Lushington D. Brady: NZ Hits the Headlines in the Big Apple!

You better bet it’s for all the wrong reasons

Once again, New Zealand is making headlines around the world – for all the wrong reasons.

It was only a few months ago that the world was shocked to see a demented lynch mob baying and howling for the blood of women who dared assert that men cannot be women. A horrified world saw elderly women punched repeatedly by men, while police stood back and did nothing. Worse, the world then saw the instigator of the mob violence, a ranting misogynist, bestowed with the honour of “Young New Zealander of the Year”.

It wasn’t a good look, to put it mildly. “New Zealand Hates Women” was the common reaction.

David Lillis: Our Prioritised Health System and Pacific People

In this article we make the case for our Pacific populations being our most deprived and vulnerable demographic in health and wellbeing. We suggest that resourcing the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders should be predicated, not on the basis of ethnicity, but instead on the basis of need.

Findings of the BULA SAUTU Report

In 2021 we saw the publication of a landmark study from the Health Quality & Safety Commission - BULA SAUTU A window on quality 2021: Pacific health in the year of COVID-19. He mata kounga 2021: Hauora Pasifika i te tau COVID-19.

Drawing on various prior studies and censuses, this report (Health Quality & Safety Commission, 2021) summarises a very significant study of the health and wellbeing of Pacific people in New Zealand. The study served to confirm what was already well known within the Pacific community and to health professionals across the country. The report demonstrates that various socioeconomic issues experienced by Pacific people provide impediments to good health. It suggests that New Zealand’s health system is fragmented and that current models of care are not working properly for Pacific people, often are hard to access for Pacific people, and that critical shortages exist within the Pacific health workforce.