With the inaugural Child Poverty Monitor showing that 16 % of kiwi kids will live in poverty for much of their childhood, I was stunned to hear the Social Development Minister say she was “incredibly proud” of her Government’s record for children. Asked if she had a target for reducing child poverty Paula Bennett instead reeled […]
health
What Tony Ryall doesn’t know
A crucial part of the role of any Minister is to know what is happening in their area of responsibility. It seems that Tony Ryall, however, is taking a ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ approach to being the Minister of Health. My previous blog posts on what Tony Ryall doesn’t want to answer and […]
Building a good society
This week I gave a keynote speech to the Public Health Association’s Conference in New Plymouth. Here is the speech I gave. INTRODUCTION Legend has it that Albert Einstein once described insanity as the practice of repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting different results. Funnily enough, Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin […]
Rational Tony Ryall
I am continuing to push the Minister of Health on the issue of planning for diabetes because it is his job to plan for future health services that we need; and he is not doing that. This is a problem for all of us who will inherit, within our lifetimes, an obesity and diabetes crisis […]
A table for one?
After yesterday’s blog post about the lack of response from the Minister of Health to my written questions it was a nice surprise this morning to see my inbox brimming with responses. Well, sort of. These responses would be funny if they weren’t so sad. The first thing you need to know in order to […]
Tony Ryall and democracy
I have just sent a letter to the Speaker of Parliament to complain about the apparent disregard with which the Minister of Health, Tony Ryall, has been treating his democratic obligations. Here’s the main gist of my complaint: Every single one of the 101 Questions for Written Answer I have asked the Minister this year […]
A good start for all Kiwi kids is a can do
A good start for all Kiwi kids is a can do. KidsCan is once more stepping into the breach left by the Government and trying to plug gaps to help our most vulnerable children get a good start in life. The charity, which has led the charge on food in schools, is now looking at […]
Health Budget predictions and alternatives
As I write this I am preparing to go into Parliament to hear the Budget, and no doubt to see Government Ministers crowing about “more money than ever before” spent on Health, and ‘brave new’ programmes for this and that. I only get the Budget documents once I’m actually in Parliament, and have to frantically […]
Reflections from the ‘False Economy’ tour
Below is a presentation that was part of our ‘False Economy: The high cost of a low wage economy’ meeting in Auckland this week. I was really moved by what Darryl had to say and wanted to make sure that other people had a chance to see what he shared with us. Please have a […]
Billy McKee should be discharged
Sick and injured New Zealanders deserve respect and dignity, but the prohibition laws on cannabis persecute and punish. We have highlighted this before, put legislation up to fix the system and to make it possible for people to use cannabis as a medicine. Thousands of New Zealanders agree to a compassionate law, but not yet […]