Mike's Minute: Health services should never be affected by race

We've received another one of these “the Government went against official advice“ stories.

This one was around bowel testing.

The Government has recently announced that testing has dropped in age from 60 to 58-years-old. The money to pay for that extra testing has come from the separate Māori and Pacific testing, which cuts in at 50-years-old.

The official advice is that more lives could be saved if you tested more Māori and Pacific Islanders.

The new health minister said in response that what we need to do to save more lives is test more people.

He is of course unquestionably right, because the word "people" is critical. We are all people and, given we all contribute to the system that tests us, exempting some from access i.e a non-Māori , is not right.

Yet again, this is part of the race-based system we have in this country, which hopefully is slowly but surely being dismantled.

Adding to this official advice part of the story is my increasing concern based on the Brian Roache report into the public service and the Deloitte report into Health NZ. It's possible this so-called "official advice" is either pointless or politically motivated.

If you start with a system that anyone at anytime can get a test, and then work backwards because that is not effective or affordable, at some point you come to a hap-ish, affordable medium.

Age will be a factor because there's no point in bowel testing a 29-year-old. So what is the magic number? They have decided 60years-old, until they decided 58-years-old. Breast screening mammogram have gone through the same debate.

But at no point should race be a factor. Yet, it has been.

Having just completed my first state participant bowel screen I would be deeply offended if I was bumped, delayed or stopped simply because I am not Maori or Pasifika.

I am a taxpayer and a New Zealander. My right is no more or less important or relevant than anyone else's and yet there are those that would argue otherwise.

By prioritising race, you are saying one life is worth more than another. You can't do that

That's what makes the official advice wrong.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We received another of these Government went against officials advice
headlines over the weekend. You see that this was on
bowel testing. The government has recently announced that testing has
dropped in age from sixty to fifty eight. The money
to pay for that extra testing has come from separate
Marian Pacific testing, which cuts in i think from memory
to about fifty. The official advice is that more lives
could be saved if you tested more Maori and Pacific Islanders.

(00:23):
The new Health minister, God bless them stead in response,
what we need to do to save more lives is
test more people. He is, of course unquestionably right, because
the word people is critical where all people, and given
we all contribute to the system that tests us, exempting
some from excess Ie and non Maori is not right
yet again as part of the race based system we

(00:45):
have in this country, which hopefully is slowly maturely being dismantled.
Adding to this officials advice part of the story is
my increasing concern, based on one the Brian Roach report
into the public service generally and to the Deloitte report
last week into Health New Zealand specifically, it is possible
the so called official advice is either pointless or politically motivated. Obviously,

(01:05):
if you start with the system that anyone any time
can get a test, and work backwards because it's not
effectab or affordable, at some point you come to a happy, ish,
affordable medium. Age will be a factor. No point in
bowel testing in twenty nine year old. So what's that
magic number they decided sixty until they decided fifty eight?
Breast screening mammograms, of course have gone through the same
debate for years, but at no point should race be

(01:27):
a factor, and yet it has been. Having just completed
my first state participant bowel screen, I would be deeply
offended if I was bumped, delayed, or stopped simply because
I'm not Maori or Pacific Island. I am a taxpayer
and I'm a New Zealander. My right is no more
or less important or relevant than anyone else's. And yet
there are those that would argue otherwise. By prioritizing race,

(01:49):
you are saying one life is worth more than another.
You can't do that, and that's what makes the official
advice wrong. For more from the mic asking breakfast listen
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