Dr Gary Payinda is an outspoken Emergency Medical Specialist based in Northland

In this Head2Head interview he spells out why patients are waiting so long to see a doctor in our overcrowded hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of us are on waiting lists for surgery.

And what is the root cause of the problem?

Answer - a political ideology that panders to the wealthy few at the expense of the many, by cutting taxes and privatising essential services that should remain the collective responsibility of government.

For make no mistake, the agenda of the present coalition government is to privatise our public health system - and the sly way they are doing it , the speed at which they are doing it, and the impact it is having on our lives and society, is all made clear in this conversation.

But this interview is no hand- wringing excercise.

Near the end of our conversation we talk about what you and I can do to actively protest this assault on our hard- won public health system.

We have to make the invisible,visible.

So please listen to Gary’s frontline description of what is happening in our health system and stay tuned for action points, in the coming days, weeks and months that we can all take to turn this dire situation around .

You can find more of Dr Payinda’s writing here:

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Melanie Nelson has been deep diving into David Seymour’s very dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill and reveals how its real aim is to embed ACT’s libertarian agenda into our legislative process to the detriment of the public good.

You can find out more about Melanie and her highly researched writing here:

I attended The Child Poverty Post Budget Hui yesterday and managed to catch up with economist Bernard Hickey for his take on the 2025 Willis budget. He is so informed and such a good communicator. If you don’t read or listen to any other analysis make sure you listen to his one.

Please take 20 minutes to understand that we don’t have a debt problem. What we have is an ideology problem.

The quote of the day, for me, came from a young speaker from Kelston Boys High School.

He framed robbing women of pay equity in terms of mothers who are struggling to pay the bills while striving to give their kids a better chance in life. He put it poignantly:

“You can’t put down mothers and expect their children to rise up and do well.”

Such insight from a such a young man. It took my breath away.

If you are receiving this post for free, please consider upgrading to paid. For $9 a month (less than a cup of coffee each week) will not only give you access to all my documentaries and premium posts, you will get to join a group of New Zealanders in our chatroom who comment on posts and discuss the issues that are important to all us who want to live in a fairer,more democratic society.

Please restack and share posts you find worthwhile as it all helps to build readership.