Air New Zealand said 27,000 customers were affected by the Omicron border re-opening delay. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Board of Airlines Representative of New Zealand (Barnz) executive director Justin Tighe - Umbers was reported to say that the decision to put back the date of the opening of the border due to the prevalence of the Omicron variant was a huge blow to the tourist sector. (Herald, Dec 22).
He quotes the examples of New South Wales and Victoria scrapping border restrictions despite successive record daily cases as some sort of desirable model.
He states that: "Travel restrictions are not a long-term solution to control Covid variants."
What pile of sand has he buried his head in? Closing borders, high vaccination rates, masks and social distancing are exactly why we have achieved world-beating minimal deaths.
Covid is not a Labour Government construct. It is a killer.
A reasonable number of travel, hospitality and tourist businesses will not survive. Plan for it. Covid hasn't finished with us yet.
Simon Damerell, Ponsonby
Once again New Zealand has reverted to the overly cautious approach and shattered the hopes of families on both sides of the Tasman. I have been fully supportive of measures taken so far but ...
While I don't condone Ian Taylor's misguided attack on Jacinda's final speech, I fully support his contention that no one appears willing to engage with NZers who have the technologies and systems to be able to monitor returnees safely in home quarantine, probably in a far safer way than the hundreds of cases are in at the moment.
Ministers Robertson and Hipkins need to engage with them and see what they can come up with in probably a very short time frame. We shouldn't still be relying on expensive and limited MIQ 22 months down the track.
As an IT administrator, all I see is an antique health data system that relies on overworked humans rather than technology to be able to monitor home isolation.
The use of 48 hour PCR pre-tests and a rapid antigen test before boarding would make flights across the Tasman fully safe. How many actual cases have arrived from Australia in the last two months?
Putting it off for another six weeks through lack of trust in the returnees and in the health department systems unfortunately is a real disappointment to thousands of NZers desperate to return.
Vern Dempster, Warkworth
I gather that the reduced wait for the booster shot, from six months to four, takes effect from January 1.
It's a public holiday and many walk-in centres are closed. So are January 2, 3 and 4.
That's two weeks from the announcement, on December 21, to availability.
That's two of the 10 weeks of time before the end of February, which is the target date for completion.
Why not start now?
Peter Calder, Westmere
I find myself in the unusual and slightly uncomfortable position of agreeing with Richard Prebble's article. He says he is going to try praising Labour and asks to be wished luck in doing so. I think he'll have a hard task!
I watched TV news on Tuesday evening to get an update on the Government's response to Omicron and was not enlightened. There was no indication MIQ security was going to be tightened. Given the track record of MIQ for the past year this gives me no comfort and we deserve not only a better answer but much better action.
I did learn children would be eligible from January 17. These children cannot only catch the virus today but transmit it. Will the minister please explain why this important protection is not being implemented now?
Unlike Richard, I was able to get my booster shot several weeks ago but his description of his failure to be able to do so shows what an appalling job the minister has been doing. In previous governments not only would the minister's feet have been held to the fire, the very concept of ministerial responsibility would have had him sacked. Would the Prime Minister please explain why she has not done this – perhaps she is being kind?
Time is up, kindness is off the table and we deserve responsible action from the Covid-19 Response Minister.
Rod Lyons, Kumeu
I have just had my Covid booster and what an easy process it was. Walked up the road to the local chemist and was taken straight away.
What a dramatic difference to the Government's initial rollout where you had to wait on the phone to get an appointment in a months time at some huge vaccination centre miles away.
Has the Government ever satisfactorily explained why the Covid vaccination process was not handled by the doctors and chemists in the first place?
Imagine all the taxpayers' money that could have been saved by not having to set up the huge vaccination centres and train all the staff to man them and how much quicker we could have reached the 90 per cent target?
Another black mark for the Government.
Jock MacVicar, Hauraki
I feel safe. What a miracle, moving into the third year of a vicious global pandemic and feeling safe.
I've done all I can to be safe and I deeply respect my community of Auckland who has done the same, against so much hardship.
Our safety though is really due to the wise and prescient decisions of our government, who opted early to keep our collective safety uppermost during the myriad calls from all corners.
Thank you to all New Zealanders who may prove to have been the most courageous population in the world in years to come. Well done, so far.
Sally Ansley, Waiheke Island
Now that the Government has extended border restrictions it is time for those wishing to curb the dairy industry in the name of reducing emissions, to face reality.
Overseas tourists and international students are not going to help our economy for a considerable time.
If we wish to buy goods overseas, we need to earn dollars there to pay for them.
The dairy industry is going to be our main foreign exchange earner for years to come. We knock it at our peril.
Chris Bullen, Whakatāne
The Government's plan to stem runaway house breaks apart from scrapping tax breaks for investors has been to build more houses but house prices continue to rise.
The reason should be abundantly clear in the form of ghost houses, which are the way property sharks ensure demand outstrips supply.
Thus the shortfall of some 40,000 houses for first-home buyers remains constant.
The solution is staring the Government in the face, ghost houses must immediately be tenanted or sold to first-home buyers or to the government to be used as state houses.
If this government is to be judged at all, it surely must be on how it deals with the excesses of the wealthy, which ghost houses represent. On their performance in this regard they can only be stamped with one label: Failed.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay
Why am I not surprised that the solicitor Hannah Rawnsley was discharged without conviction for her deliberate lockdown breaches.
Judge Bruce Davidson says he took Rawnsley's personal wellbeing into consideration. Pity that she did not extend the same courtesy to all those people in the South Island that she put at risk.
I wonder what the sentence would have been if Rawnsley had been a Māori road worker?
Paul Hicks, Warkworth
You have to be kidding.
The professional couple that went to Wānaka to attend to some business and have a holiday after that have just been fined for their indiscretion.
An apology by them and deciding against name suppression apparently didn't carry any water with the judge in sentencing.
Under normal circumstances that would seem appropriate however when hundreds have since broken this same law with no prosecutions forthcoming how come they should not be exempt from a fine as well.
They have already paid the price socially and at their workplace and yet the multitude of others including bikies and certain church groups who are openly flouting the law go unpunished.
That's fair isn't it? Yeah, right.
Alan Walker, St Heliers
June Kearney of West Harbour (Letters, Dec 22) might have seen me (72) and my 92-year-old friend cycling around Hobsonville.
My doctor says that the gentle exercise of cycling is just what our "creaky knees" need.
I cycle to the doctor and the hospital and if it's too far I put it on the train free of charge (thank you Winston).
As for families and shopping; look abroad and buy the electric cargo-bike option.
Martin Ball, Kelston
Jean Kearney says cycling is not for old people with creaky knees and we must stick to our cars.
Well as a person with creaky arthritic knees, my physio recommends cycling as a way to keep my knees in better shape.
And sadly, much to my chagrin, your newspaper described someone my age as "elderly"! So I fit both categories.
I ride my bike whenever I can to keep fit (my cardiologist also recommends it for my minor heart ailment) and to use the bike instead of clogging the road and the environment with my CO2 producing car.
Against the assertion by Jean that this is not possible, I visit the doctor, do minor amounts of shopping, go to the library, all sorts of things I can do without getting in the car.
Time to get out of your car, Jean, and join us old creaky knee codgers looking after our health and helping out the planet. And by the way, cycling is immensely enjoyable.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay
As we are coming to the end of another difficult year I wanted to write and say thank you to the person who delivers our Herald.
Through wind, rain and lockdowns the Herald is in our post box every morning by 7am.
As I live down a very long driveway in Udys Rd, Pakuranga, I never get to see the delivery person. I would love to give them a wave and thank them for the great job they do.
I wish them all the happiness of the season, and that they get to enjoy a much-earned holiday.
Sue Bentley, Pakuranga
On penpal letters
Hey Grant, how about picking up the phone and having a chat with Sir Ian Taylor? He has been trying to talk to you but you have but unwilling to take his call and now we are reduced to penpal letters in the paper. I am sure he would be happy to take your call.
Annette Nicholls, Mt Eden.
On legal system
My life is put at risk by someone who wants to cross the border illegally simply because she wants to ski. She is charged and pleads guilty but is released without charge and, guess what, she is a lawyer. Now, what does that tell us about the legal system and those to whom we have passed the responsibility of administering it on our behalf?
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.
On sacrifices
While I agree that greenhouse gas emissions are a major contributor to climate change, how many of us are prepared to give up our cellphones and stop flying? It's easy to be wringing hands and paying lip service for the need to reduce pollution provided we aren't affected personally.
Sue White, West Harbour.
On Christmas
The spirit of the times. The spirit of offence. Read about it daily. Everybody's offended at somebody. May Christmas remind us about forgiveness. That is what the Jesus of Christmas is about.
John Beach, Christchurch.
Retired senior judge warns squadron he'll sue if it takes America's Cup offshore
Good for him - an old bloke putting a spanner in the works... How dare Dalton and the RNZYS take this event overseas when they've accepted over the years bucketloads of taxpayers' and ratepayers' hard-earned cash to support them and the facilities - it's usually called an obligation, instead we have a betrayal. The America's Cup is becoming, even more, a farce - time to let it go, let them go overseas, at least it'll save us yet more hype and dollars and if they lose. I for one couldn't care less. Tess M.
It's interesting that in high-level sport, the players and coaches are regularly replaced, to inject new thinking and tactics. This has happened at Team NZ for the sailors, but not the coach. I would hazard a guess that as with all lucrative human endeavours, money and power are the prime movers here and not pseudo nationalism or any other thing beneficial to the masses. The whole America's Cup ball of wax is continually mired in bad sportsmanship, backbiting, court cases, spying, and every other form of ego-driven antics. Peter S.
For Gawd's sake, let it go! The NZ taxpayer has already thrown far too much cash at this Auckland-based money-fest. The rest of us (and yes, Sir Ted, there are NZers who live outside of Auckland) just don't care (or if anyone did, they can see it on TV, the same as they see it if it were in Auckland). Robert G.
Imagine the help this man could be if he wanted to assist the poor victims of institutional abuse who have been getting the run around for decades. Much more worthy of his time than some obscure billionaire's race. Stephen H.
Let's just abolish the whole fiasco. Sick to the back teeth of hearing about this darned cup. Robert H.
Good job. We've come up with the money before, I don't see why we can't do it again. They can obviously get MORE money if they go offshore, which is of paramount interest to Dalton. Ben W.
Holding the cup in NZ would be great for the economy and as we saw earlier this year, a wonderful spectacle in the beautiful Waitemata Harbour. Sadly, we have a government that closes us off to the rest of the world at the hint of a possible Covid outbreak, so planning to run an event like this leaves only one option; take it offshore. Jonathon W.
The flight was on its way to Auckland when it was forced to return to Christchurch.