Stuff reports:
The incumbent centre-right political group has repeated its clean sweep of the election for Entrust, the consumer trust which owns the majority of the electricity lines company Vector.
But the dismal turnout in the triennial postal ballot has fallen to a record 9.64 per cent, compared with the previous record low of 12.44 per cent in 2018.
The National Party-leaning Communities and Residents (C&R) ticket retained all five seats on Entrust, with the new trustees including two former National MPs Paul Hutchinson and Denise Lee, a former party board member Alastair Bell, and Michael Buczkowski and William Cairns.
The highest polling unsuccessful candidate was Emma McInnes, from the newly-formed More for You, Better for Climate group, who missed the cut 838 votes behind re-elected trust chairman William Cairns.
I was interested in the results of this election, as I thought it might be a useful reminder of how unrepresentative Twitter is.
The MFUBFC group were everywhere on Twitter. I saw tweets and hashtags for them hundreds and hundreds of times. If Twitter was your world, then they were everywhere. I’m not sure I can even recall a single tweet or hashtag for the C&R team. The ration of profile between the two was probably at least 50:1.
Yet the C&R team won in a clean sweep.
Even though the MFYBFC team was from the left, that didn’t mean some of their candidates weren’t impressive. In fact I even have some money invested with a fund managed by one of them. I regard him as a very smart business operator. So the problem for MFYBFC wasn’t the quality of their candidates – I think it was that they seemed to spend so much time online preaching to the converted rather than reaching out to those not on social media.
The Taxpayers’ Union has made a TV ad and is crowdfunding to get it in front of millions of Kiwis online (using paid Facebook and YouTube ads) plus on TV.
To chip in to the advertising fund, they’ve got a secure website for confidential donations here.
Hopefully they hit their fundraising goal and we get to see it on TV!
Stuff reports:
Just one guest stayed at the Grand Mercure managed isolation hotel in Wellington last week, where dozens of staff were working.
It’s understood the person arrived on a private plane following a family issue in New Zealand.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Managed Isolation and Quarantine confirmed the 102-room hotel had just one guest between October 21 and October 28.
It meant 88 isolation rooms went empty over that period, as well as 13 quarantine rooms.
Up to 50 staff were still working at the facility during that time, looking after the single guest.
I’m not sure what is more outrageous – the huge waste of taxpayers money or the fact 20,000+ Kiwis can’t get home because the Government is so incompetent at managing MIQ.
A guest post by Shadow Attorney-General Chris Penk:
Conflict within the judiciary must be addressed urgently by the Attorney-General.
It is highly troubling to read reports that certain judges have sought to influence the conduct of a court case being heard by another member of the bench, Judge Callinicos.
Readers of Kiwiblog may have seen reports that Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu and Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran entered into discussions with one of the parties to the “Moana” case – the party being government agency Oranga Tamariki, no less – while it was still in progress. It has also been reported that those Heads of Bench then proceeded to contact Judge Callinicos about his handling of the case.
If these reports are accurate, both senior judges have acted in a manner that is entirely inappropriate.
Judge Taumaunu surely cannot credibly claim that he was merely seeking to engage Judge Callinicos with concerns over the latter’s “in-court conduct”, rather than his decision-making: a judge’s conduct of a trial is an exercise in judicial decision making in itself. Certainly such intervention was ill-timed, at the very least.
It is difficult to disagree that these senior judges’ actions represent “a breach of judicial independence”, as Judge Callinicos himself has characterised it.
There are appropriate ways for complaints about judicial conduct to be made. None of these involve private discussions taking place behind closed doors between judges uninvolved in the case being heard, especially while the matter remains live.
Judicial independence is critical to safeguarding the rights and freedom of citizens under the rule of law. Open justice is a cornerstone of New Zealand’s system of government and must not be casually corrupted.
This situation is extremely concerning, not only because it brings in question the judgement of some of our most senior judges but also as it will undermine public trust in the courts system.
In addition, it is very unseemly, to say the least, that judges are now litigating the matter in the public arena.
It is unfortunate that the most senior levels of our judiciary have demonstrated a lack of leadership in the matter. This being so, the Attorney-General is the constitutionally appropriate figure to resolve this situation of conflict between judges.
I acknowledge that the involvement of the Attorney-General could itself be considered an intrusion, given that powers of New Zealand’s branches of government should generally be exercised separately. I would support the Attorney-General actively providing leadership in this matter, however, as the judiciary is proving itself incapable of regulating its own affairs properly.
Indeed I would strongly urge the Attorney-General to step in.
So far, the signs are not promising. I have asked Written Parliamentary Questions of the Attorney-General regarding his possible involvement. First, I asked whether he had received advice in the matter, intending then to seek a copy of such advice by way of OIA request. His answer was “no”. I then asked Mr Parker if he has sought any advice about the situation. His answer, which I have just received, was again “no”.
The Attorney-General should be taking note of issues of judicial conflict. Simply turning a blind eye to them will prevent justice from being seen to be done.
Trying to make sense of what you can and can’t do now and in the future is damn hard. The Government has managed to take what was a simple system and turn it into one with 13 different variations. There are four alert levels, three steps, three traffic lights and three variations based on vaccination certificates.
Just to understand it myself I started to do an excel spreadsheet. I figured others might be equally puzzled, so am publishing it here. Note this is unofficial advice based on my interpretation of the Government websites.
NV means no vaccination certificates. 1m means 1 metre social distancing.
I find it amazing that bodies that once professed to care about human rights (Council for Civil Liberties, Human Rights Commission) are almost silent on the human rights implications of vaccination mandates.
I’m not saying there isn’t a case for vaccination mandates, certainly in areas such the healthcare system. But deciding that a barista can lose their job if they don’t agree to a particular medical procedure has huge implications in terms of the Bill of Rights. The bodies that should be leading the debate are silent.
Does the right of an employer to be able to be more profitable and allow more than 100 customers in at a time, exceed the rights of an employee to not have a particular vaccination? Does the CTU have a view on this?
One can make the case for a vaccine mandate for primary schools and ECE as students there are not (yet) able to be vaccinated. But does the logic hold up for secondary schools and universities? Is the right to an education contingent on vaccination status?
The NZ Bill of Rights Act says that everyone has the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment. Is that right contingent on an employer being able to retrospectively insist of vaccination or you lose your job?
These are massive issues and they are being rushed through without any of the bodies that claim to believe in human rights leading a debate on what the right balance is.
Stuff reports:
An 18-year-old woman, who had been trespassed from a Ministry of Social Development office, slipped into the building and assaulted a staff member so violently that she broke her hip and wrist.
Latia Tipa-McQueen assaulted the staffer at Work and Income New Zealand’s Sydenham branch in Christchurch on July 30.
Tipa-McQueen had previously been trespassed from the office but “ghosted” in with a staff member and then forced her way through a door and past security. When a woman staffer recognised her and confronted her about the trespass, Tipa-McQueen charged her and pushed her over before kicking her three times.
On Wednesday, the Christchurch District Court was told the 64-year-old victim’s injuries were severe and recovery would be slow. The woman had sustained a broken hip and wrist, and extensive bruising.
So this 18 year old thug broke a trespass order, made her way into a WINZ office and beat up a 64 year old so badly she broke her wrist and hip.
In her victim impact statement, the woman told of being unable to walk without a walking frame or crutches, and having to have her house modified because of her mobility problems, after previously regularly walking, cycling, and enjoying social outings with friends.
She may never fully recover.
Tipa-McQueen had earlier admitted a charge of intentionally injuring the woman, as well as charges of threatening and assaulting staff at a bank branch when she was refused a debit card because she did not have enough money.
The bank staff had not been seriously injured, but were left shaken and remained “unsettled” when out in public because of threats Tipa-McQueen made to have members of two gangs deal with them.
Tipa-McQueen had also been convicted for failing to come to court while she was on bail. She was on bail at the time of the Work and Income assault.
So she has also assaulted bank staff, threatened people with gangs, has failed to turn up to court and broken bail conditions at least twice.
Tipa-McQueen explained that she did want treatment, but she did not want rehabilitation in a group setting “where I am forced and pressured into admitting I have got a problem”.
Judge Quentin Hix said Tipa-McQueen’s offending warranted a jail term of 47 months, but reduced it for her guilty pleas, her youth, and for personal factors, to an end-sentence of 18 months.
Judge Hix granted leave for Tipa-McQueen to apply for home detention during her jail sentence if an arrangement became available for a good rehabilitation plan, either with support from an alcohol and drug rehabilitation organisation, or at a residential programme.
And she gets home detention!!
Item 1: Good news out of Britain for the Vaxxed and Unvaxxed.
Although the double-vaxxed are catching Covid at higher rates than the unvaxxed in the UK they are still having lower incidents of serious illness. However, for both, death rates for people who have had positive tests are now very low.
Under 18s: Zero for both categories (classes?) – and yet to play 1st XV Rugby in Auckland now you need to be vaccinated.
18 to 29: 0.1/100,000 vaxxed, 0.5/100,000 unvaxxed
30 to 39: 0.2/100,000 vaxxed, 0.9/100,000 unvaxxed
40 to 49: 0.6/100,000 vaxxed, 3.5/100,000 unvaxxed
50 to 59: 1.7/100,000 vaxxed, 12.8/100,000 unvaxxed
60 to 69: 5.5/100,000 vaxxed, 26.7/100,000 unvaxxed
70 to 79: 15.8/100,000 vaxxed, 56.4/100,000 unvaxxed
80+: 56.3/100,000 vaxxed, 144.1/100,000 unvaxxed
So – the advances in treatment, etc, means that if I was a man in my 50s and choose not to have the vaccine and was then unlucky enough to get covid – I have a 0.0128% chance of dying within 60 days.
Item 2: Ardern lifts the profile of New Zealand around the world – either through pushing around interpreters, redefining the class system, or seeing to it that some teachers & health workers get the sack.
Daily Mail on the argy bargy: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10130755/Jacinda-Ardern-FINALLY-explains-barging-sign-language-interpreter-way.html
CNN on the argy bargy: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/10/25/new-zealand-interpreter-moos-pkg-vpx.cnn
The Telegraph on the sackings: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/27/jacinda-ardern-gives-new-zealand-customer-service-workers-month/
The Telegraph on the new class system: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/24/jacinda-ardern-admits-covid-plan-creating-two-tier-system-new/
Paul Joseph Watson on her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNY4nI_rtdQ&ab_channel=AnythingGoes
Hitler on hospital preparedness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTpXUMl7Stw&ab_channel=AtomAntBoy
Item 3: The NZ Ministry of Education ranks third most secretive in terms of OIA extensions.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/126720470/official-oia-statistics-are-close-to-useless
Item 4: Disaster in NZ for many families and children.
In July the Villa Education Trust had a Designated Character School proposal for 480 neuro-diverse students turned down. Why? The Minister (Hipkins) and Ministry formally told them that:
“there are available supports for all learners in existing state schools”
Since July things have obviously gone very badly and yesterday in the House ex PPTA head Angela Roberts and ex NZEI and Primary Principal Jan Tinetti (ass. Minister of Education) had this exchange.
10. Angela ROBERTS to the Associate Minister of Education: What work is she progressing for students with the highest learning support needs?
Jan Tinetti: We know that some students aren’t getting the right support they need and when they need it … the changes we are making will benefit 50,000 to 80,000 students in that situation.
Where have 80,000 high needs students suddenly come from?
Stuff reported:
Wellington City Council has voted 10-4 to retain its stake in Wellington International Airport.
The vote came as a surprise because it was initially intended to be held in secret during a session of the council’s finance and performance committee that excluded the public.
The vote was revealed after a last-minute vote to open the meeting to the public.
The council owns a 34 per cent holding in Wellington International Airport. The remaining 66 per cent share is owned by Infratil.
This was a very disappointing decision, especially as WCC could have used the cash from any sale to help finance infrastructure that the Council actually needs to own. There are many reasons why WCC would be better off selling the 34%.
The problem is Council has so many leftish ideologues that won’t look at the ownership on its merits. They are wedded to the status quo no matter how stupid it is. What they should be doing is looking at it from a opportunity viewpoint. If the Council suddenly had say $400 million would it really think the best use of that money is a 34% share in an airport as opposed to water infrastructure, housing etc.
The Herald reports:
Kiwi singing legend Sir Dave Dobbyn has come out in support of the Covid vaccine – but says the fight should be against the virus, not people.
The 64-year-old has taken to Facebook to express his views and to declare his own vaccination status.
“I am double vaccinated. I encourage it for everyone. But I call out the unkindness directed at those who haven’t yet taken the step.”
He ended the post, shared late this morning, with the hashtag: “Fight Covid not humanity.” …
Responding to a tweet by writer Hamish Keith, saying the unvaccinated will feel isolated and picked on and “so they bloody well should”, Dobbyn said: “I thought we’re fighting Covid, not humanity.”
To which Keith replied: “I hope you missed my point. There are a number of people for reasons against reason putting the health of the rest of us at risk – that is I believe a dangerous and possibly lethal point of few – should we simply shrug it off?”
Hamish Keith is wrong, as well as nasty. And poor old Dave Dobbyn had to endure a Twitter lynch mob because he dared suggest we be kind to people.
As I have said many times I regard the vaccines as great, and I have been fully vaccinated. I’ll be keen on the inevitable booster shots next year also.
Those who seem to get most angry at the unvaccinated are the vaccinated, and that is actually pretty stupid as the vaccinated have little to fear from the unvaccinated. If you are vaccinated you are less likely to get Covid-19, more likely to not get any symptoms from it, less likely to be hospitalized and far less likely to die.
The people who should worry about the unvaccinated are the, well, unvaccinated. They are the ones far more likely to get Covid-19, be hospitalised with it, and die from it.
So vaccinated people should chill out a bit. No need to treat the unvaccinated as some sort of mortal threat to you – they’re mainly a threat to themselves.
Sure I want as many people to get vaccinated as possible, but that is more about lifting lockdown restrictions. The notion that any of us will not be exposed to Covid-19 in the next few years is farcical. It is when, not if. Look up the word endemic.
Again I want as many as possible vaccinated to stop lockdowns and to reduce the strain on the health system. But as a fully vaccinated person I do not intend to treat unvaccinated people as lepers or some sort of sub-class of humanity. It is inevitable I will be exposed to Covid-19 one day, but thanks to vaccines the chance of it hospitalising me is greatly reduced.
Stuff reports:
The cost of the Waikeria Prison riot has been released and is in the millions of dollars, according to a National Party MP.
Simeon Brown said in a statement that the Department of Corrections’ Annual Report shows the costs of the six-day riot is $46 million.
The riot at Waikeria Prison, about 40 minutes south of Hamilton, started on December 29 and lasted six days.
The rioters set fires, about 200 other prisoners had to be evacuated, and the structural integrity of the 110-year-old “top jail” was seriously damaged.
So the taxpayer gets a bill for $46 million because authorities wouldn’t send in a riot squad to end the riot. Tear gas and water cannons are there for a reason!
Stuff reports:
The Government has decided to push ahead with Three Waters reforms and take control of water services and assets from local councils, despite considerable opposition.
The proposed reform of the country’s three water services – drinking, waste, and storm water – has caused outcry among political opponents and some local councils, which currently have ownership of billions in water assets, have loudly opposed proposed reforms.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Wednesday said the Government would legislate in early December to create four new water entities that would take on the water assets currently owned by councils.
This is the Government announcing it will pass legislation to legally steal billions of dollars of assets from democratically elected Councils.
The Government claims that it is not theft, as the Councils will still own the assets – just not manage them. This is farcical as ownership without control is not ownership. Imagine if you own your house and the Government announces that you will still own your house, but you have to move out and any decisions about who lives in it will be made by some committee, Would you regard that as satisfactory?
The four megawater entities will be as far removed from community influence as possible. Basically the proposal is:
So the actual water entities will be multiple levels away from the community and accountability. And unelected Iwi will have the same amount of voting power as the democratically elected Councils on the regional representative group. In the South Island Ngai Tahu will appoint six representatives – the same as the 27 local councils.
You can sign the petition against the Three Waters asset grab here. A background paper is here. And you can donate to the campaign against here.
Also NZTU have launched a dedicated website to stop the theft here.
Duncan Garner writes at NBR:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government have been exposed. The myth has been busted and only the truly deluded and card-carrying sycophants surely now think they’ve handled this pandemic well.
Just before half-time in the battle against Covid, Ardern left the field to take selfies and sign autographs, thinking the game was won.
The rest is called Delta. Can someone please pass this on to the luvvies who see her as a demi-god?
Ardern’s crew got lucky when Covid hit us the first time. But not now.
The sham has been revealed, the pandemic has turned nasty, and I suspect the voter worm is heading south too.
Put simply, this government had a couple of jobs to do once it realised we had dodged the first bullet. It had to prepare our health system for the well-documented second coming called Delta. And it had to secure a vaccine and get it into our arms as quickly as possible.
The result was no extra staffed ICU beds and until the Delta outbreak we had the slowest rollout in the developed world.
[Rest of quoted column deleted, to stay within fair use law. You can subscribe to NBR to see the full column]
I posted this challenge on Twitter and enjoyed reading for the next couple of days, people responding with praise and more for people from the other side of the political aisle.
I strongly think this is important. I think the United States faces huge problems as people’s political identification has become more important than their shared citizenship. As each side considers the other side as treasonous, then anything is justified to claim or hold power.
New Zealand is lucky that we are not there yet, and I hope we don’t end up there. I will vehemently critique the policies, beliefs and performance of MPs where I think they are bad for New Zealand. But that does not mean I think those MPs and their supporters are bad. We just disagree. The moment you become incapable of seeing good in those you disagree with, then you become the problem.
Some of the responses yesterday were (starting with me):
My challenge to readers is to do the same in the comments, and cite someone you like or respect despite them being someone whose politics you disagree with. And I mean genuine compliments, not along the lines of “X because they are too incompetent to do real harm”.
The bill is here. Key aspects:
NewstalkZB reports:
An Auckland couple say incessant noise from their Kāinga Ora neighbour is destroying their lives, leaving them at breaking point with chronic insomnia and stress.
The offending property in Avondale’s Eastdale Rd has amassed a staggering 72 noise complaints to Auckland Council since the female tenant moved in in March.
Neighbours – some of whom have slept in their car to escape the racket – are pleading with authorities to act before the situation boils over.
72 complaints since March – so basically 10 complaints a month.
The couple could no longer stand the noise and planned to put their home on the market.
They felt Kāinga Ora should evict the woman “to restore peace” as she clearly had no regard for her neighbours or community.
Another neighbour said the constant noise was “pretty nasty”, sending jarring vibrations through his house.
He had also made repeated noise complaints but said nothing changed.
“You can’t sleep but everyone seems to have their hands tied.
“It’s really affected our mental health. You just feel like giving in sometimes.”
The neighbours are having their lives wrecked.
The council had been working with Kāinga Ora on the case and provided the agency with copies of noise reports.
Kāinga Ora regional director North and West Taina Jones said the Avondale situation had been challenging, particularly during level 3 and 4 lockdowns.
“Kāinga Ora has received numerous complaints regarding noise and has tried to encourage our customer to show more consideration for neighbours.”
Clients were “supported to be good neighbours, responsible, considerate and law-abiding”. Kāinga Ora could issue a breach of tenancy notice in extreme situations.
Here’s the problem. Housing NZ used to evict bad tenants. But under the new kindness regime they have been effectively told never to evict a tenant. This is great for the tenants, but terrible for neighbours who have no recourse.
Any private sector landlord would have evicted the tenants after the 5th or at least the 10th call out of noise control. But the Government is a terrible landlord for neighbours.
The Herald reports:
Complaints about the Government’s Three Waters Reform TV adverts include describing them as misinformation, untrue and a taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign. …
The $3.5 million advertising campaign, which began in June 2021, depicts unhappy cartoon people and animals with poor quality water. …
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled in the context of advocacy advertising, it was not misleading or offensive.
A total of 48 complaints were made about the adverts.
The Government said its aim was to build wider support for Three Waters reform.
The ads might not breach the ASA codes, but they are clearly failing in terms of building support for the Three Waters reform.
A Curia poll for the Taxpayers Union found support for the reforms was a miniscule 19% with 56% opposed.
Regardless of party support, a plurality of voters are opposed. Labour voters are a net 11% opposed, Green voters a net 6% opposed and National voters a net 40% opposed. Those undecided on the party vote are a net 51% opposed.
Of course around 90% of the Councils are opposed also. But will Labour use it majority to legislate to confiscate water assets from democratically elected councils?
The BBC report:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the Queen has agreed Southend will be granted city status following the killing of MP Sir David Amess.
Sir David was stabbed to death at Belfairs Methodist Church on Friday.
He regularly championed Southend’s case to be a city during his time in Parliament.
Mr Johnson told the House of Commons he was “happy” to announce Southend “will be accorded the city status it so clearly deserves”.
The prime minister said: “That Sir David spent almost 40 years in this House, but not one day in ministerial office, tells everything about where his priorities lay.”
He added Sir David “never once witnessed any achievement by any resident of Southend that could not somehow be cited in his bid to secure city status for that distinguished town”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Parliament he was “so pleased” by the announcement.
Sir Keir said the news was “a fitting tribute to Sir David’s hard work”.
His murder was chilling. MPs should not have to worry about being killed as they meet constituents. We want MPs to be accessible.
He campaigned for Southend to be a city for 40 years, so a nice tribute by the Government to grant it, as a way to honour him.
For those interested Southend-on-Sea is in SE Essex and has a population of 183,000. It has the longest pleasure pier in the world – around 2.2 kms long.
Karl du Fresne writes:
The cabal I’m talking about reaches across politics, the bureaucracy, academia, arts, the media, the churches and even sport and business. It dominates the public conversation to the extent that dissenting voices are largely excluded, at least from traditional mainstream platforms.
The common ideology that unites this cabal is not easily summarised, since it’s multi-faceted. Some would call it “woke” – an unsatisfactory term because (a) it’s too easily resorted to and has therefore been diminished by over-use and (b) its meaning is so diffuse that it can be hard to pin down.
If forced to define the groupthink that binds the members of this cabal, I would suggest it’s an adherence to the ideology of identity politics – the idea that disadvantaged minority groups (more of which seem to emerge with every passing month) have needs, grievances and interests that, when push comes to shove, supersede those of the majority.
Identity politics involves a relentless focus not on what unites us – in other words, the interests and values that all New Zealanders have in common (such as freedom, prosperity, peace and respect for the rule of law) – but on grievance and division. Proponents of identity politics see society as an aggregation of disadvantaged groups that must compete for power and influence against a privileged and hostile majority that’s indifferent to their needs. …
But what sets the 2021-style cabal apart is the sheer scale of its influence. A homogeneity of thinking extends across virtually all the public institutions that influence New Zealand life. What debate there is mainly takes place on the margins – for example, on talkback radio (which the media elite regards with contempt), in social media and on blogs like this one, where dissenting opinion can be quarantined as if it were a contagious disease.
The dangers hardly need spelling out. A country where government policies largely go unchallenged by the institutions that normally hold politicians to account is a country that risks acquiescing in the face of an authoritarian state.
Two obvious examples are academia and the media. In liberal democracies, both institutions typically subject governments to close, and often harsh, critical scrutiny. But in New Zealand in 2021, academics and the media sing from the same song sheet as the people in power. Media outlets publish just enough dissenting opinion to avoid the accusation that they function as compliant government mouthpieces. Academics, apart from a tiny minority of courageous dissenters, serve as cheerleaders.
This is spot on. Its not that most of the media see themselves as biased, let alone partisan. It is that their worldview is totally in sync with the Government, so they never challenge it.
There are two broad views on the Treaty of Waitangi – one is it promised equality for everyone, and one is that it promised a partnership and co-governance. 95% of those in the media not only seem to be in the second camp, but believe anyone in the other camp is a lunatic racist fringe.
The same comes with equality of opportunity vs opportunity of outcome. 95% of media reporting is about unequal outcomes, with an implicit belief that Governments must keep interfering to produce the same outcomes for all groups, rather than ensure all groups have the same opportunities. The difference is huge, but almost never debated in the media.
And if different outcomes go against the prevailing identify politics, they are ignored. There are 100 times more stories on women getting paid less than men on average, than there are on boys and men massively under-achieving in the education system.
A reader sent me a copy of this:
Dear Prime Minister,
Forgive me for not writing a formal letter but given the urgency of our Hospitals lack of readiness to deal with a significant Covid community outbreak I thought E mail correspondence would be more prudent.
In Singapore eighty-one per cent of the entire population is fully vaccinated – excluding under-12s, it is 90%.
Despite the best possible Covid vaccination rates Singapore reported its highest one-day Covid case total in more than a year, with 837 cases recorded last Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, a total of 809 people were hospitalized .Of these, 75 were seriously ill and required oxygen.
The majority of seriously ill patients were older than 66.
It is therefore clear that vaccinations alone may not prevent our under resourced and neglected Hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with Covid patients.
So can you please advise ,as a matter of urgently priority ,the Governments Hospital Covid mitigation plan and timelines to ensure that Covid Infected New Zealanders receive timely, quality clinical care to not only reduce preventable Covid mortality rates in our Hospitals but also to ensure our precious frontline medical staff have the correct equipment for their personal safety and the treatment of their patients.
Also since every ICU bed needs around five to six nurses to keep it operational 24/7, we have a shortfall of at least 100 ICU nurses.
Our country is critically short of doctors and nurses yet according to Immigration New Zealand, 901 registered nurses and 235 doctors are already in New Zealand waiting on the Government for residency approvals so they may work.
The Ministry of Health has advised that “an estimated 81,500 in the public system stand in line for surgeries, procedures and appointments delayed due to the Delta outbreak.”
Can you please advise the remedial actions and timelines for increasing our critical Hospital HR resource levels not only to address our urgent Covid Hospital needs but also so that our general population has access to timely lifesaving quality healthcare.
In the interests in the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders I look forward to a timely and incisive response to these questions.
Yours Sincerely Sir Ray Avery GNZM