This sort of thing is pretty consistent with the anecdotal rumours about Luxon’s interactions with pilots and other staff while heading up Air NZ. Which sorta pushes those stories from the probably just made up, to actually maybe they are legit after all. Some of the scuttlebutt stories basically alleged he was a total a-hole; which, yeah I can see it.
Or in the case of water services.
I mean a souped up compensator Ford Ranger aint cheap is it!
Patrick Tuipolotu is out for 6-7 weeks with medial ligament injury; so its going to be a young lock combination for the Blues in the semi-final. The Brumbies had scrum trouble against the Highlanders, but might find it a bit easier to compete at set piece time and at the collision without having Tuipolotu against them.
It’ll be an interesting game on Friday!
No 40 days wouldn’t go far at all, but 8 weeks paid before having to chew into annual leave would still help ease the stresses a bit. Of course, im lucky to have that much.
Well put. In a way you could argue that the current government is making changes that will make NZ more like the USA. That may or may not be true, but the implication is that we are currently less like the USA too.
So the things you like about NZ will still be there in some amount, just perhaps just a bit less than it would have been a few years ago. And as you say, governments come & go so in 3, 6, 9 years things can just as readily change the other way again anyway.
And yes its 11 national public holidays, plus 1 provincial public holiday, plus 20 days annual leave for 32 in total, then 10 days sick leave on top for 42 in total. It can get slightly complicated in terms of accruals & entitlements. NZ has a bunch of different leave that may or may not be foreign to a US citizen!:
12 Public holidays - must be taken on the day they happen, or if you can’t you get a day in lieu to take at your leisure. Usually you will want to ensure you use the lieu day before you use any of your annual leave entitlement as the former doesn’t get paid out to you when you cease employment.
Annual Leave - there’s two counts for this, from the date you start working for an employer you begin accruing an annual leave balance, and then 12 months later you become entitled to four weeks of annual leave, and your accrual balance starts again from 0. The difference matters as I think technically the employer only has to allow you to take entitled leave, not accrued; and conversely if they have a customary closedown period then there’s a bunch of different rules about what happens. Typically nowadays most employers (big corporates anyway) will see your annual leave accrual as a liability and will be encouraging you to use it so its pretty rare to have much of an argument about having leave. Both sides have to be reasonable in giving notice and rearranging things to covering when you’re not there.
Sick Leave - this is the 10 days that’s mentioned in this article, like Public holidays sick leave doesn’t get paid out when you leave, and unlike annual leave sick leave doesn’t continue to accrue. So it is each 12 month period of employment that you get a new up to 10 days per year sick leave. Some employers do accrue sick leave as well though - I think my balance caps out at something like 40 days, so good news if I ever get the big C or something I suppose!
Bereavement Leave - you get a minimum of 3 days per bereavement for funerals if its for people in your immediate family, or miscarriages and then there’s a bit of flexibility where you can have another 1 day per bereavement if they’re not immediate family but there’s some specific reasons why you gotta be there responsibility wise.
Parental Leave - im not as up with the play on this one, but its available for both parents, just to differing amounts I think.
Family Violence Leave - employees affected by family violence have the right to up to 10 days of paid leave per year, and can ask for a short term rearrangement of their work schedule.
Other Leave - there’s all sorts of other rules for Jury service, disasters, leave to go vote in an election and some employers have other stuff too like I worked somewhere where you got an extra 2 weeks a year if you represented NZ in a sport (even an obscure one) and were going to an international tournament.
Yeah - but did sick leave ever get the same clarification? The language in the forms I use at work is half day, full day off sick.
But in effect you’re asking for your shift off work - so if a shift is 12 hours then yeah I would think it would be sensible for 12 hours, I just don’t know if sick leave actually gets paid the same way.
Because its definitely not paid out as “days” - in the 24 hour sense. Like if you’re a part timer doing a 4 hour day, I can’t imagine the current law lets you have 20 shifts off right? Its more like “day” in that sense means, times not working due to being sick.
In NZ there’s not much downtime either, but its in a different form - there’s a few different paths.
The top NZ pros will be in Super Rugby camps from the New Year and the season runs through to basically the end of June.
Then there is a split where the best will be on All Blacks duty through the July test window, most will then have a break before heading up north in November for the End of Year / Autumn Internationals. They’ll get back to NZ around the start of December and have a few weeks off before starting again.
The SR players that aren’t All Blacks will gradually filter into their NPC teams depending on how far into the finals they played. Annoyingly, even though the All Blacks aren’t in it, the NPC doesn’t actually start until August and runs all the way until the end of October. Those players will get most of November off, but will start assembling for SR training camps again in December.
So that covers the bulk of the best kiwi players, but there’s still more Rugby to account for.
Some NPC players will play in Japan instead of SR, and plenty of others will be over in the USA playing MLR. So for those players, while they might get more weeks off in between seasons they then have to pack up & move away from home for half the year too.
Those NPC players that don’t pick up a contract in Japan or MLR are most likely just semi-pro; so will go back to being plumbers, farmers or builders for the rest of the year.
But NZR is possibly missing a trick here with the fortunate timing on both JL1 & MLR that could help with the NPC affordability/competitiveness ratio. I don’t know exactly how well it could work but encouraging a full working relationship between a given NPC team and both a Japanese & USA based pro teams where the young players likely to make it as full time pros or the guys who are right on the cusp but can’t quite make SR still get to play as full time pros just sounds sensible to me.
There’s already a lot of players going over there, but that’s on their own initiative and very adhoc - probably because those other nations would rather deal with players than NZR (I don’t blame them). But I could see it being beneficial for both sides of the exchange, NZR gets pros in the NPC without having to cover the whole year of salary, Japan or in particular MLR get seasoned pros to help build up the strength of their competition and instill that work ethic into their own players.
The cynic in me thinks its only so hard for employers to figure out what someone’s leave entitlement is because they account for it as a liability and try to minimise how much anyone can take while maximising the times when they are forced to take it.
I can’t remember now, but wasn’t the context for the law change that shift workers who did 4 days of 12 hours, then 3 days off only getting paid the equivalent of 8 hours when they took a day of leave?
In my experience as a user of payroll software; I suspect its a combination of things.
Developers could customise the logic for New Zealand’s legislation better, but corporations think magically about software and try to buy “out of the box” solutions, even if they don’t quite fit right.
Then they rely on HR staff to try to configure their way around logic limitations so it ends up just as kludgy but in a way more reliant on people knowing why something was done some given way than just in the tool.
I’ve run into stuff you would think is really really simple - like marking the NZ public holidays as not a work day; but if those holidays change - like the addition of Matariki, or you move so you have a new provincial holiday its usually months, years or never that it gets updated.
Isn’t it mad that the URC and Super Rugby basically finish at the same time?! Even Japan League 1 only finished a couple weeks ago, and the USA’s MLR is closing in on the end of season too! Given its June I guess that means the URC starts quite late, as well as Super Rugby starting quite early. The main impetus for the early start is to be done in time for the winter test window and then leave time afterwards for the NPC. How long that remains the status quo will be interesting.
Their recent form is abysmal, so they’re not progressing beyond the quarterfinals unless some kinda miracle happens. One of the quirks of SR is that its a round & a 1/2 and the 1/2 round is against your home countries clubs for more derbies.
So the Aussie teams play the other aussie teams more than the kiwi teams get to - which can inflate their table position a little bit. The Rebels did really well early in the season, but in the back end fell off the wagon.
I’m on the other side of the tasman; but from what i’ve gleaned over the years…
NZR have been trying to convince RA they can’t support 5 teams for years, both financially and with player depth. The previous more adversarial leadership of RA were determined that that wasn’t true, and that cracking the Melbourne market was crucial. That’s why a few years ago when they did drop a team they dropped the Force who were well supported in favour of the Rebels who struggle to make a mark in a state where Aussie Rules, rules and why for years even though it was obvious that the Rebels were struggling financially they were allowed to spend ever more on recruiting star players.
Not coincidentally, when Australia dropped the Force and went to 4 teams, the Rebels picked up some of their players and had their most successful seasons. So in terms of the competition next year it should mean the 4 remaining Aussie teams will be stronger and probably pick up even more wins against NZ sides. This has been a really successful year (comparatively) for Aus, with 3 teams in the playoffs, and the Brumbies were in the running to top the table and only mathematically lost that opportunity in the final round.
How does an 11 team competition work? I dunno. There’s been suggestion that SR will try to convince the Jaguares to rejoin and they are apparently quite keen but adding a team in Argentina makes it a much more expensive competition and ensures one game every other week that almost nobody in Australasia will watch - so god knows if the main broadcasters would be interested.
The obvious, but difficult, answer is that NZR (in particular) and SR in general need to humbly beseech Japan for some way of having a crossover competition. Japan League 1 & SR finish quite close together now so one option would be to do a post-season competition which is seeded in a way to ensure the top Japanese teams are likely to win & progress through the rounds. Something like the 7s where as you get knocked out of the running for the top trophy you drop into competition for others would make sense.
Would anyone in Japan watch? I dunno. Would anybody in Australasia - probably; it would at least be something different and the best Japanese teams have a lot of star players in their twilight years. Would it be competitive? Who knows.
Yeah I converted mine to the new version - they had a really good guarantee when I bought mine as well which was 10 years, if something breaks send a photo & we’ll send a replacement.
Ive had mine for 10 years and use it daily. Makes pretty good espresso, not as good as a good barista would, but good enough.
https://presso.co.nz/shop/hand-powered-coffee-makers/rok-gc-espresso-maker-silver/
They are pricey given they just do a black coffee and all though.
Just butting in to suggest the Presso.
If you get cycloned and lose power, but have a coffee addiction - then something that can make near Espresso without electricity is a boon!
This is the legal equivalent of “you cut, I choose”.
I love this summary of that latin :)
That I don’t know, though my perspective is that’s up to them to work out and as Pākehā i’ll have to learn how to negotiate that relationship if/when it ever happens.
That’s not a position i’ve always held, but over the years as i’ve read books like ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ and other stories about the dispossession of indigenous people i’ve come to a much more complicated understanding of the price that was paid for the privilege I enjoy. It’s uncomfortable, but that’s a minor inconvenience compared to the cost others paid.
Just as a suggestion; because its interesting stuff. Maybe have a read of some of the work the Waitangi Tribunal has produced over the years.
What’s been happening in recent years is Act, Don Brash and others approaching the issue with race baiting sound bites. Its mostly vibes and bad faith.
Compare it to the huge amount of research and historical context the Tribunal has put into their work.
https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/news/report-on-stage-1-of-the-te-paparahi-o-te-raki-inquiry-released-2/ https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/assets/WT-Part-1-Report-on-stage-1-of-the-Te-Paparahi-o-Te-Raki-inquiry.pdf
In any case, to understand where Maori are coming from, its important to remember this finding: "… rangatira who signed te Tiriti o Waitangi in February 1840 did not cede sovereignty to the British Crown.
Ie, if sovereignty wasn’t ceded back in 1840 why should any Maori give two hoots what Seymour thinks?
I don’t really get the point of it, copper wire can’t be worth that much at a scrapper - especially if they’re having to go to a dodgy one to make the trade. I guess its a sign of how tough some people are doing it at the moment.