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Jacinda Ardern meets Boris Johnson. Questions have been asked about Johnson’s handshake technique (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Jacinda Ardern meets Boris Johnson. Questions have been asked about Johnson’s handshake technique (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The BulletinJuly 4, 2022

UK visa scheme expanded, PM onto Australia

Jacinda Ardern meets Boris Johnson. Questions have been asked about Johnson’s handshake technique (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Jacinda Ardern meets Boris Johnson. Questions have been asked about Johnson’s handshake technique (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
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New Zealanders can now spend more time in the UK on a working visa. It’s one of the outcomes of a bountiful trip to Europe for the PM who now heads to Australia, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Bulletin.

 

Working visa scheme expanded, sparks question about brain drain

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern met with British prime minister Boris Johnson on Saturday. There was some concern raised about the vigour of Johnson’s handshake with Ardern. During the meeting, they agreed to changes to the youth mobility scheme which will mean young New Zealanders can now spend three years in the UK. The age limit for eligibility for the visa will also rise to 35 years. The hospitality sector wants to see the scheme broadened to countries beyond the UK. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said it was an interesting move considering all the talk of a pandemic brain drain. Three years does give people more time to put down roots and if you’re able to get sponsored to stay in the UK, it’s only another two years to wait until you can apply for permanent residency.

With the EU free trade deal done, is India next?

Trade minister Damien O’Connor spoke to Q&A’s Jack Tame on Sunday. Tame asked whether, with the concessions made with the EU around dairy and meat exports, there were plans to revisit negotiations on a free trade agreement with India. Agriculture is at the core of why an agreement between India and New Zealand has not been struck. Australia signed an interim free trade agreement with India in April, frustrating the Meat Industry Association. O’Connor said there aren’t expectations of a trade arrangement with India in the short term because of that dairy sensitivity. Tame also asked about whether recent events would change our trading relationship with China. O’Connor said that while the government was focused on trade market diversification post-Covid, China was still our biggest trading partner and we have a mature relationship that allows New Zealand to take independent  foreign policy positions.

PM promotes “values-based” foreign policy in Europe

Picking up on that theme, the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan (paywalled) has a measured piece of analysis about prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s promotion of a “values-based” foreign policy in Europe. Coughlan writes that “values-based” foreign policy can be “decried as vapid, meaningless, virtue-signalling guff” but he also argues those values can be “quite effective at demonstrating how the independent foreign policy can grapple with increasingly difficult questions around China.” The prime minister is now heading straight to Australia where the Australia New Zealand leadership forum (ANZLF) takes place on July 7 and 8. As Stuff’s Luke Malpass reports Ardern is stopping in Melbourne and will meet with Victorian premier Daniel Andrews before going to Sydney.

Onto Australia 

The ANZLF takes place in Sydney. Parts of New South Wales are currently experiencing very heavy rain and flooding. The New Zealand contingent includes members of a trans-Tasman indigenous business sector group who will discuss opportunities for indigenous people on both sides of the Tasman to work together. As the Herald’s Jenée Tibshraeny reports (paywalled), the forum will also be attended by seven government ministers including Grant Robertson if he has recovered from Covid in time. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and Ardern will be guests of honour at the ANZLF trans-Tasman innovation and growth awards dinner. Deputy leader of the opposition, Nicola Willis will do a session with her Australian counterpart, Sussan Ley, who has been deputy leader of the Liberal party since May 2022.

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    Keep going!
    Margie Apa and Riana Manuel – the women in charge of rebuilding New Zealand’s health system (Photos: supplied, Brett Phibbs/RNZ)
    Margie Apa and Riana Manuel – the women in charge of rebuilding New Zealand’s health system (Photos: supplied, Brett Phibbs/RNZ)

    The BulletinJuly 1, 2022

    A new era for the health system

    Margie Apa and Riana Manuel – the women in charge of rebuilding New Zealand’s health system (Photos: supplied, Brett Phibbs/RNZ)
    Margie Apa and Riana Manuel – the women in charge of rebuilding New Zealand’s health system (Photos: supplied, Brett Phibbs/RNZ)
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    July 1 is D-Day for the health reforms. While practitioners are hopeful, the day dawns on a health system under very real pressure, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Bulletin.

     

    What’s changing and what will it mean for you?

    Introduced in 2001, district health boards (DHBs) represented the fourth iteration of health system transformations in New Zealand since the beginning of the 1980s. From today DHBs are no more. For a good quick overview of what this means I recommend this from 1 News’ Nicole Bremner and this cheat sheet from Stuff’s Hannah Martin. If you prefer rugby analogies, Stuff’s Chris Hyde has an explainer comparing the old system to the NPC and the new one to super rugby. Essentially it’s highly unlikely patients will notice much difference to start with. There has been a lot of reassurance from health care providers that for their communities and patients, very little will change.

    When was reform put on the agenda?

    This reform programme was first signalled in the 2020 Health and disability system review. The review recommended that 20 DHBs be reduced to between eight and 12 within five years. In 2021, the government announced that all 20 DHBs would be replaced by one national organisation, Health NZ, and that a Māori Health Authority would be created. Today, the Pae Ora bill comes into force and those entities begin steering the health system through the transition. Heading the two new agencies are Margie Apa (Health NZ) and Riana Manuel (Māori Health Authority – MHA). Toby Manhire spoke with both of them at length in March.

    Hypothetical future arrives as present day problems mount 

    This change is happening against a backdrop of a health system that’s had its faults, failings, pressure points and capacity constraints magnified over the last two years. Reading through coverage in the lead up to today, health practitioners seem to be hopeful about the future but are incredibly weary. They’re desperate for some alleviation of the very present day issues they are confronting, some of which have been flagged for some time. The Royal College of GPs has indicated that meeting the expectations of the reforms is contingent on  “frontline issues” being urgently addressed. Listening to Today FM this morning, Tova O’Brien asked Margie Apa about getting nurses onto the residency fast track. Apa said Health NZ were pushing to get nurses added.  Health minister Andrew Little repsonded by repeatedly saying it’s never been easier for a nurse to cross the border and come and work here.

    The hope for the Māori Health Authority

    The vaccination rollout highlighted long-standing health inequities for Māori and Pacific people. Much of the hope about what happens from today is based on anticipation of what Riana Manuel says is a Treaty partnership turned into a functional and operating reality. As Stuff’s Ripu Bhatia reports, practitioners are excited but realistic.  Asked about whether the MHA was another layer of bureaucracy or an unnecessary separate system, Manuel points to the Covid response from ​​kaupapa Māori providers as an example of the nimble and action-focused approach the MHA can take and says it wasn’t just Māori who benefitted from what those providers stood up.