The person who said, “as long as this government doesn’t actually achieve anything, we are safe from their incompetence,” should rethink that statement now the mob of incompetents is messing with our health.
Last week a very angry Candace Owens told Tucker Carlson that Joe Biden’s government is “terrified of leadership, but hungry for power”. Owens was unaware that her description of government applies equally to Ardern’s government with the same history of ill-considered policies and failure to deliver. A slavishly compliant media keep the facts well away from public scrutiny, which is exactly what riled up Owens in the first place.
Associate Health Minister Andrew Little, invited onto TVNZ Breakfast, was politely asked by ex-netballer Jenny-May Coffin to “unpack the detail of the huge announcement.” Little failed to do so and Coffin failed to notice.
“This is about an opportunity now and look there’s a heap of detail to fill in, a whole lot of gaps to… that we’ve got to fill in. That’s the um… I think the process now is to work with all the stakeholders and start putting that together and making it work on the Maori Health Authority and engagement with Maori about… you tell us… you know, say how you want this to work, and how you want to put people together um because it’s an independent authority, it’s got to work for Maori.
So, a lot of mahi [work] to do really over the next 12 months. I’m determined that by the first of July next year we have those entities in place and they can exercise the statutory powers that they will have… um that’s then the start of getting the processes and systems and most importantly the culture in place, that’s really going to transform the way… you know… health services are delivered.”
Andrew Little on Breakfast Thursday 22 April
Instead of filling in the gaps, Little exposed great chasms, promising the mysterious appearance of missing detail after talking to the right people. Naturally, most of us will be excluded from that conversation carried out under the battlecry: out with democracy and in with socialism! Neither Little’s choice of words nor his delivery gives any confidence of improved Maori health.
Breakfast reserved their once upon a time in a galaxy far far away hot shot TV presenter John Campbell to grill National’s health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti. Unfortunately this clip isn’t separate from the two and a half hour show because either TVNZ didn’t deem Reti’s comments worthy, or more likely they have a duty of care to uphold the government stance.
Reti described the policy as “rushed and reckless across a number of levels”, saying “$5M for the transition unit – that is to get to the starting point.” Reti said setup costs, based on the government’s polytechnic reform which exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, “would take money away from ‘hips and knees and hands and cataracts – the top four.’”
Reti also lamented the loss of the community voice, saying need, not race, must be the basis of a robust restructured health system and the much needed additional work on improving Maori health outcomes could be achieved by an annual review of Maori health objectives against outcomes.
Campbell deliberately misinterpreted National’s health policy, accusing Reti of “doing a 180” by advocating for special treatment for Maori while refusing to adopt a separate Maori health system. Campbell struggled to understand how a needs based health system would meet Maori needs or the annual Maori health review work under the existing, or as Reti suggested, slightly modified health structure.
The huge health policy change is the result of the government adopting in-principle Maori separatism driven by activists whose interest in improving Maori health trails behind their need to promote themselves and drive political change. We encountered this political tactic in 2017 with Ardern’s election commitment to address child poverty that propelled Ardern skyward but made little impact on reducing child poverty.
The previous day, Maori spokesperson Matthew Tukaki was invited onto the AM show ahead of the major health announcement and after Judith Collins said she was absolutely against a separate Maori health service.
Tukaki was gung-ho, possibly eyeing a lucrative appointment onto the soon to be announced Maori Health Authority. First, he put the boot into Collins’s leadership, saying it doesn’t matter what Collins thinks because she will be “gone by breakfast”. Tukaki mimicked last week’s unfounded allegations by Newshub’s Tova O’Brien and Gemma Lynch in agreement about the latest “leak” of a National Party coup. Their “news” solved a slow news week problem and cheered up their buddy PM smarting from unflattering international media attention to her government’s poor performance overall and, in particular, foreign affairs.
Ryan Bridge:
[Judith Collins] basically says, Matthew, she doesn’t want it. The idea of separate funding or race based funding… she is just not into it. What do you say to that?”
Matthew Tukaki:
Well, Judith doesn’t want a leadership challenge either, but that will probably be coming by breakfast in the morning sort of business. So here’s the thing. We are talking about separatism in a way that doesn’t exist.
I am confident that I would be very pleased if a Maori health authority was announced today and that isn’t about building a Maori hospital next to a non-Maori hospital somewhere up north or wherever it might be.
This is about investing in local Maori communities and health services because by hook or by crook what we need to focus our time and attention on is bringing down Maori health disparities. Everything from our predication to having higher cancer rates… I mean look at me… I’m the walking poster child for blood pressure medication and cardiovascular disease. So let’s do more about that. Let’s do more about bringing down rates of diabetes.”
Matthew Tukaki with Ryan Bridge on the AM Show Wednesday 21 April
In his excitement (anticipating dollar bills miraculously falling from the sky into waiting Maori leadership hands?) Tukaki’s mouth parted company with his brain when he drew attention to his own lack of personal health care – insisting the government is responsible to drive down disease common among Maori.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for 85-90% of diabetes in NZ and is preventable, reversible and can be kept in remission “by lifestyle and weight loss measures”. Type 2 is also “more common among Maori, Pacific and South Asian people”. Why should Pacifica and Asians be excluded from additional funding directed only at Maori toward managing Type 2 diabetes themselves?
Tutaki should consider the health dollars freed up when Type 2 diabetes patients become instrumental in managing their own health outcomes.
Neither Tukaki nor any of the media can get past the notion that the government is solely responsible for all good health outcomes. It’s the socialist way, but it’s not true. A fair health system based on Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi is equal rights for all meaning one health system with funds allocated according to need.
Newshub’s 6 pm presenter was very excited on Thursday leading with a huge grin and the outright lie that a race based health policy will “remove inequality based on race”.
“Stand clear, there’s a massive jolt coming to the heart of the health system. The biggest overhaul in a generation designed to remove inequality based on race, disability and address.”
Newshub News 22 April
Given the media lies we hear every day, you can bet your house that this “transformational” health policy will go the same way as the government’s previous “transformational” policies.
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