Daily Archives: September 17, 2022

This story is from the team at thespinoff.co.nz.

Weve just experienced the most extraordinary period of the century so far, during which unprecedented restrictions were put on our lives. These largely ended this week but, Duncan Greive writes, rather than returning to things as they were, New Zealanders are coming to terms with a country transformed.

The pandemic truly began with a televised address on a Saturday afternoon, one which had the air of a wartime address the flags, the wood panelling, the black and white portraits of former prime ministers. And Jacinda Ardern down the barrel of the camera, telling us that from next week, our whole lives would change.

It set the stage for two months many of us spent inside, watching the world in horror and Aotearoa in the hope that we might avoid the same fate. That gave way to two and a half years in which we ran on a separate track to the rest of the planet. For much of it we had no known cases in our community, and even when delta did escape, never to be contained, the caseload didnt run rampant the way it did elsewhere. It was only with the arrival of omicron, an irresistible variant, that the country succumbed to the roaring intensity of the pandemic.

By then, the vast majority of us who wanted to be vaccinated had taken our two shots. And while the last six months have seen Covid-19 finally breach our lattice of national defences, they also saw us, at a population level, lose something of our fear of the virus. Some of this was the vaccination campaign, some of it was the milder strain, some of it was the experience of contracting the virus and the vast majority of us surviving (though an unfortunate minority live with long Covid, about which too little is known).

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That change in our attitude toward the virus, from fear to something more resigned, manifested in multiple ways. Most prominently, it showed in our adherence to the restrictions of the orange setting, under which we were nominally still operating until days ago. These mandated a number of things, the most visible being mask usage in many indoor settings. Yet anyone who went into a supermarket or caught the bus knows that compliance with those laws became increasingly scattered over the past few months. While there was a second peak in July, numbers have since declined steadily, a kind of natural endorsement of this new behaviour.

The Spinoff

That change in our attitude toward the virus, from fear to something more resigned, manifested in multiple ways.

And while experts like Siouxsie Wiles and advocates for the immunocompromised were right to say that this represented a dangerous new frontier, and that the government should not blithely abandon a course of action which had served us so well, Labour ultimately had little choice. In a democracy, we are largely governed by consent. With what appeared a majority of the population deciding to cease complying with these laws, to carry on would have meant millions of us were on some level engaged in daily criminal activity. For the sake of defending our more persistent laws, they had to go, if only to defend the behavioural matrix which helps us operate as a society.

So here we are again days shy of two and a half years on, back with normal service resumed. Yet so much has changed as to make that a laughable suggestion. It seems like the right time to reflect on the different aspects of our lives which remain profoundly impacted by the pandemic, for better and worse, and show that even with 2020s Public Health Response Act off the books, some things remain quite radically different.

Aside from the lockdowns, the most defining feature of the pandemic was our changed relationship with the border. Previously porous, it became subject to incredibly tight control. For many of the million of us who were away from their whenua, it also became the subject of deep anguish, as the hard-capped supply of places in managed isolation meant the opportunity to return home became an unnecessarily cruel lottery.

While some of those here on temporary visas when the pandemic struck elected to stay, sometimes with harsh consequences, many left, meaning New Zealanders were largely stuck with each other for a couple of years. This created a giant experiment which saw unemployment, expected to rise as our economy fell, plumb record lows. Our tourism infrastructure pivoted to trying to attract and service a domestic market, with mixed results.

This ultimately had the effect of forcing the test of a longstanding thesis of the left that some inward migration contributed to negative pressure on salaries, particularly among lower-paid workers. It turned out to have some truth to it, with average hourly earnings up 6.4% in the year ended June 2022.

Our border is now theoretically operating much as before. Only, it seems to be working more one way than the other, as the persistent downward trend in migration data shows, resulting in a net loss of 11,500 people in the year ended July.

Broadly it feels like our young people are off on long-delayed OEs, but arent being replaced by the bold and curious of other countries (Come! Its probably better than where you are, see below). Which is slightly unnerving, for both tourism operators and employers who require particular kinds of workers to achieve their goals. It seems clear that even with a border changed and migration settings freer than before, things are just not quite what they were.

When Covid arrived there were predictions that housing would crash, but the money bomb unleashed by the government and Reserve Bank ended up having the opposite effect, seeing already OECD-leading prices rocket up 30% or more. This was very good news for those who were heavily invested in property, and made homeowners feel more wealthy, but unavoidably made those locked out of the market feel even more alienated.

The odd thing is that the rise in house prices was largely on the demand side. Most people were staying put to see what the pandemic would bring, which meant that the number of houses for sale plummeted. Many were working from home, which made some keen to upgrade meaning the cost of building rose, which (along with low interest rates) justified paying more for existing homes. At the same time, New Zealanders coming home were desperate to buy, creating a temporary demand shock, with returning migrants movements strongly correlated with house price increases.

The paradox of it all is that while it felt like our housing market was exploding in 2021, the seeds of a form of rebalancing were in place. The closed border meant that net migration plummeted, meaning fewer people are chasing our existing homes. The building consent boom of the past few years saw record numbers of homes planned, increasing future supply. And interest rates are spiking, meaning banks wont loan as much, reducing how much wage earners can pay for a home.

It all adds up to a situation in which rents and prices are starting to meaningfully sag for the first time in some years, helped by the expectation that new planning rules might bring far more intensification to our biggest cities in the coming years. To be clear, prices are still absolutely rooted, so lets not get too excited, and we still have a heartbreaking situation unfolding in emergency housing. But there are more reasons than there have been in years to express cautious optimism that our housing crisis might one day merit a downgrade to a mere disaster.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff

Aside from the lockdowns, the most defining feature of the pandemic was our changed relationship with the border.

We lived through a decade in which inflation felt a quaint thing your grandpa used to fret about. Then came a pandemic-induced supply chain disruption, huge government stimulus, and central banks loaning any bank any money for any reason if they promised to keep our economies in motion. This made prices go way, way up though we were told it was a blip. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and China continued its ultra-doomed zero Covid policy, and the blip suddenly looked a lot less blippish.

Inflation is back, baby. Its currently running at 7.3% in Aotearoa, a level not seen since Act founder Richard Prebble was a staunch Labour man, and there is no good reason to think it wont stay this way for a while. Unlike the border, or even housing to some extent, the government has a somewhat limited ability to impact the price of things. We exist in a globalised trading environment, with many important prices set at markets a long way from here.

Some elevated inflation is not entirely bad parts of government privately applaud it. If wages go up while house prices and rents stagnate, for example, that represents progress on the goal of making housing more affordable. But its well above that level now, and is such a chaotic beast that even those who are enjoying it are rightly wary of where it might lead. There are some reasons for cautious optimism, such as a decline in shipping costs (which impact almost all goods we buy) but elevated inflation seems a freaky post-pandemic reality which could easily hang around.

At the start of 2020, health did not feel like a major consuming interest. Its something which everyone alive needs to think about yet many of us actively avoid contemplating. Our health system has long been oddly structured and underfunded, and served many of our most vulnerable particularly poorly (Emma Espiners Getting Better podcast remains mandatory listening to understand this at a micro level).

But while its a major area of spending, it was not a major area of news coverage more one to be visited for investigations than under persistent scrutiny. There were only a handful of specialist health reporters outside of the noble likes of NZ Doctor. At a societal level, we were just not paying much attention.

Then the pandemic arrived and killed millions of people, and eventually thousands of us. It made us pay very close attention to our health system, and stories of it buckling and failing in some places felt real because any of us might imminently need it. Every reporter became a health reporter, many of them brilliant.

The pandemic also viscerally demonstrated that health was indeed a system. Not just hospitals and GPs, but pharmacies and researchers and public health experts and vaccine supply chains. Some of these worked really well for some of us, but after the Pfizer vaccine arrived en masse the weekly statistics told a damning story about how well our system reached different communities.

This was not just a medical issue Mori confidence in the system is intimately connected to centuries of hard-earned distrust in the state but you saw it very acutely in health. This was never OK, but the health systems racial inequities were even more inescapable in the post-George Floyd era. Reporting on healthcare now pays attention to how different communities experience it, and this seems only right.

Health was also ground zero for a major change in government policy, with the government replacing the patchwork of DHBs with a new centralised provider, and Te Aka Whai Ora, the Mori Health Authority. Only time will reveal whether this, the largest of the governments centralisation projects, will lead to a meaningful change in access and outcomes for communities the system currently fails. But the pandemic has made us appreciate our reliance on the totality of the health system, and how fragile elements of it were going in.

Juan Zarama Perini

Health was also ground zero for a major change in government policy, with the government replacing the patchwork of DHBs with a new centralised provider.

Education has experienced a near perfect inversion of what health went through in the past couple of years. It was necessarily sacrificed to preserve health initially, with school abandoned for months while we pursued elimination. While there was a huge effort to move to online learning, access to those tools were unequally divided, leading to a major and partially successful push to get devices into the hands of those who lacked them.

Unfortunately MIQ sites were concentrated in Tmaki-Makaurau, and the riskiest of all the once-notorious Jet Park, where positive cases were transferred was located in South Auckland. This is also the site of New Zealands largest Pacific community, its most overcrowded housing, and a population with major healthcare challenges. This combination lead inevitably to major outbreaks and lockdowns with correspondingly lengthy absences from school, totalling around six months of a two year span.

During this period many older students were faced with a bleak choice: continue attending school online, often in conditions which made learning very difficult, or enlist as essential workers and bring a wage home. Others became disenfranchised, and some data suggests that there is a kind of educational long Covid kids missing school, unexplained, who had previously attended regularly. They now have a correspondingly higher risk of missing out on much more as they go through life.

Deeper into the education system, we have lost, in part intentionally, many of the international students who used to populate parts of our tertiary system. But with immigration still well down on 2019 levels, it means an increased pressure on our system to create the kinds of workers our society used to be able to import (see: nurses and teachers). So far the reform of our polytech sector is over budget and has already seen off one highly experienced CEO. Any long-term recovery from the pandemic requires education to get enough attention to start to repair the individual and collective sacrifices students made during the pandemic, and meet the needs of our future economy.

When we locked down, we got more internet than ever before. You saw this in surging, likely unrepeatable large audiences for online news, and temporary resurgences for linear TV. Yet there was also a small but not insubstantial minority of us for whom the pandemic galvanised a real distrust of the media, and particularly its relationship with the government.

This rumbled along, propelled by hyper-use of social media publicly on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, privately on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Initially a vague discontentment, leaders like Billy Te Kahika, Kelvyn Alp, Sue Grey and Voices for Freedom gave this tendency shape, creating a kind of constellation of brands under which anyone so inclined could find a home.

Over time it fused with various conspiracies about the origin of the virus and the vaccines into a full-blown movement, one which swelled around the time the mandates were announced, peaking with the occupation of parliament. The 23 day siege attracted thousands of people, transfixing the nation. It culminated in flames and hurled cobblestones and a sense that our country had a new, highly disenfranchised population that had started to live in a different reality to many of the rest of us.

Their fury felt equally directed at politicians, whom they blamed for job losses, and the media for enabling them. The governments Public Interest Journalism Fund became an obsession for many in this group, and while there are legitimate criticisms to be levelled at it, the extent to which a piece of relatively routine procurement has become a sinister conspiracy is a wound that will take some time to heal.

Its also worth acknowledging that the past couple of years have been a collective trauma, and that its entirely natural that people respond to it in different ways. It still feels like we give too much attention to those who have been radicalised online, and too little to platforms that enable and profit from the heavy engagement that radicalisation engenders. On some level, Mondays Covid announcement could be read as a call to lay down our online arms to welcome those who felt alienated by mandates back into our collective whnau. Its impossible to yet know whether these divisions are permanent or simply a product of extraordinary times and measures.

I know this piece so far reads like a catalogue of bad vibes. No one wants to come here anymore, everything is more expensive, our health and education systems are kinda wrecked and we basically hate each other. Yet pick almost any other country and the same things are in worse shape. Inflation runs hotter in many other rich countries. The health and education systems crumbled in far more catastrophic ways, and much larger proportions of their populations died during the peak of the pandemic.

Braden Fastier/Stuff

The 23-day siege in Wellington attracted thousands of people, transfixing the nation.

Most of all, the divisions which flamed during the pandemic feel uglier and more entrenched in many of the other countries to which we often compare ourselves. To address all that broke and was revealed by the pandemic will require enormous effort, but will also be made far easier by the ability to agree on desired goals (if not the path there) as much as possible. A political and media system that accepts the legitimacy of elections and believes in the good intentions of its main participants is perhaps the most precious thing we still hold.

I wrote about how I was feeling a couple of months ago under the only somewhat facetious headline Everything feels bad all the time. Based on the feedback I got, I was not alone. Yet to be here, in spring, with case numbers falling and the repeal of the restrictions which weve sat with since March of 2020 even if that is itself not uncomplicated feels like a moment we shouldnt just let pass by with a shrug.

It got a little lost in the passing of the Queen, and the fact that many of us had abandoned those restrictions already. But the pandemic was something we all did together, under very extreme circumstances. As much as some key parts of our society are under strain, and face years of hard work just to get back to baseline, almost everything really is so much worse nearly everywhere else.

Its not much maybe, especially to those whose lives have been irrevocably altered by the pandemic. But its more than most of the rest of the world can say an outcome any of us would have taken on that fateful day when the prime minister stared down the camera and told us this ride was about to begin. As we commence the long and arduous work of building the post-pandemic era, that should not be taken lightly.

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New Zealand is now as it was but nothing is the same - Stuff

Jason Momoa debuts head tattoo while travelling to NZ. Video / prideofgypsies

Jason Momoa is on his way to Aotearoa.

The Aquaman star is set to start filming his new Apple TV + series Chief of war in New Zealand and while walking along an airport tarmac, he revealed his latest tattoo.

Appearing in an Instagram video, the star grinned as he told fans, "Hawaiian Airlines - proud to be Hawaiian, proud to ride Hawaiian Airlines, the best part is, it goes to New Zealand finally, again; it's been like two years since they were able to go because of Covid."

With a knowing smile the star then said, "Hawaiian Airlines, I love you for this and I got something special for ya," before he took of his hat and revealed his new head tattoo.

A rep for the actor told Just Jared that the tattoo is a tribal pattern relating to his Hawaiian roots and culture and appears to stretch from his forehead, down the side of his head and to his neck.

"Chief of war coming, baby!' Momoa said referring to the upcoming Apple TV + series that is starring, written and executive produced by Momoa.

The project marks the first time Momoa has written for television.

The star then captioned the post, "Here we go @hawaiianairlines is back we're going to New Zealand Hawaii to Aotearoa Mahalo to my ohana for being there for me yesterday @suluape_keone it was a true honor 20 years in the making."

"So stoked @mananalu.water is on the flight mahalo again @hawaiianairlines help stop single use plastic. Always on the roam @soill Aloha j."

The star's tattoo reveal comes almost two weeks after he shaved part of his head in a video where he urged fans to eliminate single-use plastics from their day-to-day life.

Momoa said in a clip: "Doing it for single-use plastics, I'm tired of using plastic bottles, we gotta stop, plastic forks, all that s***, goes into our land, goes into our ocean."

The Game of Thrones actor said that "just seeing things in our ocean, it's just so sad", and pleaded with fans "to eliminate single-use plastics" in their lives, saying that" plastic bottles are ridiculous".

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Watch: Jason Momoa debuts huge head tattoo while travelling to New Zealand - New Zealand Herald

Air New Zealand is denying it has been approached or is in discussions with any other airline. Photo: 123RF

Air New Zealand is denying it is in merger talks after a report in The Australian newspaper.

The paper reported the airline and Virgin Australia held recent discussions about a possible merger, with Virgin also looking at acquiring Australian regional carrier Rex Airlines.

However, in a short statement to the sharemarket this morning, Air New Zealand chair Dame Therese Walsh said it has "not been approached, and is not in discussions with any parties, regarding a potential merger transaction".

The airline said it was complying with its NZX continuous disclosure obligations. It declined to provide further comment when approached by RNZ.

The Australian, citing sources, said talks were held between Air New Zealand and Virgin "in recent weeks", but they had not struck a deal.

The paper said the plan would involve a back door dual listing in Australia and in New Zealand of Virgin into Air New Zealand.

Virgin is owned by United States private equity firm Bain Capital.

Bain bought the airline for $A3.5 billion ($NZ3.9b) in 2020 after it entered voluntary administration after Covid-19 decimated the aviation sector.

Air New Zealand has had a long and complicated history with Australia over the years.

Qantas owned a stake in the airline when it was privatised in 1989. In the mid-1990s, Air New Zealand bought a 50 percent stake in the Australian carrier Ansett and took full ownership in 2000.

The merger was a disaster for the airline as Ansett collapsed and Air New Zealand was bailed out by the New Zealand government, which took a majority stake in the company.

In 2011, Air New Zealand bought a stake in Virgin but sold down in 2016.

Just two years later the airline announced a partnership with Qantas for domestic routes in New Zealand and Australia.

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Air New Zealand dismisses report of merger with Virgin Australia - RNZ

Libby Law Photography

Tim Price, seen her competing at Burghley, sits in seventh place at the FEI World Eventing Championships in Italy.

New Zealands eventing team remain in the medal hunt at the FEI World Eventing Championships in Italy.

At the end of the cross country stage, the Kiwis sit in fourth place and have riders in seventh, 12th, 15th and 20th on the leaderboard in Rome.

Just 11 of the 88 combinations who tackled the Guiseppe della Chiesa-designed course came home clear and inside time and one of those was New Zealander Tim Price aboard Falco.

READ MORE:* Jonelle Price on 5-star podium in Germany* Tim Price finishes third in the Stars of Pau equestrian event * Tim Price on podium at Burghley

Monica Spencer and Artist, Jonelle Price with McClaren, and Amanda Pottinger on Just Kidding all came through but picked up time penalties along the way.

World No 3 Tim Price was very happy with his smooth ride on Falco, which left him in seventh spot in the individual standings following their earlier 26.2 penalty point dressage score.

It was a good day for us really.

Prices wife Jonelle sits in 15th spot but remained upbeat about her chances after coming through the challenging course.

Obviously it would have been nice to have been a couple of seconds faster but the clear round was paramount at that stage of things, she said.

I lost a little bit of time in the last couple of minutes he [McClaren] was a little bit flat coming home but he really fought for some fences, and fought for some flags today.

It was really a day to get stuck in and wasnt the most beautiful of tracks to ride, with the changing ground and some of the lines, but he dug deep and came home well for me.

Three-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Jung and fischerChipmjunk FRK lead the individual field on 18.8, with Britains Yasmin Ingham in second (23.2) on Banzai du Loir and American Tamra Smith in third on 24 aboard Mai Baum.

Germany also lead the way in the team standing on 76.1 penalty points, with the United States second on 77.4, Great Britain in third on 80.9 and New Zealand fourth on 88.3.

There were three retirements and 13 eliminations during the cross country. The competition shifts to showjumping on Sunday evening (NZT).

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New Zealand team in medal hunt at world eventing championships in Italy - Stuff

LONDON The national flag carrier of New Zealand, Air New Zealand, is set to receive its first batch of shipment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is due to arrive in the country this Sunday (18th September).

This is set to catapult the airline into an elite group using sustainable aviation fuel to propel the wider aviation industry to become Carbon Neutral by 2050.

This shipment of 1.2 million liters of SAF is set to game-change the industry.

However, the 1.2 million liters is a tiny drop in the ocean when compared to the usage of fossil fuel, which is at 1.4 billion liters used by airlines globally on a yearly basis.

This is a stepping stone, nevertheless.

The 1.2 million liters brought in may sound very little, but in fact, this is equivalent to fuelling approximately 400 return flights between Auckland and Wellington, which is significant.

This translates to a reduction in the lifecycle of carbon emissions by up to 80% compared to the use of traditional jet fuel.

The SAF itself is produced, produced by Neste in Finland, and is important in cooperation with Z Energy. This first-ever shipment will be used as a testbed and set up a concrete system and a supply chain for importing the fuel into the island nation.

Like all SAF, they are made from a sustainable source, with renewable waste residue, raw items, and recycled tallow or cooking oil. Moreover, Air New Zealand has plans, in the long run, to produce biofuel locally.

Furthermore, Air New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment signed a Memorandum of Understand in September last year to study the feasibility of a local SAF facility in the country.

Air New Zealand continues to actively march on with the countrys government to champion the policies and regulatory setting required to establish a SAF market and to study the dynamics of pricing for the usage of SAF in the industry.

The airlines topman chief executive Greg Foran said: Its part of our journey to get to at least 1 percent of the [biofuel] that were going to use this year

He continued: Were looking at something that potentially might be able to use woody biomass so slashings from trimming trees, he said, adding it would probably require a capital investment of about $500m to $700m.

The airlines CEO explained that the process would be long and expensive to set up but worth it in the long term.

Its quite expensive, but were talking about our future long term, and you know, I think it could be a very good thing, he said, adding the company was studying the feasibility of setting up such a plant in co-operation with the government.

He also reiterated that Air New Zealand is already a very efficient airline; he stated: Air New Zealand is already one of the most fuel-efficient airlines in the world with our modern fleet, but the future of travel relies on low-carbon air transport.

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The First Batch of Sustainable Aviation Fuel is Set to Arrive For Air New Zealand - AviationSource News

Are you always on?

Peering at your phone, sneaking to the loo to send emails, uncomfortable on holiday if the wifi is dodgy, staring blankly at your family, knowing they just said something, but your phone just pinged so you have no idea what?

You are showing signs of being a workaholic, traits you share with around 1 in 10 others. Its such a big thing, theres a Workaholics Anonymous, which has a 12-step global group programme for recovering workaholics.

Its such a big thing, Massey University School of Management Professor Jane Parker is part of a global study investigating it, along with peoples thoughts, emotions and behaviours around their jobs.

READ MORE:* Demi Lovato opens up about her addiction to exercise* National Portrait: Minister of Almost Everything David Parker* Food controlled me for 15 years: It was my deep dark secret

Supplied

Dr Edyta CharzyskaFaculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland.

Dr Edyta Charzyska from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, and Dr Pawe Atroszko from the University of Gdask, Poland, are leading research in more than 50 countries, across six continents.

The anonymous study concerns peoples attitudes to the jobs that they perform, with research results published in scientific journals. It will be impossible to identify individual respondents.

Parker, who has the task of finding 200 Kiwi participants, tells Stuff the information will be invaluable for individuals and companies, and will hopefully make more clear exactly what work addiction is.

What I'm hoping is, the survey will help us to define how people see addiction rather than us 'guestimate' constructs and then say, Do you do this, do you do that?, she says.

I am hoping they'll say, Well, I don't really see this as addiction, or Yes, I do see it because it's a situational and, to some extent, perceptual matter.

It can be driven by so many factors, and that's where we really need to get on top of it, with some evidence.

People may be able to reflect more on how they engage with work and take stock if they feel they need to.

Employment agreements in Aotearoa set a basic ceiling of 40 hours per week (excluding overtime), unless agreed otherwise. In France its 35 hours, in Australia 38, while in China its 48.

Supplied

Dr Pawe Atroszko, Institute of Psychology, University of Gdask, Poland.

While globally the average number of hours that people work is reducing, New Zealanders still have comparatively long work weeks about 2.3 hours more than the OECD weekly average.

While those figures suggest a good many Kiwis are keen, if not addicted, to working, Parker wants the survey to provide proof.

Its reported around 8% of Norwegians and Hungarians are addicted to work, the tentative estimate for the US is around 10%.

Professionals and those in vocational roles have comparatively long working hours, so the survey could reflect differences in peoples commitment and non-delegation tendencies rather than an actual addiction to working.

More needs to be learnt about how and if work addiction levels can be linked to factors such as differing socio-cultural norms, individuals characteristics, and economic conditions, Parker says.

Supplied

Professor Jane Parker of Massey University.

Particularly when they are paid at lower wage rates, staff are driven to work longer hours and/or take on multiple jobs to make ends meet.

I've talked to cleaners who are on to their third or fourth job for the day, and they're certainly not addicted to work!

In such cases, economic necessity rather than a particular mindset about work appears to be the key force behind working longer hours or working harder.

It depends on the nature of the work too, Parker says. Health workers tend to feel they must provide a service.

Some work is innately appealing. We see this in various professions and vocations where there's often a strong commitment element to the work.

It's not about extrinsic rewards, it's intrinsic satisfaction. It's pretty difficult to walk away, for example, as a health professional from a situation just because the clock chimes five.

It is hoped the survey will help companies understand what makes workers tick, how to spot work prone to overworking, and be aware when staff are fatigued.

Mary Altaffer/AP

Healthcare workers often feel obliged to go to work, which is not the same as addiction.

One potential issue is when a worker feels they are doing a great job, only to be asked to cut back. It is a delicate situation, Parker says.

For people who place a lot of value on their work effort, then it could be seen as a criticism of them, being told not to do that or to scale it back, she says.

If you're a high performer and you're deriving a lot of satisfaction from what you're doing and you don't think you've got a problem.

Wellington clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland of Umbrella Wellbeing says those who work hard often know it, and in focussing on work they can let other areas of their life slip.

The thing that people around them might notice is that those people are sort of mentally not present, he says.

We've probably all had that experience where we've tried to talk to somebody who's physically there, but mentally they are somewhere else, so they're a bit distracted.

KEVIN STENT/Stuff

Clinical psychologist Prof Dougal Sutherland spotting overworkers may not be hard.

They might keep flicking back to their phone or to the device, which is probably a good indication that even though they're physically at home, they're mentally still at work, he says.

Some might want to find ways to deal with that, while others are happiest when they are working in their day job and can see family life as an intrusion.

Chief executives are often in that zone. They feel a real strong sense of meaning and purpose in their lives from their work and have a real commitment, Sutherland says.

There are definitely people that are absolutely in that zone and they probably are really successful at work.

But that is not all roses, high salaries and living happily ever after, he warns.

Their whole reason for being is so strongly tied up with their work that it's almost impossible for them to break out. That's great to a point for them, but the risks are that they may not be so successful in other areas of their life, like relationships.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Workbridge offers employment support to overcome 'barriers' to beneficiaries with health issues eager to work.

Thats a pretty fragile position if you lose your job or you can't fulfil it, you get sick, you get restructured, then it can have a pretty massive influence on your well-being because now your one sole reason for being has been taken away or reduced.

You've put all your eggs in one basket and when that basket breaks all your eggs shatter. It's not a particularly resilient position to be [in].

Sutherland is aware more and more people are saying theyve had enough of work.

Its as if, I've realised that actually, there's more to life than work and I don't want to do it. The overworking realise, I've just kind of ended up working, working, working, and I've become addicted to it.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's people going actually I don't want to do this, I'm going to cut back on work. So it's the full gamut really, of those between those two ends of the spectrum.

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Are you job-obsessed? New Zealand joins global look at work addiction - Stuff

With their masterful approach to indie pop lauded at home and overseas, The Beths are feeling cautiously optimistic about their brand new album. Tyson Beckett catches up with the band on a flying visit home from touring Expert in a Dying Field.

When I first meet everyones favourite New Zealand indie band, The Beths, they are half a world away, dialling in from a carpark in Columbus, Ohio.

A few hours away from playing the last show of a six-week tour that has seen them play 26 dates across North America, they seem understandably, a little tired, but in a contented way.

This is the second time theyve toured the US and Canada this year. Theyve played across Europe and Australia too, and life on the road as an indie band requires a decent amount of DIY leg work.

Theyre also busy promoting their new album Expert in a Dying Field, but being back on the road is still somewhat of a novelty. Eyes heavy but hearts full, if you will.

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Snaking their way across the continental US in a self-driven van Liz Stokes, Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair and Tristan Deck tell me they have played what is known as a secondary market tour. Seeking out slightly smaller cities than they did when they were here in February, they played places such as San Diego, Denver and Cincinnati.The shows, to crowds of about 500, have consistently sold out.

The Beths are just scratching the surface of touring opportunities on offer in the US. Theres a long list of cities in this giant country of that size that we can do that sort of show in, which is pretty great, lead guitarist Pearce says.

Theyre making the most of those opportunities, but also making up for lost time. Pre-pandemic the quartet were on a roll. In 2018 Rolling Stone named song Happy Unhappy the song of the summer, the band signed to American record label Carpark Records and back home their song, Future Me Hates Me, off the debut album of the same name, was shortlisted for the Silver Scroll Award.

The following year, in between an extensive touring schedule to support the album and other hugely successful acts such as Death Cab for Cutie, the bands songwriter and lead vocalist Stokes began writing their sophomore album. Jump Rope Gazers was released in July 2020 as the world was hunkering down, international tours off the cards.

As heartbreaking as that must have been, they maintain they were actually, lucky.

This tour, says Pearce, has made it clear that we were really lucky with the timing of our album that we were able to proceed with it, in a compromised way, but that we had a compelling reason to just go ahead and put it out there. That kind of kept us in peoples lives and it got us up off the couch.

Homegrown fans were also lucky, getting many more opportunities to see the band live while they sheltered in place for almost two years.

It was, Stokes says, A big time in New Zealand for The Beths.

We were happy with where we were sitting in New Zealand and we didnt really think we had the capacity to be a huge band but I feel like we played in front of a lot of people and we grew our band in NZ.

Local acclaim swelled. The group won Best Group and Best Alternative Artist at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards, as well as the coveted Best Album Award.

Now theyre back on the road internationally, steadily regaining their previous momentum. In August Expert in a Dying Field was added to the playlist of UK radio station BBC 6 Music. Stokes says it feels great to be hitting their stride, but it was also a little daunting.

All the venues were all twice as big as the last tour wed done in 2019. There was a sense of can we pull this off? The growing buzz around the band suggests that yes, they can.

Its been an exercise in delayed gratification in the sense that overseas fans are experiencing live for the first time an album that is now more than two years old. Especially because The Beths get deep satisfaction from their live performances. We write stuff for ourselves that is on the edge of all our abilities, says Stokes, and part of the thrill lies in seeking to perform it as perfectly as humanly possible.

We know every little manoeuvre we need to perform from the start to the end of the set and we really strive to string them all together and perform our version of a perfect show, Pearce adds.

Chelsea Metcalf, who performs under the moniker Chelsea Jade, and played with Stokes in her first band Teacups, describes Stokes as an artist and an artisan. Shes totally dedicated to fluently speaking her instruments. Everybody who plays in The Beths is that way.

When youve built a community that can converse in a complex language like that, the skys the limit and I think Lizs songwriting reflects that. Its prowess with the freedom of mischief.

That prowess is all over the new album. Expert is The Beths at their fun, tight, guitar heavy best with their collective harmonies rounding out the lyrical vulnerability and inner uncertainty that characterises Stokes writing.

Some of the songs, such as third single Knees Deep, were written during Aucklands 107-day lockdown last year, when the band pivoted to recording parts separately and, when allowed, holding outdoor sessions in the backyard of Stokes and Pearces home.

This isnt, however, a lockdown album.

Lockdown is just a small facet of what the last 2-3 years has been like for everybody in the world but theres stuff that leaks in no matter what type of art is being made, Stokes justifies.

Given the tumult the world as a collective has experienced of late, it follows that the aspects of prickling anxiety are more relatable than ever.

Having said that, one of the endearingly human aspects of Stokes lyrical work is her tendency to edge back from the precipice of catastrophising. You hear it in earlier works like Jump Rope Gazers. But if I dont see your face tonight ... I, well I guess Ill be fine, and its on Expert too. I Want to Listen ends with a reminder to myself to try not to get so swallowed in my own emotions that I dont notice when people close to me are struggling too.

I ask if this propensity to tether herself gets in the way when things are going well. Can she allow herself to enjoy success in the moment?

Still not, really. Im working on it. Im not actually working on it, I should be working on it. Ive talked about working on it, Stokes quips.

Ive dipped my toe in this record to some very cautious optimism. I think thats what happens when youre at rock bottom, youre a little bit more comfortable with saying well it could be slightly better.

I feel like Ive experimented with cautious sincerity, Ive got more comfortable with sincerity and now Ill try to get more comfortable with optimism, but it doesnt look good.

Five days after our first chat, The Beths are back on home soil and we meet again. This time on Karangahape Rd in Auckland. Theyre jet-lagged but seem at ease back in the home town, even if its all too brief. Theyre here for just nine days before a new tour commences, this time in Australia.

Karangahape Rd, on which Pearce keeps a small studio, stands as somewhat of a visual marker of the pushing and pulling forces that come with the change happening around Tmaki Makaurau/Auckland and also of the hangover from the pandemic-related economic turbulence.

The shiny promise of future growth dangles in behind the band as construction ploughs ahead on the City Rail Link, the largest transport infrastructure project New Zealand has ever built.

Amidst the flux, the lively street and its inhabitants do their best to drown out the groan of change. The eclectic disorder of Karangahape Rd has long been part of the appeal.

Pearce has had his studio here since 2016. Its where the band set down most of their music and he is relieved that their understanding landlord has, thus far, stood firm in the face of other more commercially motivated prospectors. Somehow theres still enough space on K Rd at the right price to have a studio there and lots of other people have small making studios and flats and basements.

But their connection to the area runs longer and richer than a periodic tenancy. Like many Aucklanders, Stokes has been coming to K Rd since forever.

The area is indelibly linked with her musical career, particularly in St Kevins Arcade.

Its where The Wine Cellar is, its where the Whammy Bar is. So many venues have come and gone in Auckland but since weve been making music its been a huge part of our musical adolescence and adulthood living in Auckland. I feel so happy its still there.

To me thats where the musical heart is.

Auckland is a recognised Unesco City of Music, but for the past few years it has felt like the musical heart has been at risk of atrophying. Beloved venue St James Theatre, which closed in 2007, still sits mothballed on Queen St awaiting restoration funding. When Covid rolled into town other stalwart music venues were amongst the first to close and the last to reopen.

For many fans, Jump Rope Gazers soundtracked 2020 and post- lockdown celebrations and much of that revolved around venues in the area. An album release show at The Powerstation in Eden Terrace in July of that year was the first live event many in Aucklands tight-knit creative community ventured out to.

In November that year, a couple of months after another lockdown in Auckland, there was a similar feel in the air when they played at The Town Hall, filming their live album Auckland, New Zealand, 2020. In January this year the band played a five-night residency at Whammy Bar shortly after Aucklands 107-day lockdown lifted. The Beths were there to jolt the live music scene that formed them back to life.

With the prospect of bigger things on the horizon, touring will continue to draw the band offshore, but theres little risk that well lose them completely. The Beths are beloved for their staunchly New Zealand stance and the feeling is mutual.

We love New Zealand as well, we always want to live in New Zealand. Were not tempted by the call that some people are tempted by to, you know, up sticks and go to one of these metropolises that are the music capital of the world, says Pearce.

It feels good to do good work in New Zealand.

Becki Moss/Stuff

The Beths third album, Expert in a Dying Field, is out now.

For bassist Sinclair theres a grounding sense that comes from remaining within the contextual locale of his musical upbringing. For me theres huge interest in the regional identities of cultural scenes and sounds and I think its just so amazing that K Rd has a sound and Dunedin has a sound and Wellington has a sound.

Leaving would mean losing their place in the heart of the local music scene and farewelling the community that nourishes them emotionally, but also practically.

There are kinds of music that it makes sense to go where theres a lot of things happening and where you can all collaborate, but for us itd be super weird to move to a new place. We dont know anyone, who do we borrow an amp from? asks Stokes, with a quiet laugh.

Like all their music Expert in a Dying Field is an album designed to be played and heard live. This time, fans across the world should have a chance to. The band plays across the motu next month before heading back across the Pacific in February. In between theyre hoping to have a decent chunk of time off over summer to enjoy just being home, seeing friends and maybe go to the beach.

The world may be calling for The Beths, but for now theyre going to have to dial +64 to get through.

Expert in a Dying Field is out now.

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The Beths' cautious optimism and love for New Zealand is all over their new album - Stuff

More Fijians are expected to work in New Zealand under New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employer as Bostok New Zealand are in the country to recruit more employers.

Bostok Seasonal Labour Manager, Ali Lawn met with the Permanent Secretary for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, Osea Cawaru, and held discussions on the purpose of her visit to Fiji for more recruitment as well as meeting the National Employment Centre Team as Fijis Labour Sending Unit.

The company recruited the first 15 Fijian RSE workers in 2015, and the number of Fijians recruited has increased over the last five years to 170 workers by 2020.

The employer has also set up a Fair Trade Fund for RSE workers employed at Bostok for community projects to support workers communities.

With the help of the Bostock Fair Trade Fund, there have been four projects established in Fiji by the Bostock Fijian RSE workers, of which two have been completed, and two are currently in progress.

Cawaru welcomed Lawn on behalf of the Fijian Government and thanked Bostok for their confidence in our workers and the opportunity to recruit more Fijians under the scheme.

Lawn thanked the Governments support towards the New Zealand RSE Work Scheme for the provision of labour to meet labour demand in the horticulture industry in New Zealand.

Original post:

More Fijians expected to be employed in New Zealand - Fijivillage

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After a chilly morning, all these places will warm up to reach a temperature of 18 degrees on Sunday, according to MetService.

But after a fine weekend, the weather is set to change with a high-pressure system bringing rain early next week.

NIWA warns it could be windy for parts of the South Island on Sunday and Monday.

"It will become windy in the South Island tomorrow and into Monday," NIWA said.

"Thats because the high pressure thats bringing settled weather today will give way to low pressure, and gusty northerly winds will develop.

MetService has warned there is a moderate risk of heavy rain for the West Coast of the South Island on Monday while there is a low risk for places north of New Plymouth. For the majority of this week.

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Weather: Kiwis bathed in sunshine before wind, rain hits New Zealand in coming days - Newshub