The Government's really trying to make sure that the chill breeze of Covid doesn't wreck summer.
The latest announcement, from Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash is that the Government will cover 90% of unrecoverable costs for paid, ticketed events with audiences of more than 5,000 vaccinated people, if organisers are forced to cancel or postpone due to Covid-19 public health measures.
This is the announcement:
New financial support will give organisers of large summer festivals greater certainty to proceed, with the government to shoulder the lion’s share of risk during planning stages.
Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash has announced an Events Transition Support Scheme designed to give festival organisers greater confidence to plan and incur costs, in the face of public health risks from COVID-19.
“Organisers of large-scale summer festivals have to make decisions now about whether to proceed as their risk window is closing. There aren’t insurance options in the market to cover this so the government is stepping up as a type of underwriter,” Stuart Nash said.
“Under the scheme the government will cover 90 per cent of unrecoverable costs for paid, ticketed events with audiences of more than 5,000 vaccinated people, if organisers are forced to cancel or postpone due to COVID-19 public health measures.
“Events typically only generate revenue on the day or weekend they take place, yet incur significant costs in advance. A quick shift in public health measures could see an event cancelled with no opportunity to recoup costs or generate revenue.
“Organisers of these festivals are great entrepreneurs who give back to our communities. They take a lot of risk to deliver fantastic experiences that are part of the cultural fabric of a Kiwi summer and create lasting memories. COVID-19 has made their job even harder and these grants recognise they need our support if summer events are to go ahead.
“Big summer events are crucial for our economic and social wellbeing. We are in a unique period of transition from the Alert Level system to the new Protection Framework which relies on 90 per cent vaccination rates. An immediate solution is needed this summer.
“The scheme will go live this week and event organisers will be able to apply via the MBIE website to check their eligibility. This will give them greater confidence and allow them to continue to plan and deliver events over the summer,” said Stuart Nash.
The eligibility criteria for an event are summarised below, while definitive terms and conditions will shortly be on the MBIE website.
·The event must require the use of COVID Vaccination Certificates;
·It must be a live, in-person event at a single location between 17 December 2021 and 3 April 2022 with expected ticket sales of at least 5,000;
·The event must have been actively ‘in the market’ through promotion or ticket sales prior to the announcement of this scheme;
·The event must be open to the public and run by a New Zealand organisation;
·The event cannot be funded by other government sources such as the Major Events Fund or the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, nor have underwriting from another source such as local government or an insurer;
·Costs incurred by local government organisations are not eligible for recovery;
·The payment will cover actual direct costs associated with the event that cannot be recovered, and will not cover lost profits or shareholder salaries;
·The event organiser will be the primary applicant and must agree to honour the eligible costs incurred by their suppliers.
The Events Transition Support Payment will be made if a cancellation or postponement occurs due to one of the following:
- The event is in an area operating under Alert Level restrictions which prohibit the event from occurring (Alert Level 2 or higher); or
- The event is in an area that is operating under the COVID-19 Protection Framework and is at RED LEVEL or a localised lockdown; or
- At least 50 percent of tickets/paid registrations have been sold to attendees located within an Alert Level 3 or higher boundary or within a RED LEVEL or localised lockdown area (if regional boundary restrictions are in effect).
40 Comments
I would think it's very likely a few will have travelled from Waikato but there is no special extra risk here. There will be people moving all the North Island who don't want to be locked down.
We only have 6 weeks left till Aucklanders infect the rest of country anyway.
Uh, did you see me sitting outside that Bryan Adams concert in Welly? Well, I totally wasn't sitting outside the Bryan Adams concert in Wellington two years ago! Nope, wasn't me...
I get it, some people want to spend their hard earned money on the experience of a concert or going to the theatre or cinema. But that's your chocie and your disposable income, hard-earned it may be...
Countless other people have much bigger problems and needs than just losing some hard-earned dollars paid for a concert ticket, like keeping their homes, business or job, or feeding their families. In other words, they have more to lose than a couple hundred bucks you could obviously spare in the first place, hard-earned it may have been.
Do you not realise how having these events boosts a local economy, people travel from around the country to spend their money in a small town.
This money is vital for lots of the community and provides jobs etc.
If we all just stop spending money as you suggest, that's often when businesses and communities suffer.
Different parts of society get effected in different ways, if we don't try and promote normal life, it'll be harder for it to come back. Festivals help regions which are starved of international tourism dollars, and an organiser will be reluctant to take the risk, so this helps. The potential upside will alleviate some of the wider despair out there you are concerned about. The alternative is no festival and more handouts.
The sooner covid is old news the better.
no a bad industry to sure up imo... were already worried about our young moving to other countries because of house prices vs NZ wages... if you take away summer events where they go and meet life-long friends, potentially wives and husbands they look at other places far more quickly.
NZ has people of all ages putting their coin into the government coffers... this can be one for the young'ns.
Yeah I agree Clemente, heaps of young people want to party and enjoy live music if we as tax payers have to back the organizers if the events are cancelled in the event of a public health emergency, so what. I think it is our public responsibility towards the younger generations.
More mindless insanity. Vaccinated spread the thing just as well as unvaccinated. All this is just a new form of identity politics to distract the sheeple.
Vaccine absolutely reduces the risk of transmission - at least of symptomatic infections. What matters to most people is whether they end up in seriously ill in hospital, or, at worse, dead. Mortality rates amongst the unvaccinated are over 30 times higher than for the unvaccinated. It's a no-brainer.
Interesting document Jfoe. Hidden away on page 26 is a little bombshell "Agency (UKHSA) surveillance data that N antibody levels appear to be lower in individuals who acquire infection following 2 doses of vaccination."
What that means is that vaccination bluntens the natural immune response.
What that means is the immune system is behaving exactly as hoped for in response to vaccination. Thanks to vaccination preparing it for the spike protein, it doesn't need to mount as aggressive a response against the Covid virus, can defeat Covid infection earlier, and doesn't need to mount as strong a response against the nucleocapsid (N) protein, or other proteins. Thank you science.
Thank you natural immune system - "Ultrapotent antibodies against diverse and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants
...Our study demonstrates that convalescent subjects previously infected with ancestral variant SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies that cross-neutralize emerging VOCs with high potency."
That's a nice paper. I've been trying to collect papers and formulate thoughts around C19 policy. I put all the papers in in one place. It's not complete but maybe there are some papers in here that you or other people might like it too. Here it is anyway.
I found this stuffed down the back of the couch of truth - "The genetic makeup of an individual contributes to susceptibility and response to viral infection. While environmental, clinical and social factors play a role in exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 disease severity1,2, host genetics may also be important. Identifying host-specific genetic factors may reveal biological mechanisms of therapeutic relevance and clarify causal relationships of modifiable environmental risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and outcomes.
...We reported 13 genome-wide significant loci that are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe manifestations of COVID-19. Several of these loci correspond to previously documented associations to lung or autoimmune and inflammatory diseases3–7. They also represent potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection. Mendelian Randomization analyses support a causal role for smoking and body mass index for severe COVID-19 although not for type II diabetes."
Thanks I'll check it out. I think you meant to post this link
I'm sure many of the Auckland businesses who have had to shut up shop over the past few months will be relieved to know they can shelve some pingers in a regional vineyard with a bunch of spaced-out teenagers with the full backing of the state, which is more important than the stable employment they used to offer their staff.
State-sponsored nose beers for everyone!
This is surely a clever political ploy to get Labour maximum positive airtime in front of the youth on the likes of ZM, the Edge etc ... all the presenters will be yarning on endlessly now about how Aunty Jacinda has "totes saved the festy season".
As you say, a kick in the teeth other business owners who don't get this level of support.
Does it matter?
"Strong expectation" and "Pragmatic" quotes from Ardern almost guarantee that Auckland will go to Traffic light system from 29th November (Most likely 11.59pm on Nov 30th)
PM has also stated for a fact that "Auckland will travel for Christmas"
So we can deduce that if the rest of the country is still not at 90% then although Aucklander's are free to leave, they have no where to go to.
So you are left with only one possible option - The whole country are moving to the traffic light system at the same time as Auckland regardless of Vaccination rate.
We then will have a lead in time to iron out the kinks in the vaccine pass. We will implement it, run it until Christmas with all sorts of issues leading to it's eventual failure, we therefore wont enforce it, and it will quietly disappear except maybe for International Flights.
Quite the list of criteria, although I guess we all know it was only meant to for one particular Festival that happens to be the PMs favourite.
To all those other events that didn't have the inside word, and have been holding off for some certainty! May I present to you... the middle finger salute.
This government certainly looks after their own interest areas, right Jacinda?
On another matter, how can a vaccination pass on a smart phone be tied to the person who is holding that smart phone in their hand rather than the vaccinated person who qualified to download the app? Surely for it to work properly there needs to be some form of photo identification element.
There will be enough details encoded in the pass so you can match it with a drivers licence or at least make sure they are the right age and sex.
Supposedly the checking app does not record visits so if the business don't want to enforce it you can use your friends or a downloaded printout and the checking app will give the right indication.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/irl/09-11-2021/vaccine-certificates-are-coming…
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