These are some of the essential items you can get delivered in New Zealand:
- A $759 cashmere dressing gown
- Scented candles
- Beard styling tools
Non-daily print media are not considered an essential service, effectively shutting down magazines like The Listener and North & South and community papers across the country. Photo: RNZ / Bridget Tunnicliffe
This fact hasn’t been lost on community newspaper publishers, many of whom are still barred from delivering print issues after being refused an essential services designation.
Print NZ general manager Ruth Cobb noted the discrepancy in a Facebook post yesterday.
“In light of the fact that I can now get self-tanning oil and decorative cushions delivered to my home as essential items, yesterday I sent a further submission to the Ministry asking once again for all community newspapers to be declared essential services," she wrote.
The government loosened its rules on community newspaper deliveries last week, exempting papers that serve hard-to-reach rural areas or non-English language speaking communities.
However, all magazines and many community papers are still banned from delivering print copies, despite the fact that many provide valuable local information or long-form reporting on Covid-19.
These latest exemptions for fashion retailers and other businesses add salt to the wound, Cobb says.
"I do think that is grossly unfair," she says. "There are still many pockets of people that are not receiving a paper at all and people that are asking where their papers are. At a time when there is much misinformation floating around, curtailing the most trusted form of communication at a time like this seems to make little sense."
Cobb says she's been told her latest complaint is being considered, but that she shouldn't expect any change for the duration of alert level four.
"That is disheartening in light of all the other stuff people can get sent to their homes, they can’t get something as fundamental as their local newspaper," she says.
She notes that prime minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday posted a link on her Facebook page showing footage of a printing factory producing educational material for children in 100,000 New Zealand homes that don't have internet.
Ruapehu Bulletin reassures its readers on deliveries now it has a green light to resume. Photo: screenshot
"That covers the kids in those households – what about the adults living in those houses who need news?" she says.
Meanwhile, some community papers appear to have secured exemptions to the government's delivery ban.
The Ruapehu Bulletin and Taumarunui Bulletin were both given permission to resume printing after assuring Ministry for Culture and Heritage officials they can safely produce and distribute the papers.
In a joint submission, Ruapehu Bulletin editor Robert Milne and Taumarunui Bulletin editor Mark Ebrey said their papers serve significant disadvantaged communities, and may be people's only source of legitimate information.
"If media channels are essential services then these local papers are as essential as it gets in Ruapehu," the submission said.
