Category Archives: Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern faces questions from the Opposition. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

It was only through a large dose of luck and a little cleverness that Jacinda Ardern dodged political disaster this week.

Tuesday could easily have been her worst day as PM, at least of her second term.

On top of power blackouts in the middle of winter for thousands of Kiwi homes on Monday, we could so easily have had Delta silently infecting Tauranga for the past few days after 72 port workers - a pitifully low number of them vaccinated - boarded a Covid-19 contaminated container ship Rio De La Plata.

Besides the gravity of these two massive problems, they both involve Ardern's most competent ministers, Energy Minister Megan Woods and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.

And they are about failures to deliver the absolute basics, heat and light in winter, and border systems to keep out Covid.

Ardern's first instinct on Tuesday morning was to get ahead of the public outrage.

Megan Woods was explaining some of the technical background to journalists about the emergency alert sent by Transpower on Monday to the country's generators when Ardern took over.

Ardern was addressing the public unnerved by the blackouts and wondering if it was a failure of Government. She said what had happened was unacceptable, and the Government was demanding answers about whether it could have been preventable.

Ardern was on the offensive, not the defensive, and it was the politically smart choice, to be more outraged than the public while the Government sought answers.

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The negative Covid-19 test results for 109 workers tested at the Port of Tauranga were sheer luck. Ardern and Hipkins take umbrage at the suggestion that luck plays any part in New Zealand's management of the borders.

But what else do you call a narrow escape when so few Tauranga port workers are vaccinated?

There are still many unanswered questions from both problems, and there is still plenty of room for the Opposition to point the finger at the Government. Tauranga Port clearly needs extra special attention by the Government, much more than it has been given.

And so does security of energy policy.

Woods has essentially blamed a commercial decision by Genesis and "the market" for the power crisis, but it is a bit rich for a government in its fourth year to blame Max Bradford's reforms of the 1990s.

Blame cannot be put in a time machine. If Transpower issues an emergency alert to generators about capacity, as it did on Monday, the Government needs to have ensured it has the power to require, not the power to request. That is a current failure.

And it is not acceptable for the minister to find out there is a capacity issue at 8.30 pm on Monday when the first cuts were made at 6 pm and when Transpower had sent out a notice to major generators at 6.43am that their forecasts were in deficit.

Labour's sudden decision to ban new oil and gas exploration in 2018 without having campaigned on it is not connected to Monday's blackouts. But that won't stop the Opposition making some kind of connection. It is a gift for National.

National had one of the worst conferences in recent years at the weekend. Most stories about it were about divisions. The party looked weaker after the conference than before it.

Within a day, Judith Collins, a former Energy Minister, suddenly sounded competent rather than a dysfunctional leader of a dysfunctional party. It was her best day in a long time.

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Audrey Young: Close to Jacinda Ardern's worst day this term - New Zealand Herald

Conversations in the community have turned toxic and nasty as people grapple with the pace, complexity and combination of Government reforms, says Tasman District mayor Tim King.

Public meetings that used to be relatively good-humoured and constructive are not because people feel uncertain, unsure, concerned, afraid, said King, whos been an elected member for more than 20 years.

His comments came at a full Tasman District Council meeting on Thursday as the Governments three waters reform programme was under discussion. Both King and Golden Bay ward councillor Chris Hill mentioned some anti-government feeling within the community.

I think, it's driven by the conflation or the combination of everything that's going on, King said. The amount of reform, the fundamental nature of much of it, the limited engagement that people feel in any of it, combined together I think, is what's driving a genuine concern.

READ MORE:* Waimea dam may go with flow into new water body* Golden Bay farmers 'overwhelmed' by raft of reforms* Plea for flexibility, retention of 'local voice' in local government shake-up

Martin De Ruyter/Stuff

Tasman District mayor Tim King, who has been in local government for more than 20 years, says public meetings that used to be relatively good-humoured and constructive are no longer that way.

King said he had raised the matter with Nelson MP Rachel Boyack and West Coast-Tasman MP Damien OConnor that the conversations we are having are not getting better, they're getting worse.

They're becoming more polarised, they're more vindictive, they're more challenging, King said. I think, all of those things are playing into a narrative that is really, really unhealthy and the rationale and the reason that some people don't like this reform.

So much was being done so fast, people feel massively disengaged or not listened to or don't really genuinely have the opportunity to understand some of the questions they're being asked.

That is a real concern, King said.

As well as the three waters shake-up, there was local government reform and replacement legislation for the Resource Management Act. There was also the Essential Freshwater package along with policy work on landscapes and significant natural areas.

You name it, there is so much going on.

King said his single biggest concern was related to the conversations that elected members and council staff would be having in the community because, let's face it, it will be us it's not going to be central Government.

They're not going to be out there having these conversations, running consultation meetings, appearing at halls in St Arnaud and Murchison that will be us and our staff, and those meetings are increasingly becoming not something that you look forward to, King said. In my view, that's a tragedy.

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF

Murchison, which may come under a different water entity to the rest of Tasman District under the preferred boundaries in the Governments three waters reform programme.

The council had spent the past 30 years working really constructively with the community on issues such as wetlands management.

To have that put at risk because of the pace, the complexity and the combination of all the reform and having these conversations turn so toxic and nasty, it really does ... drive me insane, King said.

OConnor on Friday told the Nelson Mail he accepted there was a lot happening and the speed was rapid for some.

But, I think, the wider view is: it has to happen, he said.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

West Coast-Tasman MP and Cabinet Minister Damien OConnor says the Government is trying to work with councils on the reforms.

Central Government had to step in with solutions to ensure, for instance, that people had safe drinking water and could swim in the waterways because of erratic implementation of measures by councils over many years.

These things need to be addressed, OConnor said. Were trying to work with councils on this.

Some concerns raised with him in the community related to matters that were council responsibilities.

You cant shift all the blame onto central Government, OConnor said. We both have roles to play and pointing the finger is not entirely helpful.

Boyack acknowledged there was a lot of change, but she was not hearing toxic conversations in the Nelson electorate.

Martin De Ruyter/Stuff

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack, left, pictured with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, says that rather than engaging in toxic conversations, constructive ways forward need to be found.

There were many good stories, in the horticultural industry in particular. Despite challenges, such as weather events and getting access to staff, many businesses had a lot of really positive stories to tell such as adjusting their practices to employ more New Zealanders.

Boyack said she believed that as leaders in the community, central and local government politicians need to be showing positive vision for our region and our economy.

Rather than engaging in toxic conversations, we need to find constructive ways forward, she said.

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talks about local government reform during a visit to Nelson. Video first published on June 3, 2021.

Local government had a lot on its plate, so were [central Government] actively working alongside them.

Its important were working in a partnership, Boyack said.

Central Government had provided significant investment towards freshwater improvements and was working closely with councils and Local Government New Zealand on the three waters programme. The significant natural areas were a long-running matter while the local government reform was sparked by a request for a review from the sector itself.

We have heard and responded to a request for us to do that review, Boyack said.

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'Toxic and nasty' turn in Tasman under weight of Government reform - Stuff.co.nz

Vaccinations will open to people over 50 from Friday, earlier than had been planned.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern accompanied by Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins made the announcement after a Cabinet meeting this afternoon.

Watch here:

Last Friday, people aged over 55 were able to book for vaccinations, a threshold that was five days ahead of the government's initial plans.

Ardern said the past week had been the best week so far for the vaccination roll-out, with 21 percent of the eligible population now fully vaccinated and more than a million bookings in the government's system.

This very rapid take-up of the offer to be vaccinated is fantastic ... our system is now ready to move - ahead of schedule - to the next age band," she said.

There are about 319,000 people in the 50-55 age group.

Those who have not booked and are eligible should call the Covid-19 vaccination healthline on 0800 28 29 26 between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week, she said.

Ahead of the Reconnecting New Zealand forum on Thursday, Ardern said the government was keen to resume international travel, but had to close borders to keep New Zealanders safe.

She said Professor David Skegg, who led the advisory group that is reporting back this week, would speak specifically about the additional risks posed by the Delta strain.

Hipkins this afternoon said the roughly 300,000 people in the 50-plus age group would be able to book a vaccination from Friday, 13 August.

"This is a great all round response and means we're in position to open the 50-plus age band for vaccinations earlier than planned," Hipkins said.

"Being able to open another age band so quickly is a real confidence booster and shows how well New Zealand is embracing the vaccine."

Asked about the risks posed by the Rio De La Plata container ship off Tauranga, Ardern said the government had always prioritised frontline workers, including port workers, for vaccination.

"They have had vaccines available for some time," she said.

"What we have encountered though are a range of barriers to those individuals having a vaccination and that includes, unfortunately, misinformation, hesitancy and of course from the ports themselves a concern that mandating would destroy, potentially, supply lines."

She said a situation where border workers were not vaccinated was not tolerable however, which was why the government had mandated that workers at the border must have their first dose by 26 August.

"That is in spite of the concerns that are being raised that these are privately employed individuals ... we still nonetheless believe it to be so important to New Zealand's health and wellbeing we are mandating it, and it may mean job loss.

"There's always been urgency, right from the beginning we said 'this is our most important group'."

Hipkins said there were two cut-off dates, depending on the kind of border worker - with one group requiring at least a first dose by 26 August, and the other requiring it by the end of September.

Minister for Covid-19 Response, Chris Hipkins Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

The minister said there had been a lot of work carried out to encourage voluntary vaccination.

"The feedback we've had - from some of our smaller ports in particular ... it could potentially mean they have to stop both receiving and sending out cargo," he said.

Even Tauranga, one of New Zealand's biggest ports and where the ship in question has been docked, had concerns about this, he added.

Hipkins said officials would need to take a "good clear look" at the situation around the ship, including whether New Zealanders should have been allowed on to the ship - even while wearing PPE - when there were concerns about Covid-19 being on board.

It was his understanding that there was a four-day period where the ship was berthed in Tauranga, between Wednesday and Saturday last week.

"That is exactly one of the things we will be looking closely at is exactly who knew what and when, and whether earlier action should have been taken."

Ardern said no one who was infected was allowed off the boat.

There were a large number of commercial ships coming in that often had a rapid turnaround of offloading goods, but there were very strict requirements for crew movements for those ships because they were treated as though they have the virus, she added. But she wanted port workers to be vaccinated too, and to not simply rely on infection controls.

Hipkins said part of the government's investigation would be to determine whether there was any breach of the risk mitigation measures like PPE.

Ardern said all the port workers were in isolation "because we need to go through a process of assessing that risk so everyone's getting tested".

"There may be some who may require a second test and longer forms of isolation depending on the level of contact they had over the course of those four days.

"We want those negative results to come back to really give us an assessment of what we're dealing with, I think anything beyond that is speculative."

She said the advice so far had been that public health measures were followed.

The Prime Minister confirmed there may be privately-employed port workers in future who may no longer be able to work in their roles if they were refusing vaccination.

Hipkins said port workers by far fell into one of the groups with the lowest rates of vaccination of any frontline border workers.

"It has been an area of concern for me for some time so it has been something I've been having conversations about including with employers, with unions, with other representatives and it does appear clear there is a greater degree of misinformation here, a greater degree of conspiracy theory, and that has been something we have been working to address."

Ardern said misinformation was still significantly impacting on efforts to tackle the Covid-19 threat.

"I can't emphasise enough how much it puts people's health and wellbeing at risk. It's not just about our economy, yes that's incredibly important, but it's about saving people's lives and to see the lack of responsibility from individuals who post information, let alone the sometimes lack of ownership from those platforms around helping better manage it, is incredibly frustrating.

"We are still up against a battle where people are just being told absolute rubbish, and it's incredibly hard."

Original post:

Live: Jacinda Ardern speaks in post-Cabinet briefing - RNZ

The post has been widely criticised by social media users and was questioned by ACT leader David Seymour.

"Imagine if Jacinda Ardern became the Prime Minister and had the chance to fix all of those problems... oh wait," he said.

"That's why in Opposition ACT proposes practical policies instead of merely posturing."

A spokesperson from Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP) said the post from "2016 Jacinda" was "great" but believes Ardern's comments "reflect this very superficial and dangerous sentiment of politics being practised as a 'game'".

"We often hear people talk about politics in this way - to 'play the game' in order to get into power and now that Jacinda Ardern is the Prime Minister with a majority Labour government we'd like to ask where's this same energy from 2016?"

They said the current Labour government has the capacity to treat housing as a human right and urged them to take action.

"Choosing not to perpetuate the notion it's ok to do politics in this way - to treat it as a game in saying whatever's required in competing for power and then continuing to perpetuate existing colonial ideologies that shape our policies when they get it.

"How about we introduce a new way of practising politics - to stay true to what you say. As Jacinda herself says to treat the cause (of all our societal ills), not the symptom?"

When asked if Ardern still stands by the comments, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said the post "was made when she was in opposition".

"The current manifesto commitment to continue the welfare overhaul is addressing the issues that the Facebook post is seeking to identify.

"In regards to your question around the housing crisis - the Prime Minister has previously said: 'I don't mind what label you put on it. A crisis is a crisis'."

Read more:

Jacinda Ardern accused of treating politics 'as a game' after post emerges of her calling for housing as human right - Newshub

Joseph Gordon-Levitt praises New Zealand during interview with ZM's Fletch, Vaughan and Megan. Video / ZM

Hollywood star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is singing New Zealand's praises.

The actor's new show Mr. Corman, out now on Apple TV +, began production in the US before Gordon-Levitt moved to New Zealand to complete it amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, Gordon-Levitt has become somewhat of an honorary Wellingtonian.

He spoke to ZM's Fletch Vaughan and Megan about his move to Aotearoa and his love for our country.

"I can't say enough good things about our time here in New Zealand," he says. He has been in the country since October last year after his producing partners at A24 suggested they move the filming of Mr. Corman to New Zealand.

In fact, Gordon-Levitt says he "hit the roof" with excitement about the possibility of moving here. He and his wife Tasha McCauley had already been discussing New Zealand's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since last October, Gordon-Levitt has been enjoying everything the country has to offer, including the local delicacies.

"Kumara is huge in my house," the father-of-two says.

What's more, the 500 Days of Summer star declared his adoration for our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

"I'm a big Jacinda fan for sure," he confessed to regularly watching her late-night Facebook lives.

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His admiration for New Zealand politics extended to him tuning in to the election debates last year.

"The level of discourse was just night and day," he said, comparing the debates to his country's presidential election.

"These two ladies [Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins] were having substantial discussions about policy.

"This is how a democracy ought to run and I really take my hat off to this country."

Some eagle-eyed fans may be able to spot some New Zealand landmarks in Mr. Corman. The ZM hosts joked about being able to spot a Bunnings during one of the episodes.

Gordon-Levitt says the show worked hard and used special effects to replicate Los Angeles in Wellington, but some Kiwis may be able to spot familiar scenes of Petone.

The actor spoke to US talk show host Jimmy Fallon in April and shared his praises for New Zealand on the world stage.

The star revealed his children were enrolled in school in New Zealand and that he was been blown away by Kiwis' hard work in keeping Covid-19 out of the country.

"It's the morning; I just dropped off my boy at school," he told Jimmy Fallon, something at the time children around the US had not experienced for months.

"Man it's good, I feel so lucky. I almost feel guilty talking about it sometimes. If you don't know, New Zealand is one of only two countries in the world that has contained the pandemic."

Watch Joseph-Gordon Levitt's full interview with ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Megan above, and stream Mr. Corman on Apple TV +.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt praises Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand after moving here during the pandemic - New Zealand Herald

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said evidence showed general arming would not make police safer. Photo / Mark Mitchell

By RNZ

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Police Minister Poto Williams, and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster are remaining firmly against the general arming of police, despite 73 per cent of frontline officers favouring the move.

A survey of almost 6000 Police Association members revealed the statistic this morning - the highest level of support for general arming it had recorded in a decade.

Coster has previously ruled out general arming. He said it was tempting to reach for simple solutions in the face of attacks on police - like the one in 2020 that left Constable Matt Hunt dead - and general arming was one.

However, evidence showed it would not make police safer, he said.

"We want to make sure our people are safe but we do not see general arming as the answer to that," Coster said.

"The evidence that we have available to us suggests that being armed doesn't necessarily improve officer safety but more people are likely to be shot and so we have to select the things that will make the biggest difference.

"For every incident where you can point to where it would have made our people safer, you can point to others where it would likely have made things worse ... we have a lot of incidents we can point to where people have made the right decision to withdraw for their own safety and have apprehended the offender later. Having a firearm in those situations could well lead to escalation."

He said police were independent from politics, and his role was to understand what the community would want and expect from policing, and factor that into the organisation's decision making.

"Our responsibility is to look across all of our settings and decide what would make our people the safest.

"I'm not feeling particular political pressure on this issue, I have my own view of what the right thing to do is and that's what I'm sticking with."

Speaking in Christchurch this afternoon, Ardern said it had been a debate as long as she could remember but general arming was "personally not one that I would want to see occur".

"I've long been of that view and I share that view as the daughter of a policeman.

She said the safety of police was "top of mind" and what was important was that police had good, quick access to arms when they needed them.

"At the same time, general arming would mean our New Zealand police force at all times carrying a weapon on their person. That is a significant step change.

"It's a very big difference to say having them available quickly in their vehicles to them carrying with them 24/7."

Police Minister Poto Williams also opposed general arming.

"I have always been really clear that I do not believe in general arming of police," she said.

"It fundamentally changes our relationship with the police. We have a relationship that's about trust and approachability and general arming will fundamentally change that."

She said she was "absolutely" concerned with the statistic that 25 per cent of general duties staff had been confronted with a gun, and Coster was working on other measures to improve safety for officers.

"It's my role to do everything I can to support them to be safe. It's my belief that there is more we can do in this space before general arming becomes an option and I'm firmly committed to looking at those options to keep them safe."

She would not rule in or out any specific measures at this stage, however.

"We're already quite heavily armed anyway as a service. I'm not going to rule in options or rule out options."

Ardern said it was also a decision for police themselves to make, but said she knew Coster also did not support the constant carrying of weapons as side arms.

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General arming of police 'not the answer', Andrew Coster, Jacinda Ardern, Poto Williams agree - New Zealand Herald

OPINION: What a moving spectacle it was to watch our prime minister, seated and covered in a woven mat, perform the Samoan forgiveness custom of ifoga. She did this in order to apologise for the immigration dawn raids that, in the 1970s, racially targeted members of the Pacific communities.

My immediate emotional response was huge admiration for Jacinda Ardern, whose humility and empathy has already captivated the world.

Many of the headlines, at home and abroad, echoed my initial sentiment by focusing on the prime minister's act of apology without much acknowledgement of perhaps the harder act of forgiveness, without which reconciliation cannot take place.

The same type of misplaced focus was evident during the media coverage of the mosque shootings. Many stories and headlines (not all) which emerged after the attacks were centred around the compassion and empathy of the prime minister and ordinary Kiwis, rather than extraordinary grace and forbearance of the Muslim communities, many of whom had come to New Zealand to be safe.

READ MORE:* Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's father, Ross Ardern, was part of dawn raids as young police officer* Government's apology for dawn raids 'just the beginning', Pasifika youth say* Dawn Raids apology: PM sorry for 'hurt and distress' of racially targeted policy* Once a Panther: The revolutionary Polynesians who stopped the dawn raids

None of the above is of course the fault of anyone in particular, least of all our prime minister. Ardern has no more control over the media headlines than she had over the script of the film, in which she was to be portrayed as the main hero of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

I say this to make it clear that I thought her apology for the dawn raids and the manner in which she delivered it were absolutely right and appropriate for the main purpose it was meant to serve, which was to reestablish trust and respect. In fact, we now know that Ardern specifically wanted the ifoga to focus on Pacific communities affected by the dawn raids.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

The immigration raids of the 1970s caused great intergenerational suffering and diminished the reputation of Pacific communities.

What dictates the media approach, and our own emotional response to these events, comes from an entrenched habit of seeing ourselves as righteous saviours. The media feeds this narrative because we are conditioned to respond more readily with what resonates with us. We are essentially good, we say to ourselves, to soothe our sense of guilt whenever it bubbles to the surface to unsettle and confront us.

For an apology to be effective, it has to be appropriate to the circumstances and be followed by concrete actions to heal and restore justice. The dawn raids were carried out 50 years ago, but painful memories remain fresh in the minds of many. The raids caused great intergenerational suffering and diminished the reputation of Pacific communities whose immigration status, to this day, is viewed by many with suspicion. It is worth noting that subsequent studies showed that, at the time of the raids, Pacific peoples were no more likely to overstay their visas in New Zealand than people from Europe or North America.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Minister Aupito William Sio gets emotional during a press conference as he talked about his dawn raid experiences.

But it wasn't just the reputation of Pacific Islanders that was damaged, the Crown's own reputation as the trustworthy protector of minorities also suffered. This is not a trifling issue. In a multi-ethnic society, distrusting the state and its government could easily lead to societal disharmony and conflict.

The prime minister's apology and her commitment to offering scholarships to Pacific students and incorporating the dawn raids into the school history curriculum should set the groundwork for reconciliation. The Polynesian Panthers have said they expected more to be done to dismantle racism and have vowed to continue their lobbying campaign. But what we witnessed during the ifoga ceremony generally demonstrated the acceptance of the prime minister's apology as sincere and effective.

If an apology is not sincere then it can further harm the relationship. History is full of insincere apologies that read more like preemptive statements of regret designed to deflect guilt. As Oscar Wilde noted, When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has the right to blame us.

Supplied

Donna Miles: I am also proud that our country has recognised that we cannot heal the present without remedying the past.

In 2006, former British prime minister Tony Blair, who, by the way, never apologised for the ruinous Iraq war, expressed his deep sorrow for his country's role in the transatlantic slave trade but stopped short of admitting historical guilt. In fact, no British prime minister has ever issued a formal apology for slavery simply because doing so will inevitably lead to considerable financial liability (likely to be billions of pounds). The general position of the UK as expressed by Blair is that slavery has to be condemned in the present and regretted in the past.

George W Bush's statement on the torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib is a good example of a bad apology. He said: What took place in that prison does not represent the America I know, which sounds more like a defence than an attempt to heal and remedy.

I am proud of our Pacific communities for responding graciously to the call for forgiveness. I am also proud that our country has recognised that we cannot heal the present without remedying the past. But for an apology to be truly effective what begins with words must always end with actions.

Read more:

An effective apology for the dawn raids must end with action - Stuff.co.nz

The Government is urgently investigating how 87 unvaccinated port workers were allowed to board a ship that carried 11 Covid-19-positive crew members.

Health authorities were urgently testing 98 Tauranga port workers on Monday, after they were involved in the unloading the container ship Rio de la Plata, which was cleared to dock at the citys port last week.

Crew members on the boat have tested positive for the more-transmissible Delta strain of Covid-19, and the port workers who unloaded the ship spent days out and about in Tauranga before being asked to self-isolate.

It was confirmed after a Cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon that 23 of the 98 workers had tested negative, and the remaining tests were outstanding. Nine of these workers were fully vaccinated, and two had a single dose of the vaccine.

READ MORE:* Tauranga wharfies angry and scared as crew on container ship test positive for Covid-19* Workers sent home then given all clear at Port of Tauranga after apparent Covid-19 scare * District health board plans show Covid-19 vaccinations could extend to February

Samuel Rillstone/RNZ

"We cannot afford to have a situation where our port workers are not vaccinated, which is why we have mandated it, Jacinda Ardern said. (File photo)

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern blamed misinformation and hesitancy for the low rate of port workers taking up the vaccine.

Barriers to those individuals having a vaccination and plan includes unfortunately misinformation, hesitancy, and of course from the ports themselves a concernthat mandating would destroy, potentially, supply lines.

"We cannot afford to have a situation where our port workers are not vaccinated, which is why we have mandated it ... that is in spite of the concerns that have been raised that these are privately employed individuals, these are not government employees.

The Government a month ago issued a legal order requiring port workers to get the vaccine, or face losing their jobs. All Government employees covered by the order would have to have a first dose by August 26, while privately employed border workers would have to have a first dose by September 30.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. (file photo)

Ardern said there had always been a sense of urgency to have port workers vaccinated.

On Tuesday last week, the Port of Tauranga was first alerted by Maritime NZ that the Rio de la Plata, which was at anchor, had been boarded in July by an Australian pilot in Queensland who later tested positive for Covid-19.

Maritime NZ and the local medical officer of health later cleared a local pilot to board the Rio de la Plata.

On Wednesday night last week, the port workers were told to stop working and to go home and isolate. The following morning, the local public health unit gave the all clear for work to resume on the vessel, with no need for workers to isolate.

Health officials later tested the crew, discovering the 11 positive Covid-19 cases.

Ardern said she had asked health officials why the decision was taken to stop the unloading of the ship, then resume it.

She said none of the ships crew were granted permission to leave the boat, and not everyone who has been on a ship is likely to have contact with crew.

There were infection prevention controls, PPE protocols were followed by port workers who may have had contact with the ship during their duties.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government was seeking answers, and health officials would investigate, the who, what, how, and when.

I haven't got a clear picture of exactly what was knownwhen and by whom ... There will need to be a very good clear look at whether things should have been done differently, including whether New Zealanders should have been allowed to go on to the ship if there was concern that there was Covid-19 on it, he said.

National Party Covid-19 Response spokesman Chris Bishop said the Government had for weeks been wringing it hands about the lack of vaccinated port workers, and should have moved quicker to make vaccination mandatory.

"We need to urgently vaccinate as many port workers as possible. The Government's been vaccinated frontline port workers since March, and yet we still have 60 per cent at Bay of Plenty higher, in fact, at other ports who are totally unvaccinated.

The port workers should not have been on the ship prior to its crew being tested for Covid-19, he said.

Read more:

More than 85 unvaccinated port workers boarded ship with 11 positive Covid-19 cases, Government urgently investigating - Stuff.co.nz

PM Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister on unvaccinated Tauranga Port workers exposed to crew members aboard the container ship Rio de la Plata. Video / Mark Mitchell

Almost 1500 border workers remain without a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, while a similar number are overdue for their legally required regular test for Covid-19.

The importance of protection measures at the border has been underlined recently with a number of infected people on ships arriving at ports around the country, including one off the coast in Tauranga that has seen 94 port workers being tested.

The Government today revealed that only about nine of the 98 workers who dealt with the ship were fully vaccinated and two had received their first dose.

The latest data, from August 4, shows 12,439 active workers on the Border Worker Testing Register (BWTR); 84 per cent are fully vaccinated, 4 per cent (444 workers) have had one dose, and 12 per cent (1478 workers) are yet to have a single dose.

The Health Ministry also said there were 12,936 active border workers who were legally required to be regularly tested; 88 per cent (11,387 workers) were compliant, while 11 per cent (1423 workers) were overdue for their test. A further 126 workers were shown as non-compliant but their NHI numbers were still being matched with testing data.

Only 18 border workers have been fined $300 for missing their tests.

Using saliva testing instead of nasopharyngeal swabs is hoped to make testing for border workers less invasive, but it isn't ready to be fully rolled out until mid-August. Asia Pacific Healthcare Group, which has the ministry's contract for saliva testing, has only done 15 saliva tests in the four weeks to July 19.

Last week Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said he was "very concerned" about the 44 per cent of port workers - about 1000 workers - who remained unvaccinated.

He has been concerned about the vaccination rate of port workers for over two months, and has said that vaccine hesitancy was higher among port workers.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in April that all border workers would have to be vaccinated or they would be redeployed, but the first vaccination order did not apply to most privately employed border workers.

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The Government widened the vaccination order last month, giving a long lead-in time before all higher-risk border workers had to be vaccinated.

For public sector border workers, the deadline is August 26, and the Ministry of Health said that only a "handful" of them still need to be vaccinated. For the privately employed, the deadline is the end of September.

Yesterday the Health Ministry said there were 11 workers on board the Rio De La Plata, off the coast of Tauranga, who had tested positive.

The proportion of border workers in the Bay of Plenty who are unvaccinated, according to answers to parliamentary questions provided to National MP Chris Bishop, is 60 per cent.

"We have a glaring hole in our border," Bishop said.

The ship is linked to a Covid-infected Australian pilot who was on board the vessel in July, in Queensland, and who later tested positive to the dangerous Delta variant.

Three other overseas vessels were confirmed to have Covid outbreaks as they travelled through New Zealand waters in recent months.

Group manager of Covid-19 vaccination operations Astrid Koornneef said work was continuing to have all privately employed border workers vaccinated by the September 30 deadline, including via one-on-one sessions with health professionals.

"Because these numbers fluctuate day on day and week on week, we never expect to get to 100 per cent fully vaccinated active workers under the BWTR."

She said new workers have to have at least one dose of the vaccine before they can start work.

The Maritime Union admits a high proportion of port workers are unvaccinated with many reluctant to get the jab due to "misinformation".

"You're dealing with a workforce that's not necessarily going to be that responsive to the same messages as your highly educated urban audience," union spokesman Victor Billot said.

Many port workers were younger and more transient, and more likely to get information from the likes of Facebook.

The union encouraged all port workers to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families.

Billot believed public health messaging to port workers would be better directed through one-on-one meetings from the likes of public health nurses.

"It's not going to be a case of just telling people they're being naughty."

And pulling unvaccinated staff off the frontline was also problematic, as port workers handled millions of dollars worth of exported goods.

"We've got to come up with a better solution than losing a whole group of people from the workforce. That would be a disaster for them and the economy."

Billot also said more focus was needed on ensuring international maritime crew arriving in this country had been vaccinated to reduce the chance of more "close calls".

Meanwhile, the ministry said, as of August 1, that 335 primary healthcare sites were part of the vaccination rollout, with a further 80 sites due to be vaccinating by the end of last week.

Royal NZ College of GPs medical director Dr Bryan Betty said there were about 1000 GP practices in New Zealand, and he expected more to be used as the ministry's process for giving them the green light became less bureaucratic.

"In the middle of last week, on one particular day, there were 45,000 vaccines given around the country, which had been the highest number ever. That's a direct result of general practice being involved," Betty said.

There had been frustration among GPs earlier in the year around the lack of communication from the Health Ministry about their role in the rollout, but he said that had since been remedied.

"The quicker ... more general practices can be brought on board, the more successful the programme will be."

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Still thousands of border workers unvaccinated and overdue for Covid test - New Zealand Herald

OPINION: The Dawn Raid apology took nothing away from non-Pacific people, while healing the pride and sense of self of an entire community. It uplifted a group without pulling down any others. In fact, it was such a simple political win that the only offensive part was the time it took for New Zealand to make it happen. Forty-eight years and six governments. What an absolute travesty.

Technically Sir Rob Muldoon could have apologised, but he might not have survived the amount of whisky required. David Lange never made it happen, and parts of Mangere still swear he was secretly Tokelauan.

Jim Bolger, forming the first National government after Muldoon, should have done it but the beginning of MMP in New Zealand was a political wild west, and Bolger stayed in the wagon circle till he was tossed out. Dame Jenny Shipley was around just long enough to make history, but spent her brief time in power sacking Winston Peters, attending the Hero Parade, and lowering the alcohol age. All were controversial moves at the time, but history has judged them time well spent.

Helen Clark apologised to Samoa for its colonial treatment by New Zealand, which was a small step forward and to the side (a vintage soft power shuffle from Clark). Sir John Key had the time but perhaps Sir Bill English, as an actual Samoan chief (he carries the title Leuluaialiiotumua from the village Faleula) would have been the most appropriate.

READ MORE:* The dawn raids explained: What drove the Government to target Pasifika people* Dawn raids apology raises questions NZ is not good at answering* Once a Panther: The revolutionary Polynesians who stopped the dawn raids* Before we mock Samoa's democracy, let's take a look at our own

But they were all silent. Not a single one of these vaunted leaders did what needed to be done to address this grievous wrong. Instead, it was left to the person who was born after the Dawn Raids officially ended.

Yet as Jacinda Ardern, current Prime Minister and New Zealands fifth-most important tourism brand, formally apologised on behalf of the Government to the Pacific people for the countrys targeted police raids on their community, a familiar backlash appeared.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

A packed house on Sunday at the Auckland Town Hall for the Governments formal apology for the 1970s Dawn Raids.

This group of miscreants-cum-freedom fighters against the tyranny of Big Sorry believed the apology was a mistake. Moreover, the Pacific Islanders deserved what they got. It wasnt racist to see things that black and white, especially where brown was involved. If someone broke the rules then they needed to be punished, unless, strangely, those rules involved staying in lockdown or wearing a mask. The law is right until the Government is wrong, and if the Government is wrong then any action against it must be right. Righteousness will always trump irony.

The events of Sunday afternoon were reframed by these wisened folk as some sort of woke victory, empty actions for brownie points. It seemed completely lost on them that Woke Victory sounds exactly like an operation name the 70s police would have used when arresting and deporting Pacific people while the sun came up. Never mind the police saw the trauma and did not stop for years. Never mind the government of the time knew and did not care.

CHRIS MCKEEN/Stuff

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologising on Sunday, on behalf of the Government, for the dawn raids.

The Dawn Raids apology was, to the miscreant mind, simply a distraction. They saw it as typical lefty posturing from the Stalin of the South, the Marxist from Morrinsville, the Trotsky of Thorndon, Jacinderella Adolfern. Or was it Jacindy Maodern? Japoleon Lennindern? Maybe Ja-thanos Volderdern for the kids? The point of the name is to make it clear that the current PM is ridiculously scary or scarily ridiculous. It can be hard to tell.

Having citizens be passionately angry about the leader of their country is older than Democracy, and probably an essential part of it. What is striking, though, and somewhat sad, is the way in which this hate seeps into and overrides their ability to be compassionate to others. Perhaps the dopamine rush from social validation is simply too strong, too intoxicating with its instant delivery of fleeting relevance. Or maybe people are just d..... Regardless, it is a hate that goes beyond catharsis, into need.

Ross Giblin/Stuff

James Nokise: What is striking, though, and somewhat sad, is the way in which this hate seeps into and overrides their ability to be compassionate to others.

Even that isnt new. People needed to hate John Key, Helen Clark, Jenny Shipley, and every leader as far back as Richard King Dick Seddon. Ironically, that nickname could go either way in modern times. David Langes Labour-ish government was so charismatic, they managed to be loved and hated by both sides of the political spectrum at the same time. This was of course before Twitter was able to sort people into their allocated political alignment with the nuance of a Wellington barista, from latte bowl to triple espresso and everyone in between.

There are people who genuinely hate Jacinda Ardern as though she personally poisoned the All Blacks before the 1995 World Cup final; an irrational, fantastical, almost primal response more caught up in the idea of hate than any hate of ideas. It overpowers their love of Pacific people in Aotearoa, even their friend they see down at the shops.

And dont get them started on Aotearoa.

James Nokise is a New Zealand comedian, playwright, and podcaster of Samoan/Welsh heritage.

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A primal response caught up in the idea of hate - Stuff.co.nz