Heather du Plessis-Allan: St John's ambulance service is so broken

Look, I have got the point where I personally think St John ambulance service is so broken that I'm not sure I would rely on it in an emergency anymore.

Today, the union representing the ambulance workers has announced it’s launching industrial action - indefinitely.

It says St John first said there was no money for pay increases - then did make a pay increase offer, but it wasn't good enough. So the union said no and counter-offered, and every time they've counter-offered, they say St John just refuses to address it.

Karl du Fresne: The Christchurch mosques inquest: what we know so far

The inquest into the Christchurch mosque massacres has unexpectedly become a source of national shame and embarrassment.

A procession of witnesses has appeared before deputy chief coroner Brigitte Windley with evidence of a confused and chaotic response from police and ambulance services. New Zealand has no reason to feel guilty about the atrocity itself, which was the act of a lone outsider, but the failings of the first responders have come as a shock.

Perhaps the most damning revelation so far is that paramedics took half an hour to enter the Al Noor mosque, apparently because it was St John’s ambulance policy not to enter unsafe scenes.