News just to hand in relation to the FENZ Mandates …
“We have completed an external legal review and have determined that these changes remove all Fire and Emergency roles from coverage under the Health Order. This means our people will no longer be required to be vaccinated to undertake their work.
These amendments to the Order come into effect from 11.59pmon 7 July 2022 and at that time roles previously covered by the Health Order will only be covered by Fire and Emergency’s Vaccination Policy which only requires vaccination for international travel.”
On Tuesday this week, the Govt quietly announced on the Beehive page that after 5pm on 02 July 2022, vaccine mandates would end for border workers and corrections.
Given how much this Govt loves making big announcements about everything, including an announcement, it’s quite sneaky that they would do this so discretely. Healthcare and fire and emergency services are still under extreme pressure caused by the mandates, but the Govt won’t budge on this.
With the crisis in healthcare and emergency services, you’d think some common sense would prevail and the Govt would put a stop to the mandates once and for all. DemocracyNZ has been against the mandates from the very beginning, even when all the other parties in Parliament supported them. They are wrong, they are undemocratic, and they have to end for everyone. This is no more other than discrimination, there is no health reason for these mandates.
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As we saw earlier this week, the Corrections and Border workers mandates were disposed of via a post to the Covid Response Minister’s website, late Tuesday evening.
The spot light currently falls on healthcare workers although it should at least cast a shadow in the direction of our striking fireman and the fire stations forced to close due to lack of staff.
Although it is not publicly acknowledged we’re reliably informed that, part of that protest includes emergency workers not releasing private health information so numbers are not reduced further, leaving the country in an even more vulnerable position.
FENZ is administered as part of the Department of Internal Affairs, for which Minister Jan Tinetti is responsible.
FENZ in a statement released this morning said their position had not changed:
“The Government is currently considering refining the definitions in the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021, with the intention of narrowing the role coverage.”
This effectively is Board Chairman Rebecca Keoghan reinforcing the same message we saw 2 months ago as an advocate for Tinetti, not a responsible CEO for FENZ.
There may well be some truth in the allegations leveled by Todd Muller this week, that there is missing funds in FENZ to be accounted for and that’s why we see this extraordinary remote position from, Tinetti.
According to FENZ Board advisor, Richard Bryant “Fire and Emergency is receiving regular updates from the Ministry of Health so that it is as prepared as it can be for any changes.”
This seems somewhat at odds with the position of Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis, who had no idea on Monday that his Corrections mandates were going Tuesday. How could they have been prepared?
Even more so, when the Ministry of Health has its own dire situation, but FENZ refuses to disclose what information it receives.
“In the meantime, Fire and Emergency must continue to comply with the current Health Order.” Says Bryant.
So, we’re back to some undisclosed vague position and waiting for a recently appointed Covid Response Minister, to fix this, since Chris Hipkins has abandoned that position to fight fires in the police portfolio.
Forgive the pun, but I’m sure you get my point; why isn’t Tinetti able to be responsible for the Department she is a Minister for?
We’ve played politics with the New Zealand (NZ EU) European Union, Trade Agreement (TA) since Ardern first became prime minister. It was announced as a done-deal much like high speed rail in Dominion Rd and that just never happened. That is the fake politics we see too often – imagined success.
A TA with the EU would be a win for us at this time with the ever increasing likelihood of diminished trade with an economically hamstrung China. So where are we up to now?
June 2018: Negotiations formally launched
July 2018: First round of negotiations, Brussels
October 2018: Second round of negotiations, Wellington
February 2019: Third round of negotiations, Brussels
May 2019: Fourth round of negotiations, Wellington
July 2019: Fifth round of negotiations, Brussels
December 2019: Sixth round of negotiations, Wellington
March-April 2020: Seventh round of negotiations (conducted virtually)
June 2020: Eighth round of negotiations (conducted virtually)
November 2020: Ninth round of negotiations (conducted virtually)
March 2021: Tenth round of negotiations (conducted virtually)
June-July 2021: Eleventh round of negotiations (conducted virtually)
MFAT had been hard at work up until a year ago, before NZ headed into weeks of lockdown, and it’s still not a done deal. As we know from the US non-trade agreement as a result of our departure from ANZUS there are strings attached to these agreements – what, in this case is not currently for us minions to know.
Even if we do manage the hoop jumping and get our piece of paper, there is still a long process within our domestic politics.
Once an agreement is reached, it will be released for public scrutiny, as will a ‘National Interest Assessment’. The agreement will also undergo parliamentary treaty examination, be ratified by Government and ultimately enter into force.
The politics is claiming the hard work by our trade negotiators. Whereas the success and failure is what we may or may not have agreed to behind closed doors.
With distrust running so high in our self-indulgent leader some people may be of the opinion that if it didn’t happen until after the next election all the better.
How much trust foreign leaders place in Ardern must be at least as questionable as our own.
This government loves its announcements of an announcement.
You will recall in the Prime minister’s recent “Titanic Reshuffle” that our Speaker Trevor Mallard is resigning from parliament.
it was announced at the time by Ms Ardern, that Mallard would be taking up a diplomatic post in Europe. (Rumours immediately started that the Irish didn’t want him, and had in fact, loudly objected)
Applications had been made to abandon this trial because of the defendants age but were declined by the court which instead directed limited hearing hours per week in accordance with the defendant’s state of health.
Rumours circulating in the weekend have proven to be accurate, with speculation that the Corrections mandates would be gone by Friday, now substantiated by a website announcement last night.
in spite of conformation from the Minister for Corrections on Monday, that Davis wasn’t engaged in a review of mandates this week, Covid-19 Minister the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall slipped the announcement onto a government website yesterday evening (Tuesday 28th).
Lucas Lorman, from Christchurch based Kiwi Voice reported live from the nurses mandate protest in Hagley Ave in Christchurch, today.
Is our government unnecessarily creating the greatest health crisis the country has ever faced?
With thousands of health care professionals sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, the ongoing Health Order mandates appear to exist without any logical reason.
Even minor political parties are stepping up to add their voices in support.
“Hospitals are paying GPs ridiculous amounts to moonlight for emergency departments to cope with patients camping out for more than 8 hours waiting to be attended to and already one death has occurred.” Says, Social Credit leader, Chris Leitch.
The obvious question about the mandate regulations and whether they should end now, is how many unnecessary deaths might eventuate.
The Prime Minister is ignoring the hospital crisis at home while she heads off on Foreign Affairs business in Europe.
No doubt the health mandates are high on the list of complaints being raised at DemocracyNZ meetings as their nationwide roadshow continues its rollout.
Writer of Sorts 