OPINION: It’s been a quiet week for many MPs who have dug into their voters, reconnected with voters, removed time from Wellington, and started the long road to re-election in 2023 on break week.
Here is too Andrew Little who surprised everyone at how ready he was to reform the health system. There was speculation that the government might pull back to reduce the number of district health departments, and then he decided to wipe them out completely.
And it came with a touching personal story. Little spoke of his fear of seeing his young son who will require medical intervention. One of the medical “heroes” he looked at that day was in the crowd listening to his speech.
It was also a “personal triumph” for Peeni Henare. The commitment to a robust Māori health agency, a promise Henare undoubtedly urged the government to make, was based on a family heritage. Henare said his father founded one of the largest Māori health care providers in the 1990s and that his uncle was in charge of regional health authorities in the past. “I’m very proud, so at the end of the speech I said, ‘This is our day,'” he told reporters.
ROBERT KITCHIN / things
Health Secretary Andrew Little will deliver a speech in the beehive on Wednesday about important health reforms that the government has now also committed.
CONTINUE READING:
* The government’s DHB overhaul is the latest volley in the Wellington-Local Control War
* The public health overhaul that needed to take place
* Government announces radical plan to centralize health care, will abolish DHBs
Save yourself a thought Shane Reti Who’s got the unenviable job of defending the District Health Boards and the railing against Labour’s centralization, as well as the Maori Health Authority. The health authorities are largely unpopular, no one knows who to vote for, they always seem to be in deficit, and they were created by a Labor government. What is not to love!
Kevin Stent
Save a thought for National Health Party spokesman Shane Reti, who is in charge of defending the District Health Boards.
Both a bouquet and a brickbat will work Nanaia Mahuta for putting the cat among the pigeons with what seemed like a fairly inconspicuous speech about New Zealand’s position on China. Her speech has been used in the UK media to show that New Zealand is “sucking up” China and that Jacinda Ardern is New Zealand’s “awakened weak link”.
ROBERT KITCHIN / things
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta addressed the NZ China Council at their meeting in Wellington on Monday.
New Zealand’s position has not changed, while a number of power-hungry and status-hungry Securocrats from the other Five Eyes countries appear to want to transform the information exchange agreement into something completely different: bigger, with more prestige and, without a doubt, more ghosts. Mind you, it is not uncommon for Australia to have ideas about its station and overestimate its importance to the world, and Mahuta had a face-to-face meeting with her Australian counterpart Marise Payne good this week.
ROBERT KITCHIN / things
Everyone is smiling at the camera. Winston Peters with his attorney Brian Henry is leaving the appeals court for a lunch break on Tuesday.
And of course the return of Mahuta’s predecessor, Winston Petersrequires a mention. Peters appeared across from the beehive on Tuesday and appeared alongside his longtime attorney Brian Henry for reprisals of his legal prosecution for passing on details of his overpayment in retirement provision, as early as 2017.
The argument the couple made that the Ministry of Social Development was responsible for the violation of their privacy by briefing the then national minister Anne Tolley seemed thin about his overpayments – and sometimes generated some laughs from the judges. It is not exactly common for plaintiffs to appear before the appeals court as no testimony is required. Peters was dressed for the cameras, of course.
