All 18 medical colleges and many hundreds of doctors who signed an open letter opposing the minister’s decision strongly disagree. They aspire to a higher standard of care – technical competence is good; technical-plus-cultural competence is great.
Professor Boyd Swinburn, University of Auckland.
Systemic ‘affronts’
Jonathan Ayling endorses Simeon Brown’s discharge of the chair and deputy chair of the Medical Council on the grounds of their “pursuing an ideological agenda”.
Their fault was an attempt to address the systemic institutional racism statistically evident in our nation’s healthcare delivery.
Two examples: just this week we learned of an 11-year-old non-verbal Maori child being “misidentified” as a 20-year-old adult and, contrary to all normal protocols, forcibly restrained and drugged.
Last week, it was reported that Māori patients are six times more likely than Pākehā to be placed in seclusion … a social restraint practice which has been identified as having the traumatic clinical after-effects.
These are but two of myriad other systemic affronts to their personal liberties that Ayling’s fellow citizens of Māori descent will more than likely experience on entering our healthcare systems.
If health providers are not to do what the former office holders of the Medical Council were asking – namely, taking the time to “examine their own privilege, and challenge the dominant culture of the health system” – how exactly would Ayling and Brown suggest the replacement Medical Council regulators hold their fellow health professionals to account, in order to address the causes of all such egregious and long-standing racially premised harms?
Janet Charman, Avondale.
Dame Jools Topp remembered
I never knew the Topp Twins personally, although I was present on a number of occasions when, as young women, they performed their original songs during the 1981 Springbok tour protests, and at other rallies since.
My wife and I saw the film Untouchable Girls some years ago, and really enjoyed that as well. Hilarious. I believe Dames Lynda and Jools are among Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic folk/country performers of all time.
Dame Jools, you are sadly missed and won’t ever be forgotten.
Also, kudos to Rod Emmerson’s excellent cartoon in Friday’s Herald. Nice one, Rod.
John Watkins, Meadowbank.
A ‘bit rich’
Shane Jones has got to be kidding if he expects the public to believe that he wasn’t aware of the reasons for the blowout in his junket expenses. And Nicola Willis should do her job and ask how and why.
But as always, he will front up in his pompous and bombastic manner. But it’s a bit rich to see the Government, correctly, going after immigration officials for dishonesty when you see the very same thing from one of their own. Simply a snout in the trough.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
Prescription charges
The current Government re-established a prescription charge of $5, and Labour has announced a policy of, once again, abolishing it.
A charge of $5 does not sound unaffordable, but what has not been explained clearly is that the charge is $5 per item.
When I worked at Middlemore, I frequently saw patients with chronic illness readmitted after a few days with deterioration of their condition because they had been discharged from hospital with a prescription for a dozen drugs and could not afford the $60 charge to have it dispensed.
I strongly support the proposal to abolish it once again.
Ross Boswell, Christchurch.
AI reality
Al will inevitably come into our lives. If it comes through the front door, we may be able to have some control over how the benefits and the consequent revenues generated are handled.
If we legislate against AI, it will come in the back door anyway, and the money generated from the jobs AI replaces will flow in the same direction internet revenue does. We may be able to benefit from AI, but we cannot avoid it.
Stuart Mackenzie, New Plymouth.
Fabulous football
Wow! This tournament has already exceeded my expectations. I have watched almost every match, and the excitement is palpable among the record crowds. Superstars Kylian Mbappe (France), Erling Haaland (Norway) and Harry Kane (England) have all scored two goals each in their opening matches. Lionel Messi (Argentina) has scored three.
Then, of course, we have our own Kiwi superstar in the making – Elijah Just, who, also with two goals, is in the running for the Golden Boot award.
Football is truly the “global game”.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
Green shoots
It is not surprising the Green Party has a surge in the polls – there is a new demographic in play, namely the War Babies’ grandchildren.
See the speech by Hannah Spencer winning a “safe seat” by 80% in a British byelection, or the speech by the young Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.
Some people of my generation think young people are mindlessly glued to their iPhones, but they are actually absorbing a lot of information, from platforms and media from all around the world. This is the generation that the BBC reported on that didn’t wake up having nightmares about monsters under the bed, but worried instead about polar bears or penguins and the melting icecaps. If the NZ Green Party were to get around the schools and universities and make sure they get out to vote, we would see the times a-changing.
Sidney Turner, Waipū.
Grand idea
There is encouraging news that a Grand Coalition Government may be possible.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has announced that the governing National coalition and the Labour opposition agree that critical, multigenerational infrastructure planning must be taken out of the election-cycle, flip-flop zone to keep construction talent from leaving the country. This is a good first step.
The second step would be for the major parties to hammer out a priority list for all the projects that the Infrastructure Commission has identified.
The third step, and this is a big one, is for the parties to jointly review the tax system and find means to fund the projects into the future, setting aside the dogmas of socialism and capitalism.
Peter D. Graham, Helensville.
A quick word
Not only does Shane Jones overspend on a trip in excess of $30,000, he threatens anyone who is critical of him. That says a lot about the man, none of it good.
Graham Carter, Herne Bay.
Can we say of Shane Jones, considering his latest trip to Canada, that he is “thoroughly decent and honest with a strong moral compass”? It sounds like a joke, yet we surely should expect that level of integrity of all our MPs.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Shane Jones splurges $60,000 on a trip to a mining conference in Toronto. Winston Peters says “there’s nothing out of the ordinary” in doing so. That should worry us.
David Cooke, Pt Chevalier.
In NZ, MMP is regarded as a most “democratic” system of governance. It requires a fair amount of imagination to believe a genuinely democratic system could enable unelected people into power.
John Veysey, Coromandel.
Count the euphemisms in the orca slaughter report: “bycatch”, “accidental capture”, “fishing activity”, “rather unpleasant outcome”, “adequate”.
Rex McGregor, Auckland Central.