Still think the opening ‘Question & Answer’ thing that Corin has to do is clunky and he has to walk over to the first main interview – it all feels awkward.
Health Minister, David Clark is on. Needs to stop being so defensive in answering questions, needs to be pushing the new Government’s actual vision for health and he can’t. Health is one of the most difficult portfolios and the new Government needs to be able to articulate a new vision rather than arguing abut underfunding.
Corin hit this nail on its head when he argued the DHBs were ultimately a failed model.
Clark pushed back on this and pointed out NZs public health system is one of the best, but he acknowledged he might look at the structures of DHBs past the first term.
Corin again pushes Clark on the inequalities inside the Health system that see Māori and Pacific Islanders so poorly served, Clark stresses that outreach will be the key.
This is a significant issue.
Ever since the National Party turned public departments into a linked Stasi mass surveillance state, the poor who might have had run ins with Housing NZ, WINZ, IRD, Police, Ministry for making children vulnerable etc etc etc do everything in their power to stay away from any state department for fear their details will be passed along. This is part of the reason so many poor people turn up at emergency wards when the illness reaches crisis point.
We have a punitive neoliberal surveillance state that the people it is supposed to serve are too frightened to interact with.
David needs to sit down with Annette King and look at how to project what public health vision looks like in the 21st Century under a progressive Government.
The panel is Jennifer Kirton, Efeso Collins and Peter Dunne.
Efeso points out it is the Māori and Pacific Island community who bear the brunt of health problems when Corin asks if there is a crisis. For white middle class people with private health insurance it isn’t crisis, for working class, poor or beneficiaries it is the usual underfunding crisis for groups with no power.
Jennifer brings insight to the current lack of action in health but warns the new government they need to have a vision soon.
Efeso calls on government to get an inquiry into the DHB model.
There is debate about public private partnerships building hospitals. We should have none of that in our public health system but I do think a sugar tax that directs all its revenue into health would be a smart way forward.
Next up is a story on how waste water is being dealt with in rural NZ. It comes down to what it always comes down to with local councils, they don’t have enough resources to be able to plan for complex technical issues as large as this.
In NZ we are always a dollar short and a day late.
Efeso gives shout outs to Phil Goff and Phil Twyford.
Dunne warns Trump might claim a peace prize.
Jennifer gave Shane Jones the bash for demanding the Public Service do some work.
