Janet Hoek

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

So if we want to know why dialysis is being rationed, there's a clear answer: it's so the 311 richest families in the country can enjoy one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. We're killing people in order to make the ultra-rich ultra-richer

Truly toxic. 💔😢☹️😠😡

What's next?

Reduced chemo therapy for cancer treatments?

ED only avail 8a-10p Mondays-Saturdays?

Ration asthma inhalers?

Ration ...

... we can't afford it RUBBISH

... we have chosen to prioritise other "things/people😡" ...

Chronic Illness & creative writing a free Ōtepoti Dunedin community workshop programme for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid Applications open till 13th March 2026 Funded by The Centre for Medical Humanities (University of Otago) illustrated with cartoon graphic of person (with long, curly black hair & wearing shortsleeved purple top) holding a notebook and pen

Ōtepoti: Centre for Medical Humanities at Otago Uni is funding

Chronic Illness & creative writing

a free Ōtepoti Dunedin community workshop programme for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid

Applications open till 13th March 2026 (will put link in following reply)

image: poster, same info as above

Public health advocates say more transparency needed in debate over illicit tobacco as industry links questioned Former Australian Border Force officer Rohan Pike, who has been quoted extensively as an expert, also advises nicotine-industry-linked organisations

So who pays ex-cop Rohan Pike to travel nationally & globally advocating tax reductions on tobacco, a position in lockstep with all tobacco companies? Melissa Davey in @australia.theguardian.com investigates www.theguardian.com/business/202...

'ullo, 'ullo, 'ullo? Now why was Pike's name removed from the under oath in-person evidence schedule from the NSW Enquiry into illegal tobacco trade in the 2 days before he was due to speak? Probably a perfectly ordinary explanation

New Report: Making Tobacco Industry Elimination Inevitable Author: Eline Goethals, The School for Moral Ambition The tobacco industry’s products kill 7 million people annually while generating $880 billion in revenue—more than Google, Meta, and Apple combined...

Compulsory reading. @ASHorg's new report outlines 14 concrete recommendations for ending the harms caused by nicotine products: ow.ly/53Hb50Yfkih

We've reached the limits of trying to manage an industry built on addiction.
#TobaccoEndgame

Judge called Winston’s speech ‘disgusting’ during disruption at club event, minister recalls NZ First Minister Casey Costello told the panel Judge Ema Aitken yelled “he’s lying” during Winston Peters speech.

Astonishing how Costello recalls events from an evening nearly 15 months ago (www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...), yet still can't recall the source of the tobacco industry friendly "mystery document" she passed on to the MOH to inform tobacco policy.

Cartoon. Title: “Mutuals” Two frames. The first frame shows Shane Jones with a jackhammer titled “Munter”, drilling into the earth, and saying, “MINE, BABY, MINE!” The 2nd frame shows US President Donald Trump sitting atop a pile of rare metals, saying, “MINE, BABY, MINE!”

NZ says it will explore “co-operation on critical minerals” with the United States, a day after NZ PM Christopher Luxon brushed off talk of any such co-operation.
My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #Trump #USA #RareMetals #MineralDeals #ShaneJones

Health Promotion International | Oxford Academic Publishes papers on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. The journal publishes contributions from sectors beyond health, and seeks to promote theoretical, methodological, and ac...

Oxford University Press has lifted the paywall on the entire 40 year archive of @healthpromint.bsky.social as part of our flip to fully open access!

Check out the amazing work of our authors - free to read - here:

academic.oup.com/heapro

2/2 Study concludes "The tobacco sales bans... nearly eliminated local tobacco sales in the included stores, without prompting substantial cross-border shopping....these policies did not adversely affect local retail economies."
tinyurl.com/mr4yk52v

🧵1/2 Important new study published in @bmjtobacco-control.bsky.social examines impact of sales bans in two US cities: tinyurl.com/mr4yk52v

A summer of research Two Otago medical students chose to spend their summer break, not on holiday, but hard at work on research projects.

Very proud of my hard-working summer students (Amelia and Jade) who explored young people's views of oral nicotine pouches: www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...

Watch this space as we finalise their research studies and submit their work for publication!

I'm surprised they're not showing a Philip Morris logo, to indicate proud links with the tobacco industry.

Ravie de faire partie de l'équipe dirigée par @karinegallopel.bsky.social. Notre nouveau article ici: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mXOF3PEro...

In today’s NZ Herald

New Zealand Election Study, 2023. Question C12e: Big business in New Zealand has too much power.
Demographically weighted responses:
Strongly or Somewhat agree 52%
Strongly or Somewhat disagree 16%

Literally thinking about this in the NZ context today, why is it always "the Greens should try to appeal to dairy farmers and people who drive Humvees" and not "NZ First should try to appeal to people who went to university and believe in human rights"

In today’s NZ Herald

Evergreen reminder that this was something she came up with, not something she was advised to do. In fact she was pretty specifically advised it was a terrible idea (it was) but she went ahead with it anyway because something something Not Real Science

Ending duty-free tobacco sales would be good for health – and health budgets Taxes raise prices, and higher prices reduce smoking. But duty-free tobacco sales remain a policy anomaly and deny the government much-needed health revenue.

2/2 MFAT OIA indicates ~$40 million invested in WHO since 2015. Our conservative estimate of excise tax and GST foregone on duty-free tobacco products 2015 -2024: ~$60 million. See: tinyurl.com/5h2639w7

🧵1/2 If Winston Peters is worried about funding membership of the WHO, here's a simple solution: end sales of duty-free tobacco.

Former Foreign Minister says NZ must stand up to Trump, defends WHO work Winston Peters says the World Health Organization has forgotten its original mandate, but Phil Goff has rubbished the idea of NZ quitting and says it needs to stand up to Donald Trump.

Apparently it's $3m we pay WHO.
The taxpayers pay.
Not Winston, but us, and I'm happy with that.

Three million dollars is probably the cost per minute for running this idiotic and wasteful luxon government
#nzpol

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Oh, what a surprise, NOT! 🙄 #nzpol

You can in fact pretty quickly find and access the original WHO constitution. You could even, for a lark, ask Winston Peters to specify exactly which part of its mandate he thinks WHO has forgotten, and as a treat compare that to the weird fringe bullshit the Parliament occupation types spouted

NZ First fears over WHO regulations are misplaced – robust checks and balances already exist Despite demands for an urgent ‘reservation’ and ‘national interest test’ over new WHO regulations, New Zealand’s sovereignty is not at risk from international agreements or treaties.

"Labour's Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said she was deeply concerned "that I see that sort of rubbish about the WHO & international health regulations on the internet, and all of a sudden it's in a coalition document."
Archive of deleted TVNZ 1News
[ web.archive.org/web/20231211... ]
#nzpol

“Withdrawing from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is scientifically reckless,” says R. G. Nahass, president of Infectious Diseases Society of America. “Global cooperation is not a luxury; it is a biological necessity” (for healthy survival)
#NZpol #USpolitics
www.nzherald.co.nz/world/formal...

Our own Green Party is a partner in the Global Greens with the Green Party of England. And this brilliant ad is just as applicable here as there