The New Zealand Herald

Brash On Stagflation- Imax Safety- Mytle Rises- Maori Diabetes- Woman Sentenced- Telecom Laws- Lost Gen Email- Medical Failures- Work Climate- Learn From Failures

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BRASH ON STAGFLATION: Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash yesterday raised the spectre of past economic woes when he warned of the risk of "stagflation" if businesses and unions respond to cost increases by raising prices and demanding more pay. Dr Brash has been warning against excessive wage demands. But yesterday he turned the volume up by using a term seldom heard since the 1980s - stagflation, a combination of weak economic growth and high inflation.

- IMAX SAFETY: Ledges and railings at Queen St's Force Entertainment Centre will be raised to 1.3m after the fatal fall of Danial Gardner. Force Corporation, which owns the centre, said last night that the work would start today, and would help ensure a similar tragedy never happened again.

- MYTLE RISES: Myrtle the turtle has risen from the dead. Two weeks after being solemnly put to rest, she clawed her way out of her grave. "We were in total shock. My heart was pounding," said Caz Hughes, owner of the Katikati Childcare Centre, which has been 6-year-old Myrtle's home since she was a baby.

- MAORI DIABETES: The epidemic of diabetes among Maori is the result of lifestyle changes that have been forced upon them, Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia says. Ms Turia told an international conference on diabetes and indigenous people in Christchurch yesterday that the health and wellbeing of Maori was tied to their rivers, mountains, lands, lakes, forests and seas.

- WOMAN SENTENCED: The woman sentenced to four months in prison for accidentally setting fire to a foster child in her care was a victim along with the boy in the sorry case, says the Family and Foster Care Federation. Chairman Malcolm Yorsten said Whitianga woman Josephine Auai Warren had been "left out in the cold" by state social workers, who visited her just once, making the rest of their contact by phone.

- TELECOM LAWS: A ministerial inquiry predicts benefits of hundreds of millions of dollars for users of telecommunications if Telecom is forced to allow effective competition. The inquiry into the telecommunications industry has announced its ideas for opening the field to competition.

- LOST GEN EMAIL: An international e-mail campaign urging decision-makers to stop New Zealand "sliding backwards" goes to print today with an open letter to politicians on behalf of a "lost generation." The group involved with the campaign, started by 27-year-old Aucklander Richard Poole, has placed a full-page advertisement in the Herald.

- MEDICAL FAILURES: The Government must put money into reducing the death rate from medical failures, say medical and management specialists. But officials are questioning how much more can be done to reduce errors.

- WORK CLIMATE: When Colin Meads took the field against South Africa in 1970 with his broken arm strapped up, he was applauded and revered. If he did that today, the NZRFU would probably be prosecuted for failing to provide a safe workplace.

- LEARN FROM FAILURES: New Zealand needs to learn from its failures instead of condemning those who fail, says biotechnologist Maxine Simmons. Ms Simmons, a founder of Immuno-Chemical Products, of Auckland, has been appointed to the board of the Government's new business development agency, Industry NZ, which becomes a legal entity tomorrow.