Open mike 29/04/2024

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 30 comments
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30 comments on “Open mike 29/04/2024”

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  2. 2

    Paula BennettChair of Pharmac. Payback for sourcing millions of donors money for election? All the old crony’s lining up for plush jobs. The fish is rotting. Stinks to high heaven.

    1. 2.1

      Looks like good planning by Luxon to keep her engaged in Wellington on governance, rather than entertaining a run at the Auckland mayoralty.

      1. 2.1.1

        I had heard a whisper that Simon Bridges was entertaining a run at the Auckland mayoralty. No idea if it's true or not. But, if he is, then making sure there are not two Right pollies splitting the vote is politics 101.

        1. 2.1.1.1

          Not sure how being a less than stellar Minister shows you might make a good mayor. Except in his own mind maybe.

    2. 2.2

      No doubt all of those sick people need to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

      No need for them to suckle on the public teat and waste hard working kiwi's money on all this expensive medicine nonsense.

    3. 2.3

      Not just that. Seymour the Minister in charge as well, he with an extremely neo-liberal agenda, and who knows how much 'influence' by big pharma. Things are bad enough already, but between the two of them, we should all be extremely worried where this is headed.

  3. 3

    Paula Bennett Chair off Pharmac! Payment for her wonderful fund raising for last election? The fish is rotting… Something stinks.

    1. 4.1

      That $1.7 billion increase is over 4 years. Assuming this is carefully spent by Pharmac on drugs that have the best overall effectiveness on health outcomes this is good news.

      Of course the "Labour left an unfunded Pharmac deficit of $1.7 billion" is complete rubbish. I'm sick of this government telling lies like this.

      Surely if they could find $1.7 billion for Pharmac they could have found $3 billion for a desperately needed efficient ferry service between the islands (including provision for rail) that would have had utility over 50 years?

      1. 4.1.1

        New and expensive cancer drugs are part of the coalition agreement with ACT – twenty of them I believe. My partner has just finished six months of chemo (he is fine). The chemo suite in Nelson Hospital currently operates four days a week and will be going to five days once these new drugs are funded his chemo nurse told him. These are drugs that give people an extra few months.

        That’s why David Seymour is Associate Health Minister – Pharmac.

  5. 5

    Wow..1.7 billion to Pharmac, let’s see… hmmm..to my mathematically challenged brain that’s a whopping .3% per year or so increase in the budget or as the senior health professional in Chch said, enough to keep the lights on for a few more days. After 75 years I’ve never known a NZ Government to run on so much bullshit.

    1. 5.1

      The Crushing True Cost of Tax Breaks For the Rich
      It hurts to see it all laid out. All the ways that this government has, and is planning to, hurt its own people in the pursuit of profit. But we need to see it and understand it so that we can face it.

      Our CoC government firmly believes in getting landLord wealth back on track.

      “Please, M’Lud, a crust of bread is all I ask,” pleads the peon.

      “No, my good man. I am the King of Tough Love!”

      Replieth proud and pious Luxon the Aspirational.

      But the King is also a Just King and a Merciful one,

      And tosses the peon a pack of Marlboro Lights

      To stave off his hunger pangs.

  6. 6

    more of that obsessive women's rights stuff.

    A social worker who was harassed by her employer and her professional body over he gender critical social media has been awarded 58,000 GBP by a tribunal judge. Her lawyer states this is unprecedented.

    Also of note is the judge's words on freedom of expression and political belief,

    Awarding the damages, the tribunal judge, Richard Nicolle, said that Social Work England’s actions constituted a “serious abuse of its power as a regulatory body”.

    The judge said that the regulator had “allowed its processes to be subverted to punish and suppress” Meade’s lawful political speech, and to do so on grounds of her protected beliefs. In doing so it had violated her right to free speech as protected under human rights law.

    The judge added that the regulator had a “pre-ordained view” that Meade’s beliefs were “unacceptable”.

    …

    As well has making the damages award, the tribunal recommended that the council act within six months to ensure “that all of its managers and human resources staff receive training on freedom of expression and protected belief”.

    It also recommended that Social Work England should within six months “ensure that all its triage staff, investigation staff and case examiners shall receive training on freedom of expression and protected belief”.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/social-worker-suspended-gender-critical-views-awarded-58000-2b7c337n7

    sans paywall https://archive.is/UTJ4h#selection-2987.0-3001.214

    That's yet another in a long line of cases that gender critical people, often women, have won.

    Commentary from a UK lawyer,

    https://twitter.com/legalfeminist/status/1784687053717774449

    2. 6.2

      But the article is hilarious. I just love this bit:

      A Westminster city council spokesman said: “We have received the findings of the remedy hearing and will need to take a little time to digest before responding more fully. We have apologised to Rachel Meade and the points which emerged during the tribunal and remedy hearing are an important and helpful guide in clarifying what is acknowledged to be a rapidly evolving area of employment law.”

      The relevant law has not changed since 2014 I believe. What actually happened is that this council uncritically accepted what ideologues told them the law was (even when it clearly was not) and then changed all their processes and policies to comply with a law that only existed in the imagination of activists. And now they have to pay up $$$

      Every HR department in the UK should be holding an emergency meeting right now.

      1. 6.2.1

        One would hope so.

        What worries me is that both those organisations will have lawyers, and what where they thinking?

          1. 6.2.1.1.1

            Well maybe SexMatters, UK might have it?
            They kept a log of academics being targeted – between Oct 2015-April 2023 https://sex-matters.org/resources/academics-targeted/

            the first case I remember is from November 2019, about a doula who lost her job, from Doula U.K., for stating "only women can have babies".

            https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2250551/birth-coach-hounded-out-of-profession-by-transgender-activists-for-claiming-only-women-can-have-babies/

            1. 6.2.1.1.1.1

              thanks, I hadn't seen that list before. It has a couple of useful links in it to other lists too. I have a feeling there might be an Australian academics website for anonymous stories.

              And that's just the academics. The others like Fair Cop, and what happened to Marian Millar?

              Then there are all the ones we never hear about.

      2. 6.2.2

        Also this response from the Chief executive of Social Work England.
        "Colum Conway, chief executive of Social Work England, said the regulator was considering the judgement."

        How come he can hold on to his job when they get the workings of the law so wrong. He couldn't even be bothered to apologise to her.

  8. 8

    Melissa Lee has been in the house for 18 odd years and that's all she can do. Bugger me, I can be that incompetent for half the money.

    I think I've not said for a while our managerial class are like a penectomy or a mastectomy, you know the bit they cut off, staved of blood and dying.

    Get that image out of your head.

    1. 8.1

      "Melissa Lee has been in the house for 18 odd years"

      That is 18 years on a good salary, a nice pension on leaving parliament.
      Better still a job that doesn't asks for any qualifications, experience, knowledge, nor carry any accountability.
      I know it gives any and every person the ability to become a MP, but still the absent of accountability is an invitation to "do what you like", as we now see with the Fast Track Act

    2. 8.2

      Wonder what plum(s) she'll pick up on leaving the House? Maybe an unripe damson or two, but nothing as ripe and succulent as Pullya's, I'll bet.

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