As the Lockdown has progressed, the signs of further state control over New Zealanders’ freedoms by this Labour, NZ First and Green coalition is becoming ever more apparent.

We are seeing the state give itself more power, both through the suppression of civil liberties and the expansion of the state. Police checkpoints have been established and increased, with nearly the 300 prosecutions; we have also seen the first person imprisoned for breaching these lockdown rules. Furthermore, the government shows a lack of transparency in its refusal to show the advice given, considering they ignored advice in the first place that led to their desperate scramble.

This government has now, overseen by Andrew Little, been pitched proposals to further surveil and control the movement of New Zealanders, with one disquieting proposal being the ‘CovidCard’ — a bluetooth card that would be carried on one's person that would communicate with other cards while people move around, allowing their every movement to be tracked. This is occurring at the same time that the enforcers of government policies have already become increasingly uncomfortable and in a moral predicament about directives that have already begun to be pushed forward under this government.

One source has outlined that “...background government discussion has included the proposal that over time, police will have the right to stop you and demand your “Viral ID” and travel papers…”. If reports like this are accurate, it appears to be in line with the current authoritarian trajectory we have been witnessing.

New Conservative demands that the government stop expanding the tracking and controlling of New Zealanders in such retrogressive and Orwellian ways. Singapore, a country already under extensive surveillance, was unable to implement this process successfully due to many loopholes, so expanding the surveillance powers in New Zealand will not only be another suppressive policy to the liberty of New Zealand, it will also be another expensive failure for this government.

New Conservative were at the forefront of exposing the government’s carelessly slow reaction to Covid-19 in January; we are now at the forefront of calling the government out for its overcorrect measures that have not sensibly taken the well-being of our economy into account.

We have detailed how the Lockdown should be conducted. New Zealanders need to be given back their civil and economic freedoms, and there needs to be a return to community with some prudent measures of safety in place for some of our more vulnerable members of society.

“The expansion of state control over the movement and tracking of a nation’s people is not a new idea, but simply a progression in the policies historically attached to the ideological children of Marx: that of socialism, communism and fascism,” says Deputy Leader Elliot Ikilei.

“Beneath the seemingly gentle, shallow waves of Prime Minister Ardern's smile and calls for "kindness" lies the darker, if more honest, insidiousness of Minister Little's policies, implementing the gradual replacement of New Zealand values with the ideology that has been the most lethal in all of human history."

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