TONY'S BEEN "SUCCESSFUL"

Now here’s an interesting article;

“Tony Ryall to Quit Politics” [Stuff.co.nz. 28 Feb 2014]

Last night, my wife and I had a “disagreement” about Mr Ryall.  The Ball-and-Chain tells me he’s the most successful Health Minister we’ve had in years.  What!!!!!????  Are you kidding???  And how the hell do you define him as “successful?”  I ask.

“Because there have been few health stories in the news,” says the Trouble-and-Strife.

Wait a minute.  Because there have been few adverse Health stories in the news, that means there are no waiting queues, there are no people being bumped off the waiting lists, and there are no employment or structural problems in the DHB?  Well, apparently, that’s correct; Mr Ryall has been “successful.”  So by that logic, the UN has been “successful” in countering poverty in Africa, the US has been “successful” in its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and Putin has been “successful” in restoring democracy to Russia.

Let me tell you of a couple of MY observations on this “successful” Health Minister:

I was asked to help write a letter to Tony Ryall, about my friend’s problems while working in the health sector.  My friend encountered bullying, intimidation and lies in her work.  We knew if we wrote to Ryall about the workplace, he would merely bounce it back to the District Health Board (DHB) and say, “It’s an employment issue."  So, we planned another meeting at the workplace and we secured recorded evidence of the serious lies. These were lies that could well have threatened patient safety.  In good faith, we wrote to Ryall about that, asking for his help.  We stated specifically that this was NOT an employment issue and asked specifically that this NOT be bounced back to the DHB.  In the next meeting, my friend was asked by her protagonists if this meeting was being recorded!  WTF??!!  So guess what?  Ryall had indeed bounced the matter back to the DHB, saying “This is an employment issue.”  Again, I say to you that this was NOT an employment issue, but one of lies and patient care.  Ryall hadn’t read the letter properly, he hadn’t taken care, and he wasn’t interested because there were no perceived headlines (adverse or otherwise) to grab.

And do you remember this documentary;

"Inside Child Poverty: A Special Report" [TV3, Bryan Bruce, Nov 2011]

Yes, the documentary was one-sided.  Yes, it was shown at the height of a general election.  But, yes, it PROVED that a New Zealand school dinner programme could be launched and sustained for impoverished children for no extra cost to the taxpayer, whatsoever.  And Tony Ryall’s reaction to this startling revelation?  “Well, we don’t want to get to a nanny state!” For me, it showed Tony's true colours, in another of his many, various guises.

Frankly, Tony, we DO need to nanny-state some families.  Because, if  your government had been successful – and I mean SUCCESSFUL – at educating are lower-decile families to take responsibility, then we wouldn’t NEED a school dinner programme - or child poverty documentaries.  But, nooooooo . . .  Tony’s government prefers to starve the public education sector of funds and pump money into the elite private education sector instead.  Tony’s government prefers to “leave things to the market” [Gerry Brownlee, Christchurch, June 2011].  Tony’s government prefers to lump more responsibility on uneducated families and hope they’ll swim, not sink.

I think it’s disgraceful that this flippant, boorish, unfeeling ARSE can be defined as "successful," merely because he has suppressed any adverse publicity.  I say, good riddance to bad rubbish.  But then, he’ll probably be replaced by some other rock-hearted, right-wing hack.  **sigh**