The Health Ministry must be more transparent with the information it’s giving to the public.
I agree. We still have no data available on how many tests submitted by GPs get rejected and not tested at labs, as just one example.
There also appears to be a massive disconnect with what the public is being told, and what is actually happening on the ground.
The call for our country’s most vulnerable to get flu jabs is a good example.
On March 18, the Health Minister announced a major flu vaccination campaign to ensure hospital beds are available for a possible influx of COVID-19 patients.
The Ministry said it had vast stocks of the vaccine – 1.8 million doses to be exact. They would be available to those 65 and over immediately.
Over the coming days, it became apparent that this campaign simply wasn’t working. Why? Because GP clinics did not have enough of the vaccines, and their access to the vaccine had been restricted to just 60 doses per order.
So they all ran out within a day or two.
The same goes for swabs. Despite constant assurances that we have thousands, I am speaking to doctors on a daily basis who say they’re struggling to get enough (5 at a time), or have been told by labs their practice cannot get any as there is not enough.
Dr Bloomfiled stated on Tuesday we had 50,000 nasal swabs in the country. That’s great, but they are not getting to those who need them. Why not?
How can you expect our frontline health heroes to do their jobs effectively if they don’t have the swabs or PPE to do it. And if we do have tens of thousands of nasal swabs, why am I reading two emails from two different Auckland health groups, who represent hundreds of doctors, which tell their members that they need to move to using throat swabs because of supply issues with the nasal variety.
I’ve had a lot of frontline health professionals contact me also and almost without fail their stories are all about shortages – flu vaccines, PPE gear and swabs etc.
I think Prime Minister Jacinda Adern has done a solid job of steadying the ship through these uncharted times. But we need transparent, timely information. Not PR spin. This is important not only for journalists, but for all New Zealanders.
Pretending there are no problems makes it harder to fix them.
The economic impact of COVID-19 is starting to rear its head with about one-third of New Zealand businesses saying they don’t expect to survive the crisis, according to a new survey by the Auckland Business Chamber.
This can’t be allowed to happen. The major focus going forward must be on reducing costs for businesses so they can survive.
Comparing Bridges commute to Clark’s breaching of quarantine are two seperate issues and other than the physical transportation of two men, have nothing actually in common.
Clark is the Minister of Health breaching his own rules.
Bridges, as the only counter weight of political accountability in a Police State, is doing his job.
It is up to Simon Bridges to ascertain how he does that job and if commuting that distance is what is required, then so be it!
I get we want to be tribal on the Left, especially after one of our own has screwed up so badly, but come on, these are 2 very different things.
Bomber is spot on here. Those making a fuss really are pathetic demanding the Leader of the Opposition should try and do his job from his home.
Do they think the PM should also be at home, running the country from her Mt Albert bungalow?
If this was the United States, would they be demanding that Nancy Pelosi be banned from the Capitol, and she must be confined to San Francisco.
Those making a fuss are just trying to distract from the blunders David Clark has made.
Spending of taxpayer money has gone through the roof as the Government helps businesses through the COVID-19 crisis. How concerned should New Zealanders be? And how does our response compare to other countries? Louis interviews local Economist Joe Ascroft and Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation (based in Washington DC) – who is leading their project Tracking Economic Relief Plans Around the World during the Coronavirus Outbreak.
Wellington property owners are facing a 4.8 per cent rates hike as the city council looks to offset lost revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The council is proposing the increase as a compromise between a previously-mooted 9.2 per cent increase and a total rates freeze for the 2020-21 financial year.
Not much of a compromise. A 5% rates increase would be indefensible even when the economy is booming. Doing so in the middle of a recession is economic sabotage. You do not increase taxes during a recession.
A third option of freezing rates entirely was also seen as unachievable, with an additional $16m required from borrowing or budget savings, as well as a drop in service levels.
Debt-funding the additional $16m was not deemed financially prudent, and would pass a significant burden onto future ratepayers, the paper said.
When the Council is spending $100,000 a week on trucking wastewater, further savings seem very possible.
And even if one does have to increase borrowing and hence the burden on future ratepayers, it is worth noting future ratepayers won’t be in the middle of a recession where household and business incomes are plummeting.
Has any other Government in the world, or in New Zealand past ever increased the minimum wage cost for businesses at the same time as having closed down all non-essential businesses making it impossible for them to earn revenue?
I mean just think about that. Imposing a wage cost increase on businesses at the same time as you’ve closed down their ability to earn money.
I can’t think or believe this would have ever happened before.
On my flight back from Auckland to China two weeks ago, the family sitting next to my wife and I were all wearing hazmat suits, goggles, masks and gloves.
We both wore masks too. In fact, everyone including flight attendants on our China Eastern flight wore masks. When we arrived in Shanghai, all the airport staff were in full protective gear.
By contrast, as we walked through Auckland airport none of the customs or security staff wore masks or any other protective gear. Nor were any of the staff on our domestic flight to Auckland.
The widespread use and availability of face masks in China, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan is only one of the many intensive measures used by these governments in their successful battles against COVID-19, but it has been a critical one, and one that people and leaders in the West seem to overlook or misunderstand.
So why not use them here?
The Ministry of Health website says: “For most people in the community, face masks are not recommended. For people with symptoms of an acute respiratory infection, the World Health Organization recommends that there may be benefit in wearing a face mask.”
This is the basic advice of the WHO and the CDC in the US, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases globally. The CDC is now saying it’s reviewing its advice on masks, and the Ministry of Health said it’s “keeping a close watch” on that.
But experts and commentators in the US are raising the alarm that advice from the WHO and CDC on masks has been well off the mark.
There are in fact dozens of studies that show masks are very effective in reducing transmission of viruses like COVID-19, along with other measures like social distancing and handwashing.
Face masks were the most consistently effective intervention for reducing the contraction and spread of SARS, according to research in a Cochrane Review. One studyfollowing community transmission of SARS in Beijing found that wearing a mask in public was associated with a 70% reduction in the risk of catching the virus. This is why the governments of Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and China –– who learned from SARS –– made widespread face mask use a central part of their strategies.
A few of Europe’s leaders are catching on. In the Czech Republic, citizens have mobilised in a national effort to make home-made masks following government orders to make face-wear mandatory in public. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are the only two countries in Europe to make mask-wearing mandatory, while Austria and Germany appear to be moving in the same direction. As of Wednesday, the Czech Republic had recorded thirteen COVID deaths, much lower than neighboring Germany and many of its other European counterparts, while Slovakia remained at zero deaths.
The truth is, many governments in the West, along with the WHO, have been hesitant to recommend masks because of concerns of a shortage, public hoarding and healthcare workers missing out. These concerns are valid: healthcare and other frontline workers should absolutely be the top priority for all PPE, including masks, and especially N95 masks.
But the blanket message to the public that “You don’t need them” is misleading and wrongly suggests there’s no urgency in making masks widely available as this crisis unfolds.
A study by Cambridge University showed that even simple homemade masks can be effective. There are many articles that explain how to make them, and lots of information about how to put them on safely.
We pride ourselves on being a nimble, forward-thinking country. Let’s live up to that by urgently catching up with the curve on masks, insisting on their use and making them universally available.
Even when the lockdown ends, we will still have pockets of covid-19 and face masks may help minimise further spreading.
Cardinal George Pell has released been from prison after the High Court ordered his child sexual abuse convictions to be quashed “and judgments of acquittal be entered in their place”.
The most senior Catholic in the world to be convicted of child sexual abuse this morning learnt his final appeal bid to the High Court had been a success, releasing a statement saying he felt as though the “serious injustice” he suffered while maintaining his innocence had been “remedied”.
The full bench of seven judges were unanimous in their decision, finding that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a reasonable doubt as to Pell’s guilt.
The fact the decision was unanimous is telling. This doesn’t mean the complainants were lying, it means there was reasonable doubt, and the criminal justice system operates on reasonable doubt. The court has concluded that a rational jury should have found reasonable doubt.
The court notes:
The Court held that, on the assumption that the jury had assessed the complainant’s evidence as thoroughly credible and reliable, the evidence of the opportunity witnesses nonetheless required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a reasonable doubt as to the applicant’s guilt in relation to the offences involved in both alleged incidents.
So basically the testimony of the witnesses raised reasonable doubt.
It is also telling that they did not order a retrial.
With most businesses unable to operate, in today’s Taxpayer Talk we discuss the threshold of what can be open and what can’t with National’s Economic Development Spokesman, Todd McClay.
We wanted to do our bit to help fight COVID-19 and get our little country back on track. We want to help protect the frontline nurses, doctors, supermarket staff, pharmacy staff, food producers etc…. because these brave guys are keeping the country running.
We have pulled together a 100% Kiwi company supply chain and together we are manufacturing large volumes of low cost face shield PPE for our front line workers in the fight against Covid-19.
I noticed a news-clip the other day about plane loads of PPE coming in from overseas, where there are many manufacturers in NZ that can produce the same items which would keep hundreds or thousands of kiwis in jobs.
We have tooled up and producing between 35,000 and 50,000 face shields per week in rural New Zealand (small town called Dannevirke in the centre of the universe) which will save many kiwi’s jobs in the supply chain if we get noticed by the MOH and government.
Our staff of nearly 100, are all behind this 100% which means we can save jobs and provide our front line workers with the PPE they need and deserve immediately!
Today blowing whistle on Govt rushing law change to give prisoners vote while country in lockdown.
I do not like being critical at a time when we need national unity to fight Covid-19 but this is wrong.
The Electoral ( Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill got its first reading on 18th March and Justice Select Committee process of six months reduced by Govt to less than three months.
Justice Minister Little last week insisted bill be progressed during lockdown and refused to support any extension. He has told committee that officials would not be able to provide normal quality of departmental report nor fully respond to committee questions, but still wants it done fast.
Justice Committee Chair, Labour MP, Meka Whaitiri, has used powers to set closure date for submissions and advised committee she intends hearing submissions by video conference week of 13 April while nation still in lockdown and MPs confined to their homes. Committee is 4Lab/4Nat. She has overridden our objections at 3 video conf of Chair and Deputy(me).
How is this rushed law making while nation is in lockdown and Parliament adjourned, consistent with PMs assurance that only urgent matters would be progressed ?
How is it consistent for Justice Select Committee to be continuing such work when all courts are suspended except for most urgent of cases ?
Why is Justice Select Committee looking to defer other two bills on sexual voilence and protection of emergency responders, but rush prisoner voting ? Labour is saying ensuring fairer trials for rape victims and protecting emergency workers is not a priority but prisoners voting is !
If prisoner voting was such an urgent issue, why did govt not include it in its three other electoral amendment bills passed this term of parliament ?
When the rights of 4 million plus law abiding NZers are being curtailed by being confined to home, thousands of businesses banned from trading and community papers prohibited from publishing, why is the most important human rights issue prisoners’ voting rights rather than getting covid-19 under control so we can wind back lockdown ?
How can NZers and interested organisations who object to this law change (84% opposed it in Newshub poll last August) express this in lockdown when they can’t meet and when protests are a prohibited activity ?
Why, when in an unprecedented crisis in which MPs are buried in serious constituency issues like: -ensuring people get Covid-19 tests when needed, -getting workers access to PPE, -finding specialist food for children, -getting shopping of essentials for seniors, -sorting out what are essential businesses, -getting access to public funding for families and businesses to survive, should we be focused on prisoners voting rights ? (I have never been as busy in 30 years of working as a constituency MP)
Labour is putting their narrow political interests of trying to get a few thousand more votes at next election ahead of the right priorities for NZ at this time. It follows a unfortunate pattern of partisan electoral law changes and rushed changes. Electoral Bills passed this term include giving party leaders power to dismiss MPs, shifting power to write ref qs at elections from parl to cab and 24 hr rushed foreign donations change that was full of holes.
I do not support this bill that gives vote to prisoners sentenced to less than 3 years – others would still not be allowed to vote. You have to do something pretty bad in NZ to be sent to prison. It is one of liberties you lose when you break society’s agreed rules. Prisoners do not vote in similar democracies like UK & Australia. In many US states you lose right to vote if sent to prison for ever, which I disagree with. Nats position is when you have done time, your rights should be fully restored. But issue here is rushing law through under emergency.
The law in NZ has for most of our history not allowed prisoners to vote but has toed and froed over last few decades. Law has switched around most recently in 2010 from a members bill by Paul Quinn. This bill went through full process of six months select committee and no urgency/extended hours. Imagine the uproar if Nats had rushed law to remove prisoners voting, let alone doing so during a national emergency and lockdown.
My bigger worry is that if this is how Govt is going to play this relatively minor electoral issue in these extraordinary circumstances, how can we have confidence they will be fair over really big issues over timing, campaigning, public gatherings and free press of Election scheduled for Sept 17.
Minister Little needs to reconsider rush.
They are desperate to push it through before the public notice.
Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.
Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.
The PM has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the first secretary of state, to deputise for him where necessary.
The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.
Obviously hoping Boris makes a full recovery, but it is not a trivial thing to be moved to intensive care.
This highlights one of the peculiarities of British politics. There generally is no Deputy Prime Minister and the Conservatives generally do not have a Deputy Leader.
The first Deputy PM was Clement Attlee in WWII. There was no Deputy PM from 1955 to 1962 and 1963 to 1989. The last Deputy PM was Nick Clegg from 2010 to 2015.
In the absence of a Deputy PM, the de facto No 2 is the First Secretary of State and if that office is vacant then the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The last few holders have been:
Peter Mandelson (2009 – 2010)
William Hague (2010 – 2015)
George Osborne (2015 – 2016)
Damian Green (2017)
Dominic Rabb (2019 – 2020)
So Rabb would act as PM while Johnson is unable. If Johnson died he would be a caretaker PM until the Conservatives appoint a new leader.
Health Minister David Clark has narrowly avoided being sacked after taking a 20km trip to a beach, amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Clark, in a statement issued early on Tuesday morning, said he had informed the prime minister of his breach of the lockdown and offered his resignation.
He said on the first weekend of the lockdown he travelled about 20km from his home to Doctor’s Point Beach for a walk with his family.
What would it take for Clark to lose his job? Does he have to start coughing on people in supermarkets or stand in the Octagon offering free hugs?
It is obvious that he doesn’t have the judgment to remain Minister of Health, or in fact a Minister. You could argue about whether his mountain biking trip was a breach of the rules but there is no doubt a 20 km drive to the beach is.
Instead, he would be stripped of his associate finance minister portfolio and be demoted to the bottom of the Government’s Cabinet rankings.
So he remains in Cabinet, on the same pay as Minister of Health. His only punishment is the number in front of his name is changed. The wettest of wet bus tickets.
And for the terminally stupid out there, what Clark did is not the same as Bridges driving to Wellington for work. It is inane to suggest the Leader of the Opposition should be running the Opposition from his home via Zoom. Does anyone think the PM should be running the Government from her house in Mt Albert?
The only check on the Government’s vast powers at the moment is the committee chaired by the Leader of the Opposition. His job is not just chairing the public meetings but preparing for it – deciding the agenda, who to invite to appear, preparing questions. This involves meeting with key staff (within your bubble) etc, just as the PM does also.
Plus his wider role as Opposition Leader to hold the Government to account. To suggest the Opposition Leader should not be where the press gallery are, is saying the Opposition should effectively be inaccessible to the media.
Anyway back to Clark, if by his own words he has been an idiot, why would we want an idiot as Minister of Health during a global pandemic?
As we hit the halfway mark of the level 4 lockdown, the Government will shortly find itself in the unenviable position of having to defend its decision-making. There is no perfect response to a pandemic. Overreact and you needlessly destroy the economy and your own peoples’ livelihoods. Don’t react early or hard enough and lives will be lost that could otherwise have been saved. Every Government in the world will come under fire in the wash-up, one way or another.
The problem for our Government is it has built its response on the belief that New Zealand faced the same scenario that has played out overseas. However, the facts as we know them don’t support that. As the days pass, more and more New Zealanders will start to question whether the current State of Emergency can be justified. Here is why.
Dr Grant Morris, an associate professor in Law at Victoria University, recently noted the language our political leaders chose to use at the outset of this crisis has been laced with fear. In announcing the lockdown, Prime Minister Ardern said: “We currently have 102 cases. But so did Italy once. If community transmission takes off in New Zealand the number of cases will double every five days. If that happens unchecked, our health system will be inundated, and tens of thousands of New Zealanders will die.” The bold emphasis is mine, and it’s important. Our Prime Minister invoked the most draconian restrictions on our civil liberties in the history of this country on the basis that without taking such an action, tens of thousands of New Zealanders will die. Not could, might or may. Will.
You could write an essay on the psychology behind the choice of that word. But we’ll put that aside for another day and look at whether the facts support such a strong claim. Ardern did not release the modelling that she based this statement on until well after the country was already locked down. What that modelling said was that in a worst case scenario 27,000 people could die if coronavirus was left to spread unchecked. That scenario was given a 5% possibility of occurring. The media generously termed that to be a ‘plausible scenario’, compared with Ardern’s statement that it was effectively a certainty.
There are several reasons why this scenario isn’t really plausible at all. The greatest falsity that is being pushed onto the public is that New Zealand is in anyway similar to places like Bergamo, New York or London. The Government and the media continually run the narrative that without the lockdown we will experience the same devastation as the worst-hit cities in the world. This is, to be blunt, a lie.
It’s important to let the facts speak for themselves. Putting aside that Italy didn’t have any other country to model a response on other than China’s dictatorship, and was thus screwed from the start, its hardest hit city Bergamo has a population density of 3000 people per square kilometre and an average age of 45. Let’s look at some other cities to provide some context:
City
Population Density (per km2)
Average age
London
5600
40
New York
10,000
38
Auckland
1200
35
Coronavirus is ripping through cities with a high population density, particularly those with busy public transport systems. What doctors believe is that severe coronavirus cases are the result of viral load – this refers to how big a dose of the virus you get when first infected. Large gatherings in confined spaces pose the greatest risk of coming into contact with multiple people at different stages of contagion, increasing the possibility that you get a stronger dose to start with. For hospital staff, they are seeing the sickest so are exposed to stronger doses again. Which is why in Bergamo hospitals were the major transmitters of the disease as they didn’t know what they were dealing with initially. The average viral load spread from its hospitals was likely higher and combined with an older population has proven deadly.
In New Zealand, none of these factors are in play. We do not have densely populated cities or packed subway systems, and we were able to learn from the Italian example to restrict large gatherings and prepare our frontline healthcare staff. An even bigger factor in our favour is we are an island located at the bottom of the world. The number of people who can reach us is hugely limited and we have the ability to cut them off at any time, or quarantine them on arrival. We chose not to do that, but as it stands that hasn’t mattered very much.
The media breathlessly report the number of coronavirus cases as if they’re the end game. While we have 1106 cases confirmed (as of Monday), the real total is potentially several times the official count given a large number of those infected will have had minor symptoms they put down to a cold, if they noticed them at all, and will not have bothered getting tested. What’s actually important is our hospitalisation rate. At this point in time, our maximum hospitalisation rate is under 2% and the mortality rate is less than 0.1%. Our health system is not in danger of being overwhelmed. In fact, it is currently under-utilised.
Proponents of the lockdown will argue it’s easy to make decisions with the benefit of hindsight. I agree. And most New Zealanders, including myself, accept the Government’s decision wasn’t unreasonable at the time given what we were seeing play out in the world. But what we now know is that stringent border controls, restrictions on public gatherings and sensible physical distancing combined with good hygiene is effective at containing the spread of coronavirus.
There is now a strong argument in favour of ending the lockdown early to give people a chance to salvage what’s left of their livelihoods, via a slow climbdown through the alert levels. But instead of reassessing the real risk coronavirus poses to New Zealand based on the facts in front of them, our authorities are instead focused on banning the recreational activities they don’t like.
We should also deal with the strawman that has been built up over the past month. The nuance in the coronavirus debate hasn’t just been lost, it’s been forcibly squashed. Questioning the lockdown doesn’t mean you are happy to see people die for the sake of the economy. We tolerate a large number of preventable deaths that are part and parcel of living in a free society. More than 350 people die on our roads, dozens drown and dozens more die from influenza each year. We put in place protections to limit these deaths, but we don’t prevent them entirely and we shouldn’t. Any death lost to coronavirus is a tragedy, but it is no more tragic than any other.
Moreover, the continuation of the lockdown has real consequences of its own. Every week the economy is crippled will lead to more businesses failing, more lives resigned to the misery of welfare, more marriage breakdowns, more cancer patients missing treatment, more surgeries postponed, more domestic violence victims and yes, eventually more suicides. When a Government uses its power to unilaterally remove the rights of all its citizens, at the threat of police force, the basis for that decision must be rigorously and continuously challenged. Every day we are denied our freedom is a day the Government must prove a State of Emergency still exists. The argument outlined above may not be perfect, but based on the facts in play right now it is time to at least start asking some harder questions.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to rebuild the nation’s trust in the Labour party after winning a stunning victory to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as leader.
The 57-year-old former shadow Brexit secretary secured more than twice as many votes as the runner-up – Rebecca Long-Bailey, the candidate of the Corbyn camp – and over three times as many as third-placed Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan. By securing 56.2% of the votes of almost half a million Labour members and affiliates, he has emerged with a huge and powerful mandate to lead the party as he chooses, after four-and-a-half years of the Corbyn project, during which two general elections were lost.
Starmer was the sane and right choice. Long-Bailey was a Corbynite and Nandy unproven.
Starmer won 56% of the votes of party members, 77% of party supporters and 53% of affiliates.
Currently Labour is 25% behind in the polls and highly unlikely to win the next election. But with a five year term, you can’t rule out events changing things by 2024.
A guest post by Sean Rush, a Wellington City Councillor:
As the portfolio lead for water, I have been looking to see where costs might be saved in order to give our ratepayers a break during the crisis – I have been advocating for a zero rates rise over the next quarter to get us through to June/July when we will have a much better picture of what CV-19 means for us and what the Government’s response will be.
The stand out operating cost is that associated with trucking our treated wastewater from Moa Point to the Southern Landfill. We do this because the pipelines connecting Moa Point to the Southern Landfill burst in late January. This costs us $680,000 a week, or $100,000 a day, or $8,300 an hour. Arguably, we could discharge, 2 km into the Cook Strait, via the outfall pipe that was designed to do this. We are checking whether our consent allows for this. We are also having conversations around a variety of options, including spreading the cost across a number of years.
Before COVID – 19 hit, and the associated lock down, we anticipated a further 6 weeks before the repair would see the pipeline back up and running – so about $4.2 million of extra costs although I see the Herald are reporting an even longer period. The fix is to install a ‘liner’ that bridges the gap left by the burst – it is 2 km long and not an insignificant engineering exercise. In fact it has never been undertaken In Australasia. It requires the ‘liner’ to be manufactured in Germany with precision, flown to New Zealand, and for 6 German engineers to fly in, be quarantined for 2 weeks, work with Wellington Water’s team and install the sleeve, and for nothing to go wrong. If one of them becomes ill, if the liner doesn’t fit, if the software they use is incompatible with that used by Wellington Water, if there is language confusion or if a myriad of other things don’t quite pan out, then the ability to pull in extra resource and do a work around is severely constrained so we might be trucking wastewater for months. I was Todd Corp’s asset manager for the Maui Pipeline and I know that complicated engineering jobs on pipelines very rarely run to time, even in the best of circumstances. This is an uncapped liability of $100,000 a day.
Adding to this, I have been told that our landfill consent requires wastewater to be mixed 4 to 1 with other organic waste but because the landfill is closed we are having to use rock and dirt. This doesn’t compact like the normal mix does meaning we fill up the landfill 12 times faster. Before the crisis we had an estimated 3 years left at the landfill. If the landfill fills up we will have to truck sludge to Porirua – the cost is likely to be well above the current $680,000 a week.
The advice I have received is that there is no environmental hazard to disposing at sea – the outfall pipe was designed to do this and is 2 km offshore. I am advised that our beaches and fisheries will not be impacted. It would be good to get that in writing. The treated water has had all inorganic solids (syringes, condoms, sanitary pads, paper etc) removed and has the consistency of dirty water. It is organic waste. I am told that when Moa Point was consented, the marine scientists signed off a report confirming any discharge would be safe to the environment – I am still firming up whether this has changed. Mana whenua are in the conversation and the GWRC. No decisions have been made in fact WCC are working on the basis of continuing the trucking and developing a funding strategy. I am merely in the process of gathering information and getting the right people around the table so we can have an informed conversation.
While Wellington was booming, when the Hurricanes would put ~10,000 into the stadium, when the All Blacks were to play Australia and sell it out, when the airport would give us a $12 million dividend, the cost of trucking could be worn. Now we are trying to make up $70 million of lost revenue and keep rates low. It is a difficult juggling act. We need to make tough decisions. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I weren’t asking these questions.
I think it is great that a Councillor is asking whether ratepayers can do better than spending $100,000 a day on trucking wastewater. That is equal to $36 million a year.
Considering boating, swimming and fishing is banned for the next few weeks, I’d say the outfall pipe is a very valid option.
Just three weeks ago, the Minister of Finance told Parliament that although the upcoming Budget would need some “refining”, for the impact of COVID-19, otherwise the economy was “strong”. He bravely said, “Yes, we have to grow jobs”.
He could have said, we are going into a period of financial meltdown, where, as a trading nation, some markets will dissolve. All the relationship building between nations and trading partners will be for nought if we cannot trade.
Three weeks ago, the Prime Minister was still speaking of proceeding with a mass-gathering to commemorate those murdered in the mosque attacks on 15 March, until suddenly, she wasn’t. New Zealand was given a 4-stage COVID-19 response plan and we were at level 2. Then we were at level 3 and two days later we were at level 4 and in lockdown.
Yep the Government has changed tune so quickly. They even changed strategy from mitigation to elimination which was a massive change (and the right one).
We will wait for the second wave of COVID-19 virus and hope that a vaccine will be found soon and available more readily than hand sanitiser is now. Our supply chains will change. We will wonder if we should import product that can be made at the engineering shop down the road. Yes, it’s more expensive but it’s here. We will be more about New Zealand and less about the World.
I think that will be an interesting focus. Should we have domestic capability in areas ranging from personal protective equipment to hand sanitiser. Because when it is a global pandemic, you may not be able to get it from overseas.
We will regret the ‘dob-in’ culture currently being encouraged. We will have lost some respect for the Rule of Law when we see ‘the law’ being made up on the hoof.
Very ugly how people are encouraged to nark on their neighbours etc.
We will look again at Australia and wonder how their government managed to give every business and sole trader a wage subsidy of A$1500 per fortnight of each staff member and we will regret that our government thought that NZ$585 a week would be sufficient to keep us working when the JobSeeker (“the Dole”) already pays up to $428 a week for not working.
The NZ scheme is actually one of the least generous around. The $585 rate means it covers someone earning around $30,000 a year only.
The UK scheme covers 80% of the cost up to NZ$60,000 a year.
The Australian scheme is almost NZ$40,000 a year.
The Canadian scheme is 75% of wages up to NZ $70,000 a year.
This is the final part (Part 7 and 8) of my family tree covering the Mandls, my father’s mother’s family. Both my great grandparents on this side of the family were Mandls as they were first cousins.
The Mandls were a prominent Viennese family. They have even had a book written about them (and four other families). There are three main branches to the Mandls I’m going to cover. The physicians (which I am descended from), the arms merchants (powerful cousins) and the NZ branch (that sponsored my family into New Zealand).
THE PHYSICIANS
Leopold
Mandl is my 3rd
great grandfather and the known patriarch of the Mandls. His father Esriel
died in 1815 when Leopold (born 1778) was 37. Esriel’s father Koppel died in
1778.
Leopold was born in Vysocina in Moravia
(now Czech Republic). He was a doctor and practised in Hungary before moving to
Vienna.
He married Julie Sterk and they had six sons and a daughter – Ludwig (merchant), Ferdinand (doctor), Ignatz (doctor/politician) Bernhard (merchant), Joseph (moved to Australia then NZ), Sigmund (merchant) and Regina (married, had 12 children).
Ludwig and Bernhard founded a grain wholesaler and were very successful, leaving over two million kronen (around US$1 million in today’s currency) to their families.
Ludwig also went into business with Sigmund buying into Berthold Bass which made cartridges. They eventually became full owners and they expanded buying Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik. Ignatz Mandl (my third great uncle) was a politician as well as a doctor. He was a populist political radical (called the idol of the little people) and the mentor of Karl Lueger (Mayor of Vienna). As Lueger went from populism into anti-Semitism, they fell out.
Ferdinand Mandl is my 2nd great grandfather. He was born in 1829 and practised as a doctor in Romania. He married Friederike Schorr and moved to Vienna. In the mid 1860s he went blind from purulent conjunctivitis. His doctor left his a flask of poison in case he decided he could not live as a blind doctor. But in fact he carried on and become venerated as a doctor as his fellows saw him as someone who understood suffering. He was widely loved and adored by the local population, seen almost as saintly.
Ferdinand had three sons. Alexander (born 1861), Ludwig (born 1862) and Wilhelm (born 1868). Ferdinand died in 1812, aged 83.
Alexander we will return to, as he went into industry, including munitions. Ludwig Mandlis my great grandfather. Ludwig married his cousin Irene Mandl (my great grand mother) who is a daughter of Bernhard Mandl, who is also my 2nd great grandfather.
Ludwig Mandl, my great grand father
As previously mentioned Bernhard was a very successful grain wholesaler. They had a villa in the summer resort of Bad Voslau.
Bernhard had three children – Louis, Irene and Julius. Julius (1880 – 1954) became a pioneer of German cinema, and later moved to Hollywood. He changed his name to Joe May.
Irene was born in 1868. She married her cousin Ludwig and died in 1920 aged 52.
Ludwig was born in 1862 and died in Vienna in 1937 aged 75. Ludwig became a Professor of gynaecology in Vienna and was also highly esteemed. My family has a huge book (think one foot wide) of testimonials given to him when he retired. His death was recorded in the British Medical Journal as an eminent foreign doctor.
This is a painting of my great grand mother, Irene Mandl, which we had at home for many years. It has now been gifted to Te Papa. The painter was John Quincy Adams.
Ludwig and Irene had three children. Richard Mandl (1891 – 1926), Paul Peter Mandl (born 1892) and my grandmother Fritzi (Irene Frederica) Mandl (1900 – 1994).
My grandparents managed to get my father out to England and then followed him a few months later in 1938 after my grandmother successfully got my grandfather released from custody.
Thanks to a cousin, Charles Mandl (who features later under the NZ branch), sponsoring them to New Zealand, they emigrated here as refugees. As a condition of being allowed to leave by the Nazis, they could only take a few possessions, so left behind the vast bulk of their property.
My father is also a doctor, as was his grandfather, and two generations before that also. Basically the Mandls were doctors throughout most of the 1800s and 1900s.
THE ARMS MERCHANTS
Ludwig and Sigmund (children of Leopold) joined the firm of Bethold Bass which produced cartridges. They eventually became co-owners in 1883. The firm went on to become a leading player in the Austrian munitions market.
In 1887 Ludwig also purchased Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik, a leading cartridge company. Ludwig died in 1893 and his shares went to brother Sigmund. Sigmund died 18 years later in 1911.
Alexander Mandl was born in 1861 in Romania and was my 2nd great-uncle. He joined Hirtenberger in 1893 aged 22. The company was very successful and had 2,000 staff in 1913. The advent of WWI saw them grow to 4,188 employees in 1916.
The defeat of Austria in WWI led to Hirterberger being forced to stop most munitions and they instead focused on hunting ammunition. In 1920 they had 663 staff.
Alexander Mandl had a son Fritz Mandl (Friedrich) who was born in 1900. He was my first cousin twice removed. He joined Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik in 1920, aged 20. The firm acquired factories in Poland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Hungary. It became one of the big four munitions companies in the world. They exported 90% of what they produced as they were banned from supplying Austria.
In 1930 Fritz took over as general manager. They also expanded into making aircraft. He was thought to be the third richest man in Austria (worth around US$300 million in today’s dollars) and one of the richest men in the world
He was a powerful figure in Europe and was said to be able to break a European prime minister faster than he could snap a toothbrush in half. Both Mussolini and Hitler courted him and attended his parties.
Fritz Mandl was a supporter of fascism and a pretty terrible person. Despite being of Jewish heritage, he was sought out by Hitler as a potential supporter of the Anschluss (annexation of Austria by Germany). In fact one of his nephews was at home when Hitler visited and Hitler asked to see his school report card, commended him for his grades and signed it for him.
In 1933 he married his second wife of five, 19 year old Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr was then a famous film actress. In fact she was billed as the “world’s most beautiful woman”.
My father as a three year old had Hedy Lamarr sometimes come over and play with him. Hedy Lamarr was the wife of my first cousin, twice remioved.
Lamarr was not just a film star. She helped develop a radio guidance system for Allied torpedos using a frequency-hopping technology which is used today in bluetooth and wifi. Am amazingly talented woman.
She left Fritz Mandl and went to the US. After she left Austria, she became a famous Hollywood star.
Joseph Leopold Mandl (sometimes called Moritz Mandl also) was born in Vienna to Leopold Mandl and his wife Julie in 1837. Joseph is missing from almost all official documents about the Mandl family.
He took part in the Battle of Solferino in 1859, aged 21. It was a terrible battle which led to the founding of the International Red Cross. It lasted nine hours and around 40,000 were killed or wounded.
My third great uncle defected from the Austrian Army. This was considered disgraceful at the time and hence he was removed from the official histories.
He went to Victoria, Australia in 1860 and then moved to the West Coast of New Zealand where he worked on the Tuapeka and Waitahuna gold fields. He then went to Hokitika and worked as a store keeper.
He was elected Mayor of Hokitika three times in 1889, 1890 and 1895. Quite incredible that a disgraced deserter from the Austrian Army can come to New Zealand and end up as a Mayor.
He was a generous donor to the Westland Hospital, which named a ward after him in 1923- the Mandl Ward. The ward remained until 1985.
But he did more than just that. He set up his own brewery in Hokitika in 1872.
The Mandl Brewery later in 1927 formed Westland Breweries with four other breweries. In 1970 Westland Breweries became Monteith’s Brewing Company so my 3rd great-uncle was an owner of Monteith’s!
In 1863 he had the first of five children with Annie Isabella Devlin who was born in Edinburgh 1842. They were married in 1870 in a Catholic Church, so Joseph may have converted. Many of the Mandls were not religious, even though they were a Jewish family.
The five children were:
Margaret Mandl born 1863, died in 1927 aged 63. She became a Nun.
Julia Mandl born 1866, died in 1951 aged 85. She married Thomas Hall Coltman who was the well known proprietor of The Grand Hotel (Willis Street) in Wellington, followed on his son (also called Thomas)
Charles Leopold Mandl born 1872, died in 1939, aged 66
Rachel Mandl born 1874, died in 1956 aged 82
Mary Mandl born and died in 1876
Their mother died in 1877 aged only 35.
Charles Mandl studied medicine in Edinburgh where he met his wife, Susan Adamson. They had one child and he was a GP in Foxton and then Wellington. He served in the military in WWI (ironically my grandfather also served, but for Austria).
It was Charles who sponsored my grandparents and father to come to New Zealand as refugees. He did this despite being a distant cousin, and without him they would not have been allowed into New Zealand. Sadly he died while my grandparents were on the boat journey here, so my family never got to meet the man who made it possible for them to move to New Zealand.
Julia Mandl and Rachel Mandl did befriend my grandparents and father, despite being relatively distant cousins.
However Charles had a son Moritz Mandl (1902 – 1984) and Moritz had a daughter Margaret Mandl and Margaret’s daughter Jayne (my 4th cousin) made contact with my family a few years ago and we now catch up every so often. So very pleased to have met the family who are responsible for my family being in New Zealand.
So three very different branches of the Mandl family. My direct relatives were doctors practising in Vienna for around 125 years and highly esteemed and even adored.
The cousins who went into munitions were very different. One branch of the family being devoted to healing, and another branch very rich and powerful from munitions, and cuddling up to fascism.
And then we had the New Zealand branch where a disgraced defector from the Austrian Army came to NZ, became a Mayor and publican, and his son was responsible for my grandparents and father being accepted a refugees here.
It’s a fascinating family and I’m very proud to be 1/4 Mandl.
There’s little doubt that she was killed by a member of her family, but what I can’t work out, is whether it was her father or her brother or both of them.
There is now no doubt – fishing, swimming, surfing, hunting and tramping are banned under new lockdown laws.
Kiwis had previously been advised not to take part in these activities during the Covid-19 lockdown but the ban was made official in fresh laws released on the Government’s Covid-19 website today.
People cannot leave home to hunt, tramp, swim, take part in other water-based activities, such as surfing and boating, or do anything that may put them in danger or require help from rescue services.
It would be interesting to know how often people undertaking these activities do require assistance.
But good to have a specific list now, rather than have it depend on the discretion of each police officer.
