Unions ratify landmark pay equity agreement
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry of Social Development 2 – Release/Statement Headline: Unions ratify landmark pay equity agreement 24 July 2017. Union members have now ratified a landmark agreement that will...
View ArticleFurther Release of individual client level data documents
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry of Social Development 2 – Release/Statement Headline: Further Release of individual client level data documents 17 August 2017. MSD has today released more documents relating...
View ArticleStatement on Rt. Hon. Winston Peters and MSD
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry of Social Development 2 – Release/Statement Headline: Statement on Rt. Hon. Winston Peters and MSD 30 August 2017. MSD has received a range of media queries relating to...
View ArticleOur position on the use of pseudonyms by staff dealing with our most volatile...
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry of Social Development 2 – Release/Statement Headline: Our position on the use of pseudonyms by staff dealing with our most volatile clients 21 September 2017. In response to...
View ArticleMinistry challenging Social Security Appeal Authority’s decision
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry of Social Development 2 – Release/Statement Headline: Ministry challenging Social Security Appeal Authority’s decision 22 September 2017. Social Security Appeal Authority’s...
View ArticleData collection on children in Pacific ‘poor’, says UNICEF
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Poor data collection in several Pacific Island countries is obstructing UNICEF’s first assessment to measure progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for...
View ArticleLetter to Jacinda
Column: Barbara Sumner – Barbara Sumner. Dear Prime MinisterYour child is almost three months old. I was this age when I was taken from my mother because of her marital status.Or, it could have been...
View ArticleLike a Stranger
Column: Barbara Sumner – Barbara Sumner. There once was a woman who kept changing everything: her hair, her glasses, her furniture, her style, her husbands and her lovers. She moved 34 times and...
View ArticleWhat more do you want?
Column: Barbara Sumner – Barbara Sumner. I’ve spent most of my adult life searching for my biological family. I’ve encountered endless roadblocks. The majority of them from officialdom. During the...
View ArticleWhy I hate biographies
Column: Barbara Sumner – Barbara Sumner. I have a friend who loves biographies. She’s always telling me to read accounts of dire lives turned around, the fall and rise of a star or a tragedy overcome....
View ArticleDear Toni Street
Column: Barbara Sumner – Dear Toni StreetCongratulations on the arrival of your child born through a surrogate. I have read of your frustration at the hoops you must jump through to now adopt...
View ArticleWho Owns You?
Barbara Sumner. Column: Barbara Sumner – Who owns you? Have you ever asked yourself this question? If you are a non-adopted person then the idea that someone could own you may never have occurred...
View ArticleI’m So Lucky
Barbara Sumner. Column: Barbara Sumner – How special do you feel? What factors make up your sense of special – or otherwise? Many adopted people remember being told they were ‘special.’ “We chose...
View ArticleA selfless act?
Column: Barbara Sumner – While browsing Instagram, an image jumped out at me. A woman and her husband stand beside the bed of an exhausted mother who has given birth to twins. The woman, identified as...
View ArticleWe’re not your real parents
Barbara Sumner. Column: Barbara Sumner – There’s a cartoon doing the Internet rounds. A mum and a dad look down at their little girl: “Sarah, I’m afraid we’re not your real parents. You were made with...
View ArticleIn the blood
Column: Barbara Sumner – The Gallows Bird is a historical trilogy I have coming out next year. In it, we meet Mr Fingleston, a silk merchant and tailor. Mr Fingleston visited me in the early hours. I...
View ArticleI blame Karl Marx
Column: Barbara Sumner – The Gallows Bird is a historical trilogy I have coming out next year. There, we meet Mr Fingleston, a silk merchant and tailor. The character of Mr Fingleston visited me in the...
View ArticleStrange fruit
Barbara Sumner. Column: Barbara Sumner – There have always been inconsistencies in my birth story. The dates, the people involved, the actual circumstances. All missing, suspect or manufactured. As an...
View ArticleMedia freedom in Pacific a growing challenge, says journalism academic
EMTV journalist Scott Waide … “Papua New Guinea is a democracy and the media is free to hold those in authority to account.” Image: PMC By Blessen Tom Pacific media freedom and ignorance of Pacific...
View ArticleConsider youself one of us
Column: Barbara Sumner – As a child, my family saw the musical Oliver. For days after, my adopting mother hummed and sang the theme tune: Consider yourself one of usConsider yourself at homeConsider...
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