Practice nurses working with Maori and Pacific Island families are to bear the brunt of another ill-thought out Government policy, Labour health spokesperson Annette King said today.

"The practice nurse subsidy is to be cut by 10 percent as a result of the recent ACC reforms. Practice nurses now have to claim directly to insurance companies for treatment given to work accident patients.

"The National Government talks of wanting to introduce more flexible funding arrangements. But in this case, it has been decided that on average all practice nurses spend 10 percent of their time on ACC work, so that's how much will be taken off their subsidy.

"It's a clumsy, inefficient and unfair way to conduct health policy.

"Practice nurses who provide care to low-income families under the umbrella of groups like Health Care Aotearoa will suffer. These practice nurses do not do a lot of ACC work, but are losing 10 percent of their Government funding.

"Labour in government will address this issue and the many other inequities in healthcare funding imposed by National," Annette King said.

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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>>