The Curious Case of DJ Dimension

Hamish Pinkham, Program Director for Rhythm & Alps, pictured with NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Here we are on New Years Eve 2021, about to enter the realm of 2022 and hoping for a miraculous recovery from the tumultuous two years that we are about to close the door on. For most New Zealanders, excluding only the very young, the otherwise distracted, or the very unaware, the ravages of our country's political response to Covid-19 have been our everything since what seems like forever. Occasionally something happens that we all blow up out of rational proportion, and so it is with the curious case of the damned DJ. But are we blowing it up out of proportion? Or are our questions valid?

When news broke that DJ Dimension had brought Omicron to New Zealand and it had broken through (unsurprisingly) our pathetic border protection, kiwis around the nation went into an uproar.

The bedwetters, well they were instantly terrified. After all, our Prime Bedwetters, those odious 'experts' that MSM keep trotting out to sell their fear porn (not that they need the money with what Jacinda is paying the bow-and-scrape media these days) are warning that Omicron has a longer incubation period and it may test our vaccines to the limit - much eye-rolling ensued from those wee snippets of garbage from Baker and the Pink Fraggle.

Labour supporters went deathly quiet for a bit, fearful of the wave of criticism that would be sure to follow - and it did, just not as they thought it would. They’d expected a bit of stick about MIQ, sure, but a lot of kiwis immediately went for Jax's jugular - using Clarke for a knife. Muso's were always his thing more than hers, so it was easier than expected.

It all went down something like this:

Robert Etheridge aka DJ Dimension was due to headline Rhythm & Alps near Wanaka. The festival was multi-day, from 29 December to 1 January. At the last minute, the organisers announced that "Unfortunately due to the ongoing impacts of Covid-19, Friction and Dimension are unable to make it to Wānaka to perform..." Turned out those ongoing effects were because Dimension had tested positive for Omicron.

From 11:59pm Thursday 23 December 2021, most travellers had to spend 10 days in an MIQ facility. There was no self-isolation component, according to Chris Hipkins, who advised that "Bringing those final three days back into MIQ reduces the risk of the virus entering the community."

DJ Dimension had arrived in NZ on December 16, and returned three negative tests before testing positive on December 27, two days before the R&A gig was due to begin. More importantly, having arrived on the 16th, Dimension would only be eligible to leave MIQ and go into home isolation on the morning of the 24th of December at the earliest. Isolation would last three days, until the morning of the 27th. Which would have left him plenty of time to fly south for his gig. No excuses there, mate!

Problem was, if he was still in isolation on the 24th, he’d be sitting smack on the deadline for the new home isolation rules and might have had to stay in MIQ until the 27th. In any case, any exemption is from being in MIQ, not from having to isolate. Clearly not happy to be required to remain in MIQ, DJ somehow found a way around his problem. In just under seven days the popular DJ was released on his own recognisance into the New Zealand community to isolate himself unsupervised.

Just to recap, Dimension didn’t spend seven days in MIQ - he was released during the seventh day into home isolation. Apparently by the Ministry of Health according to Mr DJ himself but given there were to be no exceptions to the rules allowing a doof-doof DJ to wander off into the countryside potentially spreading Omicron like fertiliser, it seems a little concerning to most of us. He should not have been released until the 24th of December at least, by which time the rules would have changed, potentially requiring him to stay for ten days. In hindsight... 

Anyway, off he headed to what he claims was a private beachfront property on Waiheke Island where he was photographed with a couple of dogs and a glass of wine. How nice.

Hang on! Who owns those dogs? Can Dimension be deemed to be ‘isolating’ if he’s with someone else? Hard to believe the house owner lent him the dogs for the duration of his stay! He should probably not have been isolating with three 'housemates' and having drinks with the neighbours. Moving on...

Immediately the news broke that Doofy had been positive in the community, a hundred thousand outraged Kiwis rose up in unison to attack the man.

“What the hell?”
“How did he get to Waiheke?”
“Why wasn't he in MIQ for the full ten days?”

Pro-choice proponents and a multitude of others who had lost their jobs in an effort to keep NZ Covid-free, Aucklanders who had suffered restrictions for months to do the same, ticket-holders promised international acts that now wouldn’t appear (even though they only got vaccinated to see them), a number of other muso's caught in the close contact crossfire, and a handful of politicians seeing an opportunity to wound the government - all wanted a pound of flesh.

But wait a minute! What about those "close contacts"? It seemed that not content to 'isolate' (hah!) in a posh beachfront mansion, the DJ had travelled from Waiheke to Auckland on December 26th and visited a number of places there over the next two days (see end of article for LOI). We still haven’t been told where Doofy was between 8:00 pm and 9:30 pm on the 26th, or where he went after 3:00 am on the 27th. If he was returning to Waiheke the ferry doesn’t leave until 6am. For some reason those locations aren’t of interest to the Ministry of Health, and they don’t seem to think it matters to us either.

One of those places visited by Dimension was a private function held at Impala nightclub in the Auckland CBD. A few questions about that - for starters, whose function was it? It was obviously a muso event given the number of them who had to pull out of R&A due to becoming close contacts. Did they really not notice an esteemed international DJ had arrived at the door? Did anyone ask why he wasn’t still in ‘Rona iso? He wasn’t supposed to be out yet – he was still on his last day. Is the venue going to be fined? Will the hosts be fined? Do we even care?

The most notable silence seems to be from PM Jacinda Ardern. It seems that after allowing a little outrage, the PM is probably going to use her bought and paid for influence with mainstream media to dampen down the real hard questions that need to be asked.

We’ve heard about the ‘exemptions’ allowing Doofy into New Zealand three times in the last year. Red herrings galore, I say. He was given privilege due to his economic contribution to NZ (no sniggering please) over the likes of ICU nurses, doctors, seasonal workers, and Kiwi’s wanting to be with family before they die. And rightly there has been an outcry about that too. But that’s not the important question.

No one is questioning why Dimension was allowed to leave MIQ before the full seven days were up and head to Waiheke on the very day that Hipkins’ new MIQ requirements came in. Coincidence? Probably not. Personal relationship with the PM and her soon-to-be-husband? Probably.

No one is asking who he was staying with on Waiheke and why Min Health approved him not isolating. It’s unlikely the dogs owned the house or that the owners would leave them there alone.

No one is asking how or when he got from Waiheke back to Auckland (and possibly return), and no one seems to have been in touch with the ferry operators.

No one is questioning how Doofy was able to enter a close contact nightclub venue on the evening of the 26th despite being required to be isolating until at least the following morning.

No one is asking who was hosting that event, or whether it was with/without Vaccine Passes. It had to be 'with', being an 'other venue' for a private function that hosted more than 25 people (Auckland was at a Red traffic light!). Dimension obviously had a Pass then, so does Min Health activate them for international travellers even if the bearer is supposed to be isolating? Seems at odds with the purpose. Surely there’s a way to turn them off until a designated time and date!

No one is questioning the as-yet-unverified screengrab from the NZ Community Pharmacy Chat group on Facebook accusing Clarke Gayford of trying to convince a pharmacist that Min Health had changed its guidelines to allow for potentially exposed musicians to get a RAT test instead of a PCR that would be almost guaranteed to return positive and prevent a few from attending their gigs over NYE.

Why is there a complete silence on the issue of home isolation in the wake of the obvious need to discuss whether it’s a workable solution? Clearly its not, so either scrap it altogether or fix it – but don’t do nothing.

We may never have all the answers to our questions. For sure, no NZMSM journalist will even dig deep enough to break the surface in case they unwittingly expose our preciously fragile PM to criticism she can’t deal with. But we deserve answers. After everything New Zealand’s citizens have gone through, both here and overseas, we deserve those damn answers.

And where the hell are Jacinda and Clarke?

* Sunny Town Commercial Bay (26/12 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm), Partridge Jewellers 26/12 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm), Ahi Restaurant Commercial Bay (26/12 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm), Soul Bar and Bistro (26/12 9.30pm-11pm), and Impala Nightclub (26/12 11:00 pm to 27/12 3:00 am).