Watching Blomfield act with such duplicity is a crowning moment for Wellington Bureaucratic double speak
Ministry of Health admits requisitioned RATs already in New Zealand
The Ministry of Health has backtracked on a claim by director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield that tests requisitioned from private businesses were not already in New Zealand when the Ministry took them.
Last month, when news broke that the Ministry was requisitioning tests ordered by private companies for its own stocks, Bloomfield said private and public orders of the tests were being “consolidated” into one order for the Government.
Bloomfield twice assured the public that tests taken by the Ministry were “forward orders” from overseas, not tests already in New Zealand.
“Many businesses already have tests onshore and we’re not requisitioning those or doing anything like that,” Bloomfield said.
This was only partly correct. While tests from one of the manufacturers, Abbott, were not being requisitioned, tests from another manufacturer, Roche, very much were.
He added, “we have discussed with our three main suppliers which are Abbott, Roche and Siemens, that forward orders of tests that haven’t arrived in the country be consolidated into the Government’s stock so that it is there for the whole country including private businesses”.
While no stocks of Abbott tests that are already in the country have been requisitioned, a substantial stock of Roche tests have been, a fact the Ministry now admits.
A spokeswoman from the Ministry acknowledged it “did take the full February allocation from Roche and their stock on hand in New Zealand as part of having our orders fulfilled by Roche”.
However, the spokeswoman said this “did not include any ‘delivery confirmed’ Roche orders”.
She said Abbott, Roche and Siemens had been asked ” to provide information regarding customers that may have been impacted by our expectation that Government orders are prioritised for New Zealand’s Public Health Response.”
…this is outrageous, but wait for Blomfield’s response…
When asked about the requisitioning fiasco, Bloomfield and ministers tend to answer with reference to Abbott’s tests, which had not been requisitioned.
This was despite no companies with Abbott tests on order actually alleging their orders had been taken. The two largest firms who complained their tests had been taken, InScience and Health Works Group, both ordered Roche products.
In a press conference last month, instead of answering what had happened to the missing Roche tests, Bloomfield answered questions relating to Abbott tests – tests which no one had reported as being stolen.
He added that the requisitioning of testing stock had only begun as recently as Sunday, January 23.
“The conversation I had which was Sunday morning with Abbott when we were discussing our forward orders and trying to get as much certainty as possible about how much of those forward orders would be delivered and the timing of those orders between now and February,” Bloomfield said.
“During that conversation I was asked about the orders that other New Zealand-based companies had and I was asked about whether they should prioritise delivery to that All-of-Government order,” Bloomfield said.
…so despite knowing the Ministry had taken RATS, because journalists weren’t asking about the specific company the Ministry were taking them from, he pretended none had been taken from a specific company!
The manner in which he dances on the head of a pin on when the Ministry was taking RATS and when it wasn’t it so breathtaking in its duplicity you feel nothing but immense respect for Wellington bureaucratic double speak!
Look – I’m all in favour of the State seizing private property for the glory of the people, but why seize shitty tests that are 20% false all the time?
Why the fuck aren’t we seizing Megalandlord properties or ghost houses or rich peoples money to feed poor kids?
Why must this seizing be of things that embarrass the Government by exposing their glacial bureaucratic incompetence rather than seizing obscene wealth to redistribute?
I’ve seen dead rats swallowed with more grace than this.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.
When governments start seizing private property, sooner or later there isn’t any
My only interest and concern in this matter is whether the tests ended up where they are most needed and helpful. I see little reporting on that particular point.
What role did the MoH play in this? They are disagreeing with Blomfield publicly – is this revolting bureaucrats? Or not?
Why can’t we buy better bureaucrats and good leaders in the public domain and, of course, politicians. (We get more of the coarse than otherwise.) At present I think the entry bar for all is too low. Under the system of whatever governance we have (neoliberal?) the setters of standards have brought in the idea of generic management, just learn the system and act as if you are a computer, and hey presto you can be replaced by a computer.
Or do we have an army, a phalanx, of ‘best practice’ practitioners with their preachy approach that ignores the human touch in favour of some ‘law’ of behaviour that they have made up for themselves in some (get ready for cliche’) ivory-tower!
What else are they lying about?
The housing debacle (this last period turns out they’ve pulled down more than they’ve built!), hiding the vaccination status of those hospitalised from covid and the adverse vaccination reactions.
There’s a mounting pile of bullshit under the carpet.
I watched Jacinda answer questions about this. The spin was good, but the eyes were decidedly dodgy. The halo is slip, sliding away…
It’s none of the above figureheads, it’s those at the ministry of health, fluent in bureaucratese, who are generating the spin. Which only occassionally surfaces into the public consciousness, like the tip of an iceberg that the bureaucrats are unable to conceal. Another recent example was when the ministry of health claimed in July 2021, that the mental health gumboot Friday application got turned down because it was received too late, when in reality no application had even been sent in. Just baseless spin that got found out. Why does this malbehavior carry on? Because there’s no downside, as those generating the spin, never face any consequences when found out. Another older example was the goings on at Lake Alice, and again, those at the ministry who buried the matter for years, will not be facing any jail time for being an accessory to the depravity of Dr Leeks, nor will they face any fine, or offical warning, or demotion, or even a stern talking to. That’s the simple reason why spin and covering up continues at the ministry. It makes little difference who the head guy is. And the state services commission, who are supposed to be keeping an eye on things, may as well be a little ball of belly button fluff. No genuine oversight, only genuine covering up, reputation management, and maintaining public false confidence. Why arn’t there more honest people in politics…because they don’t survive the bureaucratic merry go round, in my officially unofficial official opinion.