A more telling graph would be the money spend directly on healthcare vs money spend on the reform of the department of health, the DHBs and other new and improved burocracy. National did underspend or refuse to fund, and Labour spend the last year re-creating NZ Health in what hopefully will be a better system then the DHBs.
So in essence how much did N spend vs L say on recruitment of nurses and doctors? How much on renovations of fixed assets, how much on new machines / what machines and then how much was spend on consultants.
I posted the link a few weeks back. Can repost if required.
The question is, is our health system in better shape now or pre 2017 Labour govt?
Even factoring in covid, its pretty clear it is in a worse state. My evidence for this is the almost daily articles about Dr's, nurses saying they are at breaking point. I have posted many links on this in the past few weeks.
So how long do you think it takes to train up doctors and nurses to be able to compitantly work in critical situations such as Ed and ICU? And how long does it take to rectify 8 years of neglect in health infrastructure and capacity?
I have posted before Macro about what Dr Ian Powell says in his columns (former head of the Salaried Medical Specialists).
When Labour came in, he told the then Minister of Health, David Clark, that there were 3 problems facing Health in NZ. Workforce shortage, workforce shortage, workforce shortage. That was over five years ago. Had Labour of acted on this, we would now have trainees graduating or even with one or two years under their belts in ICU and ED. Last week we heard that Andrew Little was finally considering paying student nurses for their placements, after the NZNO had been suggesting it for sometime. I have posted here previously at least two articles about student nurses feeling highly stressed and contemplating not completing their training. Some of the reasons being have to travel big distances to do their (unpaid) hospital workforce training and receiving no petrol money or assistance with parking. I also posted an interview with Shane Reti on Q and A and as I recall, he talked about having had costing down for a new medical school. Many GPs are reaching retirement age.
Andrew Little has prioritized a health restructure during a pandemic, rather than addressing the workforce issues. NZders will pay the price
Can link to previously posted articles if requried.
prioritized a health restructure during a pandemic, rather than addressing the workforce issues.
You know one of the reasons for the Health restructuring is simply to address the issue of stretched resources and inequitably distributed resources (ie access to health determined by post code rather than need) – but you knew that anyway.
hold a current practising certificate and must have three years’ equivalent full time practice in the area they intend to prescribe in with at least one year of the total practice in New Zealand;
To simply blame the current govt for the run down state of NZ Health is simply blinkered and partisan. The previous Nat govt, with their persistent under funding of Health (as clearly seen from the graph above) resulted in NZ's Health service ending up in a parlous state. It will take years to turn that around. Hospitals (eg Whangarei's) completely unfit for purpose. The low payment of Health professionals has resulted in large numbers flocking offshore. We staff our hospitals and aged care facilities from lower paid countries off-shore. Once re-qualified and NZ citizens they then depart to higher paid positions in Australia America Canada and UK). My son-in-law as evidence.
Hmmm I well remember the 2007 Nat advertisement "Stop waving goodbye to your loved ones!" Well no sooner were the Nats in power than they changed the provision for aftercare of those suffering brain injury. 100 specialists dealing with such conditions were immediately out of a job and nothing for them in this country. So Aussie just got 100 qualified specialists, just like that – my own family are never going to return. Now running 3 small hospitals in Perth.
I am not claiming National did a great job in terms of heath in NZ. Although I do believe Shane Reti would make a great Minister of Health or even PM>
Labour and Littles focus should have been on the training and retention of staff and the importation of the health workforce from overseas. This involves everything from settling pay disputes, increasing pay significantly and valuing the workforce rather than being in denial that public health is in crisis as Andrew Little does
Setting up Health NZ has inevitably put them behind as you don't just set up a new agency and its all good to go. As I mentioned before my contact at Health NZ tells me it is chaos and in their considered opinion it won't achieve the goal of equity.
What is the health system? If. you get sick with a broken leg, cancer, a heart attack, an autoimmune disease, have a car accident etc, etc who do you need to be there in adequate numbers. The people with skills, training and experience. Not the bureacrats.
One of the articles I posted recently quoted a group of Drs who said the only change they have seen from the re-structure is the new logo.
But go ahead believe the bureacrats will make all the difference. Having worked in health in the 1990s I can tell you that what happened in Wellington made absolutely no difference at all. As long as our staffing levels were o.k., it all rose and fell on the expertise and clinical competence of the nurses and Drs and other allied workers at the coal face.
Mmmmm those faceless 'bureaucrats' are always worth a bash aren't they?
Would the critics of everything to do with the health sector and reforms be able to cobble together an argument without having access to these people to criticise? When I worked in the health sector the 'bureaucrats', but we called them staff rather than the pejorative, that were absolutely relied on at a high level were
clinical coders
work flow analysts – needed in looking at ED and out patients work
accountants with a specialty in health accounting
waiting list case managers
Then we have the bureaucrats staff that any large organisation can not do without:
payroll
HR
supply/stores management
info tech people including librarian type people who specialise in (health)
Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) told the union it would not allow newly graduated doctors to start working in hospitals until next year, NZRDA national president Dr James Anderson said.
Anderson said Te Whatu Ora cited supervision and orientation concerns as the reason why.
It “makes no sense”, he said: “We have a workforce we so desperately need, qualified, ready and willing to work, and yet Te Whatu Ora won’t employ them for another two months.”
Anderson said the “excuse” of supervision and orientation concerns, “is in our view, exactly that”.
It seems Health NZ is the obstacle here. So rather than helping the over worked Drs in crisis they are an impediment. But of course the Professional Managerial Class think they know best
While I understand your concern re staffing it does the cause no good to leave off some points, these were in the article that you attached.
a) the proposed changes were discussed/consulted on
'A spokesperson for Te Whatu Ora said the 20 DHBs that previously comprised Health New Zealand went through extensive consultation before the change was put in place, to strengthen training, staff welfare and services to patients.'
b) the overriding reason is this
'He said the shift from November to January enabled newly-appointed first-year doctors to be supported into practice, particularly with more senior staff on leave over the Christmas and New Year period, and ensured new graduates got a break before starting their careers.
“New Zealanders can have confidence that, as in previous years, this will not affect our ability to staff services over the holiday period.” "
I have lived next door to one of those senior orthopaedic surgeons who trains new staff, for many years. He often has some time off in Dec/ January. Apart from a little time with both sets of elderly parents he is usually at home doing things like building a new deck, blobbing out, going to outdoor concerts etc etc.
Even though he is on leave when there are huge numbers or complex injuries to road accident victims he is on call and about 90% of the time during these holidays he is called in.
NZers regularly drive their cars into each other, into bridges or power poles over the break. When the remaining staff cannot deal with the injuries he will go in to operate. Having done this he then goes in daily to check on the patients he has operated on.
Last Christmas/January break he was flown to Chch, while on leave, to help operate on badly injured road accident victims. Having done this he stayed down there to be on call for his patients for a week.
The point about letting newly graduated doctors have a break is also valid. Up until now many would have had minimal time off as most would work over the long break.
Spoken with the voice of experience. I had a very minor involvement with a govt workforce/clinical training group for health.
From this I am left with the view that it is never as clear cut as the various groups say, they exist to push their causes and that is OK but we should not forget it. Many of the groups are single issue and do not understand how all the bits fit together in clinical training in the health sector.
Stability of government is hugely important. Health is regularly used as an election issue and during this time there is wastage in terms of gearing up and down to meet a new govt's ideas. Health by the long nature of its training and long time frames on other issues, is a bit like trying to turn an ocean liner on a coin. It takes an age.
Access to health services via post code is a happening thing. Although not as bad as prior to the 1990s the cries for every DHB to have the latest health bauble (not based on need) are never-ending.
And make no mistake some health specialties are more 'sexy', as they say, than others. Some DHBs are keenly aware of this and waste no time in seeking funds for latest 'thing' when population based funding based on the actual needs of their populations is ignored. So we find that, as your family has, that painstaking and often long term rehab for the brain injured is not valued.
Back in the 1990s linear accelerators were the 'thing' and every hospital wanted one, regardless of need based on demographics. Trying to persuade people that if they paid attention to their populations ie to the demographics they wouldn't need linear accelerators fell on very deaf ears.
Looking after Maori child health was just not 'it', even though the chance existed to become a centre of excellence and a leader in the field.
The backbone of the health work force are Baby Boomers at or beyond retirement age. That's the cause of the workforce shortfall, same as in Education and other professions. Think about it !.
100% tsmithfield. Except I would say, as I have said on this site before, they should never have gone ahead with the re-structure.
This is only heresay and one person’s opinion, and so I can’t provide any links etc. A friend works quite high up in the new Health NZ. She says it is absolute chaos and that she doesn't believe it will achieve equity.
I really only came to appreciate Fleetwood Mac later in life – and the remarkable McVie herself. Few people have the privilege of leaving such a well loved legacy.
What I can’t work out is if the Covid wage subsidy was less than the normal income for most recipients surely the lower amount of spending was not inflationary and then when things like spending stabilised the effects of the two regimes should be considered as a whole over the Covid years and those subsequent years giving us an average over say 5 years which should not be hugely inflationary. So what is the panic, we are just catching up and the resulting yearly total should be no different wether Covid happened or not.
Is this another classic example of Economics Trivial Pursuit, one question, 1000 correct answers?
I think the inflationary aspect, if any, was that businesses were propped up that otherwise would have failed as business failures have actually declined. The loss in GDP was also pretty small in the end as businesses adapted to trading in the Covid levels, even level 3, and the government avoided level 4 until Delta arrived, so the macroeconomic impact from Covid restrictions ended up being minimal, particularly compared to forecasts earlier on.
If this baby is removed from hospital today as the mother is threatening to do and the baby subsequently dies, it is easy to see what will happen. They, and their fellow anti- vaccine conspiracy theorists, will blame the death on the Ministry of Health and the Government.
I listened to part of the Sue Grey interview with Corin Dann this morning. It was hard going. The woman was appalling. Full of ‘mis and dis’ information.
I really don't think these people should be interviewed on public radio or TV. They have nothing of worth to offer.
That's why these conspiracy theorists are dangerous and should be constantly regarded as such by the authorities. It’s why they should not be given air time.
Why only the Covid vaccine – what about flu, HepA, HepB, shingles, measles, human papilloma virus, cholera, rabies, polio, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria etc? Many blood donors will have had one or more of these vaccines – actually most donors, if you look at the NZ Vaccine Schedule.
It is largely political – aimed at painting centre-left governments as authoritarian enemies of freedom, when the opposite is true. One question is whether it is a genuinely spontaneous derangement, or if there's money behind it.
I had pondered why only Covid. If I was going to get down a rabbit hole about vaccinations and possible lingering effects in the blood I would go for one of those where attenuated parts of a disease were injected…… eg TB etc.
They are crackpots and it is terrible that they are using the life of a wee baby who is not able to speak for themselves to further their views. It also espouses a view about babies being 'owned' by their parents that I disagree with.
Fortunately, the system is quite practiced at this. For years, the hospitals have had to deal with adherents of religious cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses who do not believe in blood transfusions. While adults can give consent – children cannot, so these children regularly get made Wards of the Court so that they can get the lifesaving procedures they require.
Yes I have heard about those wards of court processes for children.
I have wondered how the children are treated by their religious parents after, if they have received life saving transfusions. So whether there is a difference in the treatment/care/attention/love they receive from their parents.
It breaks my heart reading about people who place adherence to creed, belief or religion above their children's lives etc.
I have long ceased to try and fathom the thought processes of religious and other cultists. I have a good friend who is married to a Jehovah's Witness husband. We went to my friend's 70th birthday party some years ago. Her family had to pretend it was a house warming party for the house they moved in to 2 years previously as the husband would refuse to go to a birthday party. Imagine the sort of religious indoctrination that does not let you go to your wife's 70th birthday party. Once he shuffled off to some church thing the "Happy Housewarming" banner came down, and the "Happy Birthday Mum" banner went up.
There's money behind it alright – most of it off-shore.
And yes its political. Just like the climate denial thing was for decades. One of the reasons the world is heading for climate catastrophe is directly due to the influence of the deniers who were given carte-blanche by irresponsible media channels to spread their crackpot theories far and wide.
Why only the Covid vaccine – what about flu, HepA, HepB, shingles, measles, human papilloma virus, cholera, rabies, polio, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria etc?
Which of those are mRNA vaccines? Which of those were developed in less than 12 months?
mRNA vaccines do not use attenuated actual viruses. I don't think the length of time of development has a role or is important. Do you know how long the others on the list were under development…..?
You have asked some odd questions. Are these relevant to the willingness to effectively withhold medical/surgical treatment from a wee baby? If so in what way?
Which of those were developed in less than 12 months?
mRNA and it’s functions were discovered in 1961, clinical trials of mRNA therapeutics began in 2009 and the first in-human mRNA cancer vaccine trials were in 2017.
Heavens, she is not very articulate is she? It is hard going. Surely she should do, just as Luxon should do, work to find out info to rebut the type of questions an interested lay person would ask. I wonder if she is more used to taking court cases on the papers rather than orally.
So a case of myocarditis came about as a very uncommon reaction. Is she trying to say that blood from a healthy person/s who does not have any risks is going to get in and whip up a case of myocarditis? If so she is sadly lacking in knowledge about how vaccinations work and how the Covid ones in particular work.
'A medical expert believes another baby in a similar condition to one Health NZ is trying to seek guardianship for would've been treated by now.' Meanwhile the date for the hearing is set for 6/12. Terrible delays caused by the parents' stance.
That poor baby, with no voice except that of it's deranged parents, could well die to make a political point!
There should be some way, made clear to the parents and their supporters, that an adverse result (to the baby's health) would result in charges being laid. Sue Grey and Liz Gunn, in particular, should be held liable, in some way, for what happens.
"Donated blood is tested and separated into different blood components; red blood cells, platelets, plasma etc. These are aggregated and when a transfusion is called for by medical professionals, these blood products are supplied depending on need. When someone receives a transfusion the blood doesn't just come from one donor, it is a recombined from the various collected components.
The practice of direct donations from a singular donor, or donors of the parents choice, is not recommended by Doctors or the New Zealand Blood Service."
If you had been listening to Grey's side of the debate, the different blood components or the number of blood donors aren't what is holding up the surgery.
Corin certainly was shouty, mauī but Sue Grey presented very poorly, imo. She dragged into what might have been a useful interview, heavy baggage that triggered Corin sorely and she should have known better. There was the potential for genuine empathy to be fostered, but she failed to cut to the chase. I wouldn't want her defending me anywhere for anything.
The auditor-general is being challenged to do more to get businesses to pay back billions of dollars in wage subsidy payments that they should not have received.
The Gama Foundation, a Christchurch-based philanthropic organisation, has filed an application at the High Court in Wellington, seeking a judicial review of the auditor-general’s overview of the scheme.
The foundation is run by former Christchurch businessman Grant Nelson and his wife, Marilyn.
[…]
Reserve Bank data shows that in October 2020 businesses had $22.7b more in the bank than in October 2019.
[…]
“In the two years since the wage subsidy scheme was introduced, there’s been a huge transfer of wealth to businesses who didn’t experience the drop in revenue they might have anticipated,” Nelson said.
“The fact that over $750 million has voluntarily been repaid is a good indication that many times more would be repaid if recipients were asked to make repayments.”
Earlier this year the auditor-general took a much stronger stance over the cost of living payments – within weeks of the first round of payments being made Ryan had written to Inland Revenue, recommending it “consider what steps it can take to identify how many ineligible people have received payments”.
He also advised the department to make its expectation clear to ineligible people who got the payment that they should repay it immediately.
“We’re really just wanting him to do something similar with the wage subsidies because vastly more money is involved,” Nelson said.
I cant figure it out. on stuff presently , an odd penguin type is loseing his claim, and loseing his appeal, to a poll conducted by his company, being reported as a poll. someone else (hah!) can explain. is this karma?
“Readers could have been left with the impression that this poll had some validity. The headline and story stated it was a poll of people’s Prime Ministerial preferences. There was no information stating what it was based on. Readers were not told it was an unscientific straw poll”
Government has lightbulb moment,to train people ( through ngo's) to change lightbulbs and provide advice on low flow shower heads.
‘Auckland Council Home Energy Saver Pilot’, Ecobulb with Auckland Council, $115,000
Training up to 10 energy assessors to provide local households with personalised energy-saving advice, supply energy-efficient lightbulbs and low-flow showerheads, and connect households to other resources and supporting programmes.
Needs to be substantive savings for the new tech economy planned by the government,with the energy hungry and thirsty data centres for Auckland,of which they are energy intensive and require substantive water for cooling.
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History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
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Thank you
Interesting 2018 Was more that nat from 2013 to 2017
And 5 yr Natz was 781m (including 2 yrs of 0 )cf
to Lab 5 yrs of 5798 mil
A more telling graph would be the money spend directly on healthcare vs money spend on the reform of the department of health, the DHBs and other new and improved burocracy. National did underspend or refuse to fund, and Labour spend the last year re-creating NZ Health in what hopefully will be a better system then the DHBs.
So in essence how much did N spend vs L say on recruitment of nurses and doctors? How much on renovations of fixed assets, how much on new machines / what machines and then how much was spend on consultants.
$11.1 billon on Health reforms over four years.
I posted the link a few weeks back. Can repost if required.
The question is, is our health system in better shape now or pre 2017 Labour govt?
Even factoring in covid, its pretty clear it is in a worse state. My evidence for this is the almost daily articles about Dr's, nurses saying they are at breaking point. I have posted many links on this in the past few weeks.
So how long do you think it takes to train up doctors and nurses to be able to compitantly work in critical situations such as Ed and ICU? And how long does it take to rectify 8 years of neglect in health infrastructure and capacity?
I have posted before Macro about what Dr Ian Powell says in his columns (former head of the Salaried Medical Specialists).
When Labour came in, he told the then Minister of Health, David Clark, that there were 3 problems facing Health in NZ. Workforce shortage, workforce shortage, workforce shortage. That was over five years ago. Had Labour of acted on this, we would now have trainees graduating or even with one or two years under their belts in ICU and ED. Last week we heard that Andrew Little was finally considering paying student nurses for their placements, after the NZNO had been suggesting it for sometime. I have posted here previously at least two articles about student nurses feeling highly stressed and contemplating not completing their training. Some of the reasons being have to travel big distances to do their (unpaid) hospital workforce training and receiving no petrol money or assistance with parking. I also posted an interview with Shane Reti on Q and A and as I recall, he talked about having had costing down for a new medical school. Many GPs are reaching retirement age.
Andrew Little has prioritized a health restructure during a pandemic, rather than addressing the workforce issues. NZders will pay the price
Can link to previously posted articles if requried.
Shane Reti would make an excellent health minister. Seems crazy having an ex union leader in charge of health.
I would have expected much better of an ex union in terms of managing health. IMO Little has shown nothing but contempt for the health workforce.
I don't think overblown words and exaggeration does vey much for the argument.
eg 'contempt.'![no no](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_down.png?x42494)
You know one of the reasons for the Health restructuring is simply to address the issue of stretched resources and inequitably distributed resources (ie access to health determined by post code rather than need) – but you knew that anyway.
The workforce issues would not be fixed in 5 years – last time I looked it takes at least 7 years for a doctor to be let loose on the general population.
For specialist nursing ie holding post grad nursing quals is just as long.
The entry requirements for post grad nursing requires candidates to:
To simply blame the current govt for the run down state of NZ Health is simply blinkered and partisan. The previous Nat govt, with their persistent under funding of Health (as clearly seen from the graph above) resulted in NZ's Health service ending up in a parlous state. It will take years to turn that around. Hospitals (eg Whangarei's) completely unfit for purpose. The low payment of Health professionals has resulted in large numbers flocking offshore. We staff our hospitals and aged care facilities from lower paid countries off-shore. Once re-qualified and NZ citizens they then depart to higher paid positions in Australia America Canada and UK). My son-in-law as evidence.
Hmmm I well remember the 2007 Nat advertisement "Stop waving goodbye to your loved ones!" Well no sooner were the Nats in power than they changed the provision for aftercare of those suffering brain injury. 100 specialists dealing with such conditions were immediately out of a job and nothing for them in this country. So Aussie just got 100 qualified specialists, just like that – my own family are never going to return. Now running 3 small hospitals in Perth.
I am not claiming National did a great job in terms of heath in NZ. Although I do believe Shane Reti would make a great Minister of Health or even PM>
Labour and Littles focus should have been on the training and retention of staff and the importation of the health workforce from overseas. This involves everything from settling pay disputes, increasing pay significantly and valuing the workforce rather than being in denial that public health is in crisis as Andrew Little does
Setting up Health NZ has inevitably put them behind as you don't just set up a new agency and its all good to go. As I mentioned before my contact at Health NZ tells me it is chaos and in their considered opinion it won't achieve the goal of equity.
What is the health system? If. you get sick with a broken leg, cancer, a heart attack, an autoimmune disease, have a car accident etc, etc who do you need to be there in adequate numbers. The people with skills, training and experience. Not the bureacrats.
One of the articles I posted recently quoted a group of Drs who said the only change they have seen from the re-structure is the new logo.
But go ahead believe the bureacrats will make all the difference. Having worked in health in the 1990s I can tell you that what happened in Wellington made absolutely no difference at all. As long as our staffing levels were o.k., it all rose and fell on the expertise and clinical competence of the nurses and Drs and other allied workers at the coal face.
Mmmmm those faceless 'bureaucrats' are always worth a bash aren't they?
Would the critics of everything to do with the health sector and reforms be able to cobble together an argument without having access to these people to criticise? When I worked in the health sector the 'bureaucrats', but we called them staff rather than the pejorative, that were absolutely relied on at a high level were
Then we have the
bureaucratsstaff that any large organisation can not do without:https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300752834/health-system-desperately-needing-doctors-wont-let-new-grads-start-til-2023–union
Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) told the union it would not allow newly graduated doctors to start working in hospitals until next year, NZRDA national president Dr James Anderson said.
Anderson said Te Whatu Ora cited supervision and orientation concerns as the reason why.
It “makes no sense”, he said: “We have a workforce we so desperately need, qualified, ready and willing to work, and yet Te Whatu Ora won’t employ them for another two months.”
Anderson said the “excuse” of supervision and orientation concerns, “is in our view, exactly that”.
It seems Health NZ is the obstacle here. So rather than helping the over worked Drs in crisis they are an impediment. But of course the Professional Managerial Class think they know best
While I understand your concern re staffing it does the cause no good to leave off some points, these were in the article that you attached.
a) the proposed changes were discussed/consulted on
'A spokesperson for Te Whatu Ora said the 20 DHBs that previously comprised Health New Zealand went through extensive consultation before the change was put in place, to strengthen training, staff welfare and services to patients.'
b) the overriding reason is this
'He said the shift from November to January enabled newly-appointed first-year doctors to be supported into practice, particularly with more senior staff on leave over the Christmas and New Year period, and ensured new graduates got a break before starting their careers.
“New Zealanders can have confidence that, as in previous years, this will not affect our ability to staff services over the holiday period.” "
I have lived next door to one of those senior orthopaedic surgeons who trains new staff, for many years. He often has some time off in Dec/ January. Apart from a little time with both sets of elderly parents he is usually at home doing things like building a new deck, blobbing out, going to outdoor concerts etc etc.
Even though he is on leave when there are huge numbers or complex injuries to road accident victims he is on call and about 90% of the time during these holidays he is called in.
NZers regularly drive their cars into each other, into bridges or power poles over the break. When the remaining staff cannot deal with the injuries he will go in to operate. Having done this he then goes in daily to check on the patients he has operated on.
Last Christmas/January break he was flown to Chch, while on leave, to help operate on badly injured road accident victims. Having done this he stayed down there to be on call for his patients for a week.
The point about letting newly graduated doctors have a break is also valid. Up until now many would have had minimal time off as most would work over the long break.
So always good to have both sides of an issue.
Good points Macro.
Spoken with the voice of experience. I had a very minor involvement with a govt workforce/clinical training group for health.
From this I am left with the view that it is never as clear cut as the various groups say, they exist to push their causes and that is OK but we should not forget it. Many of the groups are single issue and do not understand how all the bits fit together in clinical training in the health sector.
Stability of government is hugely important. Health is regularly used as an election issue and during this time there is wastage in terms of gearing up and down to meet a new govt's ideas. Health by the long nature of its training and long time frames on other issues, is a bit like trying to turn an ocean liner on a coin. It takes an age.
Access to health services via post code is a happening thing. Although not as bad as prior to the 1990s the cries for every DHB to have the latest health bauble (not based on need) are never-ending.
And make no mistake some health specialties are more 'sexy', as they say, than others. Some DHBs are keenly aware of this and waste no time in seeking funds for latest 'thing' when population based funding based on the actual needs of their populations is ignored. So we find that, as your family has, that painstaking and often long term rehab for the brain injured is not valued.
Back in the 1990s linear accelerators were the 'thing' and every hospital wanted one, regardless of need based on demographics. Trying to persuade people that if they paid attention to their populations ie to the demographics they wouldn't need linear accelerators fell on very deaf ears.
Looking after Maori child health was just not 'it', even though the chance existed to become a centre of excellence and a leader in the field.
The backbone of the health work force are Baby Boomers at or beyond retirement age. That's the cause of the workforce shortfall, same as in Education and other professions. Think about it !.
The government needs to reprioritise its spending to pay medical staff competitive salaries to keep them in NZ.
For instance, scrap the TVNZ/RNZ merger. Scrap the light rail vanity project. Give the money to the medical staff.
100% tsmithfield. Except I would say, as I have said on this site before, they should never have gone ahead with the re-structure.
This is only heresay and one person’s opinion, and so I can’t provide any links etc. A friend works quite high up in the new Health NZ. She says it is absolute chaos and that she doesn't believe it will achieve equity.
That sounds really sensible. They will never do it.
So they have spent all that money and the health system is worse than it was back in 2017. What a failure, thanks Andrew Little.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/130542865/laminated-cards-in-ed-with-health-ministers-number-common-knowlege
Sizing need a fix please.
if you ever need to do that yourself, edit the comment and put this at the end of the tag before the final >
width="100%"
Thanks Weka
.
https://twitter.com/fleetwoodmac/status/1598036525903941632
I really only came to appreciate Fleetwood Mac later in life – and the remarkable McVie herself. Few people have the privilege of leaving such a well loved legacy.
Saw them in Dunedin in 2019 at the stadium. Sound was terrible but was really important to understand their aura live. She had radiant presence.
Also Neil Finn gave us Shark Attack.
Wonderful music. Wonderful singer.
Very sad. A very talented musician taken too early.
The USSR used the false-flag attack as a pretext to cancel the Finnish-Soviet non-aggression pact.
But sure, Ukraine should negotiate.
/
https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1597914810322407425
You do know the peace movement within Russia, has disappeared right?
Anyone organising for a negotiated peace has either fled, or is in prison.
I guess with Putin's popularity so bloody high, he can do what he wants.
He wants war.
He, also wants to push Ukraine back into the stone age, by smashing their infrastructure.
Three parts to video
1st part a great piece Victorian Election and the media.
At 3.45 minute mark – Ukraine story.
3rd part – friendlyjordies fire booming.
What I can’t work out is if the Covid wage subsidy was less than the normal income for most recipients surely the lower amount of spending was not inflationary and then when things like spending stabilised the effects of the two regimes should be considered as a whole over the Covid years and those subsequent years giving us an average over say 5 years which should not be hugely inflationary. So what is the panic, we are just catching up and the resulting yearly total should be no different wether Covid happened or not.
Is this another classic example of Economics Trivial Pursuit, one question, 1000 correct answers?
Tsunamis have more than 1 wave even if the sine decrease is rapid.
I think the inflationary aspect, if any, was that businesses were propped up that otherwise would have failed as business failures have actually declined. The loss in GDP was also pretty small in the end as businesses adapted to trading in the Covid levels, even level 3, and the government avoided level 4 until Delta arrived, so the macroeconomic impact from Covid restrictions ended up being minimal, particularly compared to forecasts earlier on.
If this baby is removed from hospital today as the mother is threatening to do and the baby subsequently dies, it is easy to see what will happen. They, and their fellow anti- vaccine conspiracy theorists, will blame the death on the Ministry of Health and the Government.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/donor-blood-battle-mother-refuses-to-abide-by-medical-advice-to-not-leave-hospital-with-baby/WI7TPO5JANECJCYKJ4E5OMFMBI/
I listened to part of the Sue Grey interview with Corin Dann this morning. It was hard going. The woman was appalling. Full of ‘mis and dis’ information.
I really don't think these people should be interviewed on public radio or TV. They have nothing of worth to offer.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018869301
Oh dear, and here's another one:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130623195/saboteur-graham-philip-jailed-for-trying-to-cut-power-to-entire-north-island
Goes to show some of them are dangerous people.![surprise surprise](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/omg_smile.png?x42494)
'
In the same vein as the absurd vaccine conspiracy theorists willfully risking their child's life.
Months and months of Russian propaganda have convinced some people, of the absurdity that Ukraine is a fascist state.
The result is inevitable. Some misguided individual has sent a letter bomb to what they think are fascists.
https://www.rt.com/news/567430-embassy-explosion-madrid-ukraine/?
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities" Voltaire
Spot on Jenny.
That's why these conspiracy theorists are dangerous and should be constantly regarded as such by the authorities. It’s why they should not be given air time.
Why only the Covid vaccine – what about flu, HepA, HepB, shingles, measles, human papilloma virus, cholera, rabies, polio, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria etc? Many blood donors will have had one or more of these vaccines – actually most donors, if you look at the NZ Vaccine Schedule.
It is largely political – aimed at painting centre-left governments as authoritarian enemies of freedom, when the opposite is true. One question is whether it is a genuinely spontaneous derangement, or if there's money behind it.
Good points.
I had pondered why only Covid. If I was going to get down a rabbit hole about vaccinations and possible lingering effects in the blood I would go for one of those where attenuated parts of a disease were injected…… eg TB etc.
They are crackpots and it is terrible that they are using the life of a wee baby who is not able to speak for themselves to further their views. It also espouses a view about babies being 'owned' by their parents that I disagree with.
Fortunately, the system is quite practiced at this. For years, the hospitals have had to deal with adherents of religious cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses who do not believe in blood transfusions. While adults can give consent – children cannot, so these children regularly get made Wards of the Court so that they can get the lifesaving procedures they require.
Yes I have heard about those wards of court processes for children.
I have wondered how the children are treated by their religious parents after, if they have received life saving transfusions. So whether there is a difference in the treatment/care/attention/love they receive from their parents.
It breaks my heart reading about people who place adherence to creed, belief or religion above their children's lives etc.
I have long ceased to try and fathom the thought processes of religious and other cultists. I have a good friend who is married to a Jehovah's Witness husband. We went to my friend's 70th birthday party some years ago. Her family had to pretend it was a house warming party for the house they moved in to 2 years previously as the husband would refuse to go to a birthday party. Imagine the sort of religious indoctrination that does not let you go to your wife's 70th birthday party. Once he shuffled off to some church thing the "Happy Housewarming" banner came down, and the "Happy Birthday Mum" banner went up.
There's money behind it alright – most of it off-shore.
And yes its political. Just like the climate denial thing was for decades. One of the reasons the world is heading for climate catastrophe is directly due to the influence of the deniers who were given carte-blanche by irresponsible media channels to spread their crackpot theories far and wide.
And now it is happening in the health sector.
Which of those are mRNA vaccines? Which of those were developed in less than 12 months?
mRNA vaccines do not use attenuated actual viruses. I don't think the length of time of development has a role or is important. Do you know how long the others on the list were under development…..?
flu, HepA, HepB, shingles, measles, human papilloma virus, cholera, rabies, polio, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria etc?
For instance flu vaccines are tweaked to cover the current viral threats every year.
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-long-history-of-mrna-vaccines#:~:text=The%20first%20mRNA%20vaccines%20using,commercial%20development%20in%20the%20U.S.
You have asked some odd questions. Are these relevant to the willingness to effectively withhold medical/surgical treatment from a wee baby? If so in what way?
mRNA and it’s functions were discovered in 1961, clinical trials of mRNA therapeutics began in 2009 and the first in-human mRNA cancer vaccine trials were in 2017.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00358-0
I agree totally, there are so many more blood borne vectors why only the covid vaccine?
Up until covid came along, the far right and neo-fascists had been unable to find a cause that they could use to prey on people's fears.
Xenophobia and racism just doesn't have the pulling power it used to.
https://thehardtimes.net/culture/new-age-hippie-chick-from-college-new-age-fascist-chick-now/
Heavens, she is not very articulate is she? It is hard going. Surely she should do, just as Luxon should do, work to find out info to rebut the type of questions an interested lay person would ask. I wonder if she is more used to taking court cases on the papers rather than orally.
So a case of myocarditis came about as a very uncommon reaction. Is she trying to say that blood from a healthy person/s who does not have any risks is going to get in and whip up a case of myocarditis? If so she is sadly lacking in knowledge about how vaccinations work and how the Covid ones in particular work.
'A medical expert believes another baby in a similar condition to one Health NZ is trying to seek guardianship for would've been treated by now.' Meanwhile the date for the hearing is set for 6/12. Terrible delays caused by the parents' stance.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/11/protesters-gather-outside-auckland-high-court-as-health-nz-faces-off-with-parents-of-sick-baby-over-vaccinated-blood-donors.html
Is it true, that blood purity is the bastion of some very far right groups?
A calling card even.
You mean like Ayranism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryanism
Its happening all over again only this time it is spreading through the Internet across the world.
That was painful to listen to!
That poor baby, with no voice except that of it's deranged parents, could well die to make a political point!
There should be some way, made clear to the parents and their supporters, that an adverse result (to the baby's health) would result in charges being laid. Sue Grey and Liz Gunn, in particular, should be held liable, in some way, for what happens.
The deranged parents that are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure their child has the safest medical procedure possible? That sort of deranged?
arkies comment is of the quality needed in this debate. Sue Grey had nothing like it.
arkie7.2.1.2
2 December 2022 at 10:41 am
"Donated blood is tested and separated into different blood components; red blood cells, platelets, plasma etc. These are aggregated and when a transfusion is called for by medical professionals, these blood products are supplied depending on need. When someone receives a transfusion the blood doesn't just come from one donor, it is a recombined from the various collected components.
The practice of direct donations from a singular donor, or donors of the parents choice, is not recommended by Doctors or the New Zealand Blood Service."
If you had been listening to Grey's side of the debate, the different blood components or the number of blood donors aren't what is holding up the surgery.
?
Was there an interview in there somewhere..? It appeared more like a shouty lecture from Corin "I am the Science" Dan.
Corin certainly was shouty, mauī but Sue Grey presented very poorly, imo. She dragged into what might have been a useful interview, heavy baggage that triggered Corin sorely and she should have known better. There was the potential for genuine empathy to be fostered, but she failed to cut to the chase. I wouldn't want her defending me anywhere for anything.
They’ve given away several small fortunes but Marilyn and Grant Nelson aren't quite done.
The auditor-general is being challenged to do more to get businesses to pay back billions of dollars in wage subsidy payments that they should not have received.
The Gama Foundation, a Christchurch-based philanthropic organisation, has filed an application at the High Court in Wellington, seeking a judicial review of the auditor-general’s overview of the scheme.
The foundation is run by former Christchurch businessman Grant Nelson and his wife, Marilyn.
[…]
Reserve Bank data shows that in October 2020 businesses had $22.7b more in the bank than in October 2019.
[…]
“In the two years since the wage subsidy scheme was introduced, there’s been a huge transfer of wealth to businesses who didn’t experience the drop in revenue they might have anticipated,” Nelson said.
“The fact that over $750 million has voluntarily been repaid is a good indication that many times more would be repaid if recipients were asked to make repayments.”
Earlier this year the auditor-general took a much stronger stance over the cost of living payments – within weeks of the first round of payments being made Ryan had written to Inland Revenue, recommending it “consider what steps it can take to identify how many ineligible people have received payments”.
He also advised the department to make its expectation clear to ineligible people who got the payment that they should repay it immediately.
“We’re really just wanting him to do something similar with the wage subsidies because vastly more money is involved,” Nelson said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/130635165/court-challenge-to-auditorgeneral-over-billions-of-taxpayer-dollars-paid-in-wage-subsidies
Good on them.
I cant figure it out. on stuff presently , an odd penguin type is loseing his claim, and loseing his appeal, to a poll conducted by his company, being reported as a poll. someone else (hah!) can explain. is this karma?
Yes that was strannge wasn't it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-government/130627259/blogger-david-farrars-straw-poll-complaint-dismissed-by-media-council
What amazed me was this statement
'Farrar, who is a Media Council member through Kiwiblog, …….'
yet he is not mentioned here
https://www.mediacouncil.org.nz/about/
He is one of a group of publishers etc who have agreed to abide by Principles set by the Media Council.
https://www.mediacouncil.org.nz/principles/#membership
Farrar is right about this. His political bias doesn't invalidate the basic principle here.
The word "poll" is wrongly used in the media far too often. See the Newshub AM Show "polls", for example. Easy to rig, no value whatsoever.
Just ask our popular Prime Minister, Judith Collins …
https://www.mediacouncil.org.nz/rulings/peter-green-against-mediaworks-newshub/
“Readers could have been left with the impression that this poll had some validity. The headline and story stated it was a poll of people’s Prime Ministerial preferences. There was no information stating what it was based on. Readers were not told it was an unscientific straw poll”
etc.
Apple users must wake up everyday smelling their own farts and virtual signalling their lords and masters.
How scummy are the corporation, I'd say very.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-hobbled-crucial-tool-dissent-185100767.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/z6k5r0/apple_hobbled_a_crucial_tool_of_dissent_in_china/
Government has lightbulb moment,to train people ( through ngo's) to change lightbulbs and provide advice on low flow shower heads.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-supports-more-energy-saving-projects-help-more-kiwis-save-money
Needs to be substantive savings for the new tech economy planned by the government,with the energy hungry and thirsty data centres for Auckland,of which they are energy intensive and require substantive water for cooling.