The current Delta variant outbreak has disproportionately affected the Samoan community, including people exposed at a major church assembly in Mangere in Auckland.

"These people were involved in legal activity and were operating within Level 1 Covid guidelines," said an Auckland minister who preferred not to be named.

"The church is lively and two-thirds of cases are under 30.

"These people were ineligible to get the vaccine," he said.

The Ministry of Health also joined the conversation, with Dr Ashley Bloomfield saying "The virus is the problem, not people. People are the solution, be part of the solution."

"Bloomfield says authorities are doing "a tremendous amount of work" with the Pacific communities affected by the latest Delta outbreak and the community was "incredibly responsive" to this and previous outbreaks.

The church leader, who did not wish to be named, said members were disappointed by the attack but felt no need to retaliate, adding "they can say whatever, it changes nothing".

"Our service happened before the lockdown so it's not like we knew this was going to happen.

"We just had an unwanted visitor," he said.

"We're just getting on with it".

Manukau Ward councillor Alf Filipaina says he is disappointed in role the media has played.

Filipaina says there are five other church-related locations of interest that were not in South Auckland and their congregations' ethnicities have not been highlighted in the news.

Another Manukau Ward councillor, Fa'anana Efeso Collins pointed out that a lot of Pacifica people keep the economy ticking over.

"Many Pacific people work in essential services as well customer-facing roles like bus driving and hospitality, it's not a surprise they also make up so many of the positive cases," Collins told RNZ.

Vaccination coverage rates

Auckland University associate professor of public health Dr Colin Tukuitonga said church services are the perfect setting for transmission, given the prevalence of singing and close proximity of attendees.

"The appalling vaccination coverage rates that we have is one reason why we are seeing many, many more cases," he said.

"They did a big song and dance about that mass vaccination event a few weeks back, but I've always said that wasn't going to work.

"Yes there were large numbers, but they were vaccinating low priority groups and we had barely 1300 Pacific vaccinated out of 15,000."

"We've always asked for more targeted vaccination options for Maori and Pacific communities.

"There's some dedicated options for Maori and Pacific communities but nowhere [near] enough."

Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu from the University of Otago says the Delta variant presented a more dangerous version of Covid-19 within the community setting.

"Vaccination rates for Pacific peoples collectively across Aotearoa New Zealand, remain of significant concern," said Sika-Paotonu, a pathology and molecular medicine expert.

She says more work and support is needed to ensure Pacific and Maori communities were prioritised.

Sika-Paotonu says it was devastating to hear more than half the reported Covid-19 cases were affecting Pacific peoples, with numbers projected to rise.

Source

• Otago Daily Times
• TVNZ
• RNZ
• Image: Stuff

Data released by the Government shows Maori and Pasifika have been the big losers since the Covid pandemic struck.

Both the Prime Minister Jacinda Adern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson are hinting Maori and Pasifika may be a core focus in this year's Budget.

This year's Budget Policy Statement, for instance, includes lifting Maori and Pacific incomes, skills and opportunities. Combatting the impacts of COVID-19 is one of the five core "wellbeing" priorities.

Other "wellbeing" priorities include:

Just Transition - Supporting the transition to a climate-resilient, sustainable and low-emissions economy while building back from COVID-19.

Future of Work - Enabling all New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses to benefit from new technologies and lift productivity and wages through innovation, and support those most affected by COVID-19, including women and young people, into employment.

Child Wellbeing - Reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing.

Physical and Mental Wellbeing - Supporting improved health outcomes for all New Zealanders and keeping COVID-19 out of our communities.

Housing could impact on several of the wellbeing objectives, Adern and Robertson say.

To date neither Robertson nor Ardern have shared any proposals to deal with the housing crisis and the immediate challenges facing the Maori and Pasifika communities.

While Robertson is proud of December's low unemployment figures, and last year's Wage Subsidy scheme, which grew to support nearly 1.8 million jobs for New Zealanders, a Treasury study sees the success story differently.

It analysed incomes of all employees in March 2020, and how they had changed for the same people by August.

Maori and Pacific workers were more likely to have dropped into a low-income bracket (of between $200 and $300 per week). They increased by 85 percent and 69 percent respectively, while Europeans in the low-income bracket increased by 27 percent," Treasury found.

Despite this data, the Budget Policy statement reports that researchers at Victoria University of Wellington found no overall changes in the wellbeing of families, levels of conflict or support among couples, or levels of parental satisfaction during the COVID-19 crisis.

The big issue in the statement, however, is the housing crisis.

The Reserve Bank yesterday reinstated Loan to Value Ratios back to where they were before the Covid crisis in a bid to try and restrain investor money overheating the market.

From May 1 investors will need a 40 per cent deposit.

Nevertheless, the requirement for a 20 per cent deposit for a first home buyer will be another obstacle in the way of getting a house.

The government is currently looking at ways to tilt the playing field towards first-time buyers, Adern says.

The Government also has a $400 million Progressive Home Ownership Fund which is intended to help between 1,500 and 4,000 families into home ownership - a program Ardern says could be scaled up.

Source

• Politik
• Image:NewstalkZB

"It might take me another couple of weeks or couple months," Reverend Maea laughed. Continue reading

They have been offering the unlicensed drivers free courses instead of giving them tickets.

Police say the campaign is necessary in order to reduce offending rates.

More than a quarter of all court proceedings against Pasifika people are for road and vehicle-related crimes.

It is part of a "prevention-first" approach, police Pasifika national strategy launched a year ago: O Le Taeao Fou, Dawn of a New Day.

However, not everyone is happy about the strategy.

O Le Taeao Fou, Dawn of a New Day. identifies some of the key crime and safety issues Tamaki Makaurau Pacific Responsiveness manager Willi Fanene said.

He also said it was an initiative rolled out across Tamaki Makaurau and not just south Auckland.

Fanene said it is not a new method and it is one of their most common ways of engaging with Pasifika people.

"Our officers regularly engage with our Pasifika community through the church."

Auckland councillor Efeso Collins says the tactic is misguided.

"The police decision to have roaming armed cops on the streets of Manukau, alongside the offer of driver licensing programmes in churches, is irreconcilable in my view."

"I find it incredulous (sic) that they now want to sing hymns with parishioners at Sunday mass."

Collins said the same outcomes can be achieved by forwarding driver licence-programme information to be disseminated at schools and youth groups.

Police say ministers they have liaised with have been grateful for the opportunity, but some church leaders aren't convinced.

Reverend Frank Ritchie said he understood what police were doing but there was a better way to go about it.

"I think a better way to go about it would have been to organise something like a community event."

"I'm against anything that encroaches on that Sunday space and that feeling of safety that people have."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: hail.to

And Jesus Christ rose again - in the form of a large Samoan man.

They Crucified Him, a Passion play directed by Ross Jennings and co-directed by Terri de'Ath, portrays Christ's last days on earth but with a Pacific twist.

Manurewa Central Primary School teacher Andrew Malele played Jesus and the performance featured a large Pacific Island cast and a choir that had never acted before. Continue reading

The Climate Change Summit is trying to find agreement on ways to limit further environmental damage.

"The people most affected - at grass roots level and on the coastal edge - must be part of those discussions," says Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand director Julianne Hickey.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has produced a report based on interviews of people across Oceania at grass roots and coastal edge level on the environmental challenges they face as a result of climate change.

"Vulnerable people throughout Oceania are living every day with and adapting to environmental changes and challenges. They are actively striving to overcome environmental problems not of their making and beyond their control," says Hickey.

She says Pasifika people think the money going to high level negotiations about climate change could be better spent.

"They're tired of people coming and doing research and doing big scientific studies. They actually want to see action now."

"They are scrambling to build sea walls out of sticks, stones, shells and coral, to protect their lands and homes from erosion and rising sea levels".

The report, Small yet strong: Voices from Oceania on the environment, is to be launched at St Peter Chanel Catholic Church, Clover Park, Auckland on October 4 (St Francis Day).

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: Caritas

He told Pacific Scoop his message to voters is to use the mayoral race as an opportunity to think differently about Auckland's multiculturalism, and to "unite our differences".

He says he stands as an independent mayoral candidate and he wants Auckland council's policies and resourcing to work more for the less well-off communities.

Unasa, who is a Samoan born Methodist minister, is currently a chaplain at Auckland University and lives in Parnell.

After attending Kelston High School he studied at Auckland University, graduating with a degree in History and Political Studies. He then earned a degree in Theology from the University of Otago. He trained for the ministry at Piula Theological College in Samoa, Knox Theological Hall in Dunedin, and Trinity Methodist College in Auckland.

Ordained in the Methodist Church in 1995, he spent a decade in parish ministry.

The sitting mayor, Len Brown, appointed Unasa, as Chairman of the Pacific Peoples Advisory Panel, but the Samoan Methodist minister said it had not been heard and had come to nothing.

Auckland's two Pasifika city councillors say their communities won't fall for a call to reject Len Brown in favour of a Pasifika mayor. They are supporting Mr Brown.

Source

• Pacific Scoop
• Pasifikmag.com
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: 3News

A quarterly update on vulnerable families by the NZ Council of Christian Social Services has found that European median incomes have risen slightly despite the recession of the past four years, but those of Maori and Pacific people have dropped.

Berl economist Ganesh Nana said the figures were a natural consequence of worsening unemployment for low-income earners.

Continue reading