Coronavirus - New Zealand
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@Crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
On the flip side to govt errors, I'm not listening to one whinge about lockdown levels unless those making it can confirm that they are also being sensible.
I can't believe the number of people that are walking past requests to sanitise in shops, not using the QR codes, standing in close groups chatting, grouping in aisles of shops to talk, stopping in doorways etc etc.
They will all moan and blame others for failures but can't do the basics themselves FFS.Fuck we have a bad blame culture in this country.
I don't know whereabouts in NZ you are talking about. But in my little part of Auckland people have slipped back into lockdown mode. We have done everything that was asked of us and yet we are back here because of a lax border control
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Speaking as a PSA delegate who deals with border staff a bit, all border agencies are dealing with a massive downturn in work which has caused a lot of stress for everyone. I doubt anyone is particularly aiming for mediocrity, but the scale of change and difference from the past is quite distracting, particularly since the border agencies were in expansion mode pre-Covid, so a lot of the staff and managers have never seen a downturn at all, let alone of this magnitude.
On the specifics, a lot of members expressed concern about all sorts of things to do with Covid and the border - some wanted more tests for the obvious health and safety reasons, some wanted fewer or no tests (because it's an unpleasant medical procedure and they couldn't see the risk at the time), some didn't want to redeployed because they have ironclad contracts for a particular location and position, some wanted to be redeployed because there was no work and they prefer active jobs. Also, some didn't want to lose their jobs due to lack of work so didn't feel they could speak out.
Our (PSA's) standard advice to them was to take tests because it seemed like a good idea (especially for front line staff), and to be pragmatic about taking on available work because otherwise if there were redundancies, the less pragmatic would be first. However, there was no way to legally require the staff to take tests without the health order, and no way to legally require them to undertake different duties on anything other than an ad hoc basis.
For speaking out, we did a lot of it for them, but middle management trying to go back to BAU or getting distracted by other changes and budget issues, meant some competing priorities at times. Nobody missed the memo from the PM about NZ having the best and smartest border in the world, but it takes time to work out the best way to put it into effect, especially when running management of change processes at a government agency (as in, the employment relations side of it - that means a lot of tedium in drafting position descriptions, how much they get paid, recruiting/moving staff, training as required, and particularly if a process is required to change staff's current roles to the new ones). Setting up a new government agency typically takes 12-18 months for a bigger agency - it's not taking anything like that long currently for the MIQ part of MBIE, but it's also not something that can happen in full in days or a few weeks either.
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@Toddy said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Budget issues! Is that serious? We're spending billions propping up the economy but short changing our most important line of defence?
Just as researchers seem to be moving Heaven and Earth to discover a vaccine, why would we not spend whatever resources it took to get this right?
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@Toddy said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Budget issues! Is that serious? We're spending billions propping up the economy but short changing our most important line of defence?
It's quite hard to explain and is to do with the intricacies of the Public Finance Act - essentially a lot of border agencies are heavily fee-funded (user pays, basically) and fees are a long way down on their usual figures, so while government has guaranteed funding, budgets are annual (as part of The Budget), which meant there were some concerns about the current financial year (1 July - 30 June for government) until the appropriations were actually made, and since there is an election before the next Budget, the cautiously-minded managers have some concerns about next year since a new government might have different views (just look at ACT suggesting we need to give up and let it in) and may not allocate the same funding.
Edit: To be clear, the government and ministers (especially the Finance Minister) have been clear that the money will be forthcoming, this is just one of the joys of managerial caution - until it's been through Parliament, they won't act on it.
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@Toddy They did, but still have to follow the law, and fee-funding adds legal wrinkles when fees are a large part of the usual funding envelope. Also, they can tell an agency the money will be there, but the agency isn't obliged to believe them until the legislation has been passed.
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Parliament did (the first tranche of funding came out of the Covid response funding, the second tranche out of the Budget), but part of the Budget process is also working out how much is needed - "as much as it takes" isn't something that can be put into legislation.
Health had the same problem - the Finance Minister said there was no limit, and they still struggled with budget because they didn't ask for enough.
That goes back to managers not asking for enough due to a decade or more of austerity and trying to do more with less, and the standard stuff around taxpayers' money (believe it or not, public servants usually take that seriously), not Parliament for not giving them enough.
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@Godder so the Finance minister wasn't paying enough attention to what the demands would be and that the budgets would be well short of what was needed. These are unprecedented times and it sounds like the Government weren't across this like they should.
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@canefan said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@Crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
On the flip side to govt errors, I'm not listening to one whinge about lockdown levels unless those making it can confirm that they are also being sensible.
I can't believe the number of people that are walking past requests to sanitise in shops, not using the QR codes, standing in close groups chatting, grouping in aisles of shops to talk, stopping in doorways etc etc.
They will all moan and blame others for failures but can't do the basics themselves FFS.Fuck we have a bad blame culture in this country.
I don't know whereabouts in NZ you are talking about. But in my little part of Auckland people have slipped back into lockdown mode. We have done everything that was asked of us and yet we are back here because of a lax border control
I’m in Wellington and the complacency exists.
As for the Aucklanders that ran out of the zone at first chance......
Why do you keep claiming that this is from lax borders? What do you know that we don’t? -
@canefan I saw that on FB this morning, someone I know had shared it from some page with lots of wierd shit on it...guess it sounds plausible, but surely the Govt arent that stupid to lie about it, I know they said they are investigating, but maybe they should say it is in the police' hands than flat out lie, IF TRUE.
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@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@canefan I saw that on FB this morning, someone I know had shared it from some page with lots of wierd shit on it...guess it sounds plausible, but surely the Govt arent that stupid to lie about it, I know they said they are investigating, but maybe they should say it is in the police' hands than flat out lie, IF TRUE.
Have they flat out lied? Genuinely asking as I'm basically following this in occasional Oz reports and on here.
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@Godder said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
That goes back to managers not asking for enough due to a decade or more of austerity and trying to do more with less, and the standard stuff around taxpayers' money (believe it or not, public servants usually take that seriously), not Parliament for not giving them enough.
Having worked in local and central govt, tertiary education, and DHB I'll just say the amount that gets spent on consultants and reports and meetings etc is insane, and I wouldn't say it was front of mind to most. Also that rather than the cream rising to the top in management it's more the floaters that won't flush (retire)
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@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@Nepia so you highlight the words right next to IF TRUE...if that is true, then they have lied.
Now I'm really confused. I'm asking if they've lied now (or do people think they've lied) - so lets say that this story is 100% true, has the govt said something recently that is a lie about that (e.g. that denies it)?