Re-Opening after COVID-19 in New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore whether the present measures being taken by the New Zealand (NZ) government are strengthening its non-banking sector effectively to address the recent financial crisis and ensure better financial stability to the economy. Design/methodology/approach – The basic methodology used in this paper is the “documentary research method”. For this study, data has been collected from various published sources; e.g. The Bulletin, the Financial Stability Report and other publications of the Reserve Bank of NZ, publications by Statistics NZ and a number of NZ government Ministries, and some newspapers and magazines, etc. Findings – We find that the NZ government is revamping the non-banking sector by introducing a prudential regime. However, we also find some gaps in the existing regulatory systems that need to be addressed to ensure soundness in the total system. Research limitations/implications – The basic limitation of documentary research will be applicable to this study. Further research may be carried out to investigate the policy responses of government from banking, corporate governance and other regulatory perspectives. Practical implications – Our study identifies some gaps in current policy responses along with some suggestions for the future that may be taken into consideration by the respective policy-makers to further strengthen the support provided by policy responses to financial crises. Originality/value – Our study provides a unique insight into the evaluation of post-GFC policy response and its effectiveness with regard to non-banking sector and, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in NZ in the post-global financial crisis period.

The Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) is one of the countries that has decided to “go hard, go early” in fighting the global pandemic by declaring the national lockdown that went into effect from March 25 to April 27, 2020 (under Alert Level 4). This study unpacks how the NZ government has utilized social media to communicate and disseminate regular information related to the pandemic with New Zealanders (NZers) during the national lockdown. This chapter specifically examines NZ’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern’s earlier Facebook live chats pre- and during the national lockdown and the NZ government’s Instagram account, which was established to disseminate the most updated information related to COVID-19 (@uniteagainstCOVID-19). The data were gathered from Arden’s and @uniteagainstCOVID-19’s social media accounts and from NZ national newspapers. Using progressive critical discourse analysis, the study finds that the NZ government’s language selection together with its social media use has functioned as an effective means of communication. Via its communicative discourse, the NZ government has appeared to reduce the perceived gap between the state (the government) and its people. In this way, NZ has demonstrated firm yet compassionate leadership that can be a model for other countries, particularly in tackling an unprecedented global pandemic.

Purpose This paper aims to provide a commentary on how well the New Zealand (NZ) Government has used the budget as a tool to tackle the social and economic problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of public budgeting as a political instrument is also critiqued. Design/methodology/approach An analysis was carried out of relevant documents that included government policy statements, budgets, news articles and website information on the pandemic. Meaningful interpretation of information and reflections helped provide the basis of the commentary. Findings Public budgeting has a prominent role in addressing a major global crisis. Budgets need to quickly respond to the needs of the moment in saving lives and sustaining people’s well-being, businesses and the economy. In a crisis situation, the social, political and economic factors become crucial determinants of budgetary policy measures. Although strong political leadership is required to deliver budgets under unimaginable circumstances, the ideology of the political party in government can be a powerful predictor of fiscal policies. Crisis budgeting will result in mounting budget deficits and public debts that will take many years for future generations to pay back. Practical implications This paper provides a significant learning for other nations. These lessons will guide budget policymakers to prepare better for potential crisis in the future. Originality/value This paper is original and based on the NZ Government’s budgetary response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be valuable in formulating budget policies and public funding decisions in a major crisis.

NZ Government's trend analysis of hospitalised self‐harm is misleading

Australasian Journal on AgeingVolume 36, Issue 2 p. 134-134 Indigenous Ageing Research FeatureFree Access Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine Position Statement Abstract: Ageing and indigenous health in Aotearoa New Zealand First published: 07 April 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12217Citations: 1 This Position Statement represents the views of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine. The preparation of this paper was coordinated by Dr Oliver Menzies, Professor Ngaire Kerse and Dr Mere Kēpa and was approved by the Federal Council of the ANZSGM on 16 June 2013. Te Ohu Rata O Aotearoa (Te ORA) – The Māori Medical Practitioners Association – has also reviewed this Statement. [Correction added on 21 October 2016, after first online publication: The Position Statement Ageing and indigenous health in Aotearoa New Zealand has been replaced by its summary. The version originally published can be found as the supporting information of this article on Wiley Online Library.] AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Communication between different cultures are common in New Zealand (NZ), and common in healthcare situations. A doctor's culture and belief systems influence his or her interactions with patients and this may impact on the doctor–patient relationship. Older Māori in NZ share a particular health background and understanding this may help to appreciate where current health or ill health may have stemmed. The process of colonisation has had a marked effect on the health of Māori in NZ. The Treaty of Waitangi is NZ's founding nationhood document and has important significance for health. The NZ Government has recognised that there are disparities in health in NZ, and also the governmental responsibility to improve health outcomes for Māori. Socioeconomic disadvantage explains a considerable proportion of the disparity in health between Māori and non-Māori. There have been a number of different models developed for understanding Māori Health; common themes however are spirituality, mental health, physical health, family, language and cultural heritage. The assessment and treatment of Māori can vary compared with non-Māori, and health practitioners should take note of this to allow best care for their patient. Particular examples of this are contained within this Position Statement. It is important, with the patient's consent, to involve family and whānau (wider family) in both assessment and treatment. Management for older Māori should include consideration of Rongoā/Māori Medicine and healing, which may incorporate particular medicinal formulations and massage. The ANZSGM supports further research into Māori Health and government initiatives to improve the deficit in health of Māori populations compared with the NZ European population. Introduction He aha te mea nui o te ao What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata It is the people, it is the people, it is the people (Māori proverb) Māori is the name given to the Tangata Whenua/people of the land (Indigenous people) of Aotearoa, NZ [1]. This Statement addresses the health of older Māori in NZ. The background and epidemiology of Māori Health in NZ is discussed, followed by practical application in assessment of the older Māori patient. The full document of this Position Statement can be found at http://www.anzsgm.org/posstate.asp Supporting Information Filename Description ajag12217-sup-0001-ArticleS1.pdfPDF document, 163 KB Article S1. Ageing and indigenous health in Aotearoa New Zealand (full document). Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article. Reference Barlow, CB. Tikango Whakaaro, Key Concepts in Māori Culture. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1991. Google Scholar Citing Literature Volume36, Issue2June 2017Pages 134-134 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Well-being is now widely accepted as being multidimensional (OECD, 2017). New Zealand (NZ) Treasury mimics this notion and suggests that well-being indicates ‘quality of life’ and ways of facilitating individuals and society achieving a better life (McLeod, 2018). To achieve the goal of a ‘better life for all’, the NZ government has launched the first Well-being Budget worldwide in 2019 (Government of New Zealand, 2019). Still, there are some limitations in their framework. My research aims to address one of them; namely well-being inequality. By constructing a composite well-being index for a country that runs a Well-being Budget, this answers the following questions: i) which domains of well-being are most unequally distributed in NZ? ii) what are the determinants of well-being inequality? and iii) how does well-being inequality compare across gender, ethnicity, age, and geography in NZ? In this presentation, I will explain how Categorial Principal Component Analysis was used to construct NZ’s first multidimensional well-being index. Additionally, I will discuss the current well-being distribution findings. The data used comes from NZ's General Social Survey spanning the period 2014 to 2018 which includes 24,618 individuals across NZ. Both ordinal and nominal variables are included in the well-being index. To measure the inequality in well-being we deconstruct the multidimensional well-being index for various groups to determine the well-being distribution pattern in NZ. The preliminary results indicate that civic engagement and governance, and income explained the most variance; whereas cultural identity and social connection explained the least variance. In addition, females, Māori, immigrants, and those outside of the Auckland region experience greater well-being inequality than their counterparts. These results suggest that policymakers should focus on policies that could increase public trust in the government and institutions, increase employment opportunities, and provide social support for those unable to enter the employment sector as full-time employees.

Tobacco tax and the illicit trade in tobacco products in New Zealand

This chapter explores the current public subsidy schemes available for both domestic and international feature films in New Zealand (NZ). It applies an institutional political economy perspective to explain the priorities, rationales and motives of relevant ministries and agencies in New Zealand to support certain parts of the public funding scheme for feature film-making. I analyse the public funding schemes for domestic feature films offered by the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and the ministerial funding schemes. I evaluate the economic argumentation used by the NZ government and some ministries to support public funding schemes for international productions. Research findings indicate that New Zealand’s film industry and institutions are affected by the particular priorities of changing governments. Importantly, I discuss how public spending and priorities shape the financial fitness of the New Zealand feature film industry and the kinds of benefits and unfavourable consequences that international productions can bring for such a small host country.

The presence of the “Islamic terrorism” narrative in New Zealand (NZ) counterterrorism, including its impact on NZ’s response to terrorism, has not been accorded the concern it merits. In the aftermath of the Christchurch Mosque attacks on 15 March 2019, the NZ government, the Royal Commission of Inquiry, and the media unreservedly agreed that NZ’s counterterrorism approach was misguided and erroneous. Central to this erroneous approach was the narrative of “Islamic terrorism” – the subject of this study – which sought to focus NZ’s counterterrorism efforts almost exclusively upon Islamic groups and individuals. The research employs a methodology of discourse analysis to examine how John Key’s National Party government drew on the “Islamic terrorism” narrative in its counterterrorism discourse. It then illustrates how this discourse manifested in NZ’s response to terrorism, both domestically and internationally, including in the introduction of new legislation. The primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate, and subsequently critique, the “Islamic terrorism” narrative as adopted in the Key government’s counterterrorism discourse and response. A major finding of the research is the Key government’s conflation, and at times virtual equalisation, of terrorism with “Islamic terrorism”. The concept of emancipation is proposed as an alternative to NZ’s erroneous counterterrorism approach.

Over the past 50 years, the prevalence of interactives in museums and science centres has increased dramatically, with interactive learning proliferating around the world. With a current estimated visitation of 300 million people each year, free-choice learning through museums and related venues has become a major source of human learning over the course of a lifetime. While many studies of visitor experience have examined positive changes in affective components of learning, fewer have examined whether specific scientific content knowledge is included in what is learnt. This research investigated gains in content knowledge through informal science learning. Three surveys were conducted at the Otago Museum’s science centre (Dunedin, New Zealand) with visitors eight years and older. The main component of the survey included a brief “formal” content knowledge assessment in the form of a pre-post multiple-choice test, with a focus on physics concepts illustrated in the science centre. Self-reported examples of science learned during the visit and selected items from the Modes of Learning Inventory complement the data. In the pre-post test, prior knowledge was age and gender dependent, with younger visitors and females getting significantly lower scores. Notwithstanding, visitors to the science centre had an overall average of 13% more correct answers in the test after visiting, independent of age and gender. A learning flow diagram was created to visualise learning in the presence or absence of interactivity. As expected, interactivity was found to increase learning.

Intermittent catheterisation is the standard treatment for incomplete bladder emptying in spinal cord injuries (SCI), but urinary tract infections (UTI) remain a common and costly complication. Hydrophilic-coated catheters have been shown to decrease infection rates; however, they are more expensive compared to uncoated catheters. The aim was to model the cost-effectiveness of hydrophilic-coated catheters (HCIC) compared to uncoated catheters in New Zealand (NZ) patients with traumatic SCI who intermittently catheterise. A probabilistic economic Markov model adapted to NZ costing and demographics modelled economic and quality-of-life benefits for the two catheter types in SCI patients using intermittent catheters. Inputs included UTI rates, severity of infection, utility values, SCI demographics, catheter costs and UTI treatment in New Zealand dollars. The model output reports UTI rates, life years gained, quality-adjusted life-years and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for the two catheter types. HCIC use is predicted to reduce UTIs by 11%, resulting in a 7% increase in quality adjusted life years (QALY). Over a patient's lifetime, it is estimated that 3.8 simple infections and 2.1 prolonged infections treated in primary care could be avoided, and it is predicted to avoid 1.3 severe complex infections that require hospitalization. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $27 919/QALY falls within NZ Government willingness to pay threshold for therapeutic interventions. Reducing UTI's with HCIC has quality of life and economic benefits to the patient and healthcare system, as it is a common and costly complication in New Zealand. This model demonstrates that HCIC is likely to be cost-effective in New Zealand SCI patients.

This research attempted to review the E-Commerce (EC) strategy of the New Zealand (NZ) government in the light of recent EC adoption and diffusion research in Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in NZ. This was an important objective in this research in order to highlight commonalities and differences between the determinants of EC adoption in SMEs and the EC strategy of the NZ government. Addressing implications arising from these comparisons was another objective in this research. The research found that the NZ EC strategy managed to address most of the impending issues concerning EC success in NZ in the long term. However, this research contended that for EC to succeed in SMEs in NZ, some of these strategies needed to be addressed and executed first.

FIGURES 14 – 18. Amathia biseriata Krauss, 1837. 14, slide of a specimen from New Zealand in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London; 15, close-up of same showing straight clusters of autozoids on the stolon segments; 16, same, showing the frontal distal curvature of stolon segments; 17, specimen A. 88.95 labelled Beania swainsoni, Otago Museum, Dunedin. 18, close-up of autozooids showing semicircular, distal cuticularised thickening of rims in the lectotype (NMNZ Pz. 14) of A. swainsoni in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The New Zealand (NZ) Government began its public sector reforms in 1984, with a central focus of changing the accounting culture. The purposes of the reforms were to build a more open public sector, a plainer and clearer way of reporting, emphasising accountability and transparency (Wallace, 1993). Central to the reforms was the adoption of accrual accounting and a 3-year budgeting and planning management cycle within Government Ministries. By establishing whether or not budgetary slack is used as a risk management strategy in NZ's new public management (NPM) control setting, this study examines how successful the reforms are, more that 20 years after their inception. Budgetary slack is the excess requirements for resources or understatement of productive capability. Slack allows a budget to be easily achieved and gives a false perception of managers' performance, defeating the basic purpose of budgets. As little research has been conducted on this phenomenon in NZ's NPM, this study was undertaken. Using budgetary slack and earnings management literature, an empirical model is developed to examine whether the potential for budgetary slack exists in NZ Government Ministries. The five Ministries of: Health, Education, Transport, Justice, and Housing, were chosen for this study. They provide a mix of sizes and are very topical for some specific reasons within the political arena. Results of this study will be of interest to the Government, public sector managers, taxpayers, other stakeholders, and academics.

Food consumed away from home is contributing an increasing proportion of household food budgets in New Zealand (NZ). This study aimed to benchmark the healthiness of the NZ fast-food supply in 2020. Data on the serving size and nutrient content of products were collected from company websites and in-store visits of 27 fast-food chains. For each fast-food category and type of combo meal, the medians and interquartile ranges were calculated for serving size (g/mL) and energy (kilojoules-kJ), sodium (mg), total sugar (g) and saturated fat (g) per serving. The nutrient contents/servings were benchmarked against the United Kingdom (UK) soft drinks levy thresholds and targets for salt for foods consumed away from home; the NZ daily intake guidelines for energy, sodium and saturated fat; and the WHO recommendation for free sugars. Nutrition information was available for 1777 products and 176 meal combos. More than one in ten drinks would qualify for a UK soft drinks levy, and 47% (n = 1072) of products with sodium data exceeded the relevant UK targets. The categories with the highest median energy and nutrient contents per serving were: burgers (2585 kJ-energy and 1091 mg-sodium), savoury pastries (13 g saturated fat) and milkshakes/smoothies (49 g total sugar). The meal combos represented one meal occasion, but an average combo provided 50% of the daily energy requirement, 89% of the maximum sodium recommendation, 81% of the recommended sugar intake, and 46% of the recommended saturated fat intake. Fast-food products and combo meals in NZ contribute far more energy and negative nutrients to the recommended daily intake targets than is optimal for good health. The NZ Government needs to set reformulation targets and portion-size guidance to reduce the potential impact that increasing fast-food consumption is likely to have on the health of New Zealanders. All fast-food chains need to provide sufficient nutrition information about their products to inform consumers.