The banks are required to stress test those loans with somewhat stringent requirements. When the loans were granted they take the current retail interest and add around 3% and ensure that the loan recipient could still afford it. Last year there were stories in the NZ media around how banks were not writing loans because people were spending too much on Uber Eats etc. They were going over finances with a fine-toothed comb (there was a bit of backlash in the media, but turns out it was a good thing). NZ banks have quite a high capital reserve buffer requirement which was increased by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand a few years ago – with a lot of pushback from the banks at the time.
NSW removed all restrictions right before Omicron. They had zero of these so called “extremely strict rules” in place for the last month or so. The premier only changed tact when it became obvious that hospitals would be overwhelmed (back to day one of the pandemic).
Isn’t the point to avoid severe outbreaks in the first place, and thereby not needing extensive periods of restrictions.
I think the perfect time would be when effective oral anti-virals are readily available, they are just around the corner. The average daily cases are increasing and the 4th/5th wave (depending on location) is ramping up now - exactly the wrong time for a country like NZ to change international quarantine.
The 95%+ vaccinations rates (12+) in the three major cities and 92% overall (also 12+) would somewhat help. Along with the fact community spread is already present and has been for a few months, the measures in place have kept uncontrolled spread in check.
NZ keeps new introductions to a minimum to ensure that contact tracing is not overwhelmed and this adds to the effective decrease in reproduction offered by vaccinations. New Zealand being a season behind also allows the Northern hemisphere to burn through a wave and NZ can then decide when to lift international arrival restrictions to a time when the incidence levels are low from common arrival locales (UK, US etc).
Over the entire pandemic to date, NZ has had lower levels of restrictions than all other OECD countries. For the majority of the pandemic there were zero restrictions and businesses and people were operating as normal.
NZ had a election mid-way through the pandemic and overwhelmingly re-elected the current government based on the approach being taken. Under the MMP system the current single party government is unique (governments are normally coalitions of multiple parties – like Germany).
These talking points from right-wing media about Australia and NZ suffering and having civil liberties destroyed is so far from the truth that when seeing news items covering it from the USA, it is so absurd to be comical.
Perhaps because over the course of the pandemic only 50 people have died in NZ from Covid. Going through MIQ and the systems built around it has enabled seeding events to be limited to only several incursions supporting elimination and then suppression strategies.
It’s interesting, NZ is a very egalitarian society and it has been one of the strengths through the pandemic to date. People were/are willing to adhere to strict lockdowns (proper ones) or quarantine at the border because it was for the greater good of the entire society rather than ‘what was best’ for a handful of individuals.
When it comes to MIQ allocation they aren’t put ahead of anyone - everyone who has the ability to enter NZ has the same chance and ability to obtain MIQ slots.
The last allocation of MIQ slots had 800+ rooms that were not taken. Anyone who urgently needed to return had the ability to secure a room in December.
When Omicron appeared and it hadn’t been detected within the community in NZ it was obvious the NZ government would make changes to delay its introduction by moving to tighten MIQ settings and delaying any removal of quarantine restrictions.
I don’t know how serious Google take GCP. BigQuery Data Transfer service has been failing with internal errors when trying to copy datasets between regions for the last 2+ days. Must be no alerting/monitoring on the service. Doesn’t instil confidence in a platform when an important part of a product can fail with no one seemingly noticing. Good luck trying to contact anyone about it as well!