CRYPTIC QUICK
Across
1. It is the pattern for a poem in 1050 (5)
4. It is green one will turn when suffering giddiness (7)
8. In a place that’s indefinite she wore me out (9)
9. Fruit that turns in a screwy sort of way (3)
10. She-goat could be one held by a kidnapper (7)
12. How to push one along in our generation (4)
14. A speech made from the place one is living (7)
17. Poet who came out of the void (4)
18. How to effect a let-down in an airy sort of way (7)
20. It is wrong to put sulphur in it (3)
21. A skeletal barrier that’s all at sea (5,4)
23. Longed for a twelvemonth somehow to end it (7)
24. Last chimney seat may be taken by rising agent (5)
Down
1. Such is my love, I destroy it with devilment (13)
2. Death of Monsieur is seen in a river (6)
3. Do they sound like cattle country? (8)
4. Be in contention with one I’ve upset (3)
5. Smoke that will smell like ergot when partially rising (4)
6. Refuse to acknowledge change made to the region (6)
Across
1. Move aimlessly (5)
4. Narrow space (6)
8. Staying power (7)
9. Concur (5)
10. Consecrate (5)
11. Type of rice (7)
12. Second in command (6)
14. Anxiety, discontent (6)
17. Pull out (7)
19. Tomato sauce (5)
21. Hold on (5)
22. Quiver (7)
23. Deprive of food (6)
24. Channel (5)
7. It would seem this is where to find the Queen’s Head, coin-wise (2,3,4,2,2)
11. Was put off for a while but, not being fed up, it went wrong (5)
13. Employ it completely in a way that’s advantageous (8)
15. Dead queen is shown up by the pigment (6)
16. One’s picture may be taken by it in a judge’s private room (6)
Down
1. Failure to comply (12)
2. Infuriated (5)
3. Matching cardy and jumper (7)
4. Irritable (colloq) (6)
5. Accumulate (5)
6. State of bliss (7)
7. Purposely (12)
13. Nationalist (7)
15. Savings (colloq) (4,3)
16. Carved figure (6)
18. Fury (5)
20. Tag (5)
19. Look critically at what verse will do (4)
22. Measure a pole (3)
keep New Zealand’s regional economy connected to the global market and imported essentials.
While the rest of us sheltered during the Covid lockdown, the 1300-tonne cranes kept shuttling back and forward, hoisting containers on and off the massive vessels.
These wharfies are in the engine room of our economy, handling roughly 30 per cent of the country’s trade. And they feel abandoned.
The report revealed 39 per cent of around 670 employees felt workers take the blame after an accident. A quarter felt bosses cared about productivity, not workers. Most disturbingly, six percent felt they would be punished for reporting a safety issue.
The report lays much of the blame with management. It suggests a ‘‘requirement on the chief executive
[Tony Gibson] to prioritise safety over profit’’.
But Gibson cannot be the man to implement the review’s 40-plus recommendations. He presided over a toxic culture of mistrust and reckless greed that led to three tragic, preventable deaths. And yet, at Tuesday’s press conference, he claimed not to know about the problems.
Ports of Auckland’s own figures show that between 2016 and 2020, there were almost 200 recordable injuries at the port. After at least the first death, he should have been alive to the risks.
Gibson’s position is not tenable. Firstly, because he failed in a moral obligation to protect staff.
Secondly, the man who oversaw ‘‘a culture of retribution’’ cannot be entrusted to implement an adequate health and safety regime.
The workforce has lost faith in his leadership and the Maritime Union has publicly called for his resignation.
Fines were paid, but no-one was held accountable. It’s time for Gibson to step up and do that. But who is going to make him? Auckland mayor Phil Goff is powerless to do anything but change out the board.
The response from workplace relations and safety minister Michael Wood was weak, warning the port is on notice, but not actually doing anything.
There is an even sadder backdrop to the stories of these three men.
Since 2012, 657 workplace deaths in New Zealand average out at six every month. And the tally would be higher if truck crash deaths were counted.
Today marks five years since the Health and Safety at Work Act came into force – a legacy of the Pike River Mine disaster. These reforms were supposed to keep us safe, but 388 deaths have occurred since then.
Our work-related fatal injury record is poor compared with OECD countries; twice as high as Australia and four times that of the UK. That’s not hard to explain when even local government-owned companies, like Ports of Auckland, have been allowed to treat lives like tradable commodities.
Gibson presided over a toxic culture of mistrust and reckless greed that led to three tragic, preventable deaths.