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Helen Clark in the video below, stated something that gave me a jolt, but I guess this has been discussed and accepted in NZ.
She said that the previous international tourism and overseas student " export" revenue, about 25% of total export income, is gone and will never come back. So it's up to this government to support new industry across sectors to make up those losses.
I suppose you guys knew this but it has been still a shock to learn that international tourism and students is no longer a considered option for nz.
"There's clearly no return for the kind of international tourism or student numbers that we had"
and "because the old economy, we're not going to see again"
That's a bit to get my tiny head around🤔
After a minute:
Good to see a politician refer to her rivals in a complimentary manner for a change
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@canefan I have to think Helen means reorganising that about new sectors she mentions.
It was just how she expressed our " new normal " (my words) that made me shudder.No international tourism focus and a closed off country will make for a very different NZ and probably decimate Air NZ.
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@Snowy said in NZ Politics:
@Siam said in NZ Politics:
and probably decimate Air NZ.
It already has.
The government is heavily subsiding their operations at the moment. Chatting with patients that work for Air NZ and in travel flights to Australia only had 25 people per plane pre-bubble. The government picked up the slack
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@canefan That won't go indefinitely, and they have reduced staff numbers already. We need an airline so they will still get support, it is just how small the operation becomes I guess.
There are a heap of airliners sitting around at the moment if any of you want to buy one. I will fly it for you to, well, nowhere at the moment.
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@Snowy I sense a thread worth of riffing, before we get told off... mariner for the tall skinny flight attendant, hooroo as the "park the drinks trolley next to me" guy, poor old winger gets all his bags searched meticulously for 30 minutes everytime and virgil keeps breaking his wee TV screen 😀
Mods delete as you need....
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@taniwharugby Looks like Shane Reti hung on in Northland, although the special votes haven't been counted yet
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@canefan it's a messy situation. Where are they coming from? how many? and how do 'we' manage these students coming through quarantine etc when we seem reasonably pushed as is.
There is definitely urgency for most of our tertiary education organisations (and also secondary schools) to refocus on local rather than overseas students, at least in terms of figuring out how to plug the revenue gap. National talked about letting Universities and other providers manage their own students (with oversight) but acknowledged the numbers would be low for a while. Pretty sure I've heard Hipkins mention something similar but not the private Q management aspect.
As with a lot of other sectors we can shift education away from overseas student/profit driven to something a bit more balanced. Absolutely nothing wrong with being a strong player in the international education scene, but not to the extent that our education systems can't manage without that revenue.
Hopefully this causes the recent ROVE consolidation of tertiary providers to get some momentum... hopefully!
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@JC said in NZ Politics:
@Godder Did your candidate win?
By 14,455 votes before specials.
International tourism and education being heavily reduced was being signalled already when Robertson pointed out that they couldn't subsidise failing businesses and industries forever, and they were named as examples.
Both were important foreign exchange earners, but tourism jobs were some of the worst in the country (by average wages and looking at the hours of work and other conditions), and I've said before that international education was a blight, at least in terms of how many vulnerable students and families would borrow colossal amounts of money on the promise of NZ residency. No doubt both will return in smaller amounts, but this is a good opportunity for a reset.
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@canefan international students-this is what I don't understand.
International students to Australia pay huge fees AND medical insurance for them and partners/children.
In NZ (I think) international postgrads, well PhD anyway, pay the same figures as domestic?
4th largest export market in Australia. Gone.
NZ should surely capitalize. It is not like that market is going to the UK or US now either. Not just the fame across the world but the pull of no local COVID transmission is surely a market winner? -
@nostrildamus said in NZ Politics:
Not just the fame across the world but the pull of no local COVID transmission is surely a market winner?
yeah,a bout that no covid thing ...https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/123126179/coronavirus-one-new-community-case-of-covid19-in-auckland
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Ok don't go to all those universities in Taranaki!
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@nostrildamus said in NZ Politics:
Ok don't go to all those universities in Taranaki!
Eh, I was a bit tongue in cheek. The reality is though, that covid free doesn't appear to exist, and may not ever exist again. Given the delay in symptoms, we can have Covid and not know, therefore we can never state we are covid free.
Your point is sound, though. We should be safely bringing people over the border in whatever condition we can, rather than just saying 'no'.
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Yes well given Australia's internal border stuff ups NZ could really hurry ahead and do some great things, pitch the lifestyle to the techie types (like Brisbane did to the US East Coast game companies about 15 years ago), entice the top students, maybe entice unis to move out of high cost CBD areas (Auckland anyway)..campus by the Mount! Or Queenstown/Wanaka..
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@nostrildamus said in NZ Politics:
Yes well given Australia's internal border stuff ups NZ could really hurry ahead and do some great things, pitch the lifestyle to the techie types (like Brisbane did to the US East Coast game companies about 15 years ago), entice the top students, maybe entice unis to move out of high cost CBD areas (Auckland anyway)..campus by the Mount! Or Queenstown/Wanaka..
We have a once in a generation chance to trade off this
NZ Politics