Remember this?
It happened just a few days ago.
The photo by RNZ reporter Ruth Hill shows Nurses Organisation delegates turning their back on Health Minister Simeon Brown during his speech to the NZNO conference in Wellington.
It perhaps explains this headline on a Stuff report today:
‘Really disappointed’: Minister drops speech at national teachers conference amid pay talks
A last-minute cancelled speech by the education minister at a national teachers conference in Christchurch could fracture a fragile relationship as negotiations over a pay deal remain unresolved.
Erica Stanford has pulled out of a speech at the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) conference in Christchurch on Wednesday, with her office initially citing an “unavoidable clash”.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said he was very disappointed, and members would be too.
“They will see it as a bit of a snub.”
A case of snub – or be snubbed – maybe.
Let’s check on Ruth Hill’s account of Brown’s experience:
Health Minister Simeon Brown has shrugged off the frosty reception he received at the NZ Nurses Organisation annual conference in Wellington today, and doubled down on his criticism that strike action hurt patients.
Dozens of angry delegates stood and turned their backs on him during his speech, in which he thanked nurses for their vital work – and acknowledged that many felt stretched – before addressing “the elephant in the room”.
“Let me be clear: you have the right to strike. That right is part of a free and fair society. But it’s also true that thousands and thousands of patients are affected.”
Brown gave the example of a mother who had been unable to hold her premature baby for 24 hours because of strike action.
This apparently triggered what happened next:
Auckland nurse Rangi Blackmoore-Tufi was the first to stand and walk to the back of the room.
“I felt like he was guilt-tripping us. He was using an example of the kind of thing we see every day as part of our mahi, but he was saying ‘This person suffered because you went on strike’.”
The reality was that patients were suffering delayed care every day due to staff shortages, she said.
Her impromptu protest was intended as a clear message to the government.
“I feel like you’re not listening to everything we have been saying through our strikes and our action…. If you’re not going to listen to me, I’m not going to listen to you.”
Dozens of her fellow delegates joined her over the course of the minister’s speech, which ended in awkward silence instead of the customary applause before New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku took the podium to thank him.
According to the Stuff report of Stanford’s decision to stay away from the PPTA conference, her office told The Press the minister would be in Auckland “making a significant announcement” on the day of the conference speech.
But that’s not all:
“Further to this, the Ministry of Education provided advice recommending not to attend, taking into account the ongoing collective bargaining and associated industrial action,” it said.
The PPTA’s president said bargaining and industrial action had never prevented previous education ministers from attending.
Perhaps not.
But Stanford could be forgiven if she decided to avoid the prospect of talking to a bunch of protesters with their backs to her.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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