Tararua District councillor Shirley Hull stands up against P scourge

Tararua District councillor Shirley Hull dressed for the occasion to spread the anti-P message. Photo/Christine McKay

It takes a lot for Tararua District councillor Shirley Hull to step outside the council's dress code for their monthly meeting.

But Hull, a member of the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, was making a stand against the scourge of meth in our community by wearing jeans and her anti-P T-shirt.

"Doing nothing around drugs in our community isn't good enough.

"I think the group, the anti-P Ministry, is doing a really good job of bringing this issue from the ground to the surface.

"They have been there and it's a great asset to have people like them in our community and any time we can support them the better."

Brendan Warne and Dot Watson are part of the team heading the local drivers and their work on the ground will be what reduces the impact of P in our community.

However, Hull said she was not happy that work on initiatives aimed at improving health services for rural areas through RHAANZ had been halted because of a lack of Government support.

"The Rural Health Alliance has been growing over the last five years and we've been successful in taking issues to a political level.

"If we disband, they [the Government] will have to liaise with not one umbrella organisation, but with 40 or 50 voices. It seems bizarre to me."

The future of projects such as RHAANZ's work on rural suicide prevention and boosting the rural health workforce had been placed at risk by the move.

"We are in limbo as we have literally run out of money,'' RHAANZ chairman Martin London said.

Hull said RHAANZ had a fantastic contract looking at mental-health issues two years ago.

"In a year when we have a change of Government and a Rural Communities Minister Damien O'Connor, you would think we would have an alignment.

"For the Government to even think of not putting funding into RHAANZ is unbelievable."