Word of the day

Multilocular – having or divided into many small cells; chambers or vesicles; having or comprising several small cavities or compartments.

Job losses in perspective

Losing a job is hard for those affected but reporting on public sector jobs too often shows no perspective.

Some of the positions that have been cut were ones that weren’t filled and some people would have taken voluntary redundancy to take on other work or retire.

Apropos of perspective – there have been about 3,000 jobs cut but more than 18,000 jobs were added to the public service since 2017, around 2,500 in the last six months, and for what?

It certainly hasn’t been for improvements in education, health, infrastructure or anything else that the public would notice.

Tough times require tough measures and that’s tough on people who are facing  involuntary job losses.

For another perspective, the public sector job losses are similar to those lost after the oil and gas ban:

Public sector job cutbacks have now reached the same level as job losses countenanced with the oil and gas ban, but with much, much more media sympathy and attention. pic.twitter.com/3mkLcyICOD

— Liam P. Hehir (@PronouncedHare) April 17, 2024

Those jobs were in the private sector which paid tax rather than costing it.

When you put the jobs cuts into perspective with those added in the last six years and the necessity to make serious reductions to government spending, this is necessary surgery for a public service that has got too fat.

Luxon's message to the public sector bosses is spot on. pic.twitter.com/1qDbOleaDQ

— New Zealand Taxpayers' Union (@TaxpayersUnion) April 17, 2024

 

Woman of the day

The names Watson and Crick are well known for their work on DNA, but who knew that their work was based, without her knowledge, on that of Rosalind Franklin?

Woman of the Day chemist and X-Ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin of London, the Dark Lady of DNA, died OTD 1958 aged just 37. She worked out that the structure of DNA had two chains and took Photo 51, the first known X-ray image of the double helix. Two weeks later, having… pic.twitter.com/Stc9mTcA5D

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 16, 2024

Show no-show

The New Zealand Agricultural Show – better known to many as the Christchurch show – will be a no-show this year.

The 2024 New Zealand Agricultural Show – an annual fixture on the Christchurch event calendar – has been cancelled and more changes may be on the horizon. . . 

The show has run for 161 years, cancelled only for a World War and Covid.

Show week is also Cup week and the racing will still go ahead, but no show will be a big blow for Christchurch businesses which will miss the visitors who would have come to the city for the show.

Hospitality and retail will be hardest hit but the loss of custom won’t be confined to the city. Businesses which supply raw ingredients to cafes and restaurants, for example, will also lose out.

Stock competitions will still go ahead, but that will bring only a relatively few people to the city compared with the tens of thousands who normally come for the show.

This is a financial blow to the city, and the loss of a valuable opportunity to bring country and town together.

A contributing factor to the A&P Society’s  problems was the cancellation of the show in 2020 and 2021.

The then-government that chucked money in all directions refused to underwrite large events to allow them to go ahead with planning without the risk of crippling costs if they had to be cancelled at the last minute.

The Christchurch Show has been the country’s biggest. The Upper Clutha Show in Wanaka isn’t as big as the Christchurch one but it has been growing year by year will take over that title until the city one is resurrected – if that happens.