10 December 2001

The Alliance believes the boost in health funding announced today means the government is better positioned to meet the funding requirements for two Alliance priorities.

The Alliance is pressing for free doctors visits for school children and for a cancer control strategy in hospitals.

Alliance leader Jim Anderton said the increased funding announced today means both policies are a step closer.

‘The Government is going to make a significant commitment to primary health care. The Alliance believes that making visits to the doctor free for school children and restoring free visits for under-6s is one of the best primary health care investments the country can make.

“Recent well-publicised disasters in cancer care highlight the need for a cancer control strategy, and the Alliance is working to ensure the strategy is delivered within the funding announcement today,” Jim Anderton said.

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>>