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The Huddle: Is NZ taking the right approach with Five Eyes and China?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 21 Apr 2021, 8:07pm
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta (Photo / NZ Herald)
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta (Photo / NZ Herald)

The Huddle: Is NZ taking the right approach with Five Eyes and China?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 21 Apr 2021, 8:07pm

Sweeping reforms to the health system have been unveiled by the Government. 

All District Health Boards will be replaced by one national health organisation, Health New Zealand.

A new Maori Health Authority will have the power to commission health services, monitor the state of Maori health and develop policy.

A new Public Health Agency will be created.

Health Minister Andrew Little says the reforms mean for the first time, we'll have a truly national health system.

He says the kind of treatment people will get, will no longer be determined by where they live.

Meanwhile, Nanaia Mahuta's speech to the New Zealand - China Council continues to prompt reaction overseas.

She said that we can't put all our trade eggs in one basket, and also criticised the growing Chinese influence in the Pacific.

Afterwards she told reporters she's not comfortable with the Five Eyes intelligence alliance expanding its remit, to joint positions on foreign policy.

Canterbury University chinese politics specialist professor Anne Marie Brady says the Chinese media aren't mentioning the speech - only the Five Eyes statement.

Meanwhile, Daily Telegraph's defence editor Con Coughlin has written that Jacinda Ardern has a preference for "cosying up to China's communist rulers".

He refers to Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand's "tiresomely woke Prime Minister".

Listen above as David Farrar and Shane Te Pou discuss the day's news with Heather du Plessis-Allan on The Huddle

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