Beehive Bulletin – 24 August 2007

More action needed to reduce inequalities

Health Minister Pete Hodgson has welcomed the publication of new research this week showing that while inequality in health outcomes between ethnic groups and across income brackets grew steeply in the 1980s and 1990s, it appears that they have now stopped growing and may have even started to narrow. The Minister says that the report - Tracking Disparity - underlines the importance of the Labour led government's seven and a half years of investment in New Zealand families, and of the need for more work to reduce inequalities even further.

"The Labour-led government's vision is for a society where no New Zealander has their long-term health pre-determined by their ethnicity or the size of their bank account," Pete Hodgson said.

"The research released today shows us that we have a lot of work to do before that vision is fulfilled. In particular, all New Zealanders should be ashamed that Maori life expectancy is still lower than European New Zealanders.

"Still, today's news confirms that the disparities between ethnic groups and income brackets that grew rapidly between 1981 and 1999 have now stopped growing and may even have begun to narrow. This is a significant achievement and an important milestone in our country's work to build a more just society."

B4 school health checks announced

A New Zealand-wide programme of ready for school health checks for 60,000 Kiwi kids will roll out from February next year, Health Minister Pete Hodgson announced Monday. The B4 School programme will be piloted with up to 1000 four year olds in Wanganui and South Auckland and has been designed to ensure that all New Zealand children are prepared and supported to learn before they walk through the school gates. It will identify any health, behavioural, social, or developmental concerns which could affect a child's ability to learn, for example a hearing problem or communication difficulty.

"The Labour-led government believes that all children deserve the best possible start in life," Pete Hodgson said. "Finding problems early will help a whole new generation of learners, and better support them as they adjust to their new life as school pupils.

"If any concerns are identified action can be taken early - for example, it might mean referring the child to an appropriate service such as a family doctor, hearing specialist, child development service or specialist education service."

The B4 school checks will be funded with $23.6 million over four years through Budget 2006. Counties Manukau and Whanganui District Health Boards will pilot the programme before it is progressively rolled out to 60,000 children nationwide from February 2008.

Click here to watch a short video of Pete Hodgson's announcement of the B4 school checks programme.

New funding for climate change research

Prime Minister Helen Clark this week announced new research and development funding, totalling $6.7 million a year from next year, to promote sustainability and help New Zealand respond to climate change. Helen Clark said that the Labour-led Government has established a new contestable fund of $4 million a year to help bring forward the use of alternative energy sources such as liquid biofuels, biomass, solar, hydrogen, wind power, and low carbon fossil fuels. Energy and Climate Change Minister David Parker said that this Low Carbon Energy Technologies Fund will help move good ideas in the sustainable energy area to a stage where they are ready for development.

"The first priority of this fund will be supporting the development and use of new liquid biofuels, and developing new biofuels from New Zealand resources such as trees, seeds, plants, algae, and agricultural waste," David Parker said.

Research, Science and Technology Minister Steve Maharey announced that $2.5 million per annum from 2007/08 would fund research to help manage the likely effects of climate change on New Zealand. "While some of the projected changes will provide us with opportunities, other impacts will be less welcome, with increased storms, flooding and drought in different areas. New research will assist us to manage the future impacts on our primary industries, our towns and cities and our transport, energy and communication infrastructure."

Conservation Minister Chris Carter announced new funding of $200,000 per year to research the effects of pest control on carbon storage in native forests. This research will identify the best places to manage animal pests to increase carbon storage. The research will help the Department of Conservation to establish pilot projects with commercial investors to increase carbon storage on public conservation land.

More medical training to ease shortages

Forty more doctors are to be trained every year from next year, Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen and Health Minister Pete Hodgson announced Wednesday. "Given the long time periods it takes to fully train medical practitioners, increasing the number of New Zealand students studying medicine will help us strengthen our future workforce," Dr Cullen said. The 40 new places will bring to 365 the number of first year medical students studying at Otago and Auckland universities from next year, Mr Hodgson said. Both universities have indicated they can handle 20 extra places each. This will cost $920,000 in 2007/08 rising to $6.3 million annually in 2011/12.

Increasing the number of New Zealand medical graduates was a key recommendation of the Health Workforce Taskforce, a standing committee formed last year to provide advice on the health and disability sectors.

Until recently 285 places were available each year, but in 2004 the Labour-led government increased that by 40 and in 2008 this will increase by another 40, taking the total to 365. Mr Hodgson said the move demonstrated the Labour-led government's commitment to the health of New Zealanders, and the forward planning that was needed in the health sector. He said the increase complemented the government's June announcement lifting the number of fully funded places for General Practice training from 69 a year to 104 a year from next February.

NZ to take Australia to WTO over apple access

The Government will initiate WTO dispute settlement proceedings against Australia to resolve the long-standing apples dispute, Trade Minister Phil Goff and Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton announced Monday. "We have made every effort over many years to resolve this issue bilaterally. But we have said that if the bilateral route could not deliver commercially meaningful access for our apples, then WTO dispute settlement would be the only option left. Regrettably, we have now reached that point", the Ministers said.

New Zealand had been working with Australia to determine how New Zealand would meet in practice the conditions specified in the Final Import Risk Analysis (IRA) for New Zealand apples access, which was released in November last year. "There is no doubt that the Final IRA imposed a very restrictive regime for our apple exports and requires measures that are not scientifically justified.

"We will be challenging those measures in the WTO, which has already held that measures imposed by Japan for fire blight were not justified for trade in commercial apples.

"We must keep this issue in perspective and see it in the context of the $16 billion two-way trade between our two countries. Although apples access has been an irritant in the relationship, it cannot and should not overwhelm the enormous contribution both countries make to each others' trade and well-being which will continue", the Ministers said.

ENDS

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