Casey Costello: Associate Health Minister explains why she's directing Health NZ to stop saying 'pregnant people'

Casey Costello believes slashing inclusive language will help the health system connect with women.

The Associate Health Minister is directing Health NZ to refer to pregnant people as women, and to not use gender-diverse terms.

Costello says we need to recognise women have significant health issues.

"So we need to be clear - we are targeting women and we want women to reach out and connect as much as possible with health services."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First though, we had two brand new sub unmanned submarines
launched in Devenport today. The new ships are named Tahi
and Rua, and they're going to be used to intercept
Class A drugs before the drugs get into the country. Now,
Casey Cascalo is the customs minister. Hey Casey, hi, he
how are you very well? Thank you? So these subs
are they just surveillance subs, are they?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah? So they're uncrewed vessels, so they have solar powered,
they're wind powered. Say, I think the maximum they've been
out to sea without any staff at one hundred days,
So there can do long distances for long periods of
time doing surveillance. So they're fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And then what happens? What if they see something dodgy
going on out there? What do we do?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So they're all linked up through cameras and data so
they're always monitored. They're effectively at crew back at their
control command post, which monitor all their activity and send
information back real time. So yeah, we're really really excited
because they can reach a lot further and a lot
less risk to people and a lot cheaper to run.
So they're fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And so what happens is let's say they see somebody
dumping gigantic bag of pea in the ocean to be
picked up photos come back. Do we then send out
a boat to go pick it up.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, so it's a part of a response. It's about
intel networks, it's about monitoring the oceans, about early warning
of vessels that maybe haven't reported in a whole lot
of monitoring and data intelligence that they gather as well
around activity. And you know, we have the eleventh largest
maritime border in the world, so you know we need

(01:27):
to do a lot smarter and a lot better about
how we cover those distances.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, it's going to ask you, I mean, if we've
got we've got this massive area that we've got a
patrols two, enough do we need.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, this is this has been part of a trial.
So seven months ago we were trialing this to see
what we could do. And now we've got these first
tours of MoU between Defense and Customs and it's just
one of another tool and toolbox kind of thing. So
it will be allowing us to stretch out towards so
if they can do a lot more support and yeah,

(01:58):
so it's just you know, we're building up capability, and
this is part of the Defense capability plan that Minister
Collins has put out. We'll just keep growing out our
capacity and working with customs and defense. This is a
big part of what we've been talking about as our
agency working cooperatively.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Casey, listen on this business of ordering the Health New
Zealand guys to start saying pregnant women instead of pregnant people.
How's that gone down with them?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, this is where it's sort of trading me by surprise.
That was such a novel response because I mean, actually
there's been no pushback. It's just about the fact that
we have a woman's health strategy. I'm the Minister in
charge of women's health, so to suggest that we're just
talking about women when we're dealing with women's specific issues

(02:45):
seemed logical and practical option to do. So, Yeah, I'm
not sure why there's this adverse reaction.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Was I mean, because I'm just trying to get a
handle on exactly what was going on in Health Easyland.
It didn't seem like it was it was a hard
and fast post there to use phrases like pregnant people
or people with the cervix, right, It felt like they
were kind of using it interchangeably with pregnant women, Is
that right?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, yeah, this was the part you know that really
it just came down to, well, when we're talking about
specific issues, you know, cervix, you know, cervical cancers, things
like this, we need to be recognizing that these are
very significant women's health issues and if there's anything we
can do to better connect with women, and we know

(03:31):
statistically with Martyr pacifica other ethnic communities, we are seeing
them connecting with health services. Later in pregnancies, we're not
seeing them connect with you know, those regular checks and
things that we need to do that are very specific
women's health issues. So we need to be clear about
we are targeting women and we want women to reach

(03:51):
out and connect as much as possible with health services.
And if there's other demographics that we need to connect
with better, then let's let's work out specific programs and things.
But you know, we have a woman's health strategy and
they're the targeting women and that's what I want to
focus on.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Casey, thanks very much for you time. Appreciate It's Casey Costello,
the Customers Ministered For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.
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