Mark Miller is devastated he will never get the chance to be with his 80-year-old mother Joy Miller, and is calling on authorities to change how they deal with compassionate exemptions.
Miller, who returned from Singapore earlier this month and is on day 11 of mandated isolation at the Commodore Hotel in Christchurch, said all he wanted to do was be near his Nelson-based mum who was suffering from advanced dementia after her health took a turn for the worse at the weekend.
But an urgent application for an exemption from managed isolation was rebuffed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment who are in charge of granting Managed Isolation and Quarantine exemptions without reason around 4.30pm yesterday, 72 hours after it was lodged.
More bad news followed when a late night email arrived at 12.30am informing him his mother had died.
Now all he had to treasure was the final FaceTime session the pair shared on Tuesday, heartbroken he was unable to fulfil her dying wish.
"The last thing my mother ever said to me was 'Please come home dear' - and I am stuck here," he wept over the phone from his Christchurch hotel room.
"It's such a cruel and heartless decision. The system shows no compassion or they simply don't care."
Miller, who had made plans to return to New Zealand a few months ago when his mum's health wasn't so dire, was looking forward to spending time with her in Nelson.
He had travelled here with his wife Dussadee and was looking forward to a road trip across the South Island.
While he supported the Government response to eliminating Covid-19 in the community, today he was critical about the lack of consideration for people like himself who presented a zero risk to the wider community. Both he and his wife had tested negative for Covid-19 and had come from a country that was in a similar situation as New Zealand with limited community transmission.
"I would be certain in saying we have no more risk of having Covid than someone taken at random from the Auckland population.
"I understand if we had come from US, Europe, or India, we would be much higher risk, and therefore to provide an exemption would not be appropriate, but in our case, what risk is there?"
Miller also said the timing was appallingly slow given he had just short notice from management at his mother's rest home at the weekend that she was seriously ailing.
At the time rest home staff told him he would have just 48 hours to be with her before she passed.
He applied on Sunday afternoon but did not hear back from Managed Isolation and Quarantine until three days later.
"By Tuesday morning I had heard nothing," he said. "I just went into a black hole."
Given the pressing deadline he raised the issue with staff at the Christchurch facility.
He said the way requests were handled needed a serious overhaul.
"I think New Zealand has lost the plot. Maybe it will change after Sunday with the election?"
He said it hurt that he did not get an explanation why he was refused and showed no compassion to those facing traumatic times in their lives.
Miller said he now would likely never get to see his mum in the flesh, honouring her wishes for a cremation in the coming hours.
"She didn't want a funeral. Her page of instructions were that she simply wanted to be cremated and put in a cardboard box.'
He hoped raising this on one of the saddest dies of his life would somehow bring change.
"I'm speaking out about this and putting it in the public domain that it might highlight the issue and help the next person who finds themselves in a similar situation."
Managed Isolation and Quarantine say they will be responding to the situation.
