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Speaker 1: Either du for c L.

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Speaker 2: The ACT Party wants Health New Zealand staff to stop

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Speaker 2: saying katakia, which are prayers every single day. In e

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Speaker 2: leaked email that was sent to Health New Zealand staff,

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Speaker 2: the organization has encouraged them to incorporate prayers into their work,

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Speaker 2: and has even sent them some videos to help them

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Speaker 2: learn some prayers. Todd Stevenson is the Act Party Health spokesperson.

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Speaker 1: Hey Todd, Hi Heather, how are you.

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Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. So who's been told to

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Speaker 2: do this? Are we talking about like at the frontline level?

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Speaker 2: Nurses and doctors and so on?

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Speaker 1: Yes, I mean this is an email that went out

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Speaker 1: to all Health New Zealand staff and I should say

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Speaker 1: actually other government departments also been in contact employees and

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Speaker 1: another game I've been in contact and today also hear it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've got a text from somebody saying they

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Speaker 2: work at MB they are required to pray. Pray where else.

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Speaker 1: I've heard from the Ministry of Justice. If you look

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Speaker 1: at the websites of some of a lot of the

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Speaker 1: departments like FARMAC, the Ministry of Maried Development, etcetera, they

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Speaker 1: will have a lot of information about correct here.

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Speaker 2: How did they justify.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, we've got two objections really here.

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Speaker 1: Hither one is we actually want to culturally and religiously

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Speaker 1: mutual public service. But my other big issue too is

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Speaker 1: we believe that these prayers or rituals are actually a

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Speaker 1: distraction from what the public service should be doing.

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Speaker 2: What can you do about it other than sort of

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Speaker 2: just embarrass them for it? Is there anything you can

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Speaker 2: actually do?

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Speaker 1: Look, yeah, I'm obviously a first to an act in

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Speaker 1: calling it out and saying look, we want.

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Speaker 2: To yes, but Todd, you've got you've got a minister

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Speaker 2: like the deputy Prime Minister shortly running your party. So

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Speaker 2: what can you guys do? Can't you issue some sort

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Speaker 2: of a notice for something?

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Speaker 1: Look, I know that the cabinet ministers are discussing that.

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Speaker 1: It's part of the coalition agreement was to actually give

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Speaker 1: some more guidance around how some of these things should

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Speaker 1: be interpreted and actually what the public service should be

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Speaker 1: focused on. So I'll definitely be advocating for that, continue

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Speaker 1: to that with an act, because yeah, we want to

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Speaker 1: make sure that public servants are actually delivered on the public.

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Speaker 1: So you know, living in the public services, Kii's need.

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Speaker 2: So the only criticism that I've seen. I mean, you're

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Speaker 2: going to get a fair bit of criticism of this obviously,

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Speaker 2: but the most stinging criticism that I've seen is that

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Speaker 2: you can't really stop them doing a prayer when you

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Speaker 2: people do a prayer every time you sit down to

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Speaker 2: do parliament. Are you open to cutting that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, personally. I've already got on the records saying

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Speaker 1: it's something I would like to look at, you know,

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Speaker 1: Parliament and steeped lots of traditions and rituals. That's exactly

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Speaker 1: a ritual we have every day, and I'm very hoping

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Speaker 1: to making that as an issue.

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Speaker 2: Todd, thank you very much, really appreciate your time. That's

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Speaker 2: Todd Stevenson, who's the Act Party Health spokesperson. For more

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Speaker 2: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks.

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