Judith Collins - National Party Health Spokeswoman

22 December 2004

Business booming for the tooth fairy

National Party Health spokeswoman Judith Collins says the Health Minister is making sure business is booming for the tooth fairy.

The Wellington School Dental Review shows the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth for 5-year-olds has increased over the past five years.

Ms Collins says it is ironic that the Health Minister, Annette King, has overseen a deterioration in the nation's dental health, considering she came to the job on the back of her credentials as a dental nurse.

"Ms King should know better than anyone else in Parliament about the on-going effects of poor dental health.

"Labour has for too long turned a blind eye to this country's decaying dental health.

"They have spent millions trying to fill the cavities in health with bureaucrats, when they should have been spending it on getting our kids in front of dental nurses," Ms Collins 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>>