Media Release
11 March 2002
How Low Can This Government Go?
“I am aghast,” says New Zealand First’s Peter Brown MP “that this government has sunk so low that it is prepared to
dispense with the services of chaplains in our hospitals. These Chaplains provide an essential service to people who are
sick. They are freely available to patients, their relatives and indeed their friends, at times of great emotional and
spiritual needs.”
“Health professionals have told me that spiritual and emotional well-being makes a huge difference to patients’ recovery
time. If these needs are met, they make stronger and quicker progress than those whose needs are not.
“In spite of this, The Minister of Health still does not want to raise the state’s small contribution towards this
service because it is not a priority for her department!
“These people provide an indispensable service to Christians in their darkest hour, and to anyone else to all who needs
it.
“How out of touch are these Government Ministers? Just whom do they talk to before they make some of their decisions?
Obviously nobody whose families have been comforted by a hospital chaplain! That’s for certain!
“We are well aware the Health Department need’s to watch the pennies, but surely it does not have to come down to
sacking Hospital Chaplains?
“New Zealand has always been a Christian based and caring society. Despite what the Prime Minister and others would have
us believe, there are huge numbers of people who have strong Christian and spiritual beliefs. It is essential therefore
that the Hospital Chaplains services continue, certainly at the very least, it should continue at the minimum standards
it operates at now.”
ENDS