Exposures – The Blog

It is becoming increasingly clear that Government funding decisions are strongly oriented towards the for-profit private health sector rather than addressing the critical needs of our health system. . . . → Read More: Follow the money – it’s enough to buy surgeons tropical cruises

It sounds as if she feels she has been unfairly attacked over her approach to Covid. At this suggestion, Ardern goes very still and quiet, and I suddenly realise she has tears in her eyes. “I find Covid really hard,” she says, swallowing her words. “I had a conversation up north, after I’d left office. I was wandering around some markets and I could feel this young woman looking at me, so when she caught my eye I said hello, and we struck up a conversation, and it turned out that she was a teacher who’d had an adverse reaction to the vaccine. And because she didn’t get the second dose, she had stopped working in teaching.” The New Zealand vaccine mandate meant that people in some professions were required to have it. “We talked about the fact that we, of course, had an exemption regime, but for some reason it hadn’t worked out for her. It was the kind of conversation that I just wish I could have with everyone: when everything isn’t distilled down into black and white. But the world leaves so little space for that now. And I feel very sad about that.” . . . → Read More: ‘Empathy is a kind of strength’: Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump’s America – The Guardian

Here are some key takeaways from the Budget yesterday: Cuts to support for families Cuts to government contributions to KiwiSaver Theft of $12.8 billion from the lowest earning women Tax breaks to business Ongoing fossil fuel extraction with $200 million going into new gas exploration projects No commitments to ending child poverty . . . → Read More: What a wild week in politics it has been