Nat/act/nzf 2023

[Blue Skies]

Ex Phillp Morris tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop caught out this morning on Q&A repeating several times for emphasis, the lie that under Smokefree 2025 there would only be ONE tobacco outlet for the whole of Northland so it would have to be guarded like Fort Knox.

Jack Tame produces the Ministry of Health Smokefree plan published last September for 600 outlets throughout NZ taking into account population & distance to travel & allowing for 35 outlets for Northland with all their locations.

Jack Tame to Chris - Why do you & Chris Luxon keep repeating 1 outlet, when the document specifies 35 locations in Northland ?

Chris Bishop - That's my understanding.

Jack Tame - so where did you get that understanding from ?

Chris Bishop won't answer & deflects.

After all the controversy & heat coming on the govt over repealing Smokefree 2025 I don't believe there's a level of incompetence that he wouldn't have been informed by staff the numbers & locations have been in the public domain for a couple of months.
Govt's hardly been sworn in & their playing fast & loose with facts again.
Still seem to be in campaign mode rather than behaving like a govt.

[Balance]

No wonder Ardern & Labour appointee Steve Maharey resigned in a big hurry from Pharmac - a dysfunctional organisation as usual under Labour.

Steve Maharey had plenty of time to write his politically biased columns but no time to properly over see Pharmac. Andrew Little meanwhile was busy overseeing the deterioration of Health NZ by centralising it as Te WTF Ora.

More revelations to come out in the next year as Pharmac is restructured.

——————————

'Nothing can excuse it': Prominent patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland on Pharmac's culture

Malcolm Mulholland, who is the chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa, is hoping for a more fulsome "clean out" at medicine-buying agency Pharmac, after its board chair, Steve Maharey tendered his resignation to Associate Health Minister David Seymour on Thursday.

It comes after a series of emails released to journalist and advocate Rachel Smalley revealed what Seymour described as a "siege mentality" at the agency.

Its chief executive Sarah Fitt and members of her staff had complained internally about Smalley and personally insulted her, while Mulholland, who also made a privacy act request, saw emails about his advocacy work he felt were completely inappropriate.

"They need a new leadership team," Mulholland said.

One such email from the agency's senior communication advisor at the time, Jane Wright, to Fitt referred to Mulholland's campaign for better better drugs for rare disorders as "light reading".

"The thing that really bothered me was that we were talking about kids and patients, and they had that mentality. So they had no compassion, no empathy, nothing," he said.

Another back and forth between Fitt and the woman saw Fitt comment that Mulholland "wasn't happy at all" while Wright replied "when is he ever?". Mulholland's wife had terminal cancer at the time, and died the following year.

Seymour has promised Pharmac will undergo reform.

[nztx]

Here's another Labour fiasco - Labour & Kiwibuild:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/301...illion-bailout

How a developer held the Government to ransom for a $37.8 million bailout

The Government has paid a major developer $37.8 million in a land deal, after it allegedly threatened to openly flout its legal obligations and sell scores of KiwiBuild homes out from underneath anxious buyers.

Documents released to Stuff under the Official Information Act show that developers The Neighbourhood Ormiston told Kāinga Ora (KO) they were on the brink of receivership and would need assistance.

Cabinet ministers allowed the housing agency to pay up against the advice of the Treasury, after being warned of "reputational damages" the debacle could cause to the KiwiBuild programme.

“Without some form of intervention, the likelihood is that the developer would either cancel the sale and purchase agreements at the sunset date, and resell the homes on the open market to achieve additional sales revenue, or put the development into receivership,” government staff told ministers.

Ormiston gave the Government a deadline of October 6. This would have breached its contracts with KiwiBuild, but KO was under the impression it would do it anyway.

Meanwhile, the Treasury opposed the deal, advising ministers that it could set a precedent.

“If ministers agree to this land acquisition to support a developer facing financial constraints, other KiwiBuild developers may form expectations of additional financial support.”

KO investigated this and found that there were 373 KiwiBuild properties out there with an unconditional contract that had likely been purchased at a price cap that was now lower than market value.

The Treasury also expressed concern with plans to raid the coffers of the KiwiBuild underwrite programme to pay for the deal.

So Robbo's RBNZ sidekick - Arian Awesome also knew about this looming Crisis heading towards the Labour Kiwibuild overseers & ministerial clueless faster than a speeding train immediately before the Election ?

In order to enable a speedy purchase, the Cabinet needed to sign off on appropriation of the funds.

Chris Hipkins, Carmel Sepuloni, Grant Robertson, Megan Woods and Kelvin Davis were each named on a document seeking approval.

The Labour Top huddle of 5 were all complicit in approving this to save Kiwibuild's miserable ass too ?


No wonder Megan Housebuilder has kept her trap largely shut on Kiwibuild while the carnage was literally morphing into an even larger potential disaster .. most transparent .. If it had come out earlier, perhaps the landslide would have been worse .. with another Flagstaff Labour initiative - Kiwibuild laying badly in tatters

If the government hadn’t stepped in, the 56 buyers would have been left without a home they had been waiting two to three years for.

Would have made for further large festering Crisis immediately before Election - wouldn't it ?


There will be further of this sort of hidden dealing being unearthed & aired in months & years to come ..

[Daytr]

Ex Phillp Morris tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop caught out this morning on Q&A repeating several times for emphasis, the lie that under Smokefree 2025 there would only be ONE tobacco outlet for the whole of Northland so it would have to be guarded like Fort Knox.

Jack Tame produces the Ministry of Health Smokefree plan published last September for 600 outlets throughout NZ taking into account population & distance to travel & allowing for 35 outlets for Northland with all their locations.

Jack Tame to Chris - Why do you & Chris Luxon keep repeating 1 outlet, when the document specifies 35 locations in Northland ?

Chris Bishop - That's my understanding.

Jack Tame - so where did you get that understanding from ?

Chris Bishop won't answer & deflects.

After all the controversy & heat coming on the govt over repealing Smokefree 2025 I don't believe there's a level of incompetence that he wouldn't have been informed by staff the numbers & locations have been in the public domain for a couple of months.
Govt's hardly been sworn in & their playing fast & loose with facts again.
Still seem to be in campaign mode rather than behaving like a govt.

So is Chris Bishop dumb or is he lying?
Perhaps both.
Man what is it the end of week one!

[Logen Ninefingers]

So is Chris Bishop dumb or is he lying?
Perhaps both.
Man what is it the end of week one!

The Datyr / red skies Leftist circle jerk continues. He posts his interpretation of something, you swallow it without question….dumb and dumber are at it again, busy creating their own reality.

[iceman]

The Datyr / red skies Leftist circle jerk continues. He posts his interpretation of something, you swallow it without question….dumb and dumber are at it again, busy creating their own reality.

Funny to see how active they are on all the big issues the voters are concerned about, NOT.
Can’t wait to see Parliament opening and legislation to change course being introduced

[tim23]

The only realty is that Bishop got caught out and doubled down - he’s a liar - even you could figure that out.

[davflaws]

So is Chris Bishop dumb or is he lying?
Perhaps both.
Man what is it the end of week one!

`
Yup - but any attempt to hold the new govt to account on any matter or subject on this forum will be ignored, denied, deflected, or result in ad hominem argument and/or personal abuse, and the posters on this thread will continue to paint themselves as victims of the woke leftist mainstream media bribed with taxpayers money

[Logen Ninefingers]

Maori separatists / secessionists are looking to grandstand and disrupt during the next term of Parliament. We must not let them divide us!

[Logen Ninefingers]

`
Yup - but any attempt to hold the new govt to account on any matter or subject on this forum will be ignored, denied, deflected, or result in ad hominem argument and/or personal abuse, and the posters on this thread will continue to paint themselves as victims of the woke leftist mainstream media bribed with taxpayers money

The only victims of the woke leftist mainstream media will be those that cannot see through it.