Appeal to delay wage increase
"To add this [minimum wage increase] on top is going to be extremely difficult at this time, that’s for sure. "These are the same groups that argue against minimum wage increase in any weather. She said the increase was vital for the hundreds of thousands of minimum wage earners who were also "doing it tough" through the Covid-19 pandemic. "Many minimum wage workers are also on the Covid-19 frontlines, including in security and cleaning. "While the minimum wage will still be short of the living wage, the increase is a hell of a lot better than nothing."
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 18:33 UTC
Coronavirus: Ministry apologises after identifying infected people linked to clusters
A man infected with Covid-19 is upset the Ministry of Health identified him in a list of significant clusters of the disease. The Airforce Rugby team, a wedding in Bluff, and a compost company are some of the latest Covid-19 clusters announced Tuesday by the Ministry of Health. READ MORE:* Living Earth revealed as Christchurch Covid-19 cluster* Coronavirus: Two clusters linked to Marlborough* Eight southern cases linked to Bluff weddingROSA WOODS Coronavirus testing takes place outside Wellington Hospital on Tuesday. The DHB said Marlborough Alzheimers group members who were close contacts of the confirmed case were being monitored. It said the Marlborough Alzheimers cluster was a series of seemingly linked cases that were currently being investigated.
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 18:11 UTC
Christchurch artist makes lockdown diary for children
Stephen McCarthy has designed a printable activity diary for children to do during the lockdown. It was day four of the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown, and the director of Christchurch design studio, McCarthy, decided to make his idea reality. To create My Lockdown Diary he immediately started sketching the 28 pages of the diary, added detail and quickly made a website. I hope children in lockdown in other countries might find it useful too." To create the printable diary, he also drew on previous experience working on post-earthquake community campaign All Right.
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 18:11 UTC
Completing football season priority: players union
The global players' union FIFPRO has said the completion of the current season must be the priority when football able to resume following the coronavirus outbreak. FIFPRO General Secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said failing to complete the current season was not an option at the moment. There have been some suggestions that the current season could extend to August or September, with the subsequent campaign beginning later. However, some clubs have indicated that the current season should be scrapped. While football has stopped almost everywhere, it is still being played in Belarus, which Baer-Hoffmann said was "difficult to comprehend.
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 16:52 UTC
'Horrific' moment as dad discovers body of daughter killed by fall
April Morel, aged 35, died on Monday when she fell off a cliff while running with her dog. A father's desperate search for his daughter – missing after going for a run with the family dog – ended when he found her body lying on rocks below a cliff. MOREL FAMILY Morel's family say she touched everyone with her beautiful smile, crazy laugh, witty sense of humour and wisdom. About four-and-a-half hours after Morel left home Don Martin feared an accident on the cliff edge. MOREL FAMILY On her website, Morel says she lives life "a little differently than the status quo".
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 16:30 UTC
Coronavirus: Bar staff told to look for supermarket jobs
Across New Zealand, coronavirus has brought the hospitality industry to its knees, Josephine Franks reports. But she's struggling to see a time when she'll need the staff to serve a full restaurant on a Saturday night. "People just aren't going to be going out and going, 'Oh, yeah, I'm gonna drop 100 bucks tonight on dinner'." But the Christchurch hospitality industry has a unique resilience, he says, having weathered the "significant trauma" of the earthquakes followed by last year's mosque attack. Krishna Botica sums up what the last weeks have been like for people in the hospitality industry: "a tornado".
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Free virtual reality game lets you explore Wellington from home
Wellington city is physically off limits, but a new virtual reality game and 360 experiences featuring the city's experiences are easing withdrawal pains. The WellTown virtual reality (VR) game makes Wellington the world's first gamified virtual city, offering virtual reality and 360 experiences which feature local businesses and attractions. For those without a VR headset, there are a range of 360 Wellington experiences to be found on Youtube. Supplied Play with a real local Wellington band on Cuba St in WellTown, a VR tour of Wellington city. Supplied Explore the night sky in Wellington with a new VR game, which lets you explore the sights and sounds of the capital city.
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Warning bank profits will feel strain of Covid-19
Warning bank profits will feel strain of Covid-19New Zealand's banking sector's profits were already dropping at the start of this year, and the Covid-19 outbreak means more trouble is ahead, KPMG says. "The impact of Covid-19 is understood to be large and wide-ranging but its real impact is still being assessed. New Zealand banks have been given more time to comply with new capital requirements, which Kensington said would be welcome. "The Reserve Bank has asked all banks about their risk management approaches and preparedness for Covid-19. Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr said the responses from the banks showed that the banks are prepared."
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
The seismic rise of online shopping in coronavirus times
The seismic rise of online shopping in coronavirus timesRNZ The supermarket panic-buying seems to have died down, and stores are reporting a return to some sense of calm after the lockdown began. Until now, New Zealanders have had a so-so relationship with online shopping. Click-and-collect and home delivery supermarket shopping can prove frustrating, especially around delivery times. READ MORE:* Supermarkets asking those who can shop in store to do so* Supermarket shopping: Do you love it or loathe it? Well, all that's changing; online shopping for groceries and health products is set to be the new normal.
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Our locked-down problems don't form orderly queues
EDITORIAL: There's a real prospect that people with drug and alcohol dependencies will be climbing the walls that surround them in the coming weeks. For those who do, help will be available even if some of the usual support structures will themselves be facing lockdown challenges. Generally it's also appropriate that the nation's abiding drug of choice, alcohol ,is still available, albeit in measured quantities. It's dope harvest season and as a group, cannabis users have more underlying health problems than most, particularly in the respiratory systems that Covid-19 assails. But it doesn't do us much good collectively to take a lofty, censorious approach to those battling substance abuse problems.
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Heroes of the Frontline: Wellington's soup kitchen
Wellington's soup kitchen is dishing out takeaways as demand for meals soars. The Compassion Soup Kitchen has closed its communal dining area in favour of handing out meals at its door and has switched from serving two meals a day to providing one larger meal. The number of people needing food has more than doubled during the country's coronavirus lockdown, manager Gary Sutton says. The kitchen had been inundated with people keen to volunteer but Sutton said staff numbers were being limited to comply with health rules. Support the Compassion Soup Kitchen via bank transfer at www.compassion.org.nz/supportus/donate or online banking BNZ 02-0500-0017474-0
Source:Stuff
March 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Future for Radio Sport uncertain
NZME announced on Monday it was taking Radio Sport off air as it had no content and the company was facing tough financial times for media. Radio Sport had lost the rights to the cricket at the end of this summer. "I think there is an avenue there to put sport on the radio and there is an appetite for it. He said the first course may be just coverage in the weekends, harking back to before Radio Sport came into existence and coverage was on the ZB network. He thought the whole of sport would move back to the model of the late 1980s and early 1990s and any sport on the radio would reflect that.
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 15:33 UTC
Golf clubs: courses are off limits
Golf courses in the city, and probably the country, have another threat — bored lockdowners wandering about. Otago Golf Club director of golf Shelley Duncan confirmed the club had filed a report with the police on the 105 website set up to report people who break the lockdown guidelines. It is an issue for all golf clubs at the moment," she said. It has also been reported someone was racing around one of the golf courses in the city on a motor bike. Duncan said people needed to be aware club courses were closed to the public.
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 15:33 UTC
Virus research in Dunedin containment lab
Prof Miguel Quinones-Mateu. Photo: SuppliedDunedin will soon become a key national centre for research into the virus that causes Covid-19 infections, thanks partly to a rare, high-level containment laboratory. "We’re really excited about the opportunity," Prof Quinones-Mateu said. Prof Quinones-Mateu, a Venezuelan-born specialist in novel viruses, became director of the university’s Webster Centre for Infectious Diseases early last year. Hewas looking forward to growing Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, in the laboratory and working with other New Zealand researchers, from Government agencies, universities, and the private sector.
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 15:33 UTC
Time to reassess our entire food chains to find better ways
Some commentators say it’s too early for food producers in New Zealand, to say, "I told you so". Food as the mainstay of our economy (and our own food security) will prevail, as it did in the revival from the global financial crisis. This crisis has highlighted weaknesses in our food supply system and the more I read, the more I am convinced that it is the food system which requires the greatest scrutiny, rather than farmers themselves — perhaps we might shift our focus. Finding the future of the New Zealand food industry." These are important topics to examine, debate and understand, not just in terms of food value and jobs, but also in the interests of our national food security — our "physiological needs".
Source:Otago Daily Times
March 31, 2020 15:33 UTC