Cabinet is reviewing the country’s alert levels today with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying both the nature of Auckland’s Covid-19 cluster and its economic impacts will be considered in any shift down to Level 1.
She says we are “still in this earlyish stage” of seeing the impact of Level 2.5 on the cluster and cautioned against “getting ahead of ourselves”.
The review comes as one new case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the community yesterday.
This weekend will be Auckland’s first at Level 2.5 and people are being urged to continue following alert level rules.
Social gatherings are still restricted to 10 people and a two-metre physical distance still needs to be kept in public places like beaches or parks.
Police say officers will be keeping an eye out this weekend for anyone breaching the rules.
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Youngest Kiwis in spotlight
Election campaigning got underway again yesterday with our youngest New Zealanders proving the hot talking point first up.
National revealed a ‘First 1000 Days’ policy that would give all expecting parents $3000 to spend on child-related services.
The party is also pledging to uphold previous promises to allow parents to take paid parental leave at the same time.
Their policy came on the same day a UNICEF report on overall child wellbeing ranked New Zealand near the bottom of the list .
The country ranked poorly on both mental and physical wellbeing, however Jacinda Ardern says the report, which covered 2013-2018, didn’t take recent progress into account and reflected the previous government’s underinvestment.
UNICEF NZ executive director Vivien Maidaborn says New Zealand’s rankings are driven by inequality and the normalising of that disparity.
The full UNICEF report can be found here .
Māori at higher risk
Inequalities in New Zealand are also being highlighted in a new study released this morning.
It has found Māori are 50 per cent more likely to die from Covid-19 than non-Māori.
Research group Te Pūnaha Matatini commissioned the work, examining health data on ethnic groups in New Zealand and international statistics.
One of the study’s authors, Mike Plank, says the worse health outcomes for Māori and Pacific people "stem from widespread inequities in the healthcare system”.
Search on for ship
The search continues for a ship holding more than 40 crew, including two New Zealanders, and around 6000 cattle that’s sunk off the coast of Japan.
The ship was transporting the livestock from Napier to China when it issued a distress signal while caught up in Typhoon Maysak. A sole rescued crew member says the ship capsized before sinking .
New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has suspended consideration of cattle livestock export applications in the wake of the incident.
Green Party spokesperson on animal welfare Gareth Hughes told RNZ the Greens want a permanent ban on the exporting of all live animals.
More jobs on the line
NZ Steel has confirmed it’s proposing to cut up to 200 jobs and change some products as it looks to reduce costs.
The company says it’s been “battling local and international headwinds for several years” and changes need to be made in order to keep the business going.
It comes as National’s finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says the country’s economic response to Covid-19 needs more investment in the private sector to create sustainable jobs through the pandemic. He says he’s worried “the Government seems to just be carrying on as if nothing's changed”.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson defended the Government’s economic response to the pandemic yesterday, but told TVNZ’s Breakfast “there’s more to do” .
Meanwhile, one of the world’s top economists has lauded New Zealand’s response to Covid-19.
Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz has written about the lessons that will emerge from the pandemic and contrasted New Zealand’s response to that of the US. You can read his full opinion piece here .
Vaccine speculation slammed
Health Minister Chris Hipkins has shut down "deliberate misinformation" claiming the Government will make a Covid-19 vaccine mandatory should one be made available.
He says while people will be “encouraged” to get vaccinated, it won’t be mandatory .
His comments come after MP Jami-Lee Ross refused to take down a political ad about vaccinations last week, despite concerns it was deliberately misleading.
Other news of note this morning:
A strong quake shook the top of the South Island last night on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the Canterbury earthquake.
US President Donald Trump has drawn criticism for telling people in North Carolina to vote twice in November's election, despite this being illegal .
New services to improve emergency and acute care of children at Christchurch Hospital will not open because there’s no money to staff them .
Chris Hipkins is disputing a claim from Greens co-leader James Shaw he gave "verbal sign-off" for the controversial Green School proposal.
One of the world's largest cargo planes has touched down in Auckland carrying an America's Cup challenger's boat.
And the secret cost of Covid-19 has been revealed - New Zealand is now running low on Elvis impersonators .
And finally...
Let’s finish the week with a bit of whimsy, shall we?
Magician David Blaine took social distancing to extreme lengths yesterday by attaching himself to a bunch of helium balloons and soaring into the sky over Arizona.
The stunt was live-streamed and saw Blaine reach a height of 7500 metres before he parachuted safely back to the ground.
If you fancy doing the same (I don’t recommend), this article looks at the huge amount of preparation required for such an act.
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