David, Retired. Southland, NZ.

The current Covid enquiry recalled the event as I experienced it while living in Tasmania.

Compared to the Draconian measures imposed by the New Zealand government which led to widespread hardship and social and economic damage much of which continues to this day, the Tasmanian government imposed far fewer restrictions based on commonsense rather than misguided and often downright cruel measures imposed in this country. In particular I recall the Ardern government's refusal to allow even pregnant New Zealand women living overseas to return home.

While there were some mistakes made in the early stages in Tasmania, such as allowing cruise ship passengers ashore without any checks in the northern port of Burnie, the Tasmanian authorities learned from what was happening so that social and economic damage was pretty much kept to a minimum.

Given all the harm that resulted here from the absurdly over-zealous measures imposed it will be fascinating to see whether the New Zealand enquiry is the all-too-common token performance or one which really deals with the hard facts.