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Speaker 1: We received another of these Government went against officials advice

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Speaker 1: headlines over the weekend. You see that this was on

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Speaker 1: bowel testing. The government has recently announced that testing has

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Speaker 1: dropped in age from sixty to fifty eight. The money

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Speaker 1: to pay for that extra testing has come from separate

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Speaker 1: Marian Pacific testing, which cuts in i think from memory

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Speaker 1: to about fifty. The official advice is that more lives

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Speaker 1: could be saved if you tested more Maori and Pacific Islanders.

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Speaker 1: The new Health minister, God bless them stead in response,

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Speaker 1: what we need to do to save more lives is

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Speaker 1: test more people. He is, of course unquestionably right, because

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Speaker 1: the word people is critical where all people, and given

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Speaker 1: we all contribute to the system that tests us, exempting

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Speaker 1: some from excess Ie and non Maori is not right

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Speaker 1: yet again as part of the race based system we

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Speaker 1: have in this country, which hopefully is slowly maturely being dismantled.

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Speaker 1: Adding to this officials advice part of the story is

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Speaker 1: my increasing concern, based on one the Brian Roach report

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Speaker 1: into the public service generally and to the Deloitte report

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Speaker 1: last week into Health New Zealand specifically, it is possible

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Speaker 1: the so called official advice is either pointless or politically motivated. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: if you start with the system that anyone any time

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Speaker 1: can get a test, and work backwards because it's not

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Speaker 1: effectab or affordable, at some point you come to a happy, ish,

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Speaker 1: affordable medium. Age will be a factor. No point in

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Speaker 1: bowel testing in twenty nine year old. So what's that

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Speaker 1: magic number they decided sixty until they decided fifty eight?

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Speaker 1: Breast screening mammograms, of course have gone through the same

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Speaker 1: debate for years, but at no point should race be

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Speaker 1: a factor, and yet it has been. Having just completed

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Speaker 1: my first state participant bowel screen, I would be deeply

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Speaker 1: offended if I was bumped, delayed, or stopped simply because

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Speaker 1: I'm not Maori or Pacific Island. I am a taxpayer

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Speaker 1: and I'm a New Zealander. My right is no more

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Speaker 1: or less important or relevant than anyone else's. And yet

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Speaker 1: there are those that would argue otherwise. By prioritizing race,

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Speaker 1: you are saying one life is worth more than another.

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Speaker 1: You can't do that, and that's what makes the official

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Speaker 1: advice wrong. For more from the mic asking breakfast listen

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Speaker 1: line ape to news talks, it'd be from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio