Thankfully, Minister Clark used his 2019 "captain's pick" for Whanganui to appoint as chair a highly experienced, "professional" DHB chair and Crown monitor, and his other three appointed members help provide the necessary ethnic diversity shunned by the white majority of voters.
But Clark, or his successor, will have some much bigger fish to fry when the final report on a review of our entire health and disability system lands on his desk in March. The review panel's interim report suggests a big shake-up is on the way.
I'm not alone in hoping we see the back of the elected board system and its perennial attraction as a sinecure for those alphabetically advantaged or otherwise well-known and thus able to get repeatedly re-elected to a share of the taxpayers' dollar.
CAROL WEBB
Whanganui
Not born to be gay
In Lizzie Marvelly's January 18 column, the pull-quote states, as though it were an established fact rather than the preferred PC explanation, that people are born gay. There cannot be a genetic reason for homosexuality, or it would have died out within a generation, since children can only come from a male and female couple.
However, some research does show that early imprinting can and does orient the sexual drive one way or another.
In my opinion, we are no more predetermined to be gay, than to be a thief, a murderer, or a paedophile. All of the tendencies we have are also within our capacity to follow or reject should we choose to do so.
References:
Young, W.C., 1961. The hormones and mating behavior. In: Sex and Internal Secretions, W.C. Young (ed), Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland, pp. 1173–1239
Bergman, J., 1982. The influence of pornography on sexual development: three case histories. Family Therapy IX(3)
Holmes, B., 1994. Gay gene test 'inaccurate and immoral'. New Scientist, 141(1915):9.
M. DONNE-LEE
Aramoho
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