Kerre Woodham: Volunteers deserve trauma counselling cover

I can't even believe we're having to discuss this, but we are. It seems absolutely ludicrous that drunk drivers who say, kill their passengers, maim their passengers, smash their own selves up after crashing their vehicles —hopefully not into innocent victims, but sometimes it will be— are able to claim ACC, but the volunteer firefighters and the first responders who are volunteers who respond to the crash and have to deal with the horror of the aftermath, quite often they will know the people involved if it happens in a small community. If they're the ones that have to unwrap a kid from a drive shaft, they are not able to claim ACC for trauma counselling or PTSD. What they do is considered a leisure activity.

Peter Dunne: ACC coverage for emergency service volunteers

Yes Minister’s Sir Humphrey Appleby once advised his Minister that “nothing must be done for the first time” because “doing the ‘right thing’ once could create a dangerous precedent, obligating one to do it again.” Therefore, he argued it was best to do nothing at all, thereby avoiding setting any precedent.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 19/6/23

No honeyed words on the Beehive website about Meng Foon – nor about the role of ethnicity when priorities for surgery are decided

Two ministers and/or their press secretaries have gone missing in action.

Point of Order: Freeski, Freeride and other cool sports at the Winter Games are not exactly free......

.....because the Govt is pumping in up to $6m.

It seemed – at first blush – that your unpaid Point of Order team might be poised to be recognised by the Government.

The prospect of this happening was signalled when the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, posted news headed Right royal shout out to recognise volunteers.

Muriel Newman: Can you help?

As you know, the New Zealand Centre for Political Research administers this Breaking Views blog, as well as running our busy NZCPR.com website and NZCPR Facebook Group.