Mike Hosking: How long will we be paying for Covid?

Part of the fallout from Friday's attempt by the Health Minister to convince us centralisation is working and people on waiting lists are getting seen to was the excuse, yet again, that Covid had caused at least part of the back log.

Many of us have grown tired of Covid as the excuse for everything.

Although I have no doubt it did play a part, and perhaps in some cases it may still be, what we are not doing and I doubt the royal commission is going to give it the weight it deserves, is asking - did it have to be this way?

Dave Witherow: Medical Initiatives

Is private enterprise a lost cause these days?  Sometimes it seems so – especially since the Jacinda junta scuppered so many small businesses during the late great Covid panic. And it’s no better now, with half the country on some kind of benefit and the best brains moving to Australia.

Years ago, before New Zealand became a lefty paradise, I thought of opening a pub. Why not? Pubs are civilized places – bastions of   intelligence and good-humour, and, of course, private enterprise. And and since I was already spending a lot of my time in pubs I thought why not combine pleasure with the useful bonus of an income? But between breath-testing, random-stopping, and the demonization of the drinking classes, I decided there was no future in that.

Point of Order: When all that money is being pumped into health (as the PM insists), we may wonder why the system is so badly strained

Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon has shown he is a fast learner. Where earlier he often ended on the receiving end in exchanges with the Prime Minister in Parliament, now it is the Prime Minister who who can be seen back-pedalling,

Take, for example, pressures in the health system which are causing so much anguish to New Zealanders.

The National Party has turned the spotlight on emergency departments which are facing high demand and staff shortages, with at least one district health board delaying planned surgeries for weeks.

Luxon had laid the groundwork for his questions with an earlier statement that he would commit to delivering and improving health outcomes.