RNZN Communicators Reunion 2021 – Update 2 August 2020
You are receiving this update as you live away from New Zealand and have registered to attend the RNZN Communicators Reunion at New Plymouth in March 2021. Your Association’s Executive considered it appropriate to bring you up to speed with the latest strategies the NZ Government plan to continue with in relation to COVID-19 management.
COVID-19 was always going to impact on our Reunion in some way. New Zealand, like the rest of the world, is committed to protecting its’ population from the effects of the virus. While as a country we have been relatively successful, it has taken extreme measures to ensure this success and as a country we are unwilling to take any risk that would mean going backwards.
It has been announced that New Zealand’s current strategy of formal “managed isolation” will continue into the foreseeable future i.e. it could continue well into 2021. As it is impossible to tell how the situation is going to develop internationally and in New Zealand, it is Central Government’s priority to keep New Zealand safe.
In New Zealand self-isolation at home is not permitted. The country’s experience from February and March 2020, before managed isolation and quarantine was introduced, showed that compliance with self-isolation requirements by people arriving in New Zealand was patchy and could not be relied on.
The new COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill has provided a legal framework to allow the Government to charge New Zealanders who enter temporarily, or who leave New Zealand after regulations come into force. Temporary visa holders would have to pay unless they were ordinarily resident in New Zealand before the border closure, and left before the border closure.
The charging structure for managed isolation and quarantine is:
– $3,100 per person in a room
– $950 for each additional adult, and
– $475 for each additional child sharing the room.
With the regulations coming into force from today (Tuesday, 11 Aug 20) New Zealanders, residents and temporary visa holders will have to pay charges:
– Any New Zealander, who either leaves New Zealand after the regulations come into force, or is visiting New Zealand for less than 90 days
– Any temporary visa holder, unless:
they were ordinarily resident in New Zealand as of 19 March 2020, and
they departed New Zealand on or before 19 March 2020, and
they are not entering New Zealand on a border exception as a critical worker.
– New Zealanders who are currently overseas (that is, who left before the regulations come into force) will not have to pay if they stay in New Zealand for 90 days or longer.
So to cut to the chase, what all this means is that if things do not change in relation to COVID-19 in New Zealand before our Reunion and should “managed isolation” still be in place in March 2021, you would need to arrive in New Zealand 14 days ‘prior’ to the Reunion Weekend so as you could complete your 14 days ‘managed isolation’. Additionally, if you remain in New Zealand for LESS than 90 days, you and your family will be required to meet the cost of your “managed isolation” under the cost structure above.
Of course if a New Zealand/Australia ‘bubble’ was established prior to our Reunion then the quarantine requirements would be redundant.
We are hoping that by providing you with this timely information you will be able to make an informed decision on whether or not you wish to continue with your Reunion arrangements.