Chomp chomp
First of all, the all important news: the 2024 best pie recipient has been announced!
The Supreme Pie Award this year went to an artisan bakery, Rangiora, located just 20 minutes North of Christchurch. Rangiora was built by Samuel Chapman in 1860 next to the local BNZ bank of the time.
And the rest, as they say is history.
Baker Arlyn Thompson is only the second woman ever to win the prize in the competition’s 26 year history so warmest congratulations are in order.
Last year, they won second prize and I look forward to an updated image.
Best vegetarian pie went to Patrick Lam from the Patrick's Pie Group Limited, in Tauranga.
Now I’ve got you suitably distracted with pie pictures, let’s go to some of the political updates.
Drama in the House
Yesterday I tuned into the parliamentary sitting to see Gerry Brownlee telling ACT members they didn’t have a right to speak or ask questions, since they refused to remove their ACT branded pins.
It all started six days ago when National MP James Meager pointed the finger at Te Pati Maori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke who, as she began to speak, was accused of having illicit items in the house.
Those items were political party stickers, ‘Te Pāti Māori’ and ‘Honour Te Tiriti’, to be precise, and the Speaker ruled that no such items were allowed. Maipi-Clarke promptly covered the logos, but that wasn’t enough to stop the rabbling and pile on from figures including ACT’s Cameron Luxton.
Incidentally, ACT were wearing their ACT pin logos at the same time as this all went down.
Anyway I didn’t report on it because I found this all quite inconsequential, but yesterday, Stuff’s Glenn McConnell labeled ACT’s joint refusal to take off their ACT branded pins yesterday as “logo gate.”
And ACT’s Karen Chhour, the Minister responsible for, and staunch advocate of, boot camps is on camera today saying that she feels her workplace is “unsafe” while tears flow and Seymour tries to make the whole incident about racial discrimination.
Did they or didn’t they? Health NZ.
The Health NZ saga continues.
And there’s a lot of ‘he said,’ ‘she said’ involved in what is becoming a veritable farce and bonfire of apocalyptic proportions.
And - I think I spot a pattern - more on that later.
Let’s look at what’s happened -
On 16 July, I wrote about the sudden and unexpected departure of two more Health NZ Board members as I pointed out the government appeared to be systematically dismantling our health care system.
On the 19 July , I pointed out that only 2 of 7 Board members remained. Labour’s Verrall said the “near clear-out” was linked to the level of funding provided by the Government being insufficient to address the health system. She noted: “My suspicion is that the departing board members know that too.”
One of the members who left was an ex-National MP Amy Adams who left this message on her Facebook page on her last day -
On the 22 July, around 3am after Luxon and Reti’s announcement of a “miraculously” appearing Heath NZ deficit, I wrote it seemed more likely it was related to “salaries, staffing, elective surgeries, backpay owed etc.” Apparently the Health Select Committees had already flagged pay equity etc. I also pointed out aspects such as that National’s funding of the health system is the lowest per capita ever in our century.
As of 26 July, more was revealed from different reporters and outlets, including the all important element that a successful nursing drive led to nurses’ salaries being higher than expected. Newsroom’s Marc Daalder has been doing some excellent reporting on that.
On the 29 July, I played some clips showing subsequent proof versus what Luxon and Reti had claimed.
Well where are we now?
It seems likely that the news reports are all accurate. There were some good summaries on Substack too, including from Dr Bryce Edwards, as well as from Bernard Hickey.
Still, successfully recruiting more nurses contributed to a bulk of the balance.
If you watch his press conferences, Luxon frequently boasts about how many nurses have been hired in the last 12 months. The other elements of backpay, pay equity etc. apply too.
Apparently, in trying to meet the big five health goals that Reti established earlier in the year (ED wait times, vaccinations, cancer treatment, shorter elective surgery waits, first appointment to see a aspecialist,) they asked the Board to focus on that, and as a result more practitioners were hired.
The CEO spoke about this in the last weeks, ie Health NZ was able to successfully reduce nursing shortages from double digits to about 6%.
In any other world, this would be good news. But in our new National-ACT-NZ First Coalition government’s mind, it was deaf maddingly bad, leading to a “blowout” from their underfunding.
And let me tell you, it’s a real inconvenience when your remit is health and that involves having to hire more frontline staff.
Yesterday, a Health NZ ex-Board member accused the Prime Minister of spreading “disinformation”. The clip above shows how it went down, but RNZ essentially reports that Luxon sidestepped responding to Walker’s comments, when asked.
Unfortunately, what the PM and his Health Minister have said just doesn’t match up.
A clear and present pattern is starting to emerge … Misrepresentation
There now appears to be a clear pattern by the Luxon government of misrepresenting Boards and their communications.
Some of you may remember it happened to the Kāinga Ora board, whose response was buried by Chris Bishop, before Newsroom reported on it after the fact. Under the terms of his KO review agreement, Bill English and his team was allocated ~$500,000 from the emergency housing fund to write a report that correlated to the Government’s opinions, and with the specification English didn’t even need to involve KO.
That directive was confirmed by a frustrated Board who pointed out innumerable errors in English’s findings and that he appeared to hardly even engage with them. Naturally, no action was taken, and the headlines won the day for Luxon and Bishop.
It also happened to Kiwirail. Last year, Nicola Willis did the media rounds claiming Kiwirail was effectively un-judicious in trying to buy Ferraris when we only needed a Toyota or few. She directed the Board to go look for second hand ferries. But the Select Committee and subsequent reporting revealed significant details such as that Kiwirail had procured ferries that were rail enabled, future proof and fit for purpose for the Strait and at a 40% less than market price cost. The price and specifications were excellent and most of the blowout was related to the need for seismic upgrades for the Wellington side port. Kiwirail had informed the Finance Minister there were only a small number of suitable ferries, and none were for sale. Let alone the question mark of why Kiwirail should spend a lot to get a comparable ship with no enhanced functionality.
The new ferries would have accommodated 40 rail wagons, 3000 lane metres for vehicles, and 1800 passengers accommodating the projected volume increases across the Strait. There will be a penalty in the order of $300mn, on top of the ~$500mn loss already incurred from cancelling it.
It’s now happening to Health NZ as we speak. And while ferries and KO builds might be mostly out of sight and out of mind to Kiwis, our health system isn’t. And our doctors and nurses are valued and their voice ultimately does matter.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a good thing. Governments that routinely lie to the public aren’t the type that Kiwis deserve.
And the Directors of those organisations also don’t deserve to be set up and unfairly maligned either. I think most of us expect better standards of integrity in those who sit in government.
Atlas in NZ - A Pictograph
As an aside, here’s a little, albeit unsophisticated pictograph re: Atlas Network connections in NZ.
Those of you who haven’t heard of Atlas might recognise the term “Project 2025” as it relates to Donald Trump.
In essence, it’s a far right and Christian conservative movement to take over the United States system of government. It has nice juicy small print, besides taking over federal agencies, that includes as allowing kids to work in unsafe environments, and making sure bears and wildlife are no longer protected etc.
As I said, very nice stuff.
That’s why as depressing as it is, it pays to pay attention.
Let me know if you have any questions.
The media in New Zealand
After having a right old whinge about New Zealand media, the last press conferences have given me new hope. Thanks to all the journos and the press who do their job for us, and to all the writers, and readers who care.
Curious Case of Health NZ vs the New Zealand National Party escalates