Finding a balance

I acknowledge realpolitik entails compromise but promoting social equality and well-being through the education and health sectors requires political courage.

Local control of state schools, as Crown entities, is inherently undemocratic.

Because they’re funded entirely by central government/taxpayers, the buck should stop with the minister of education. When things go wrong, the minister should be clearly accountable.

There is nothing wrong with centralisation and decentralisation, provided they incorporate modern management principles, including balancing authority with accountability.

These proposed ‘‘incremental’’ reforms (to Tomorrow’s Schools) will do little to promote New Zealand’s Unicef ranking (33rd out of 38) for overall educational equality.

With the health sector, I fear the pending reforms will ignore the fact that district health boards are likewise Crown entities, for which there needs to be much stronger ministerial accountability.

Any locally elected control of the health sector should have ended in 1957 when ratepayers stopped funding hospital boards.

This sector’s tragedy is the failure of successive governments, faced with constant board pressure to fund treatments, to allocate sufficient resources to disease prevention.

If a government can place before the electorate reforms that are coherent, cogent and visionary, then political courage becomes incidental.

Richard Featherstone, Woodridge