Foreign companies are required by Chinese law to partner with a local “Facility Management Company” or FMC. New Zealand’s visa applications centre in Beijing have been subcontracted by an international company, VF Worldwide Holdings Limited or VFS Global, to the Beijing Shuangxiong Foreign Service Company, an FMC partly owned by the municipal Public Security Bureau, a feared arm of the security apparatus that controls movements inside and out of China. VFS insists that the relationship is a benign one and that “Beijing police does not collect or view any visa application data.”. Immigration NZ agreed, noting that “processing” part of the visa process – where the actual decisions get made – isn t done by the company.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Flying blind? We don t really know how many border workers are missing tests
20 Apr, 2021 05:00 AM
5 minutes to read
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins say the checks and balances on the border testing regime need to be - and are being - improved. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins say the checks and balances on the border testing regime need to be - and are being - improved. Photo / Mark Mitchell
ANALYSIS
There might be hundreds of border workers who aren t being regularly tested despite potentially coming into contact with people, ships, planes, or other things that have come to New Zealand from overseas.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Opinion - Labour s indefensible, cynical behaviour leaves us all poorer
16 Apr, 2021 04:00 AM
6 minutes to read
Questions about the strength of the Government s border controls remain unanswered. Photo / Dean Purcell
OPINION:
Did you know returnees spend 14 days in MIQ after they arrive in New Zealand? Or that Covid-19 can be transmitted via air particles as well as droplets? The Labour MPs on Parliament s health committee apparently have such an insufficient grasp of such issues that they needed a 20-minute idiot s guide presentation from the heads of Health and MBIE this week.
Such was the parade of inanities that Speaker Trevor Mallard penalised his own party the following day, giving National MP Chris Bishop four extra supplementary questions for Question Time - even though Mallard has no jurisdiction over select committees.
Peter Wilson .
Analysis - A startling revelation shows up cracks in the testing regime just as the vaccine rollout comes under scrutiny, and National faces another bout of leadership speculation.
Chris Hipkins after getting his first jab of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government s pandemic response was under stress this week as a series of revelations raised questions about the integrity of its systems.
The most surprising was an admission by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment s chief executive Carolyn Tremain. She told a parliamentary select committee that an MIQ security guard infected with Covid-19 had not been tested since November.