If you think you’re beleaguered by political correctness in America, just thank your lucky stars that you’re not living in New Zealand. There you are increasingly surrounded by demands that you abide by the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, but, worse, you can be demonized or fired simply because you think it’s outdated and there needs to be court-mandated interpretation of what it means, or, worse, adopt a New Zealand Constitution.
For in that country, which I love, virtually area of endeavor is subject to Equity Demands and Diktats that you respect indigenous “ways of knowing.” Today the subject of discussion is pharmacy, which is being rapidly colonized by this ideology. But note the bit about real estate at the bottom.
An anonymous New Zealander sent me this article from The BreakingViews site in that lovely but increasingly benighted land.
You can verify Kennedy’s claims by going to the official pharmacy standards site (click on image to get pdf).
As you can see from the top headline, it’s a bit of a rant, but everything that Mr. Kennedy says about the pharmacy standards is true.
First, the aim of the Pharmacy Council is a general one: to help all New Zealanders. From pp. 3-4 of the second document:
An anonymous New Zealander sent me this article from The BreakingViews site in that lovely but increasingly benighted land.
You can verify Kennedy’s claims by going to the official pharmacy standards site (click on image to get pdf).
As you can see from the top headline, it’s a bit of a rant, but everything that Mr. Kennedy says about the pharmacy standards is true.
First, the aim of the Pharmacy Council is a general one: to help all New Zealanders. From pp. 3-4 of the second document:
Through skilled and safe practice, pharmacists contribute to better health outcomes for New Zealanders. We aspire to have pharmacists operate at the top of their scope of practice and to not only be competent and professional in their roles but to continually work towards being the best pharmacist they can be.
. . . . The purpose of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCAA) 2003 is to protect the health and safety of the public by providing mechanisms to ensure that health practitioners are competent and fit to practise their profession.
So consideration #1 should be merit: the quality of service provided by pharmacists. However, if you look at the first three “domains” of competence (there are seven), you see this:
Click to view
Yep, the very first thing in which you must be competent as a pharmacist is understanding the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (“Te Tiriti o Waitangi”), which of course says nothing about pharmacy. The treaty simply guaranteed the indigenous Māori their lands, gives them all the rights of British citizens, and places governance of the indigenous people to England. There are several versions of the treaty, not all Māori tribes signed onto it, and it’s used to justify all kinds of stuff which are not in any of the texts but fall under a recent interpretation “Māori are to get at least half of everything.” That includes having their ways of knowing taught in science classes. And remember, just 17.8% of New Zealanders are Māori, while 17.3% are Asians (67.8% are of European descent. Somehow the Asians got left out of the pharmacy standards.
So once again the most important aspect of “competence” you need as a New Zealand pharmacist is respect and understanding of the Treaty, along with deference to the indigenous people. Extreme deference. The first four paragraphs below are Kennedy’s take (and his bolding), while the rest are word-for-word from the second source above.
Unfortunately the Pharmacy Council NZ has gone all woke and racist and apparently now thinks that practicing safe, competent dispensing of medicine and advice depends on a deep knowledge of 27 different aspects of Maori customs, beliefs, traditions, practices, superstitions, intergenerational historical trauma, familiarity with mana whenua and kaumatua, the Treaty of Waitangi, structural racism and colonisation and many other alleged Maori-related issues – such is the depth of knowledge required by pharmacists of Maori culture, beliefs and Te Reo etc. etc., that it would seem that every pharmacist who achieves all these competencies that are totally, completely, categorically, undeniably and irrefutably unrelated to safe dispensing of medicines will have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Maori Studies!
This is racism on steroids, the woke, totally unnecessary, unwarranted imposition of irrelevant culture and beliefs on a professional group whose sole focus should be on the safe practice of pharmaceutical medicine!
The Minister of Health needs to stamp down immediately on this repugnant, racist, woke over-reach by the Pharmacy Council and weed out any of the incompetent and/or radical members of the Pharmacy Council!
Following is the list (from page 31) of the essential competency standards for all pharmacists, according to the Pharmacy Council: [JAC: as I say below, I’ve put in italics everything that seems to me completely irrelevant to competence as a pharmacist]
● being familiar with mana whenua (local hapū/iwi), mātāwaka (kinship group not mana whenua), hapū and iwi in your rohe (district) and their history,
● understanding the importance of kaumātua,
● being familiar with te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nū Tīreni,
● advocating for giving effect to te Tiriti at all levels,
● understanding the intergenerational impact of historical trauma,
● understanding of the role of structural racism and colonisation and ongoing impacts on Māori, socioeconomic deprivation, restricted access to the determinants of health,
● being familiar with Māori health – leaders, history, and contemporary literature,
● being familiar with Māori aspirations in relation to health,
● developing authentic relationships with Māori organisations and health providers,
● having a positive collegial relationship with Māori colleagues in your profession/workplace,
● being proficient in building and maintaining mutually beneficial power-sharing relationships,
● tautoko (support) Māori leadership,
● prioritising Māori voices,
● trusting Māori intelligence,
● be clinically and culturally confident to work with Māori whānau, [JAC: family groups]
● understand one’s own whakapapa (genealogy and connections),
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of te reo Māori, [the language; and most Māori themselves don’t understand it]
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of the tikanga and the application of tapu (sacred) and noa (made ordinary),
● be familiar with Māori health models and concepts such as Te Pae Mahutonga9 and Te Ara Tika10,
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of marae (community meeting house) protocol,
● be confident to perform waiata tautoko (support song),
● be proficient in whakawhānaungatanga (active relationship building),
● integrate tika (correct), pono (truth), aroha and manaakitanga into practice,
● be open-hearted,
● be proficient in strengths-based practice,
● be proficient with equity analysis,
● practice cultural humility,
● critically monitor the effectiveness of own practice with Māori.
Only 1 out of 4 standards (7/28) seem to me at all relevant to competence in pharmacy, and I’m being generous.
Now I can understand that there should be a section in pharmacy school about “indigenous medicine” so that pharmacists can understand where a local is coming from if they want an herb rather than an antibiotic. But most of this statement It is simply irrelevant fealty to the indigenous people; a form of virtue signaling or “the sacralization of the oppressed.”
I needn’t go on, as you can see that most of the requirements for competence in this section are irrelevant to the aims of the Pharmacy Council. Poor New Zealand!
But wait! There’s more!
Lagniappe: New Zealander loses realtor’s license for refusing to take Māori-centered DEI training. Click on the image to go to the New Zealand Herald article:
An excerpt:
Janet Dickson, the real estate agent facing a five-year ban for refusing to do a Māori tikanga course, has lost a court bid to block the threatened cancellation of her licence.
Today, the High Court turned down her request for a judicial review of decisions about agents’ professional development requirements, which required her to take a 90-minute course called Te Kākano (The Seed).
The module focused on Māori culture, language and the Treaty of Waitangi and was made compulsory for all real estate agents, branch managers and salespeople in 2023.
Agents who do not complete professional development requirements risk having their licences cancelled. People whose licences are cancelled cannot reapply for one for five years.
. . .She has called real estate work a vocation and a calling, citing her Presbyterian values. In her court case, she said the course’s references to Māori gods sat uncomfortably with her own monotheistic Christian belief.
She labelled the course “woke madness” in a Facebook post and vowed to fight “to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else”.
She told the court she considered the course would not add any value to the performance of her real estate agency work.
Poor New Zealand!
Professor Jerry Coyne is an American biologist known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design, a prolific scientist and author. This article was first published HERE
19 comments:
What does that mean exactly though? Do you talk to a brown person who brings you their prescription differently? Do you say a maori prayer over the pills before you put them into the bottle? Do you ask the customer what politics and ethnicity they identify with before you are allowed to give them their prescription?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
But what if all the pharmacists just said no? What if all the Real Estate Agents just said no?
I'm sure there are a minority of both Pharmacists and Real Estate Agents out there who have welcomed the irrelevant standards being imposed on their professions...good for them, but what if everyone who disagreed just said NO?
How would this be achieved?
Each and every affected pharmacist/ real estate agent or other went public with their views.
It might surprise them how much public support they have.
If they didn't want to wage a facebook campaign - they could each spend 5 minutes writing back to the pharmacists council explaining why this is an utter waste of their time and CC Hobsons Pledge and their local MP.
And while they're at it - why not include every other pharmacist they know in the email so that people know they're not alone?
Make it a public fight....anything less signals acceptance and endorsement by the pharmacists.
Yes NZ has gone mad! We’re the most woke country in the world based on Govt sponsored wokeness. It’s everywhere and so many people are complicit in its application. Just nuts! What’s happened to this once proud and sensible land?
Couple of points. You say 17.8% of the population is Maori. Not true. There are no “Maori”, just part-Maori. It’s important because we’re giving preference and benefits to a group of part-Whitie people who call themselves Maori. How can these part-Whitie people claim discrimination when they are part of the alleged discriminating group.
To glorify Maori culture is a nonsense. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Maori were a primitive Stone Age people with poor food, clothing and housing. They had no technology…nothing metal and not even a clay pot! No written language and their laws were of the jungle - utu, tapu and maru. Nothing to be glorified!
Come on NZ…wake up!
Poor New Zealand, is right. Has the country been taken over by aliens from Outer-Te- Aroa? When you watch Question Time in parliament we have Jabba the Hutt(three guesses who), Luke Skywalker(David S) and a variety of odd bods(The Greens)along with Darth Vader in a hat. I believe most New Zealanders want better.
"The Minister of Health needs to stamp down immediately on this repugnant, racist, woke over-reach by the Pharmacy Council and weed out any of the incompetent and/or radical members of the Pharmacy Council!"
It was our corporate government who appointed the 'pharmacy council' in the first place, and gave them their ‘corporate apartheid agenda’ orders to follow.
And as anon has stated above, it is compliance to this craziness that allows them to get away with their corporate apartheid agenda. You cannot comply your way out of tyranny. Just say NO.
The part where it says you need to be confident to perform waiata tautoko support songs. So you need to sing as you give the customer their pills?
If a pharmacist did that to me, I would not trust what they had put in the pill bottle.
Did the Pharmacy Council expect the chemists to just roll over and comply ?
Did they really not know what they were exposing themselves to with criticism for this absurd nonsense ?
If the answer is yes to either of those 2 questions, then, they need to all resign and a new Council of members who are not being intimidated established.
All these initiatives driven by the need to employ Maori cultural advisers, an occupational field that will simply grow and grow... and one that requires the lowest level of educational achievement.
Meanwhile, our PM can't work out why our GDP remains in the doldrums. He must have been prescribed some kind of sedative, for he remains steadfastly asleep at the wheel! It certainly makes getting back on track that much more difficult.
Just so you will know my credentials on this topic :- I am a retired pharmacist with over 50 years practice, including 20 years as an Advisory Pharmacist for Medsafe.
My own opinion, shared by many many of my work colleagues is to treat all customers/patients as individuals and assess their level of understanding based upon that person.
We do NOT look out from the dispensary and say "Oh - that patient is part Maori. Therefore I will explain their medication to them differently than if they were European or Chinese or whatever."
The Pharmacy Council that dictates the cultural safety nonsense is in an isolated office in Wellington, totally removed from the real world of approx 2000 frontline pharmacists out there dealing with the public daily.
The Council , when asked what was their main function, actually said "To protect the public" From who? From pharmacists obviously.
All pharmacist's that I have known and worked with actually hold the Council in mild contempt, because they are a/ Not standing up for pharmacists, and b/ Are out of touch with the real world of dispensing pharmacy.
My comments are based upon my 50+ years of work in more than 40 different pharmacies and my 20 years of work as an Advisory Pharmacist.
If these woke requirements are fully enforced, then I predict an exodus of pharmacists leaving NZ. If I was still working (not retired) I would be looking at moving to Australia right now !
In other words you treat people as individuals rather than as stereotypes, Doug. Absolutely right.
Imposing group characteristics on an individual is fundamentally flawed and also rather offensive when it nis negative aspects of a stereotype that are being imposed on someone who does not actually exhibit them.
Check my post below, anon.
The answer is NO !!.
Pharmacists treat patients as individuals.
Well said, anon.
That would be very effective.
Just to make it crystal clear, if I were still a practicing pharmacist (and not retired) I would be looking for pharmacy work in Australia RIGHT NOW.
Pharmacists I have spoken to (who do not want to be named publicly) have all expressed their outrage and objection to these extensive woke and racist requirements. Many mention leaving New Zealand or simply changing career.
Apparently a number of doctors , since the covid scamdemic have moved into alternative medicine and are now giving advice and selling supplements.
I am pretty certain this is not what the pharmacy honchos would be pleased about if pharmacists do the same thing.
It would seem to me they could be shooting themselves in the
foot
I am not a fan of Big Pharma so I can only smile at this scenario. Pharmacies already deal in supplements and reading research and assessing alternatives to a drug would be within their competence.
A couple of points. Reggie, you forgot to mention that pre European Maori also practiced cannabilism and didn't know what a wheel was.
Doug. You mention that Pharmacists hold the Council in "mild " contempt. Only "mild"? I would have thought "utmost" contempt. I also wonder, as someone mentioned, why ordinary Pharmacists and real estate agents don't tell their relative Councils where to put their ideas and totally ignore them. Why did Hobsons Pledge have to support the wronged real estate agent? Where were all her spineless colleagues? Why didn't they help her?
I was being polite. Not just "mild" !!
The reason the pharmacists don't tell the Council to p*** off is that the Council has the power to suspend or strike off the pharmacist. That means instant loss of livelihood. !!
The full Charter can be seen here:- https://pharmacycouncil.org.nz/.../Pharmacy-Council....
It is a ridiculous, tedious document, in tiny font, hard to read or print. It is just a saturation of Maori words and waffle.
But this is the charter of the Pharmacy Council.
Pharmacists main focus is to dispense prescribed medicines accurately and safely and to communicate to patients any necessary information relating to medicines.
Just to give a sample of the verbose, racist bias of the Pharamcy Council, here is a small part of their charter:-
"Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Co-Governance
The current HPCA Act (2003) limits statutory co-governance with Māori.
However, Te Tiriti Advisory Group has been formed by Council in the spirit of co-governance and the union of an authentic partnership. Te Tiriti Advisory Group is autonomous in a manner consistent with the principle of Mana Motuhake and the group is invited to exercise its influence and help steer Council’s decisions and activities in the spirit of partnership. It is noted that this relationship is built on a foundation of trust through demonstrable actions and behaviours over time. - See Te Tiriti o Waitangi Statement (Attachment 1). As a result of these several, and intersecting, principles; The Pharmacy Council will govern the organisation with an emphasis on:
• Serving the purpose of the Council, i.e. to ensure that all pharmacists are competent and fit to practise in the multitude of roles they perform, in order to keep everyone’s whānau safe and healthy.
• Giving effect to Tiriti o Waitangi through the four goals outlined by the Ministry of Health as the foundation of meeting Te Tiriti obligations, namely mana whakahaere, mana motuhake, mana tangata and mana Māori and the embedding of Te Tiriti principles in the work done.
The Goals •
Mana whakahaere – effective and appropriate kaitiakitanga over the regulation of pharmacists
• Mana motuhake - enable the right for Māori to be Māori, to exercise their authority over their lives, and to live on Māori terms and according to Māori philosophies, values and practices including tikanga Māori
• Mana tangata – achieving equity in health and disability outcomes for Māori across the life course and contributing to Māori wellness
• Mana Māori – enabling ritenga Māori which are framed by te ao Māori, enacted through tikanga Māori and encapsulated within mātauranga Māori The Council aims to achieve these goals by embedding Tiriti principles into their work. The Principles of Te Tiriti, as articulated by the Courts and the Waitangi Tribunal, provide the framework for how we will meet our obligations under Te Tiriti in our day-to-day work. The following principles were identified in the 2019 Hauora10 report and outline how the Council will meet its Tiriti obligations:
• Tino rangatiratanga – the Council will provide for Māori self-determination and mana motuhake in the design, delivery, and monitoring of all our work
• Equity – the Council is committed to achieving equitable health outcomes for Māori, which means centring equity in all our work and amending processes and standards to allow for more equitable outcomes
• Active protection – the Council will act to achieve equitable health outcomes for Māori by being informed on the extent and nature of Māori health outcomes and efforts to achieve Māori health equity
• Options – the Council will ensure that all their services are provided in a culturally appropriate way that recognises and supports te ao Māori models of practice • Partnership – the Council will work in partnership with Māori in the governance, design, delivery, and monitoring of its work and statutory function"
What possible relevance can this have to the accurate dispensing of prescribed medicines ???
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