has been much harder this time. I'm glad we haven't got to zero yet either,

because that would have been much, much easier. So have we given up on that, Prime Minister? Have we given up on zero and eliminating COVID? Well, we've always said elimination was a strategy that we used while we didn't have vaccines, right? Because we had no other way to deal with the fact that COVID was with us than ultimately trying to get rid of it entirely because we didn't have vaccines to keep us safe. So that's why we use those really harsh restrictions. And when we first had this outbreak, we still didn't have enough people vaccinated.

So we used the same tools we always did and exactly the same thing. It has been harder this time. Lots and lots of reasons for that, not less Delta. But we always said we wanted to transition away from when we had cases from having to use three and four. If you're going to do that, then that transition is something that really this outbreak has sped up for us. Using the vaccine more, getting more people vaccinated so that we can use that more than we use restrictions. I know you're in a really difficult position because a lot of the cases, if we're calling a spade a spade, are due to rule-breaking rule-breakers,

gang members who generally don't conform with society. How do you get those people vaccinated? Well, actually, we have the same conversation we have with everyone about vaccinations and how important they are. And we just, of course, use other people rather than just us talking about that as well. But, you know, I do think that we will get vaccination in lots of communities that we otherwise might not expect.

And that's got to be our job, you know, leave no one untouched because it actually affects all of us when people choose, if they choose not to be vaccinated. So a lot of people are confused about, I mean, it's the picnic situation or having people over. We all understand it's got to be outside and socially distanced. It has to be outside. But then the bathroom thing seems to be contradiction about Kenya.

I know a lot of people have asked me about the bathroom. No, I'm really clear on this. The reason is the bathroom thing is only because when we said don't go inside and then someone said, well, what about, or we sit we said don't go inside and then someone said well what about or if there's so just don't go inside don't go inside so don't go inside okay so jono comes over keep it nice and simple don't go inside and if look you're really stressed about whether or not this is going to be manageable just just be in a park or a place where uh where this isn't going to be a dilemma for you. How much do you love all the journos picking holes in your plan?

What if it's windy outside? Can I pee in a bush? You know what, if you stick to the, just people understand the principles. The outside thing is key. You know, this is the only way that this can happen safely because of, you know, ventilation, basically. Just quickly before you go Prime Minister,

we've got a lot of people listening from the South Island. There hasn't been COVID there for a long time and no one can leave Auckland. How come they have to stay currently in Level 2 at the moment? Can you sense frustration from the South Island on that regard? Yeah, and look one of the reasons is

the same reason that we've got those restrictions in Hamilton and Palmerston North and Tauranga. While we have an outbreak in New Zealand, you know, everyone's at risk because no border is hard and fast. This prevents us having to go into heavy restrictions if we find cases. Yesterday, the threat of Producer Juliette not being able to go to Northern Base if she's not vaccinated. Do you think that's going to hit home with that generation, Prime Minister? Well, it's actually regardless. It's just something we need to do to make those events safe.

So, you know, I think a lot of people will appreciate that if they're at an event with thousands of people, knowing that other people around them are vaccinated and it's just going to add an extra layer of safety. So lots of other places, lots of other countries have done it. It's been something that supported them being safe with COVID and so we should learn from that. Promise to Jacinda Ardern, thanks for your time. You keen for a picnic later or are you

a bit busy? Stuck in Wellington. Why would she want to be in your 10 person bubble? I'll put together a nice picnic anyway. Your household's 10 people max. Keep a distance. Stay outside.

Thanks, Jacinda. Thank you. See you. Jono and Ben on the hits breakfast. Friends of Skinny.