Dr Don Brash: From the internet to medicines, nothing in New Zealand is safe from Treaty mania

The following is written in Don's capacity as Hobson's Pledge trustee.

You may not have heard of InternetNZ or know exactly what they do. I didn't until I read some alarming news about the organisation this week.

I was first alerted to the issue via an email from the New Zealand Free Speech Union which said:

John Robertson: NZ’s Pharmacy Council Has Gone Full Cult — and You’re Paying For It

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official — New Zealand’s Pharmacy Council has lost the plot.

The government-appointed regulatory body in charge of ensuring pharmacists dispense medicine safely has decided that what really matters in healthcare isn’t, you know, actual medicine, but a pharmacist’s ability to sing waiata, analyze the “ongoing impacts of colonization,” and “trust Māori intelligence.” You know, because treating high blood pressure and filling antibiotic prescriptions is clearly impossible without a working knowledge of mana whenua.