Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has opened his diary to give constituents an idea of issues that have arisen and what his work has entailed during the Level 4 lockdown.

These entries relate to days 6-12 of the lockdown.

Monday, March 30

As we enter the second week of lockdown there are still a lot of unanswered questions out there. In the seven days since the lockdown has been announced so far my offices and I have received and dealt with about three months of enquiries. Today has started with working on getting a Southland couple home from South America after receiving multiple messages from members of the community about them being stuck on a small cruise ship. They weren’t allowed to board a flight over there, due to the transit arrangements through Australia not being allowed. To make matters worse, not having any wifi on board meant getting updates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that much harder. After many phone calls, I managed to connect the dots. Things are well underway for getting the family home. Today we have 589 cases of Covid-19.

Tuesday, March 31

I’ve received multiple calls and emails from farmers about the situation with freezing works in some cases running up to 60% less than capacity which means they can’t get stock away. This is one of the many examples I am seeing daily that we need to get out of Level 4 as soon as we possibly can and to do that everyone needs to be following the rules. Southland is even worse off in this shortage in space at the works because of the recent floods which means there just isn’t the feed around to carry all of the stock through winter. I’m advocating hard for farmers to ensure we can get through this and get our works moving back up to capacity when it is safe to do so. Freezing workers are also concerned about their safety having to work in a high populated environment but it’s good to see everyone doing all they can at this stage to look after everyone’s interests. Today up the road in Queenstown, the Queenstown Lakes District Hospital was also closed to inpatients after two nurses tested positive for Covid-19. While an unnerving situation the fast response from all involved meant the disruption was minimal. It did highlight though how important our front line health care workers are. Today we had 647 cases of Covid-19

Wednesday, April 1

There are still many queries coming in around butchers and greengrocers, who I have been advocating for to have operational. It makes no sense that people who have these services in their small rural towns should have to travel large distances to visit supermarkets when they have all the essentials close by. The message has also started rolling out about the most vulnerable and elderly getting their flu vaccines after the Prime Minister encouraged everyone to do so. However many people begin raising with me that there are in fact not enough flu vaccines at our medical practices throughout Southland. Many people have got in touch with me, frustrated that even though they were trying to do the right thing and get their flu shots from their local doctors, they weren’t available. Several medical practices throughout the region have confirmed it. After some phone calls though there does appear to be some available at pharmacies throughout the region. I made further phone calls to highlight the shortage here in Southland and to try and ramp up getting more to our medical practices who need them. At the end of this day, we have 708 cases of Covid-19.

Thursday, April 2

The day started well with the good news in that the hard work had paid off for the Southland couple stuck in South America who are boarding their first flight back to NZ today. More enquiries are coming in about the situation with migrant workers and those who visas are expiring or are due to be coming in. After lobbying the Immigration Minister it was good to see an announcement in this space the week prior for those out of work. However, there were still some questions. I’ve assisted farmers who are short-staffed or waiting on staff with other employees, whether part-time or permanent to help keep them going when our countries need them most. Today we had 797 cases of Covid-19.

Friday, April 3

Today reality began to sink in for me about how serious the repercussions of this pandemic and lockdown will be. Every day this week I have spoken to a business owner who has had to make the heartbreaking decision to let some staff go in order to survive. There will be many more in the same position in the coming weeks, it is the harsh reality of what we are facing. There will be even more if this lockdown goes on for any longer which is one of the many reasons we need to follow the rules and stay home. Our country will survive this, as the backbone of our country truly shows how important it is – the primary sector. Today we have 868 cases of Covid-19.

Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5

The good news came in that the family stranded in South America had arrived back in New Zealand over the weekend and are currently in quarantine in the North Island where they landed. This weekend the Government also gave more direction around exercising which clarified a lot for people so hopefully, people understand better how they need to follow the rules. There are still many questions about what is deemed essential and what isn’t but slowly and surely the list is being carved. At the end of today (Sunday) we have 1039 cases of Covid-19.

One thing that has become clear, which is probably of no surprise to a lot of people is that the primary sector is and will continue to be the backbone of this country. We cannot thank our farmers, contractors, truck drivers, shearers, fert reps and everyone else associated with the industry enough for what they do. They are the reason our country will survive this. Stay safe Southland.