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High cost of personal choice

It’s disappointing that 150 of our sworn colleagues have chosen to be stood down rather than get vaccinated. I accept it is their personal choice, but it’s a very high cost to pay.

I understand many are from smaller stations, which means their decision has left their mates having to carry even more of the burden.

I hope many of these staff will reconsider their position while stood down because it would be a waste to lose these good people. I also hope the Omicron variant of Covid-19 doesn’t hit unduly hard on this group.

Gone troppo in the Far North

I’ve spoken to a few mates who opted for a trip to the Far North to work the Covid-19 checkpoints in Northland over Christmas, but it appears they arrived too late for the party and the checkpoints had been disbanded.

They apparently spent their time sightseeing and enjoying the weather – sorry, I mean reassuring the public.

While the hospitality was great, they struggled to understand what they were actually doing workwise. No problem – those of us who stayed behind were happy to carry the load because it’s not like we were already busy or anything…

Dotcom money pit

I read in the paper that it’s 10 years since we raided the Kim Dotcom mansion. That is one decision I bet the bosses wish they could take back. What a shambles it turned out to be.

I’d love to see the dollar figure for all the lawyers who have ridden that gravy train for the past 10 years. It must feel like a Lotto jackpot that keeps on giving.

Where is Dotcom nowadays? Oh, that’s right – he’s still here.

All hands on deck?

With Omicron hitting our shores we move into another phase of the pandemic, and I am sure that, like me, you are well and truly over the whole thing. If some of the projections are true, we are going to be stretched. I stocked up the beer fridge, just in case.

I see the bosses are moving all staff to a 2x2x2 roster so we can backfill vacancies on the frontline if we get hit with large numbers of absences. That makes sense. We all need to pull our weight during what could be a tough few months, and prioritising frontline work is the right thing to do. I hope we will be seeing a few PNHQ staff on the beat – it will do them the world of good to see the real world.