The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday – 22nd October 2020

1. The new government needs to sort the Port issues out now they were pre-warned about checking the port workers, now we have foreign workers mingling with NZers this is recipe for disaster and can undo all our hard work and sacrifices. And the NZ workers are now putting the entire country and their communities at risks. There is only two ways the virus can get in, the sea and air.

2. I think it is a bad idea being endorsed by our Race Relations Commissioner for Maori to run prisons, why should we try and clean up this mess when it is not all of our doing. Many of our Maori people in prison are deeply scarred and some will be extremely hard to rehabilitate. I am not saying they can’t be rehabilitated cause many can but some can’t. It would be better if Maori were able to prevent them from ending up in prison in the first place and this will be hard when we do not have much power or control of our justice and courts systems. The Rangatahi courts are a good starting point. But if we really want long term effective reductions in the current bad statistics and outcomes that plague our people, then we need to have more power and control in systemic changes. However I believe this is something our governments will not relinquish easily. The idea of Maori running prisons has been mentioned before but prisons don’t sit well with our tikanga. I look forward to the korero on this subject, I hope we don’t hear the same old divisive shit as we have heard it all before and if so nothing will ever change.

   • As long as Rawiri Waititi keeps his seat after all the votes are counted, he will help sort out some of this.

     Other than for violent crimes, prison is NOT the answer.

3. I would like to know how many NZders benefit from the overseas fisherman coming here, how many packing jobs exactly and what is the GDP gains. I am not interested in fish supply as many NZers can’t even afford to buy or eat fish unless they are rich, it is way too expensive. Also I hope the rest of NZ is not put at too much risks from the recent community outbreak if so this is another government error. And many people will be furious if we have to go into anther lockdown. Lockdowns are mentally, physically and economically draining. This would not be a very bad start for the newly elected Labour government.

   • Let’s start putting some heat on Sealord and Talleys – oh, and Peters and NZF.

   • Let’s start putting some heat on Sealord and Talleys – oh, and Peters and NZF.

   • many NZers can’t even afford to buy or eat fish

     Yes. It’s a treat that’s rationed… This is so wrong, for Aotearoa.
     And those who’re further up the food/$ chain just don’t ‘get’ it.

   • CiP, There is more to this story – Something about it is not right, it smells like a heap of rotting fish.

     For one thing, the excuse they tot out is that “This is how they’ve always done it, …they’ve been doing this for 25 years, these Russians have been coming over for 25 years”. But then in the same breath they say that “No Kiwis have been trained, so no Kiwis can do it”. So, right there is a problem. They have had 25 years to Train Kiwis to do this. And they have not done so. For 25 years they have not bothered to train Kiwis for this job.

     Chris Faafoi signed off on these men coming over, this time around. His name turns up too often when things go “a bit wrong”. …Not major catastrophes, but wrong nonetheless. Labour have so many new people coming in, they should have no excuses not to find the best, most switched on people for each job now, for each govt portfolio. Hopefully they will do that. It is not just Chris , – Stuart Nash is the Minister for Fisheries, so I have to ask, why has it taken him so long to look into this? Is he doing so now?

   • CiP, Like you, I simply do not believe that there are “No Kiwis who would do this job”, an idea that is floating around. That is rubbish! All it would take is a concerted drive to bring in those Kiwis who would do the work and would do it well. The industry has had no such drive, that I’m aware of. The fancy ads they show on tv from time to time all show “Happy Kiwis” at work! If they can put those ads out, then they can put out equivalent ones looking for new workers.

     It also occurs to me that if things go wrong, for example if our own fishing laws and guidelines were not being followed appropriately, then if they have foreign workers speaking foreign languages then they could hide behind that and say, “Well, you know, they didn’t understand our laws…”

     Again, something is just not right here.

   • Stuff’s latest article on this makes the situation clearer and asks some of the questions: Stuff 23rd Oct, Job Ad for foreign fishermen is trying to avoid the rules

4. We need to prevent people coming here of planes and ships with covid. Too much of our resources are going to this when people like my brother needs an operation and has been told the covid is holding his and others ops up. This is not right why can’t people be tested a week or two before they get on a plane. And then be tested again closer to the time of coming here. We a short of Nurses and how many of our Nurses are tied up with people arriving h here with covid again this is not fair our resources are being used on people that haven’t been living here and haven’t been paying taxes. Something needs to change ASAP. We cannot keep doing the same old thing and expect things to get better we need to make it better by looking at another approach. Baker the epidemiogist has said we need to do something to prevent people getting of planes and a few days later they appear to be positive.

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