Media Release
22 January 2004

Tougher Migrant Medical Screening Long Overdue

The expected announcement of tougher medical screening of migrant groups is long overdue and follows years of the Government bringing people with communicable diseases into this country, said New Zealand First’s health spokesperson, Barbara Stewart.

“Health checks are such a basic requirement that there should never have been any question about whether they were necessary. It is not an invasion of privacy, or discriminatory, to expect new arrivals to be free of serious health problems.

“A system which relies on applicants’ honesty to declare that they have diseases such as AIDS, HIV, TB, venereal disease and hepatitis is clearly in need of drastic overhaul,” said Mrs Stewart.

“The well-publicised instance last year of an immigrant infected with TB treating children in a school dental clinic is an example of how the Government has failed to protect New Zealanders from Third World diseases.

“We have an overburdened health system and plenty of uses for every health dollar without bringing in immigrants who need costly treatment for their health problems.

“Auckland hospitals in particular have been hit by extra costs through the Government’s negligence in this respect,” said Mrs Stewart.

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>>