In the rush to shut down NZ, here will be a myriad of things over looked.
Closing the InterIslander Ferry’s was an oversight.
Shared parenting arrangements moving between households was an oversight.
I think the decision to close all the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association parks is also an oversight.
Many older NZers not only own caravans, they actually live full time in them as well.
Closing the NZMCA parks as the pandemic advisory has advised means that these NZers have no place to go home to.
The Government urgently needs to reconsider this before the Wednesday lock down.
These caravans by their nature are self contained with toilets and showers so owners can easily self isolate in them, but by closing the parks, those who live in their caravans with no fixed home can’t park up any where.
There could be as many as 10000 caravan owners who are caught in this situation. We want them to be safe and at home, but if they don’t have anywhere to park their homes, they will be stuck in a situation they can’t find a solution to.
Similarly, the homeless can’t go home and should be housed in hotels and motels that won’t have anyone in them over this lockdown period.
There will be many features over looked in the hurry to lock the country down. the Government must show some flexibility for new solutions if this is going to work.
Oh, and spare a thought for all the cannabis smokers who can’t meet their dealer before the lockdown.
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Is this the same government you want us to vote back into power . Full marks to Jacinda for her delivery yesterday but on many fronts they have been dragging the chain on the hard decisions . The wages issue has been changed to what Simon said should have been done last week . All the delay has done is cause unnecessary worry for business owners when they should be working on how to get through this period and out the other end.
Thank God we have this government right now is all I can say. They aren’t perfect, but the alternative would have been infinitely worse.
A National government would have folded instantly to the bleating from New Zealand’s “export education industry”, and their paymasters at the Chinese Embassy. They would have welcomed all international “students” and tourists from China with open arms. If this had been allowed to happen, the country would now be drowning in a full-blown coronavirus epidemic that would make Italy’s current disaster look modest by comparison.
If you dislike how Jacinda and her government have handled this crisis, you’re welcome to leave any time Trevor. I hear Iran is lovely at this time of year. Or perhaps give Somalia or Yemen a go if you’re the more adventurous sort.
Oh fuck off. If it was left to Bridges it would have seen hundreds on the streets during winter and many more dying unnecessarily. No govt can do such a rapid turnaround in such a fast moving set of circumstances without overlooking a few areas and you damn well know it.
Fuck off with your political points scoring , you vulture.
This is the govt for this crisis, and Adern is the Winston Churchill of this age for NZ.
We are fortunate and blessed to have her and the Coalition.
Here here % WILD KATIPO.
LABOUR COALITION IS NOT PERFECT.
AS THEY HAVE SPENT THE LAST TWO AND A HALF YEARS CLEANING UP NATIONAL PARTY STUFFUPS.
Give them another three years at least to finish the job.
Jesus just imagine how screwed and lethargic the corona response would have been if it was Bill English and Steven Joyce creating there stupid $11 billion dollar physical hole. My god we would have been fucked!
Good points Martyn. A lot of officials go into best practice mode, do what they taught at business and management classes as the correct and efficient thing to do. They don’t have any idea of the complexities of life for other people. As managers they may be generic, like toilet rolls. In their past lives they have managed a car salesyard and now they have the rest of us with whom they feel little empathy, animate animals with their individual vulnerabilities. I agree don’t shut down official caravan parks etc.
…” Many older NZers not only own caravans, they actually live full time in them as well. Closing the NZMCA parks as the pandemic advisory has advised means that these NZers have no place to go home to. The Government urgently needs to reconsider this before the Wednesday lock down.
These caravans by their nature are self contained with toilets and showers so owners can easily self isolate in them, but by closing the parks, those who live in their caravans with no fixed home can’t park up any where ” …
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Bloody good points there, Martyn.
Perhaps a simple clipboard registry to determine the difference between recently arrived tourists and those who genuinely live that lifestyle as bonafide New Zealanders is required as well. Seems perfectly logical for those road lovin’ and compliant NZ’ers to be given a place to self isolate and see it out in peace and quiet .
I think that absolutely and totally 100 % fair.
Great points there , mate.
If you read the NZ Motor Caravan Assn explanation of why they are closing the parks owned by the membership, it will be easier to see there options are limited. The parks were never intended for permanent living on site.
Commercial caravan parks are still open to accommodate motor homes and caravans.
NZMCA members will accommodate others on their home sites which are often farms or rural properties.
But there will be some who may still have difficulty in some areas
100% we agree with you Martyn.
Thank you Martyn for going to bat for us boomers! We appreciate that you have brought up these very good points
Before you make more of a fool of yourself, you need to get your facts right first!
What a crock of shit that blog is!
Stepping aside from the party political bickering, none of which is useful at this point:
It seems NO nation on earth has prepared itself properly for what was going to be an inevitable event. We were warned by many people in previous years and we’ve had several near misses with SARS, H1N1 and Ebola.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI&t=361s
The leadership sat on its hands. Here I’m not so much interested in the political leadership because they are not medical/health specialists and come & go every few years. They’re just the ‘front men’ of government.
I’m talking about the thousand odd bureaucrats sitting in the Ministry of Health building in Wellington sipping flat whites. It is these people who should have been advising government to build a strategic capability.
Where was their strategic planning?
Where are the isolation facilities?
We could have adapted and extended old army barracks, a disused school or built a new facility out of town somewhere on crown land – there’s plenty of it!
Where is the warehouse full of masks, ventilators, gloves, suits, sanitizers, sprayers etc?
The cost of all of the above is trivial at a national level and it’s not exactly rocket science to see that in the event of a pandemic none of our overseas suppliers would be able to deliver.
Questions need asking and answers demanded.
Meanwhile in a case of unbelievably sick irony, Massey announced it was closing it’s science facility on the North Shore and making redundant the Rutherford Medal winning School of Natural and Computational Sciences. It’s not as if we’d ever need the help of experts in the mathematics of biology eh?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/120031026/foolish-for-massey-to-cut-science-from-auckland-campus?fbclid=IwAR0d2-e5NaOSt14XHO0QPQxlwWQwOGRusrCggFMIJGH71wxuU6XvJ4wDU-A
Italy and South Korea recorded their first positive corona test on the same day and Italy has thousands of death, not sure how many S.Korea has but it’s close to zero. The difference was the Koreans jammed there nation into lockdown and implemented mass testing because they had learnt from previous pathogens to maintain objective stockpiles of medical supplies, tests, negative ting stations, PPE. Yknow, all the stuff the neoliberal apologist seeks to privatize, sell, and sneak past everyone for profit.
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