Wednesday, 6 June 2007

Labour and National scrapping on Muliaga case "unseemly"

United Future leader Peter Dunne says scrapping between Labour and National over the Muliaga case is becoming unseemly and should stop as a mark of respect to Mrs Muliaga and her family.

"That a tragedy has occurred here is undeniable; that a thorough investigation of all the circumstances should be undertaken to find out exactly what happened so that there can be no repetitions in the future is also undeniable; but, the current rush to judgement while the funeral proceedings are still underway is insensitive and offensive," he says.

Mr Dunne says the Labour/Green solution of stricter regulation of utilities is a gross over-reaction which will not work, while National's approach of leaving it up to the companies to sort out what to do in such situations is simply too cavalier.

"There are two distinct issues here to be resolved.

"The first is the appropriate responsibility of public utilities when dealing with customers in arrears on accounts.

"That is a general issue which needs to be worked through over the next few weeks, and does not require a knee jerk solution at this time.

"The second issue is much more specific to cases like Mrs Muliaga's, and that is the issue of ensuring that patients placed on potentially life-saving equipment have access to amenities such as electricity to ensure the equipment can be operated.

"Surely the solution here is to require District Health Boards to notify power supply companies when such equipment is made available to ensure the patient is able to use the equipment provided.

"Had such a requirement been in place for Mrs Muliaga, it is likely the present tragedy would have been avoided," he says.

ENDS

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