Why the Government is waiting 48 hours to tell us its Covid-19 rules decision

Cabinet has made a decision about changing the country’s Covid-19 rules but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the decision won’t be announced until Wednesday.

Ardern said the two-day wait would not adversely impact anyone, as the announcement was focused on future changes – not urgent ones. She said the time was needed to work on the finer points of the announcement, and prepare information for the public and businesses, so they could easily follow the new rules.

Earlier in the pandemic, it became common for these press briefings to include major announcements about alert level shifts. But she said those urgent decisions reflected a unique stage of the pandemic, when rules needed to change quickly.

The Government is expected to loosen Covid-19 restrictions, as the Omicron outbreak appears to have reached its peak in Auckland.

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During Monday’s post-Cabinet press conference, Ardern said the Government would detail changes to vaccine passes and mandates on Wednesday.

Opposition parties said she should confirm any easing back of restrictions sooner. ACT leader David Seymour said Ardern effectively “made an announcement about an announcement”, and should “treat us like adults and tell us what it is”.

Ardern said there would be “plenty of time to prepare”, with the announcement set for Wednesday.

“There is literally no-one that will be impacted by us taking those extra 48 hours, because the changes aren’t immediate,” she said.

The two-day wait was needed, she said, to sort out orders and prepare clear information.

“Over the next 48 hours, there is some additional pieces of work we need to finalise. We will be updating guidance, preparing orders, and ironing out some final details, to ensure everything is as straightforward as possible,” she said.

Ardern said it was normal for Cabinet to make a decision, but not publicise it, until further work was done to implement that decision. Some Cabinet decisions are kept under wraps for more than a week, as officials work on the plan.

She said the Government needed to ensure any “knock-on effects” of its decision were addressed, and to draft the order.

The announcement on Wednesday would be focused on the future of the Covid-19 response rather than enacting immediate changes, she said.

The main focus of Monday’s press conference was on Ukraine. Ardern appeared with Chief of Defence Air Marshal Kevin Short to announce $5 million in non-lethal military aid and body armour for the war-torn country.

How Cabinet works

Led by the prime minister, Cabinet is the meeting of the Government’s senior ministers. The Cabinet Manual, which is effectively the rulebook for how to govern, says “matters of public interest, importance, or controversy” should go before Cabinet.

It regularly meets on Mondays, before Ardern talks to media at her weekly “post-cab” press conference.

There are also Cabinet committees, which can be empowered to make their own decisions in certain situations. Those committees meet throughout the week.

But the pandemic has been on the table of the entire Cabinet, as one of the paramount policy issues of this Government.

Covid-19 legislation empowers the prime minister or director-general of health to issue Covid-19 orders. When the prime minister makes a Covid-19 order, impacting the entire country or regions, she is required to do so via the Gazette – an official record of the Government.

As it is major public policy, impacting multiple sectors, the Cabinet Manual says those decisions should be discussed at Cabinet.