Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Yesterday in talkback I asked the question “What’s going on with our Maternity Services?”
It seemed to me that there has been a rash of stories that suggest babies and Mums are being gambled with for the sake of meeting budgets.
The closure of the Lumsden Maternity Unit is one such story. Formerly a primary birthing unit with facilities and staff it’s been turned into what DHBs call a maternity hub. No staff and apparently no facilities either.
The baby born on the roadside in an ambulance was born there because the mid wife decided that the ambulance was better equipped than the maternity hub.  They go to the hub and found the lights off, the place was cold and there was not oxygen available for baby and Mum.  It was less a maternity hub and more an office owned by a DHB. 
Unsurprisingly, oxygen has now been re-installed in the hub. Who uninstalled is the question I’d ask. It all smacks of money.
Then there was the Wanaka baby born in a midwives office.  That made headlines and today the Southern DHB has decided to lease a better facility in Wanaka for birthing.  Pity it isn’t in the medical centre which is where the helipad is if you have to get Mum and Baby to Dunedin hospital. Maybe the rent’s less
While that was happening in rural Lumsden and Wanaka, there’s also issues in Christchurch where the hospital has no primary birthing unit for three years now and seems to have no plans for one any time soon. A primary birthing unit is a step down from a hospital and it’s for babies and mums who are deemed not to be at risk pregnancies and births. 
But if something goes wrong you need to get to a hospital quick or get a doctor to mum. That’s why 80 per cent of Canterbury mums are choosing to go to the hospital to give birth.  Now hospital births are for at risk pregnancies and have limited beds, and that’s why Canterbury mMums are regularly thrown out just hours after birth.
Then we hear that almost 90 per cent of maternity wards in New Zealand hospitals have no senior doctors or consultants on site at night or in the weekends. The revelations raise questions about patient safety in the event of traumatic or complex births that occur after-hours and require urgent specialist care.
And today we learn the total DHB deficit has jumped $40 million in the last month. The 20 DHBs have a deficit of $264 million overall, with only South Canterbury in the black. So under financial pressure, the DHBs are gambling with their rationing.
I think the DHBs are playing Russian roulette with babies and mums. It seems to me they’re underfunding the services assigned to babies that are not deemed to be at risk. Hoping that nothing goes wrong. Well, in the past fortnight, three births came close to going wrong because of funding decisions. 
There will be hell to pay when luck is not on the DHB’s side.

The Government is investing almost $30 million into maternity services.
Minister of Health David Clark has made the announcement at a Health Select Committee meeting .
The $29.7 million package is part of Budget 2019 and its wider four billion dollar health package.
Clark says it will continue the investment into community midwives.It comes as amid growing criticism aimed at the government over the closure of the Lumsden maternity centre, which has led to numerous reports of women having to give birth in less than ideal circumstances.
Earlier today, the New Zealand Herald reported that 90 per cent of maternity wards in New Zealand hospitals have no senior doctors or consultants on site at night.
A midwife and a Lumsden local whose wife had two difficult births shared their takes on these latest developments with Andrew Dickens. 

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The campaign by bureaucrats to lower the speed limits on New Zealand roads because they believe the roads are just not good enough to support a 100km an hour speed limit continues to bubble away.
But now opponents have found a real life situation that appears to sink the idea.
On State Highway 1 in the South Island, there’s a section of about 12km linking Cheviot and Kaikōura over the Hundalee Hills.  It’s tricky and windy and prone to crashes. The average speed through the section is 55 to 59 kmh.
So after the 2016 quake which further degraded the road the NZTA lowered the speed limit to 80kmh and then again to 60kmh.
Which makes sense because that’s the speed your average driver drives at through that bit of road and with a speed limit it might make the fools who drive too fast slow down and stay on their side of the road - actually, stay on the road full stop.
But according to the local fire chief it has made absolutely no difference at all to the number of incidents on the road. In fact it might have made it worse.
There’s a local truck driver called Owen who knows why.  It’s all down to impatience.  He trucks through the section at 60 k and most of the time it’s fine but then there’s some who scream up behind him, can’t stand 60 k so try to pass him on a windy road.  He says they try to pass on blind corners.  They scream past him at 20 and 30ks over the speed limit.
So there are some they say this is proof that lowered speed limits don’t work.  To me it’s proof not the speed limit’s fault but the idiot drivers who flout the law and common sense.
I would like these guys to rein it in or stop driving but that’s a forlorn hope.  So there’s a part of me that doesn’t care if they hurtle off the road to their death as long as they don’t take anyone else with them.
The Government is on a three-year mission to improve road safety.
Some $1.4 billion is being invested in improvements like new barriers, passing lanes and wider shoulders, with the hope of upgrading 870km of high-risk state highways by 2021.
I say hurry up and keep the idiots away from my side of the road.
Meanwhile, NZTA is expected to announce a list of areas for proposed lower speed limits in the next week or so, and the public will be consulted. I’m not opposed to this, theoretically, as long as the speed limits make sense taking into account the road and the risk factors.

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Talkback callers have made clear their dissatisfaction with the minimum and living wage.
K-Mart has agreed to pay its unionised workforce the living wage, following a similar commitment from Bunnings last year.
The living wage is currently set at $21.15 an hour, with the adult minimum wage $17.70.
Andrew Dickens raised the topic with callers today, and the general consensus was that the higher wage is too costly for businesses and ultimately not worthwhile. 

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There are no rational reasons for why Maori are treated differently in the justice system, a lawyer says. 
The criminal justice system has come under fire after a damning report that laid bare the many issues throughout the system. 
An advisory group report recommends a complete overhaul of the system, which it says is failing offenders, victims, and communities.
Kingi, who works as a defence lawyer in Manukau, told Andrew Dickens that this is an area New Zealand has been lacking coverage on.
He says that, until things change, unconscious bias and colonisation have played a big part of these issues. 
"The legacy of colonisation is still alive today. The fact that if you are a Maori person charged with the same crime as a non-Maori person, you are more likely to be arrested for that crime, you are more likely to face charges in the court, you are more likely to go to jail. There's evidence to suggest that Maori are treated differently."
Kingi wants to see fewer people end up in the justice system, as young Maori men in the system “more often than not” they graduate to prison.
“Once you’re in prison, that’s real university for becoming a seasoned criminal.”
He says that it is easy for people to say that they simply need to stop committing crimes, and it's easy for people who have never suffered prejudice. 
"If you are Maori or Pasifika, you are treated differently, and the Police have admitted that."

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COMMENT:
The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group has finished its tour of New Zealand and reported back to the Government.
The working group is chaired by former National MP Chester Borrows. He’s an interesting chap, Chester. Firstly Chester in not his name, it’s a nickname. It took him three goes to get the Whanganui seat. He’s a lay preacher who gave Israel Folau a serve in 2018. He proposed a softening of the smacking law and after a visit to Parihaka had a road to Damascus experience regarding the teaching of Māori history in our schools, which will become obvious soon.
So the Advisory Group has had a good hard look at our justice system and come up with the hardly surprising conclusion that the system is broken, and that we need to transform it into something better and fairer.
Chester Borrows told us the report is particularly critical of how victims are treated within the system, saying people have a lack of faith in it, and that suggests it is not fit for purpose.
Victims are interrogated and presumed as guilty as the accused. Outcomes vary the more you spend on a lawyer. The justice system takes forever, it’s confusing and alienating and favours people with money and education.
There’s criticism that the system focuses on punishment, rather than rehabilitation and there is widespread frustration that mental illness, addiction, and drug and alcohol abuse are treated as criminal justice issues, not health issues.
Borrows says the group is most worried about how the justice system affects Māori - who make up 51 per cent of those in prisons, but only about 15 per cent of the population. The group says Māori are bearing the brunt of the legacy of colonisation. One of the group went as far to say that if Māori knew the justice system they were going to get they would have never signed the Treaty of Waitangi.
This is where the group starts to lose me.
Our justice and legal system is based on centuries of development, from the setting of common law after the Norman Conquest in 1066, through the Magna Carta, to today. One-third of the world exists under these principles.
I find the suggestion that the worldwide convention of law and its application is somehow unsuitable to Māori to be vaguely insulting to Māori, who by the way have shown themselves to be very good at law if they want to be. Māori have a strong oral culture and they like a good kōrero on everything including innocence and guilt.
No, the problem with this justice system for Māori is fundamentally socio-economic and that’s where things have to change. If we’re going to have a conversation about our justice system, I don’t want to hear the blame being put on events of 177 years ago. This sort of blame-storming on the Treaty fixes nothing.
The real problem with our justice system is that it is adversarial. All the parties are adversaries, fighting each other, disagreeing with each other, trying to beat each other. And with adversaries then there will be participants who suffer adversely. No matter what the colour of their skin. If we can fix that then the whole world will beat a path to our door.

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COMMENT:
So I’ve kept out of the speed limit debate because there’s no point in debating something that so many seem to disagree with.
I don’t need to open the lines and have people mansplain to me that it’s actually slow drivers that cause all these high-speed crashes. That it’s people from other countries or even races that are at fault. Or the National Party’s response this week which seemed to say make every road a four-lane, gold plated highway. How they afford that, pay the teachers, loosen Pharmac’s purse strings, and lower taxes all at the same time is a magic trick I’d like to see.
But the nation is reacting to the news that the NZTA reckons only five per cent of our roads are safe at 100km/h and that we need to lower speed limits, as a nanny state gone mad and they have a point.
I think they’ve exaggerated the risk, but that’s not to say the risk isn’t there.
I think we all can go through the New Zealand atlas and mark the roads that you would drive at 90km/h or 80km/h or 60km/h or even less - because we’re grown up.
I’ve heard people say the speed limit is not the target, that is true. Many say that but don’t drive that way, and every second they spend under 100km/h you can feel their blood pressure rising.
I think everyone would agree that matching speeds to individual road conditions makes sense and would help reduce our road toll. But you can’t have the speed limits changing every five minutes of a journey depending on risk factors, because New Zealand drivers are not aware enough to cope.
Meanwhile, the debate has veered onto our continued use of cellphones and, in particular, texting when driving.
The first time I ever tried to do that was also the last time I ever did it because it scared the pants off me, but it appears there are many who think differently. Don’t tell them that New Zealanders can’t multitask.
Then there’s the continued battle against drink driving. You know you could lower the drink drive limit to zero and there will always be a hardcore that will continue to drink, drive, and kill.
And here’s a point I’d like to mansplain back at you, firstly, consider the number of people who believe that 100km/h is the targe, not the limit, that too many rules on the road are too hard to follow, that it is your human right and productive need to be able to text and drive, and that drink and drugs don’t impair your driving. Then ask yourself what we can do about it?
The reason governments and regulators come up with laws and regulations that makes them seem like nanny states is because they’re dealing with a minority who behave like children ... Can we just send them to their room?

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A service of commemoration was held in southern England to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, with a  notable absence.
Queen Elizabeth II, U.S. President Donald Trump, other leaders of the wartime Allies such as Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau — as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel — joined some 300 World War II veterans at the seaside ceremony in Portsmouth Wednesday.
The service was held to mark 75 years since troops began to embark from Portsmouth on June 5, 1944, landing in Normandy the next morning.
The ceremony kicked off with the recollections of those who took part in the landings, broadcast from a giant screen, setting the tone for a ceremony meant to focus on veterans' sacrifices.
New Zealand’s Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy attended on behalf of the New Zealand Government, with no appearance from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern or Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
Andrew Dickens asked why neither of them had gone to the event, when other world leaders – including Australia’s Scott Morrison – had attended.
Dickens noted that, as far as he could see, Ardern had not attended a D-Day events in New Zealand, which left him "surprised and horrified". 
"I want to find out what she thinks is so important on the 75th anniversary of D-Day that she should be in Marlborough talking about her budget and not at the National War Memorial. It seems like the call is getting worse." 
Callers in response agreed with his calls, with one saying that it was "appalling" that she was not there."

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COMMENT:
Hello, my name is Andrew Dickens and today I took a bus to work.
I thought I’d run you through the reason I chose public transportation today and can I stress it was my choice.
So the reason is highly bourgeois. Tonight I’m going to the Opera. The performance starts at 7.30 and if you’re not seated by then you miss half the opera. So I’ve booked a little Japanese place I know for Yakitori at 5.45pm. Here’s the plan - I’ll leave work at 5pm, walk to the restaurant, meet my date, eat my skewers, go to the Opera and Uber home.
So why did I bus in?
Total transportation cost for me will be $1.95 on the bus and I know that on a Thursday at 10pm it’ll cost $12 on the Uber. So that comes to $14. I know from last night when I went to the cinema that a car park for the Opera costs $16 for the night. So I’ve saved $2. But I also don’t have to worry about daytime carpark costs, or the running costs of the car. It was an economic choice to bus in and Uber home.
I’m saying this because with transportation issues in the news this week, I’ve got irritated with the ideologues who are trying to convince you that there is a conspiracy to get you out of your car. There is a propaganda stream against public transport, buses and trains and ferries, and bus lanes and cycle lanes which ignores a basic fact - no one forces people out of cars. People choose alternative transport.
Sometimes they choose it because they have no choice.
My sons bike to uni because they can’t afford a car. The cost, the maintenance, the petrol, the insurance, the parking. They chose bicycles. Jack biked yesterday in the big storm. I told him to take a bus but he really doesn’t like them. All he did was put a coat on. Cost him nothing.
On my bus at 9.45 this morning there were 34 seats and 25 people were on the bus. By the way that’s 25 cars not on the road, thank you very much. So the passengers were basically either young, old or minorities. Basically, they were poor.
I asked the lady beside me why she took the bus. She said she was divorced, working part-time and couldn’t afford the parking. I’m picking that most of the opponents of public transport investment have a car park at work. They’ve not had to rush out the door to get the Early Bird parking. Or turned up at 8.45am after a snarl up on the motorway to find the car park full and then spend an hour circling town for a park. I’m picking they’ve never had to leave work every hour to feed a meter and then found you’re 10 minutes late and you have a $12 ticket on top of your existing parking fees. I’m picking they’ve never driven in for four hours of part-time work and paid $25 for the privilege of parking.
A week of that and choosing a bus or bike starts looking good.
I’ve noticed a lot of people parking in inner-city suburbs and pulling an electric scooter out of the boot to scoot to work. Pays for itself in a month. People are choosing to do this. A lot of people are choosing to do this. On Sunday 23rd June, buses trains and ferries in Auckland will be free for the day to celebrate 100 million trips taken on public transport in a year. That’s 100 million cars off the road, thank you very much.
By the way, 3000 people work in my building. There are 240 parks. Do the parkers have any idea how the other 2750 adults in the building get to work?
I guess I get angry at the claim that public transport is an ideology because it is anti-freedom of choice. No one is forcing you out of your car but the opponents of public transport infrastructure spend are trying to force you back into a car when it's increasingly not working. It’s all a bit Marie Antoinette. The peasants are starving. Well, let them eat cake. They can drive into town do it.

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Is 5pm too early in the day for a dating 'hook-up' show to screen on television?
The latest season of the UK reality sensation Love Island premieres on Three this afternoon.
NZ Herald TV reviewer Anna Murray wrote that the show is about a "group of young, confident, conventionally good-looking Brits hit a Majorcan villa in the hope of finding love and/or winning a cash prize of £50,000.
"With dozens of cameras fixed on them around the compound, the group's mission is clearly spelled out: Couple up or go home."
Andrew Dickens says that the timing is an obvious attempt to compete with the ratings juggernaut of The Chase, a quiz show that airs on TVNZ 1 at the same time. 
He says it is a "raunchy overly provactive festival of millennials making out or fighting", that has led to a "pornification of 5'o'clock". 
Dickens wants to know why the show isn't rated to be on later at night.
"Most of these hook-up programmes go on after 8pm. Why is this on at 5pm?" 
The news of the timeslot sparked outrage and derision by a number of talkback callers, with many saying that it should nopt be on that early. 
However, one caller, Clare, says that the timeslot may be pointless, as streaming services and DVR's means that anyone can watch anything at any time. 
"You do wonder how the Broadcasting Standards Authority can ever implement anything in the future based on that."

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