Posts by Hilary Stace
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Ben's a hero
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I think a lot of PH's comments and the support for him is based on fear that the world is changing and they don't know how to cope. I see parallels with those who want to keep sheltered workshops, and it fits in with PH's earlier comments about Susan Boyle. They don't want to be forced to admit that other groups of people, apart from themselves, are fully human, and have equal rights to participate in the world.
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Thanks Marcus. Seems to be behind a pay wall. Will go to a library with real paper copies.
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[side threadjack] Marcus have you got a link to that article? I'm really interested as to why people put their kids through non-evidence based treatments.I wrote a post about it on humans recently http://humans.org.nz if you care to look.
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I actually think there's a real democratic benefit to having a PM who's as accessable.
Key is actually very, very carefully managed by his media minders. Only goes to friendly, usually private, schools and pre-schools for his photo ops, and carefully staged walk-abouts. Has several minders and security people with him at all times. You used to see Helen Clark or even Don Brash walking through the airport or down Lambton Quay by themselves and buying their own coffee. Not this PM. So his reaction to Paul Henry is 'relaxed' until told otherwise.
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I thought all local body elections in NZ were run by a government agency, but I heard this morning on Morning Report that there is a private company running the Auckland election. The spokesman also said that 'unfortunately' voting from the North Shore was low while it was high from South Auckland. Where did this privatisation of the voting system come from?
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Rich, you could use that same argument to say why bother having voting for regional councils and end up going the way of ECAN. We used to have a lot more democracy in our public institutions such as harbour boards, licensing trusts in every region. We cope with school boards? What's wrong with more democracy everywhere?
Graeme have you ever been to a meeting of something like a Disability Services Advisory Committee or the Public Health Advisory Committee of a DHB and seen that elected board members can actually make a difference in setting the agenda and getting issues raised, particularly in seeking that consumer perspective that is unlikely to be part of (particularly right wing) government appointments. Certainly have in CCH.
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Why is voting for District Health Boards silly? Do you really want a bunch of government appointees running our hospitals and health services without any accountability to their communities?
In my experience the elected members are invaluable particularly for bringing a consumer perspective and encouraging the voices of other consumers to be heard. DHBs hold the funding for the PHOs, a great deal of aged care, disability services and community health. What's wrong with a bit of democracy in the governance?
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I understand we are going to hearing/reading more economic reporting from Alex Tarrant in Wellington soon. Might be a good candidate for one of your panels, Russell. He's smart, networked and personable (and young).
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My impression of this is that those most opposed to it are those least likely to have to worry about the cost of their grocery bills eg Peter Dunne, Katherine Rich and Bill English.