Christmas cheer for disability waiting lists

More than 1400 people who have been on a waiting list will receive their hearing aids and disability equipment early next year, Associate Health Minister Ruth Dyson announced today.

Additional funding means that people who have been assessed as priority two or three and have been waiting for their equipment, will receive it early next year.

“More than 980 people will receive hearing aids, around 100 will get wheelchairs or mobility equipment, more than 300 will have housing modifications completed and about 20 will receive funding to buy or modify vehicles,” Ruth Dyson said.

“I am very pleased that additional funding has meant that Christmas will be happier for these people, and that they will now be able to look forward to receiving their support equipment.”

© Scoop Media

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>>