Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Is it just me, or is this Government going out of its way to lose the upcoming election? I mean, I’ve had the vibe for a while they’ve given up. Chris Hipkins sounds more and more over it and uninterested in what’s going on in the country he’s supposed to be running. Grant Robertson has sounded despondent for a while – I’m sure he quietly quit months ago, many of the Ministers behave in a way that would suggest they too have given up, but this latest revelation from the Health Ministry.. come on. Race-based healthcare is of itself not new in this country, we kind of knew how it worked, and then Covid came along and the focus again was Māori and Pacifica, but this latest revelation on the surgeries. That just takes the cake. As one texter to me yesterday pointed out, this is not just a jab in the arm vaccination we’re talking about here, it’s major surgery. It can be life or death. No one’s suggesting health outcomes for Māori and Pasifika aren’t worse; there just must be another way. The problem with this Equ