It’s time to start thinking about reopening the border
If I were a godwit (kuaka), I’d join the flock on our early March migration from New Zealand to Alaska. From there, I’d head to the Lower 48 to see friends and family. The godwit can do what humans cannot fly away and return to Aotearoa without spending two weeks in managed isolation.
It takes the kuaka about a week to fly 12,000km. For Ma¯ ori, they were birds of mystery, believed to accompany spirits of the departed.
This last thought catches in my throat, like I’m trying to wash down cotton with seawater.
I’m far from alone in the sadness of feeling caged in the world’s most beautiful jail.
Twenty-seven per cent of us were born elsewhere. For every inkling we have about a tropical island escape, there is another thought, thrumming and insistent we need to visit the motherland.
Our relatives overseas aren’t getting younger. Neither are we.
The pandemic has deepened worry lines and spurred exponential growth of new grey hairs.
Some of our family members are battling cancer and chronic diseases that threaten their lives as much, if not more, than Covid-19.
Other friends and family are having babies we fear we may not see in person until the kid starts kindergarten.
One year after Covid-19 joined the vernacular in New Zealand, we’re living like our kiwi namesake as a team of five million flightless birds.
The Government this week announced a more detailed timetable for rolling out the Covid vaccine.
Border and health care workers are getting their shots this month. About 1.7 million people at highrisk if they catch the virus will start getting vaccinated in May. The rest of the population can expect shots available from July.
How about a timetable for the gradual re-opening of our borders? How about a plan that would lay out scenarios based on if/then?
For example, if we can ensure every person entering New Zealand is vaccinated, then we can gradually reopen.
If we enable better monitoring systems via technology, then we can allow more stranded Kiwis to return. Those of us who want to leave and come back could do so.
I’m not ungrateful for where we sit in Aotearoa. I appreciate that the rest of the world envies our mostly mask-less, mass-gathered lives.
My American friends’ children are just starting back to class after a year of online schooling. Events are virtual.
Travellers can fly in and out of the US without spending two weeks isolating in a government-run hotel.
Also, more than a half-million Americans have died from Covid. We don’t want that horribleness here.
As mentioned many times, other countries have better systems to control the pandemic.
NZME science reporter Jamie Morton wrote last week, “With a population of 23.8 million, and a population density of 671 people per kilometre, Taiwan has recorded fewer border and community cases than New Zealand, and fewer deaths.”
But Morton also examines reasons we can’t be like Taiwan: they were prepared years ago for a pandemic; laws enable them to access citizens’ information; they masked up early; they use smart technology like a Gps-based system for contact tracing and quarantine monitoring that would likely cause privacy worries for Kiwis.
New Zealand experts have for months called on the Government to use digital tracking of arriving travellers and border workers through managed isolation and quarantine.
They say the Government has refused to even explore the issue due to privacy concerns. It’s past time to explore.
The Government announced earlier this week it had established an independent advisory group to review handling of the most recent coronavirus outbreak and “sharpen” its ongoing pandemic response. Could the group also devise plans to ease border restrictions?
MIQ facilities are full; ex-pat Kiwis face extreme difficulty getting home; some are still stranded around the globe.
Those of us already here who want to be with family members overseas risk financial ruin by leaving.
Travel health insurance policies do not cover Covid-related expenses; most make it difficult, if not impossible, to insure for other pre-existing conditions.
This could mean bankruptcy if we get sick abroad and can’t return to New Zealand because there’s no room at the inn.
Some of us may resort to extreme measures like joining a Russian fishing crew or The Wiggles if we want a space in MIQ.
Vaccinations worldwide provide an ever-expanding window to let more travellers in and out of the country.
We could allow people with proof of vaccination and a negative Covid test to isolate at home.
I, for one, would wear a monitoring device if it meant permission to leave New Zealand and return without fighting for a rare MIQ spot and paying thousands of dollars for 14 days in a hotel.
We have proven our ability to do hard things and to change our systems when needed.
Technology and vaccinations could permit more permeable borders while still safeguarding public health.
Why should only godwits get to fly?
Backers of Auckland-based retail software company Vend say its US$350 million ($455m) sale to a US competitor will be good for New Zealand.
The sale has potential to reignite debate about why so many Kiwi tech companies end up in North American hands — particularly as it was announced soon after news that Christchurch 3D modelling software outfit Seequent is being sold to Nasdaq-listed Bentley Systems for US$900M.
Lance Wiggs, whose Punakaiki Fund had a 3 per cent (or about $14m) stake in Vend, told the Weekend Herald such deals help fund the next generation of startups.
“I expect we will see a lot of these funds recycled back into the local tech community, as we will certainly do at Punakaiki Fund,” Wiggs said.
And Vend founder Vaughan Fergusson added, “When we started [in 2009] there was essentially just Xero, and they weren’t that big. Now there’s this whole vibrant ecosystem of hundreds of [NZ tech] companies.”
He would look to invest in startups, but also continue his mentorship role.
Capital-raising consultant and Rocket Lab alumnus Ralph Shale congratulated Vend and Seequent, but saw some disturbing undercurrents.
“The US listing of Rocketlab, the sale of Vend and Seequent offshore shines a spotlight on the New Zealand capital markets and the lack of depth,” Shale said.
“We should not blame those involved for getting returns on their investment and time . . . but as a nation, we need to think about how more of the value created can accrue to New Zealand.”
The local exchange also seems to have missed out on a potential $722m listing of Vocus NZ – the local operation of Vocus
Group, and owner of Orcon and Slingshot – with a pending trade sale to Macquarie Group heading off IPO plans.
But Shale added, “recent criticism of the NZX by some in the funds management sector overlook the fact it is access to capital that our entrepreneurs required, not a trading platform.
“Hopefully, with more success stories like these, more funds will look at earlierstage opportunities.”
Vend makes software that allows cash registers to be replaced by ipads or other internet-connected gadgets, and was founded 12 years ago by Fergusson, who had just sold an online travel booking platform to Trade Me.
The company was valued at US$100M at the time of its last major capital raise around 2016, indicating the sale is a considerable payday for shareholders.
Ahead of the deal, the largest shareholder was local venture capital fund Movac, with a 9 per cent stake.
Fergusson, his ex-wife Mel Rowsell and early backer Sam Morgan were the next largest shareholders, each with an 8 per cent share.
The sale represents Morgan’s third major score after the Trade Me sale and his huge gains via his early Xero stake.
Milford Asset Management had 5 per cent via its Active Growth Fund.
And the sale will also represent major gains for two smaller earlier investors: Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Wiggs’ Punakaiki Fund.
Vend claims that more than 20,000 retailers worldwide use its cloud-based point-of-sale software.
It generated revenue of approximately US$34M in the 12 months to December 31, 2020, Lightspeed said.
The deal is scheduled to close in April, subject to approvals.
The sale came close to the anniversary of the first Covid-19 lockdown
But chief executive Ana Wight said although 2020 was something of a roller coaster, the pandemic ultimately saw Vend become cashflow-positive for the first time.
While many of Vend’s bricks-andmortar retailers were hit by lockdowns, the survivors were “forced to digitise”, Wight said.
The surge in click-and-collect and online sales meant in-store sales systems had to be modernised — through software like Vend — so they could talk to e-commerce systems.
The Canadian-founded, Nyse-listed Lightspeed is in the same market as Vend, selling cloud-based point-of-sale software, but is many times larger with a market capitalisation of just under US$10B. Ahead of the deal, it had around 135,000 customers worldwide.
Lightspeed’s Asia-pacific vicepresident Nick Cloete told the Weekend Herald his company’s purchase of Vend would allow it to “dominate” the Australasian market, where the Kiwi company was particularly strong, but also help with global expansion.
Wight said Vend had about 280 staff worldwide, including around 150 in its home base of Auckland.
Cloete said Lightspeed was committed to the local office and to expanding R&D, which could potentially see more staff employed in NZ.
Fergusson stepped back from day-today operations in 2016 to devote most of his time to running the Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust, named after his paraplegic mother, who raised him and his two brothers solo.
The foundation’s philanthropic work includes a new outdoor education facility in Raglan and initiatives to improve IT education opportunities and diversity in the tech industry.
But in the short term he would be mucking back in, “rolling up my sleeves to help with the integration”.