Posts by Hilary Stace
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Access: The case for a Royal Commission…,
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Hi Rosemary. You are right. ACC Futures was started mainly by lawyers and unionists who want ACC to work better. Addressing the ACC/MoH disparity is not a major focus of the 2018 manifesto, as other issues are considered more urgent. But it is part of the agenda, and is important to me.
It is a voluntary organisation with many people who bring a variety of perspectives and ideas about how to have a better, more equitable system. Everyone is welcome to join the lively google group. (By the way there was an unwaged $45 fee for the seminar yesterday.) Many people had worked very hard to make a successful forum and it was a worthwhile day. Much of it was livestreamed on the ACC Futures Facebook page and that video is probably still available if you want to see the range of topics that were discussed.
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Access: The case for a Royal Commission…,
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Thanks Spikey. I think some of the day will be livestreamed on the ACC Futures Facebook page. It is also easy to join ACC Futures Coalition which is a online google group.
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Access: The case for a Royal Commission…, in reply to Sacha,
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Very important to future proof the principles and any future improvements. I'm sure there are people who have thoughts on how to do that. In the late 1990s the National Government partially privatised it which was quickly reversed by the incoming Labour government, but National policy in the 2008 election was to reprivatise. I think that was one of the motivations for unions and advocates starting ACC Futures. Privatisation was avoided through strong campaigning, although Nick Smith as Minister did some pretty drastic cuts to eligibility most of which still haven't been reversed.
I think this current government is looking at how to make 'foundational' changes in policy in many areas which are not readily overturnable by a different government. Part of it is to have improvements which are so enduringly popular that there is political risk in changing them.
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Access: The case for a Royal Commission…,
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It was actually 1974 before the ACC was up and running. It had a long gestation. My friend, the late JB Munro, was delegated by the Kirk government (in which he was a junior MP) to help it get going. It started with just two employees.
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…,
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Russell, sorry for neither reading nor following the new rules. Too many new things to get used to this year!
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…,
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QR code
Level 1
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…,
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The Rona
MIQ
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…,
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Pivot
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Access: The Day My Brain Stood Still,
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Reading and listening and thinking. Thanks.
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Hard News: The company of strangers,
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We flew Auckland to Wellington on 22 March. We had gone up for the weekend to see the last of the pop-up Globe, but it closed down as we arrived. It was weird being a tourist while NZ started to withdraw from the world. The hotel was about to be taken over for managed isolation for plane loads of returnees. We heard Jacinda's big announcement of the new Pandemic Levels in the car on the way to have a look at Matakana which was as busy as ever, but with lots of handsanitiser. The first Marist cluster infection was in the news.
On the plane home there was some worrying coughing down the back. A couple in front of us wearing masks and gloves was travelling home from overseas, but we still had to get close unloading luggage from the overseas locker and queuing. For several days we checked Ministry of Health reports of new infections and the planes they had travelled on and hoped ours wasn't on the list.
It was the anxiety and fear of that time I will remember. Who would be next to test positive and who might die?