Category Archives: New Zealand

Glenn Taylor/Stuff

Julien Debord, his wife Sophie and their children Lisa, 10, and Thibaut, 12, would like to stay in New Zealand. (File photo)

A French family is waiting to hear if they can remain in New Zealand after being told their business didnt perform as expected during the pandemic.

Last month Julien Debord, his wife Sophie and their two young children were told by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) that they wouldnt get visas because their business, Cafe Tennyson, hadnt met revenue and staff targets set before the pandemic.

In late 2020 Julien Debord applied for entrepreneur resident visas for the family.

Hes spent the past 16 months providing information, accounts and forms to satisfy numerous requests from Immigration. These included a supportive letter from Napier MP Stuart Nash, who proffered his strong support for the family and business.

READ MORE:* French family running popular Napier cafe told they won't get visa * Immigration medical certificate no longer required before submitting resident visa application* SailGP proposed saving NZ round with privately-run MIQ or self-isolation

INZ said it couldnt be satisfied the family met the requirements and told the Debords they had until March 21 to provide further comments or information.

Debord responded. On Friday INZ general manager border and visa operations Nicola Hogg said no decision had been made, but they were looking to make [one] as quickly as possible.

SUPPLIED

Green MP Dr. Elizabeth Kerekere, Napier resident Kathryn McGarvey, and Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise with the petition started by McGarvey in support of the Debord family.

Following news of the familys plight in early March, local woman Kathryn McGarvey began a petition. It was signed by 7308 people by Saturday and was passed to Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere, who will present it to the House of Representatives next week.

Debord said the family had been surprised by the support they had received since their story became public.

We have been crazy busy in the past two weeks with people wanting to support us. When I heard of the petition I thought if we were lucky maybe 500 people would sign... 7300 was a surprise.

The petition calls on Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford to grant or extend the family's visa and to update the criteria for the granting of the entrepreneur resident visa, taking into account the unprecedented difficulties of operating a business under Covid conditions.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF

Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford, pictured, has been asked by Napier MP Stuart Nash to use his Special Ministerial Direction in the Debord case. (File photo)

Joining Nash in providing letters supporting the family are Napier mayor Kirsten Wise, National MP for Taup Louise Upston, and Napier City Business Incorporated general manager Pip Thompson.

Thompson said the Debords had made the caf an institution bustling daily with local business people, families, and visitors.

STUFF

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announces thousands of migrants on temporary work visas would be fast-tracked for residency after a major immigration policy shift. (First published on September 30.)

Once the rules relax and domestic travel becomes more comfortable, international borders open, and we welcome cruise ships passengers to our iconic Art Deco city, we absolutely need cafs like the Debords to be open and trading, Thompson said

McGarvey said Julien and Sophie are kind, friendly, and hard-working people, and we only ask that they are given a fair go.

Go here to read the rest:

Thousands throw support behind French family fighting to stay in the country - Stuff

Dame Therese Walsh - pictured just after getting the Air NZ role - achieved top positions in cricket and rugby administration. Photo / Dean Purcell

OPINION:

There's nothing in any governance handbook that could have prepared Dame Therese Walsh for the impact of the Covid pandemic on the national flag carrier.

This week, the Air New Zealand chair and her CEO Greg Foran announced a recapitalisation plan to raise $2.2 billion in equity and debt to restore the airline's financial health so it can take advantage of the border reopening and rebuild its international passenger networks.

Coming just a week after the pair announced that the airline would fly direct to New York City from September 17 and just sneaking in by one day ahead of Walsh's earlier "promise" that the recapitalisation would be unveiled within the first quarter of 2022 it was an auspicious moment.

Finally, Air New Zealand could get on with rebuilding its future.

Walsh says there had been earlier speculation that the Crown might seek to extend its 51 per cent holding in Air New Zealand or "nationalise" it by going to 100 per cent. But the airline board believed the company needed to be a commercially balanced organisation going forward.

She had early on asked the question on the Crown's intentions. But she says Finance Minister Grant Robertson has been resolute that the Crown would support the airline by maintaining its 51 per cent stake through the rights issue.

"They haven't deviated. They have been robust on that," she says.

Walsh is grateful for the Crown's continued debt support which critics (including this columnist) earlier described as being at a usurious rate.

She says the truth is that the airline could not get sufficient commercial debt in place early on to sustain its operations.

1 Apr, 2022 07:58 PMQuick Read

The government-supported cargo scheme has also been an absolute lifeline, she says, providing financial support to the airline to take New Zealand exports to offshore markets.

But it has been a marathon.

In February 2020, Walsh had spoken to the Institute of Directors on how governance was undergoing a transformation: "Whatever the ownership structure of organisations, accountability was on the rise" was how her speech was promoted.

A straight arrow, Dame Therese's career had seen her reach top levels in sports administration as head of New Zealand for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and previously as chief operating officer for the 2011 Rugby World Cup before making the switch to more traditional governance roles as chair of TVNZ and a director of the NZX.

Two years on, she is more likely to describe the governance challenges her airline boardroom has faced in quite different terms. Accountability is a given. But there have been "black swan events". "Swiss cheese risk models". These also became part of the boardroom lexicon.

Walsh has spoken before of how Air New Zealanders developed a new philosophy during the tough months when Covid was raging. "Smile with your eyes above the facemask" was how she termed it.

She was barely "five minutes" into the chair's role herself when New Zealand went into the first level 4 lockdown. Foran was also just newly in his role.

Walsh doesn't dwell overly on the past.

But it's worth recalling that when Covid struck in March 2020 and New Zealand borders shut hard, the airline had to pivot very substantially and fast.

Routes were closed. Planes parked up. Staff massively downsized and customers felt disenfranchised. Flight demand was down 95 per cent almost overnight.

But with government funding support, Air New Zealand a critical element of the country's logistics kept servicing exporters by taking their products to the world.

She acknowledges it was tough for everyone involved. Especially those who lost their jobs.

Like Foran, who makes a point of getting out in the business and working occasional shifts with staffers, Walsh also checks in with the pilots every time she flies between her home in Wellington and Auckland (where she also chairs ASB) to catch the mood.

Showing visible leadership is important to her.

The workload at director level went through the roof as the board had to schedule many more meetings.

The retail offer to shareholders has not opened yet. But early signs from the round of institutional investor meetings held by Foran and his chief financial officer Richard Thomson are promising.

There were multiple negotiations with the Crown on various recapitalisation plans. There was disappointment that the airline could not fill its boots with new capital in the early stages of the pandemic as some competitors did. But also a recognition "in hindsight" that the frustrating delays may have been to the airline's advantage.

Air New Zealand had wanted to go last August. But the Crown said it was not ready. It was a timing thing.

Robertson wrote Walsh a "letter of comfort" that pledged the Crown's continued support. Then the Delta outbreak happened and transtasman flights shut down again. Then Omicron.

The difference between then and now is that borders are opening and Covid restrictions are easing.

There are other issues which the board would obviously have been watching. Ukraine. The geopolitical stresses caused by the Russian invasion. Complexities around the US and China. Rising fuel prices and inflation which are all part of the full range of risk factors the airline and its advisers have had to balance, and are outlined in the offer documents.

Against this the airline's board has made a safe strategic bet that internationally demand is going to build up.

Walsh wonders: Will this pent-up demand result in aviation going gangbusters? Or will passengers take a more measured approach as they return to the skies?

The airline clearly hopes that this substantial recapitalisation will set it up for its future and that it does not have to return to the capital markets again, as have some other airlines that recapitalised much earlier in the Covid pandemic.

Reflecting on the past two years, Walsh says "crisis brings out the best in people".

"It's all landed in a balanced and pragmatic way.

"We have righted the ship. Let's go sailing."

Continue reading here:

Fran O'Sullivan: Air NZ chair - 'We have righted the ship' - New Zealand Herald

Air New Zealand in a trading halt, Transmission Gully finally opens and a melanoma study reveals a grim reality in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

Analysts at Jarden say that in spite of the Air New Zealand's recapitalisation being an important step in improving the investment appeal of the company, they still retain their sell rating.

Air New Zealand last night announced a $2.2bn recapitalisation, comprising $1.2bn of new equity, $600m of redeemable shares and a new NZ$400m four year Crown loan facility.

The funds will be used to pay back $850m of an existing Crown loan and provide $950m for the airline to rebuild its pandemic-ravaged international network and for continued growth of its domestic operations and other parts of its business, including its loyalty scheme.

The airline has to invest in new aircraft and remodel new and existing business class cabins with seats now undergoing regulatory checks in the US and according to reportss today look more like its competitors.

The undrawn $400m new Crown loan will be used as backup should it be needed before 2026.

The analysts Andrew Steele and Nick Yeo have reduced their 12-month target share price for the company from 80c to 65c, reflecting the greater level of dilution for existing shareholders from a heavily discounted rights offer.

A two-for-one rights offer at a price of 53c per share represents a 61 per cent discount on the share price yesterday when trading was halted, ahead of the announcement that just made the deadline of being in the first quarter of the year. Airline chair Dame Therese Walsh said the price was set to be as appealing to as many shareholders as possible and had taken into account other discount offers in the market.

Those shareholders who don't take up the rights offer face dilution to their stake of more than 60 per cent.

The recapitalisation was pitched largely in line with expectations but the market may struggle with its sheer size, Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said.

The rights offer gives Air NZ a theoretical ex-rights price of 81c.

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"It will be interesting to see how the share price does trade," Goodson said.

The 53c offer price was a touch below expectations of one or two people "but we thought it was pitched about right".

"In terms of the forecasts, they line up with what we were thinking but, as always, airlines have massive operational and financial leverage, so very small changes can make a big difference to the bottom line," he said.

Jarden says there were still significant risks for the airline, with the sharespresenting a negatively skewed risk/reward profile.

''Risks include changes to the timing of border reopening, changes to competition, fuel costs, FX (foreign exchange) and underlying consumer demand.

They say the size of the re-capitalisation allows the airline to retain its investment grade credit rating -currently Moody's Baa2 stable outlook - by increasing available liquidity from $1.4b to around $1.8b.

The airline said last night its pre-tax loss for the full financial year would be less than $800m, not in excess of it.

The Jarden analysts forecast losses to fall to $791m from $809m. Forecasts for the 2023 and 2024 financial years are a loss of $54m and$171m.

They airline says did not expect to pay a dividend before 2026.

The airline's rebuild

In an investor presentation, the airline said while the operating environment will remain uncertain, by controlling what it can, its capacity based on available seat kilometres (ASKs) will reach 90 per cent of pre-Covid levels in the 2025 financial year.

Key assumptions for this are:

Domestic flying continues uninterrupted and without restriction

From the middle of 2022, international travel (excluding China andHong Kong where international borders are expected to remain closed) is uninterrupted,with no self-isolation restrictions and testing requirements easing for inbound andoutbound customers on Air New Zealand's key routes.

By 2025 aggregate passenger demand for domestic, Tasman and Pacific Islands travel will marginally exceed FY19 (financial year) levels, supported by network growth into those markets; and aggregate passenger demand for long haul will be slightly lower than FY19 levels (due to fewer ASKs flown overall), and have a more gradual pace of recovery relative to short-haul markets.

No long-term structural changes in travel behaviour or trends post-pandemic, including resulting from environmental sustainability concerns, health concerns related to Covid19, technological changes, or changes in customer preference.

Until March 2023, the Government freight scheme will support cargo flight revenue to assist targeted revenue recovery (noting the level of support will reduce as passenger demand returns).

The competitors that were present in FY19 will progressively re-enter the marketthrough to FY25, with capacity at levels broadly similar to FY19 at that point .

Otherwise, no major changes in the competitive environment or airfare pricingon Air New Zealand's key domestic and international routes compared to FY19.

The presentation says the pandemic and conflict in the Ukraine have caused volatility in financial markets and added uncertainty to the outlook for the New Zealand and global economies.

Jet fuel prices are currently elevated due to the conflict in Ukraine and the airline says this is partially offset by the benefit of the hedging Air New Zealand has in place.

Fuel prices are assumed to progressively reduce to S$75 per barrel for the 2024 financial year.

Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds said the oil prices had moderated form recent highs but had risen overnight and was a substantial cost to the airline.

He told RNZ that hedges would run out.

The border reopening was positive but it was uncertain how quickly old flying habits would return, how well off consumers were feeling and how intense competition would be as travel recovers.

The uncertainty accounted for the heavy rights offer discount on offer, Smith said.

Originally posted here:

Air New Zealand's $2.2 billion recapitalisation: Verdict from Jarden analysts - New Zealand Herald

PM Jacinda Ardern was 'disappointed' with the move of the America's Cup offshore while Auckland Mayor Phil Goff revealed more details about what will happen to the former team base locations. Video / NZ Herald / Getty Images

OPINION:

The America's Cup, which became New Zealand's Cup, is now Catalonia's Cup.

The love affair is over. We knew the passion had cooled, we were aware that one foot was already out the door, it was always coming to an end, but it doesn't make it any less painful.

Hubris, greed or the cold hard light of day - it matters not how or why this long-standing, all-consuming and tempestuous affair has taken its last breath, we just know it has.

Like all jilted lovers, Kiwi sports fans are left grasping for reason, desperate to understand how such a beautiful relationship could end like this. There is no doubt that during those halcyon days, overpowering heights were reached. Such heights could not possibly be achieved again, but that never stopped the desire to do so.

The lure of the green grass in the end was too much to overlook, the team could no longer justify staying and had to pursue the money. A long-distance relationship would be untenable.

New Zealand won't take this well, nor should we. The nationalism the team fed off for so many years is no longer relevant. The connection that encouraged government after government to bankroll the exercise in 'mouse versus lion' is no longer apparent.

The America's Cup has now reached such financially bloated and obscene proportions, there is no place for a plucky and underfunded group. Billionaires and Formula 1 collaborations all now with a timezone friendly platform in a European glamour region, give New Zealand little or no chance of retaining the Cup.

In the unlikely event they do so, what chance of it returning to our shores for a defence? Based on the accelerating cost, short of the largesse of a multi-billionaire local (looking at you Graham Hart), the only way of securing the required finance will be to auction the event off again to the highest northern-hemisphere bidder.

After Team New Zealand's Will Smithing of the government's Chris Rock, it'll be a cold day in hell if the public cheque book is opened again.

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I don't wish ill on the team. The sailors themselves will always elicit a warm glow as they strive to board and scuttle their rivals. I expect, as is the norm, when the hostilities commence in Catalonia, there will some swelling of national pride and the media will dutifully report the massacre.

This event is never coming 'home'.

I would rather have borne witness as New Zealand fought and died on its feet in front of its loyal fans, as opposed to being beheaded on its knees in a foreign clime.

The relationship is over.

See original here:

D'Arcy Waldegrave: Team NZ's Am Cup decision a slap in the face to Kiwis - New Zealand Herald

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) New Zealands government on Thursday said it will end its quarantine requirements for incoming travelers and reopen its borders, a change welcomed by thousands of citizens abroad who have endured long waits to return home.

Since the start of the pandemic, New Zealand has enacted some of the worlds strictest border controls. Most incoming travelers need to spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel room run by the military, a requirement that has created a bottleneck at the border.

The measures were initially credited with saving thousands of lives and allowed New Zealand to eliminate or control several outbreaks of the coronavirus.

But, increasingly, the border controls have been viewed as out-of-step in a world where the virus is becoming endemic, and in a country where the omicron variant is already spreading. The bottleneck forced many New Zealanders abroad to enter a lottery-style system to try and secure a spot in quarantine and passage home.

The shortcomings of the system were highlighted over the past week by pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who was stranded in Afghanistan after New Zealand officials initially rejected her application to return home to give birth. After international publicity, officials backed down and offered her a spot in quarantine, which she has accepted.

The border changes mean that vaccinated New Zealanders returning from Australia will no longer need to go into quarantine from the end of this month, and vaccinated New Zealanders returning from the rest of the world can skip quarantine by mid-March. They will still be required to isolate at home.

However, most tourists will need to wait until October before they can enter the country without a quarantine stay. And anybody who isnt vaccinated will still be required to go through quarantine.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she knows many people associate the border controls with heartache but they have undeniably saved lives.

There is no question that for New Zealand, it has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic, she said. But the reason that it is right up there as one of the toughest things we have experienced is, in part, because large-scale loss of life is not.

She said the controls meant not everyone could come home when they wanted to. But it also meant that COVID could not come in when it wanted to, either.

Ardern said the restrictions had allowed New Zealand to build its defenses against the virus by achieving high levels of vaccination while also keeping the economy running strongly.

About 77% of New Zealanders are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. That rises to 93% among those aged 12 and over, according to health officials.

New Zealand has reported just 53 virus deaths among its population of 5 million.

New Zealands economy did return to growth quickly after a pandemic dip, and unemployment decreased to 3.2% in the latest quarter, the lowest level since record-keeping began in 1986. But the government has also increased borrowing sharply and home prices have skyrocketed.

Opposition leader Christopher Luxon said the reopening of the border was welcome news, and his National Party had long called for the government to end the lottery of human misery.

Ardern said it was a first step toward normality.

There was life before, and now life with COVID, but that also means there will be life after COVID too, a life where we have adapted, where we have some normality back, and where the weather can once again take its rightful place as our primary topic of conversation, Ardern said. We are well on our way to reaching that destination. Were just not quite there yet.

Excerpt from:

New Zealand to end quarantine stays and reopen its borders ...

International pre-departure checks

International flying checklist for customers entering New Zealand:

International flying checklist for customers departing New Zealand:

Pre-departure testing requirements are set by the destination country or territories and Air New Zealand is unable to board customers who do not have the required test results.

With the latest New Zealand Government announcement, we're excited to soon be welcoming visitors back to Aotearoa, New Zealand.

From 11:59pm, Tuesday, 12 April- fully vaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as current temporary work and student visa holders, will be eligible to enter New Zealand without the need to enter managed quarantine or self-isolate.

From 11:59pm, Sunday, 1 May- fully vaccinated travellers from eligible visa waiver countries and territories or those who hold a valid visa will be able to travel to New Zealand without the need to enter managed quarantine or self-isolate.

To check if you are eligible to enter New Zealand and what the new changes may mean for you if you have recently arrived and are currently in MIQ or self-isolating, please check the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

Changes have already been implemented by the New Zealand Government that from Wednesday, 2 March and Friday, 4 March, fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens, and other eligible travellers from Australia and around the world can travel to New Zealand without the need to enter managed quarantine or self-isolate.

We understand these changes to the New Zealand border means that we can welcome more visitors to New Zealand, and you may want to amend some of your travel plans. The good news is, you may be able to find your answer online:

Thank you for your patience while you wait to connect with us.

Due to the impact of Omicron and the latest announcement from the New Zealand Government about the border re-opening, we are experiencing higher than normal volumes of calls and messages across our customer channels.

Our team is working hard to ensure we can reach your call, message, or email as soon as possible.

Continued here:

Travel alerts - Flight information - Plan | Air New Zealand

Anne Rothschild suggests that restricting foreign ownership is a panacea for rocketing house prices, and cites New Zealand as an example of a country thats implemented such a policy (Letters, 23 March).

What she omits to say is that in New Zealand it seems to have failed, pretty spectacularly. In the past two years, property prices in New Zealand have gone absolutely bananas, even though non-resident foreigners are now mostly locked out of the market. Housing in Auckland is now less affordable than in New York and London, according to this years Demographia report.

Restricting foreign ownership hasnt stopped house prices in New Zealand going nuts, but it has fed xenophobic narratives about foreigners being the cause of societal ills. Having said that, checks and balances must be in place to prevent dirty money being laundered via the housing market and thats where the UK (and London in particular) needs to get its house in order. Richard CramptonAuckland, New Zealand

Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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Home truths about New Zealand house prices - The Guardian

New Zealand will remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks as an omicron outbreak begins to wane

By NICK PERRY Associated Press

March 24, 2022, 1:07 AM

2 min read

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand will remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks as an outbreak of the omicron variant begins to wane.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that people will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit places like retail stores, restaurants and bars from April 4. Gone, too, will be a requirement to scan QR barcodes at those venues.

A vaccine mandate will be scrapped for some workers including teachers, police officers and waiters though it will continue for health care and aged-care workers, border workers and corrections officers.

Also gone from Friday is a limit on outdoor crowds of 100. That will allow some concerts and big sporting events like marathons to resume. An indoor limit of 100 people will be raised to 200 people, and could later be removed altogether.

Remaining in place is a requirement that people wear masks in many enclosed spaces, including in stores, on public transport and, for children aged 8 and over, in school classrooms.

Ardern said the government's actions over the past two years to limit the spread of the coronavirus had saved thousands of lives and helped the economy.

But while weve been successful, its also been bloody hard," Ardern said.

Everyone has had to give up something to make this work, and some more than others, she said.

The changes mean that many restrictions will be removed before tourists start arriving back in New Zealand.

Earlier this month, the government announced that Australian tourists would be welcomed back from April 12 and tourists from many other countries, including the U.S., Canada, and Britain, from May 1.

International tourism used to account for about 20% of New Zealands foreign income and more than 5% of GDP but evaporated after the South Pacific nation imposed some of the world's strictest border controls after the pandemic began.

New Zealand continues to see some of its highest rates of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations since the pandemic began, with an average 17,000 new infections being reported each day.

But Ardern said modeling shows that the biggest city of Auckland is already significantly past the peak of its omicron outbreak and the rest of the country will soon follow.

Health experts warned that some countries which had dropped restrictions as omicron faded were now experiencing another surge of cases.

See original here:

New Zealand to remove pandemic mandates as omicron wanes - ABC News

This year significant reforms to New Zealands health care system will be introduced. But to achieve its goals of an equitable system, the government needs to make deeper changes than it has proposed.

For two decades, New Zealand has had 20 district health boards (DHBs) planning and funding local services and owning public hospitals, and 30 primary health organisations to coordinate GP and related primary care services. These will no longer exist.

DHB functions will be absorbed within a new national body, Health NZ. GP and primary care services will be delivered through new locality networks. A new Mori Health Authority will work on behalf of Mori, planning and funding services, in partnership with Health NZ. A series of regional offices will facilitate the work of Health NZ and the Mori Health Authority.

The reforms are significant and underpinned by important goals: to bring equity and national consistency into the health system, between people and regions, with a strong focus on improving services and outcomes for Mori and other groups. Improving patient experience through better integrating care and processes is also a key aim.

But neither of these goals will be achieved unless issues related to the underlying institutional arrangements are tackled.

Let us not forget that the foundations for how healthcare is delivered today in New Zealand were created in a historic compromise between the government and medical profession over 80 years ago when the government sought to create a national health service. The compromise split primary care from hospital services and allowed development of parallel public and private hospital sectors.

Two key changes to the proposed reforms need to be made.

First, in common with the UK and others, New Zealand healthcare is tax funded. This is a simple method where government funding is allocated to the public sector to provide services, some then procured from private providers.

Tax funded systems usually feature public hospital waiting lists and service restrictions, along with considerable government responsibility for planning and providing services. With longstanding under-investment in healthcare services, the UK and New Zealand governments are both being criticised at present for failing to adequately plan for an event such as COVID-19.

Read more: No one is mourning the end of district health boards, but rebuilding trust in the system won't be easy

New Zealands historic compromise allowed for public hospital doctors to also build a private practice. New Zealanders with private insurance or deep pockets routinely pay to see them, rather than wait for public treatment (some only work publicly; some only private; many work in both sectors). Many conditions will never be treated publicly.

This means considerable suffering and disadvantage, disproportionately falling on Mori, Pacifika and the less well off, which the government hopes to address with its reforms. This will not be possible without massive funding and infrastructure investment and a shift in workforce towards the public sector.

That said, reducing private practice in favour of public is politically untenable; it would require regulation, financial and other incentives. Private specialists do extremely well, leveraging off their public sector roles and training, with back up from the public system and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

Instead, a new funding method is needed.

It is time for a national debate around shifting from tax funding to social insurance. This is found in Germany as well as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere. Like ACC, social insurance is agnostic about who provides care and simply funds patients based on need.

Read more: ACCs policy of not covering birth injuries is one more sign the system is overdue for reform

If introduced in New Zealand, the private sector could continue to function as it does, alongside public hospitals, but all patients would receive the same access to care regardless of ability to pay.

A fundamental element of social insurance is delivering on equity. Social insurance is funded by payroll and employer contributions with a corresponding drop in taxes. There is no perfect health funding model. Tax funding will not solve our equity challenges, given our institutional structures. Unless the government is prepared to nationalise service provision, social insurance offers an important alternative.

The second necessary change is in the allocation of funding to primary and hospital care. From mid-year, the split between these two sectors will be exacerbated as the two will be funded quite separately, undermining efforts at whole system integration.

Locality networks will presumably be funded where they can show a range of primary care providers are working collaboratively to manage a population. Hospitals will continue to be funded by Health NZ, in partnership with the Mori Health Authority, rather than the DHBs.

Read more: New authority could transform Mori health, but only if it's a leader, not a partner

A bold government would combine and place the two funding lines between primary care and hospitals, requiring a collaborative approach to service delivery. This would take away boundaries between primary and hospital care and instead place the focus on how the different providers work to build a system.

The Labour-led government is taking important steps to address challenges in New Zealands health system. Goals of equity, service integration and responding to Te Tiriti o Waitangi are laudable.

But it will be a struggle to deliver on these goals without the two key changes outlined above. These would be significant and challenging. Without them, we can predict another round of reforms in future to address the same problems the current efforts will fail on.

Original post:

New Zealand's health restructure is doomed to fall short unless its funding model is tackled first - The Conversation

Crowz is an upcoming Battle Royale from an indie team that is supposed to bring an enjoyable military warfare experience on a massive island. Lets have a look at all the Crowz launch information, including its release time.

With Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone, Apex Legends, and PUBG at top of the most-played free-to-play Battle Royale games on almost every platform, its pretty hard for an indie team of developers to challenge these giants with a brand new Battle Royale experience, but Crowz seems to be a solid shooter that could make a name for itself in the near future!

Launching in the Early Access phase in less than two days, Crowz is an upcoming Battle Royale experience that combines the military warfare of Call of Duty with some well-known gameplay features of PUBG. Although its a first-person shooter at its core, the game allows players to use the third-person view as well when looking around.

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Call of Duty: Mobile | Official Season 3: Radical Raid Trailer

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Crowz will be available on March 28 in North America while European and Asian players will receive access to the game on March 29. Below, you can check out the release date and time for each major region in the world:

Crowz will only be available on PC through Steam. Currently, there are no plans for launching the game on consoles. Below, you can read through the minimum and recommended system requirements of the game.

Minimum:

Recommended:

Crowz features two major modes. The first one is Squad Operations where you team up with up to 3 friends and compete against other crews to accomplish certain missions. On the other hand, the Blood Zone mode will see players divided into two large groups fighting over the resources on the map and seeking extraction points.

Follow this link:

Crowz Release Date and Time in the UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand - DualShockers