Malcolm Mulholland is the chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa, a patient advocacy group that The Frontline is happy to help support. They fought for better medicines access for New Zealanders, and now are fighting for public healthcare in NZ. Malcolm has traveled the length and breadth of Aotearoa holding community meetings and talking with patients and healthcare workers. He has stories to share about what's really happening to our healthcare system, and what we need to do to fix it.
Sign the Buller Declaration, and donate to Patient Voice Aotearoa here: www.patientvoice.nz
Today the Frontline talks with Dan Short, paramedic, rescue swimmer and lifelong surf lifesaver...back by popular demand. We discuss some daring rescues, some good and bad outcomes, and what it means for society when 'regular New Zealanders' step up to help others. Is this a model for how we build a New Zealand that looks after its own people?
Around 20% of New Zealanders have tattoos. Around 350 people a year in New Zealand die from melanoma.
Is there an association between melanoma and tattoo inks?
Given the huge cultural importance of tattoos/moko in Aotearoa, and the widespread uptake of tattoos by so many, especially in younger age groups, are regulators doing everything they can to make sure what goes in our skin is as safe as it can be?
Swedish toxicologist Dr Emelie Rietz Liljedahl discusses the sometimes poor international regulation of tattoo ink ingredients and discusses her research on whether there is an association between tattoo inks and skin cancer.
Link to the study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-025-01326-6
Jessie Moss, senior professional advisor at NZEI, talks us through attempts to rush the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill into law. Destabilising the curriculum, aiding public school privatisation, demoting the voice of professional organisations, and weakening community and Māori input is just the start of the far-reaching bill.
Ann David is the Past President of the End-of-Life Choice Society, and she's with us to talk about a newly proposed bill that seeks to reduce some of the hurdles, hoops and obstacles placed in the way of terminally ill patients at the end of their lives -- people who seek medical assistance to help them die gently.
Accurate and effective, or a policy that will fill the jails while simultaneously not making the streets any safer? What does the international evidence show? We chat with Nikolai Siimes of the University of Auckland, a researcher who has published on roadside illicit drug testing.
The Frontline spoke with Dan Short about what it takes to be a critical care paramedic. The training, the challenges, the teamwork, and the most memorable cases, both good and bad. Everything you wanted to know about being on one of the most highly exposed frontline jobs.
A conversation with Max Harris, lawyer, campaigner, and author, talking about Dental for All, a group that's got a national roadshow under way talking about the crazy idea that dental care should be a public service available to every New Zealander. Even the ones who are not 'wealthy and sorted'.
If you want to imagine where the current government's push to healthcare privatisation will lead us, look no further than adult dental care in NZ: with almost half of people locked out due to cost. Together, let's say No, fight back, and build a better nation. Please share this video with a friend.
For more, also check out my Substack @drgarypayinda.
Craig Renney (Chief Economist of the CTU and host of The Locked-In Podcast) is our guest this week on The Frontline, telling us about the $500 million dollars in the Health budget that didn't get spent, despite overwhelming need.
This half-billion of taxpayers' dollars evaporated at the same time the government was telling nurses they must accept real pay cuts, because there was just 'no money' left.
Māori health ‘privilege’ starts in childhood with a 30X higher risk of rheumatic fever, continues in adulthood with later diagnosis, fewer treatments, and worse outcomes, and ends with an overall death gap that is a remarkable 7 years earlier than Pākehā. In this episode we talk with Health Policy Specialist Gabrielle Baker about whether current health policies will fix this, or make this woeful situation even worse.
LINK to ASMS https://asms.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Maori-Health-Final.pdf
The Frontline spoke with a maths education researcher about international test scores, smartphones in classes, bullying and behavioural problems in students, streaming in classrooms, teacher defunding, charter schools, and the stripping of professional education funding from teacher's aides. Plus the introduction and rollout of the 3rd curriculum for schools in the past 3 years.
There's a wrecking ball coming for public education that makes me wonder whether it's following the same model as public healthcare: "defund, destabilise, and privatise".
Have a listen as Dr Lisa Darragh shares her learnings about maths education and how best to maximise resources and positive impact in the public school sector.
Ivor Popovich, the young ICU doctor who wrote A Dim Prognosis, gives us an insider's look at the best and worst of medicine and healthcare in NZ. He balances stories of bullying, abuse, corruption, overwork, and understaffing, with inspiring stories of seeing lives saved, deep connections with patients and whanau, and growing as a person during the approximately 14 years between starting med school and leaving as a fully-qualified specialist. Along the way, there are insights into health policy, politics, poverty, and ethnicity that make this book required reading for everyone from patients to politicians.
Did you know that the growth in New Zealanders' life expectancy, increasing since basically forever, has finally fizzled out? That our levels of untreated youth mental health problems have shown a staggering increase? And that our lack of access to GPs has perfectly mirrored our blown-out numbers of ED presentations?
Economist Andrea Black and I talked about data trends and a decade of economic insights. How good did we have it, how bad are things now, are there any bright spots, and where has the money gone? And perhaps most importantly, can we fix it?
Today Elliot Crossan, author and activist with System Change Aotearoa, is talking with The Frontline about neoliberalism's original grandparents: Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson. They destroyed our social safety net 40 years ago, and started the movement that saddled us with ACT and David Seymour, and they ain't done yet.
Like our current government, they were the worst of their generation, and like this one too, they created social and economic damage that would go on to affect the average New Zealander for decades to come.
Clinical psychologist and public health expert Dave (Bear) Hookway-Kopa tells us about a problem, FASD, which currently affects more than 1 in every 65 people in New Zealand. FASD is associated with problems reasoning, considering consequences, and controlling one's emotions. FASD increases the chance of ending up in prison by 2,000%. Yet corporate-favouring governments continue to side with the alcohol corporations and against public health advice. Not surprising given that alcohol revenues are measured in billions of dollars. That kind of power and political influence doesn't sneak through the back door: it boldly walks in through the front.
Tax consultant Terry Baucher takes us through Sir Roger Douglas's recent proposal to 'save' the NZ economy. We touch on issues of wealth inequality, the retirement age, the potential collapse of superannuation, housing unaffordability, privatisation, and regressive taxes that hit the poor and spare the rich. If you think taxes are boring, think again.
Melissa Ansell-Bridges, the National Secretary of the CTU, spoke with me about the far-reaching impacts the destruction of the Pay Equity laws will cause. It's not just about the 150,000 women immediately affected. It's about the 300K people whose incomes will be impacted. And it's not just about 2025, it's about financial injuries that will literally continue on for a decade. It's cooked.
Justine Sachs is a healthcare trade unionist based in Tamaki Makaurau. Speaking about the need for Labour to be bold to save our public health system.
NZ found literally billions of tax dollars for weapons systems, property investors, and tobacco companies. But $3,000 for a colonoscopy to prevent colon cancer? Sorry, there's no money. "You're on your own."
Malcolm Mulholland of Patient Voice Aotearoa takes us through the ins and outs of public bowel cancer screening in NZ. It's shittier than you might think.
Lawyer, scholar, author and social advocate Dr Max Harris talks about how those in progressive political movements can win without selling their souls.