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Public policy must take health impacts into account

Tuesday, 21 February 2012, 9:10 am
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party


Maryan
STREET
Health Spokesperson

21 February 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT
Public policy must take health impacts into account

A long term study which reveals New Zealand’s alarming rates of infectious diseases should be a sharp reminder to government that all public policy has health impacts, Labour’s Health Spokesperson Maryan Street says

“A dramatic doubling in the incidence of infectious diseases over the last 20 years is a cause for real concern, especially in the face of the National government’s blinkered approach to poverty in this country.

“It is clear from the study that these diseases – many preventable with early intervention - started to rise in the 1990s, coinciding with the introduction of the then National government’s hugely punitive wages policy,” Maryan Street said.

“That some improvement occurred between 2000 and 2005 is a tribute to Labour’s commitment to primary health care.

“Sadly we are again seeing a rise in the rates of these diseases, this time coinciding with increased income inequality and falling standards of living. Choosing between putting food on the table or taking their children to the doctor is a reality many families face.

“Infectious diseases increase where there is overcrowding in substandard housing. This government has done nothing to increase the stock of affordable and adequate houses for the least well-off.

“Their efforts at reducing labour costs and freezing wage increases have resulted in real hardship and the increase in unemployment in the last three years simply reveals that government policies are having wider health impacts.

“The government needs to get serious about monitoring all its policies for entirely predictable health effects, and it needs to put prevention and early intervention ahead of cuts and austerity measures, for the sake of all Kiwis,” said Maryan Street.

 
 
 
 
 
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