Health Minister Annette King says she is delighted to announce that Pub Charity Inc. will fund Plunketline, the popular telephone help line for parents and caregivers needing advice and reassurance about their children, from October 1.

Mrs King told a function in the Beehive Foyer today that Pub Charity would provide Plunket with one million dollars to operate Plunketline for one year.

"Everyone here knows Plunketline has been through desperate times and happy times," she said. "As someone who is proud to have battled with it through the really tough times, I am delighted to be here today on one of the happiest moments in its history. Today feels like a vindication of the work of thousands of people who have supported Plunketline over the years."

Mrs King said the new funding meant that Government funding for Plunketline, instituted as a 24-hour telephone service on May 1 last year, could now be used for other Plunket services.

Plunket New Zealand president Pam Murray said Plunket was thrilled. “This funding comes at a pivotal time for child health in New Zealand, allowing us to redirect government’s funding of Plunketline into other pressing areas.”

Pub Charity Inc. chairman Maurice Hayes said: "This is the largest grant we have made, and we are delighted to be involved with the country’s leading provider of Well Child and family health services.

“Pub Charity is a proud supporter of a wide range of organisations working in and for the good of their communities. More than 10,500 community organisations, from schools to arts and amateur sports bodies, received a total of $30 million in grants from Pub Charity last year alone. Through Plunketline we can now also support the health and well-being of tens of thousands of New Zealand children.”

Plunket chief executive Paul Baigent said that Plunket was extremely pleased its application for funding from Pub Charity Inc. had resulted in the grant. “Pub Charity is a community-good organisation. We see Pub Charity’s association with Plunket as a most welcome contribution to improving the parlous state of child health in New Zealand.”

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>