NZ Ministry of Transport and the covid era 'Vaccine' Mandate for staff.

How many Transport staff applied for an exemption from the 'no jab, no job' policy?

Just over eight thousand employees in NZ, who needed to obtain an exemption from the unethical ‘vaccine mandate’, were actually able to obtain one. I’m sure there were many more privileged people who did not even need a formal exemption to keep their job (and somehow have all kept schtum). But I’m interested in uncovering some more stories of those few strong people who did stand up for bodily sovereignty and attempt to ‘play by the rules’ and submit an exemption application, only to be denied. This time, I’m looking at the Ministry of Transport’s staff.

Quick Recap:

In October 2021, in line with other global totalitarian Governments around the world, the New Zealand Ardern Government, after claiming Kiwis should trust them to be their ‘Single Source of Truth’ went on to announce the new legislation to “guide decisions on what work needs vaccination.”

The NZ COVID-19 Protection Framework effectively mandated covid ‘vaccinations’ for workers at businesses where customers need to show COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates, such as hospitality and ‘close-contact businesses’. As we all know, the new legislation came into effect at the end of November 2021. At which point unknown numbers of employees affected by the mandates, were unceremoniously fired. Some of the NZ Nurses for Freedom heartbreaking comments from that time are recorded here.

With some of the worst road deaths per head of population in the world, and staff mandated to take the jab, I’m not sure how NZTA can enable anyone can ‘flourish’?

For new readers, I refer you to my previous posts about this jab exemption issue, which detail the exemption farce-turned-tragedy for staff and volunteers at Prisons, in the education sector, in the Fire and Emergency service, and for academics. My most read article on this subject (of many) is about the recent ‘correction’ from Health NZ exemption data, which detailed how a Public Private Partnership (PPP) organisation, NZ Health Group Ltd, benefitted from majority of the rare-as-hens-teeth authorised exemptions, before one of the Senior Government ‘advisors’ promoting the jab, Jane Kelley, was subsequently awarded their top job (how convenient):

There are approximately 180 staff of New Zealand Transport Agency Te Manatū Waka (NZTA). Not all would have been impacted by the ‘Vaccination’ Order. NZTA are responsible for New Zealand’s transport systems, and covers air, sea and land but many staff are based in offices at Auckland and Wellington and probably worked from home during this time. Freight, commercial and personal transport are included in NZTAs remit, from lamp-posts to drivers’ licences. Of course most of the staff involved in the maintenance of the roads are private contractors (another story I’m working on).

NZTA Exemptions

On the 8th of October 2023, a kind reader of my Substack alerted me to this form that would have been used by the staff of the NZTA to apply for an exemption from the Vaccination Order (‘No Jab, No Job’) Policy.

This prompted my request the following day under OIA (FOI) to the NZTA, to ask for details of the exemptions submitted by their staff:

“What policy procedures were in place for obtaining/completing and submitting the application form (that was required to be sent to: Covid19vaccine@transport.govt.nz)

1.       Who were the people involved with this policy creation/dissemination and oversight and any changes?

2.       Were any changes undertaken and what were they and why made?

3.       Were there any queries, feedback or complaints regarding these policies and if so, what were they and when?

4.       Finally, please specify all the exemptions for the border workers during this time period, as follows:

·       numbers and types of all application forms received from individuals;

·       a copy of at least 3 applications forms (redacted for personal info if necessary) ;

·       acknowledged as individual has applied;

·       numbers of individuals granted;

·       type of exemptions applied for/granted;

·       date of application/decision and expiration if applicable”

The well-rehearsed Corporate Playbook initial tactics of Dismiss, Delay… began two days later with a request for clarification about the form and email address, that apparently they did not know about (!)

After a brief email exchange, the next response came a week later, informing me that (inevitably) my OIA request had been transferred to the Ministry of Health. No, I confirmed, I did not want a response from the MoH, I wanted a response from the NZTA.

And so finally I got a response from the Transport Agency OIA ref: OC230883

There were no details of the people involved in the exemption and no emails sent to the email address on the form. Strange. Carl van der Meule, Principal Adviser at NZTA’s Resilience and Security, told me:

There was only one type of application form (as noted above) for exemption requests for border workers on the grounds of preventing significant disruption to the supply chain.

Individuals could not make their own applications for an exemption of the vaccination requirement under clause 12A of the Order. Applications had to be submitted by the [Health & Safety at Work Act, allocated] ‘PCBU’ (Person Conducting Business or Undertaking) as the individual’s ‘employer.’

PCBU’s applied on behalf of the individual, with a separate application required for each individual working for the PCBU who was requesting an exemption from the vaccination requirements.

[NZ Transport Agency] Te Manatū Waka received a total of 25 application forms requesting 15 separate individuals be granted an exemption of the vaccination requirements specified by the Order. 10 of the applications were duplicated. The applications were submitted by 4 different PCBU’s.

10 applications were withdrawn before they were considered by the Minister due to a modification of the vaccination requirements in the Order. An exemption was no longer required for those individuals.

How to interpret this? Does it mean that only 5 applications for exemptions were actually submitted? And no other NZTA staff were impacted by the Order? Are those some of the few ‘Not Healthcare’ exemptions listed on the spreadsheet attached to my Revolving Doors article (see above link) that were almost all declined?

Presumably this refers to those staff involved with inspections of vehicles coming into the country. I would be interested to discover what happened to those 5 individuals. Any whistleblowers out there?

Incidentally, for readers interested in the specifics of the Border (Customs) workers experience of the ‘Vaccination’ Order, I found a useful OIA response posted publicly here, claiming only 8 (contracted) staff who were not jabbed, were sacked.

Keep on asking questions! Please contact me with any info on this topic!