Changes to needle exchange contract spark concerns
Tags:
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
35 minutes ago
- Scoop
Booze Warnings On Hold
, for The Detail Outdated alcohol guidelines put New Zealand out of step with modern research, but our health authorities are in no hurry to update them. In Canada, proposed guidelines for low-risk drinking set the weekly limit at two drinks. Here in New Zealand, the recommendation is to cap alcohol at 10 drinks weekly for women, and 15 for men, with two alcohol-free days per week. Despite these guidelines being nearly 15 years old, and documents from Health NZ showing that they consider a review of the guidelines to be 'necessary', for now, the guidelines are staying as they are. "The complication is that the Ministry of Health has come in over the top of [Health NZ] and has said 'actually these are our guidelines ... we want to control this and we're putting a pause on that work'," says RNZ's Guyon Espiner. "It certainly does show that they're listening to the alcohol industry, who are pretty exercised about this - because as you can imagine, this could have a significant effect on sales if people did take this advice and did drink significantly less." In a series of articles over the past few months, Espiner has reported on issues of alcohol harm and how the alcohol lobby has impacted policy in New Zealand. Through documents he received through the Official Information Act (OIA), he found that Health NZ commissioned a review of the low-risk guidelines. But in October 2024, a lobbyist emailed Ross Bell, who is a manager in the Ministry of Health's Public Health Agency, asking why Health NZ's website said the guidelines were under review. In December, following a second email which again asked about the review and also complained about mention of the Canadian guidelines on Health NZ-run website ' Bell emailed Health NZ saying "All work on this project will now pause. You will update relevant Health NZ websites to remove references to the review and also to other jurisdictions' guidelines (including the Canadian one)." But in a statement to The Detail, the Ministry of Health says it "understands Health New Zealand has continued some work related to the review. The Ministry is working with Health New Zealand on potential next steps, including how Health New Zealand's progress on the review to date can be used to inform any future work in this area" and that "the Ministry is currently considering where the next phase (Phase 2) will fit as it prioritises its work programme for 2025/26." The Ministry's statement, which is attributed to Dr Andrew Old, Deputy Director-General, Public Health Agency, goes on to say that "as part of good policy process, the Ministry engages with a broad range of interested parties-including community organisations, public health experts, and the industry-to ensure any regulatory approaches are well-informed and transparent. Reference to the drinking guidelines review was removed from the website to avoid confusion about roles and responsibilities as the guidelines are now led by the Ministry of Health - rather than Health New Zealand which has responsibility for the site. This was an internal Ministry decision." In today's episode of The Detail, Espiner details other examples of contact between the alcohol lobby and health policy makers. "The material I've got shows that yes they've had a lot of meetings, a lot of email contact, in fact one looked like a regular meeting between alcohol lobbyists and Ministry of Health staff. They've also shared with the alcohol industry their plans on how they will combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ... they shared that entire draft document with them and also shared with them plans about how they might spend the alcohol levy." Espiner says that while this contact is going on, tobacco lobbyists are completely 'locked out of the policy process". "We're signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, [which is] a World Health initiative, and there's a clause in there that New Zealand is signed up to that says you won't allow the vested interests of the tobacco industry to shape policy. "What's interesting is that the alcohol industry has escaped most of that scrutiny." For Massey University associate professor Andy Towers, who has worked on the Health NZ review, it is a clear mistake for New Zealand to allow lobbyists a role. "It's very, very clear that you don't invite the wolf into the henhouse," he says. "Unfortunately the alcohol industry makes money based on alcohol use and resulting alcohol harms and in a space where we are trying to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and reduce those harms for society and for communities, there is not space for the alcohol industry there. They do not get to sit at the table, just as you wouldn't invite an arms manufacturer to the table to talk about cessation of violence." In this episode of The Detail, Towers explains how knowledge around the harm of alcohol has evolved in the past 20 years, and where New Zealand sits on alcohol use compared to other countries. Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Two popular regional flights on the chopping block
Two popular regional flights in the South Island are on the chopping block due to what is has been described as 'out of control' costs. Sounds Air will soon can its flights from Blenheim to Christchurch and Christchurch to Wanaka. It comes after the airline cancelled its services from Wellington to Taupo and Wellington to Westport last December, and sold an aircraft. It has been seen as not just a blow to hopes of boosting tourism but also for healthcare and those needing treatment at Christchurch Hospital. Tess Brunton reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Havelock residents told to boil water as council seeks solution
Photo: AFP The Marlborough District Council is considering temporarily treating Havelock's water supply with ultraviolet light after the regulator issued a boil water notice. Taumata Arowai issued the notice last Wednesday as a precautionary measure due to the risk of parasitic contamination. A new treatment plant was due to be completed by 2028, however, if a temporary solution was found the notice could be lifted well ahead of that date. Council assets and services manager Richard Coningham said the risk of contamination in Havelock had not changed, but the drinking water requirements in the Water Services Act 2021 were more stringent. Water supplies in New Zealand required a multi-barrier approach - a range of processes, procedures and tools to protect and treat water. "Although chlorine is used in the Havelock supply, it doesn't protect from the risk - however small - of protozoa getting into the supply," Coningham said. Protozoa are single-celled parasites, like cryptosporidium and giardia, that make can make people sick. They can be removed from water with filters or inactivated using UV light so they do not pose a health risk. People in Havelock were being told to boil water used for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and washing food. Coningham said the council was working through a number of options and planned to have a solution by the end of the week. The new $14 million water treatment plant planned for Havelock would use a multi-barrier approach, including filtration, chlorine and UV. "The plant upgrade has been planned for some years and budget is set aside in the council's Long Term Plan. However it has been difficult to secure a new site, with few land options available in the town or nearby," Coningham said. The council had now found a site and was planning and designing a new treatment plant, for completion in early 2028. Land purchase negotiations were in the final stages and a new road would be built to provide access. Construction tendering would follow.
