Documents have revealed that the previous government allocated $2 million for the production of lapel pins to ‘honour’ thousands of Covid-19 workers, a decision that now adds pressure on the agency responsible for the expenditure to cut costs.
In late 2022 it was announced that up to 80,000 frontline workers, including MIQ staff, would receive the pins as part of the 2023 New Year Honours.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) oversaw the $2 million contract with a Wellington-based company, as indicated in the latest annual review, according to state media.
Both the DPMC and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), an autonomous part of DPMC, are now tasked with identifying cost-saving measures to mitigate a financial blowout in light of the hefty spending.
NEMA told state media that it was not involved in the decision.
The allocated $2 million is comparable to the budget earmarked for Civil Defence Emergency Management training in NEMA’s 2022-23 expenses, a budget that has been reduced to zero this year.
Both agencies have been central to the government’s response in reevaluating emergency management protocols following critical inquiries into past responses to natural disasters.
A recent inquiry criticised NEMA’s preparedness, recommending legislative and investment reforms to strengthen its leadership role in emergency readiness and response.
The coalition government has acknowledged the need for restructuring NEMA and is in the process of implementing changes.
Despite the urgent need for improvements, both DPMC and NEMA are contending with high staff turnover rates, with employees citing better pay and career progression elsewhere.
In response, targeted adjustments to remuneration were made last year, but now both agencies are tasked with cost-cutting measures, raising concerns about further potential job losses.
Minister responsible Mark Mitchell said prudent spending was required in addressing systemic issues while acknowledging the country’s fiscal constraints.
Wasteful parasite party…..even that much money could have done a world of good in areas like healthcare…..
The creation of DPMC and NEMA and lapel pins – yet more proof of Labour’s ideological lunacy.
And why do we have the Meterological Service as well as NIWA? Many departments with untranslatable maori names or hiding behind ABC titles need to go.
Eighty thousand workers who thought they were going to be honoured now know they would be fools to wear anything that identified them as a frontline worker during Covid. A pity. There is a good proportion of the New Zealand population including myself who would very much like to know who these people were.
At least we would know who to beat up in the streets. I’m afraid some only understand this treatment and deserve it.
25 bucks for an aluminum pin?
Cutting cost? Yes, scrap both agencies!
I am not entirely sure what this Covid badge of honour is meant to represent other than a reminder of ineffective vaccines, lockdowns that deferred transmission, healthcare workers now under extreme pressure in catch-up mode, many of whom have now left the profession due to stress and a divided society.
I envisage most people who received these are not wearing them with pride or as a constant reminder and most of these lapel pins would be sitting in the back of a drawer at best.
Don’t care about lapel pins, I wanna know what she was doing at Blackrock for a week.
Selling us,our rights, etc….
Wasn’t a total loss. They received some of the money back as tax revenue, js.
How many life saving insulin pumps could have been bought with this money? Disgusting.
A tattoo would have been better so we can know who to process.
At least they got a crappy little pin as a reward for their alliance to the democide cult
It was hard work killing all those people off and hiding the truth from the public.
Turning the blind eye.
Suporting the gaslighting.
Destroying our lives.
How much is it going to cost to fund their lanyard?
I think 10 ‘lanyards’ would be sufficient for all of them as they can share as they pass through… and we work down the list of complicit murderers.
Public ‘lanyard’ presentations would be very popular.
Where can we fund this ‘presentation of the lanyards’?
Im sure there will be gallows plans online..
Anyway I hope they wear them, then we will know who to publicly castigate for jabbing people with a not properly tested dangerous poison.
And yet the non-Masonic members of the NZDF who are deserving of medals still do not get them; those medals go to the ‘enlightened’ ones in the Lodge.
Yes, maybe they will wear these pins in their self-deluded Social Sallie mindset.
After all, the Juden wore the yellow Star of David (Saturn / Rephaim) to identify who they were in the mid 20th century Europe…!
At least then the Europeans of the day then knew who ruined their economies via usuary, their governments via Talmudic -based policies, and the host of Banksters that funded both sides of World War Two, and other J3wi$h proxy wars!