Reply to the welcome

Early flight to Wellington this morning, to attend the 25th anniversary conference of ASMS.

In a previous life I was one of the group of senior hospital doctors who responded to a change in legislation in 1988 and worked to form a Union according to the rules set out in the Labour Relations Act. We got the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists registered and had recruited more than the minimum number of members (had to be over 1,000 in order to be a registered Trade Union), and had negotiated the first contract under the new rules, by August 1989.

I was the first Vice President and the second President. As such I was invited to attend the commemorative conference held in the Marae at Te Papa museum in Wellington. It has been constructed so as to look like a modern art version of the front of a Whare Hui (meeting house), and we the guests (manuhiri) were seated in what would have been the paepae (the space in front of the whare hui).

The seated man in front of the screen had made a short speech of welcome (in Te Reo; the Maori language), and after the waiata sung by his supports, he was responded to by Dr Alex Browne from Nelson, who gave a stirring oration in Te Reo; shown here in mid reply. We all then supported him by singing our waiata.

The day was spent considering where health care had come from over the last 25 years and where it is headed. After a brief social gathering after the meeting I have returned home.