Russian adoptee's PTSD claim denied by ACC over residency rules
Despite a High Court and District Court ruling the man was eligible for mental health cover, the Court of Appeal overturned their rulings,
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Otago Daily Times
17 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
NZ sends support to Samoa after dengue fever outbreak
The Aedes aegypti is one of the mosquitos that transmits dengue fever in Samoa. Photo: Supplied/ CDC Public Health Image Library - Frank Hadley Collins via RNZ New Zealand is sending a small health team and $300,000 worth of medical supplies to Samoa to assist with a major outbreak of dengue fever. Samoa has recorded more than 5000 cases and at least five deaths since the outbreak was declared in April. Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand stood with Samoa in this time of need - and was ready to provide further support as requested. "We stand ready to provide further support as requested by Samoa," Peters said. Senior New Zealand public health officials are also in contact with their Samoa counterparts. New Zealand does not have the mosquitoes able to transmit dengue but public health officials say the number of cases are also surging in Aotearoa as people return home after picking up the illness overseas. Anyone travelling to Samoa should protect themselves from mosquito bites and follow dengue fever prevention advice available on the SafeTravel website. New Zealanders travelling outside Aotearoa are also advised to protect themselves by: Staying or sleeping in well-screened locations, or under mosquito nets Keeping screens on doors and windows closed when indoors Wearing light coloured protective clothing, including hats, long sleeves and trousers when outdoors Wearing a repellent cream or spray containing diethyltoluamide (DEET) when outdoors Avoiding places where mosquitoes are most active, such as swampy areas or places with standing water.
Newsroom
a day ago
- Newsroom
Making heated tobacco products cheaper than cigarettes is no scandal
Opinion: The Government's decision to introduce a lower excise rate for heated tobacco products (HTPs) has been widely framed as 'giving tax breaks to tobacco companies'. It's a provocative line – and politically potent – but it doesn't help us have an honest, evidence-informed discussion about how to reduce smoking harm, particularly for the most disadvantaged New Zealanders, or how to deal with conflicts of interest. Let's be clear: this isn't a corporate subsidy, so long as the reduced tax is passed on with cheaper products. It's an excise adjustment applied to a class of tobacco products that heat rather than burn tobacco. (Like vaping products, HTPs are marketed as smoke-free alternatives to cigarettes, but are not the same thing.) Combustion is what makes smoking lethal. Cigarettes burn at over 800C, releasing thousands of toxic compounds. Heated tobacco products operate at much lower temperatures and don't produce smoke – just an aerosol – with far fewer harmful constituents. That distinction matters. The multinational tobacco company Philip Morris does hold a monopoly over HTPs in New Zealand. That's not ideal, but it doesn't mean the tax policy exists for Philip Morris International. The intention is to make a less harmful product more affordable than cigarettes – a principle long accepted in tobacco harm reduction, and already applied to vaping. Unfortunately, it appears Philip Morris International hasn't yet passed on the tax savings to the small number of HTP users in New Zealand – this is the real scandal. In addition, the apparent impact of PMI on government policy is tough to ignore, and contrary to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which seeks to protect government policy from tobacco industry influence. New Zealand has rightly taxed cigarettes heavily to deter use. But excise taxes are also regressive. The remaining people who smoke – fewer than 7 percent of adults – are disproportionately Māori, Pasifika, low-income, and more likely to experience mental health distress. The associate minister of health, Casey Costello, justified the excise differential by citing relative harm reduction and the growing inequity of uniform excise. Her reasoning deserves more attention than it has been given. Critics argue there's insufficient evidence that HTPs help people quit, but the UK Office for Health Improvement and Disabilities, the UK Committee on Toxicity, and the US Food and Drug Administration all acknowledge HTPs reduce exposure to toxicants compared with cigarettes. That doesn't make them harmless – but being less harmful than smoking is enough to warrant a differential tax. The example of Japan is instructive. There, HTPs make up over 30 percent of tobacco sales. Though vaping is banned, cigarette consumption has plummeted by 40 percent in some markets. Surveys suggest many smokers switched completely to HTPs. Youth uptake has been minimal. No policy is perfect, but that's a shift in the right direction. What's really at stake here? Not a tax break for big tobacco – but increasing the options for people who smoke and want to quit, and whether we believe in a response to nicotine products based on their comparative risks to human health as a foundation for public health policy. A more productive debate would ask: • Are they less harmful than cigarettes, and do they help smokers quit? • Are tax savings being passed on to consumers? • Are HTPs being promoted responsibly? • Will there be an independent evaluation of their impact on smoking rates? In a country that leads the world with its Smokefree 2025 goal, we should be asking how to accelerate the decline in smoking, not defending a one-size-fits-all excise regime that's increasingly disconnected from the realities of risk, behaviour, and equity. If HTPs can help some people switch, pricing them appropriately is not a scandal. It's a good policy – provided it's transparent, monitored, and grounded in evidence, and the tax savings are passed on to consumers.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Dengue fever outbreak: New Zealand steps in to help as Samoa grapples with deaths
'We are closely monitoring the dengue situation across the Pacific and stand ready to consider other requests for support.' Young brothers among death toll Other countries that have declared a dengue fever outbreak in the past few months are Tonga, the Cook Islands and Fiji. Dengue fever, also known as break-bone fever, is a viral infection that spreads from mosquitoes to people and causes symptoms that include sudden high fever, intensely sore joints and muscles, pain behind the eyes and a rash. Fumigation efforts have been under way in Samoa this week as it deals with a dengue fever outbreak. Photo / Govt of Samoa The official death toll in Samoa stands at four, with a fifth death – a 2-year-old boy who died over the weekend – being deemed as a probable dengue-related death at this stage. The boy is the youngest person to have lost their life over the past few months. His death came just a few days after his older brother, 9, succumbed to the same disease last week. Their deaths follow that of a 5-year-old girl, whose death was declared by local health authorities on Monday last week. The first death reported in Samoa was 12-year-old Misiafa Lene, who contracted the disease in April and died a week later, despite his family's efforts to medically evacuate him to Starship children's hospital in Auckland. Speaking to the Herald at the time, his parents described the nightmare they were living. 'The pain is beyond anything. We don't want another family to go through what we are going through.' As of Sunday, a total of 5670 clinically diagnosed cases of dengue have been recorded since January. Of those, just over 2600 are laboratory-confirmed cases, according to the Samoan Government's latest figures. Last week, 1446 new clinically diagnosed cases were reported across Upolu and Savai'i – Samoa's two main islands – and included 342 new lab-confirmed cases. Samoa has shut down all schools as fumigation programmes start in the country's fight against dengue fever. Photo / Govt of Samoa Samoa's main hospital, near Apia, has had to make changes to its day-to-day operations to keep up with the surging cases of dengue fever among the community. Those changes include revised operating hours for general outpatients, with only patients with dengue-like symptoms being attended to from 6pm until morning. People with mild dengue-like symptoms, including fever, headache and joint pain without warning signs, are encouraged to stay home and manage symptoms with adequate hydration and paracetamol. Travellers: Pack insect repellent MFAT said it had not been approached for assistance by any New Zealanders in Samoa. However, people due to travel to Samoa, particularly those with children, are being urged to heed safety messages. People are advised to pack insect repellent, protective clothing and use mosquito nets when sleeping – especially for children, the elderly and pregnant women. An influx of Samoan community members from overseas, particularly from New Zealand and Australia, is set to head to Samoa over the next few weeks before the country's general elections this month. Although the majority of the dengue fever cases and all of the dengue-related deaths have been children, elderly members of the public are also vulnerable to the mosquito-borne viral illness. 'Travellers to Samoa should always take precautions to protect themselves from mosquito bites,' MFAT authorities say. 'We encourage all travellers to follow the dengue fever prevention advice on our SafeTravel website and further information.' Travellers to Samoa are also being encouraged to take out comprehensive travel insurance that includes medical evacuation in case of an emergency. People should also register their details on MFAT's SafeTravel site. Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald's Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010 and won the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.
