King announces District Health Board appointments

Health Minister Annette King has announced a new deputy chair, Sharron Cole, for Hutt District Health Board (DHB), and a new board member, Norman Dewes, for Canterbury DHB.

Ms King says Mrs Cole has been a valuable member of the Hutt DHB board since her election in 2001, and will take over the deputy chair role following Peter Glensor’s appointment as board chair last year.

Mr Dewes is the Chief Executive of Te Runanga O Nga Maata Waka, the urban Maori authority based in Canterbury, Ms King said. Mr Dewes has a background in education, social work, sport and recreation, and other services, and is particularly experienced in helping unemployed into the workplace, and has also worked extensively with young urban Maori.

“The appointees bring substantial governance experience to the boards and have contributed extensively in their local communities. I look forward to working with them and their boards to improve health outcomes for people in their districts.”

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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>>