NZ government

New Zealand government organising special flight to get people out of Israel

Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta said the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories remained highly volatile so any New Zealanders who can get out of the region on commercial airlines should do so.

On Saturday, Palestinian Islamic group Hamas launched an unexpected attack on Israel which saw rockets fired and gunmen cross the border.

In response, Israel began firing back. More than 1000 people have lost their lives and even more are wounded.

New Zealand provides $10m to support response

Another 126 new cases of the virus were reported in the Pacific nation on Monday.

The New Zealand government is now allocating up to $10 million towards Fiji's Covid-19 response.

In addition, a team of Australian and New Zealand medical specialists have arrived in the Pacific nation to help.

Red Cross Covid-19 coordinator Lauren Bird, who is based in Suva, said many people felt back in April there was light at the end of the tunnel.

But she said this recent outbreak had reset the clock.

Govt increases Air NZ loan by $600m

The national carrier had initially planned to tap shareholders for a cash injection around June.

However, the company has delayed that until late September as it assesses recent developments such as the vaccine roll-out, an extension to the airfreight capacity scheme, and the opening of a trans-Tasman bubble.

"These developments are good news and fundamental to Air New Zealand's return to success, but the storm hasn't cleared yet," Air New Zealand chair Therese Walsh said.

Government to allow 1000 overseas students into New Zealand

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the students must be part-way through a degree or postgraduate course and would have to pay for the cost of their time in managed isolation.

Education providers have been lobbying the government to reopen the border to foreign students, who are worth more than $5 billion a year to the economy.

Hipkins said priority would be given to students who were closest to completing their qualification.

NZ collaborates with UNDP to launch Climate Risk Insurance Initiative for the Pacific

The initiative is jointly developed and will be implemented by the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the United Nations University Institute for Environment Society and the United Nations Development Programme.

“New Zealand, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is pleased to support this initiative as it fully aligns with New Zealand’s “climate action” agenda as well as its focus on disaster risk reduction in the Pacific to address vulnerabilities of low-income populations,” Curr said.

NZ increases support for Pacific language projects

This week, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples introduced round two of its Community Languages Fund (CLF) for grassroots community and family language projects.

Minister Aupito William Sio said the second funding tier of $NZ10,000 was in addition to the existing $NZ2,500 tier.

Aupito said during the first round, which closed on 31 July, applicants were able to apply for up to $2,500 to support language projects in their homes and communities.

He said 143 applications were received over the past eight weeks.

NZ makes new Pacific diplomatic appointments

Helen Tunnah, who currently works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Covid-19 response team, has been posted to Niue, having previously worked in Vanuatu and Brazil.

Richard Griffith will be High Commissioner to Nauru, but based in Wellington.

He has previously been posted to Solomon Islands and Australia.

     

New Zealand Government makes $7.3 million payout to rugby nationwide

According to a report from Stuff, the country’s governing body, New Zealand Rugby, has attained about half of that payment – totalling in $3,687,444 – after filing applications due to hardship cause by the coronavirus pandemic.

The report states that NZR claimed for 531 staff, receiving $6933 per staff member.

The payout comes after the organisation slashed 20 percent of its staff’s pay at the beginning of the month, which, at the time, NZR said it was able to do with the assistance of the government’s subsidy.