More haste on health portfolio
Commiserations to Shane Reti but one wonders if he gave a sigh of relief as he often looked uncomfortable in the health role.
It must be difficult for someone in his profession to accept policies that go against the grain. The health portfolio is not a stroll in the park as Simeon Brown will soon find out. The issues with waiting lists and wait times in ED did not happen yesterday, they go back well into the last century.
Wait times in EDs are exacerbated often by patients who could not see their GP in a timely manner. As an example, a relative in New Plymouth who required medical attention normally provided by their GP chose ED, otherwise they would have been waiting for at least a week.
There is also the cost, especially where socio-economic conditions prevail. Fix primary care and wait times in ED would drop dramatically. We cannot retain our GPs, doctors and nurses in hospitals because the grass is greener elsewhere.
It is said that our health system is in crisis, well goodness knows what it would be like if it wasn’t for the doctors and nurses we are fortunate to get from other countries.
To achieve these goals more funding is required but tax money only spreads so far. There needs to be a bold move with the introduction of a compulsory scheme similar to Medicare in Australia which is about a 2% levy of your taxable income.
Simeon Brown, as a previous Transport Minister, should remember more haste less speed.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Infrastructure blame
Shane Te Pou once again blames National for the lack of infrastructure built between 2017 and 2023 (HoS, Jan 19).
How can Te Pou say National canned light rail when in 2017 Jacinda Ardern promised to build light rail down Dominion Rd by 2021?
Labour said they would build Dunedin Hospital and promised a fully-funded modern hospital with all the bells and whistles, funded for around $1.5 billion. Once this project quickly was found out to be way too ambitious many cuts were made.
Many people are putting the blame entirely on National when the entire project was a white elephant to begin with. Labour would not have been able to build the hospital as intended.
A $551 million fixed-price contract to build the new ferries was signed with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) in 2021 to build the ferries, the project’s total cost escalated to almost $3b.
National did not decide to pull the pin, they decided not to fund a budget blowout.
Mark Young, Ōrewa.
Flood repairs
It’s coming up two years since the January 2023 floods.
In my local neighbourhood of Mt Albert meaningful repairs on the Oakley Creek walkway, which was destroyed in the floods with a number of bridges being washed away, has yet to begin. The walkway is still closed.
My regular Scenic Drive cycling route is still closed between the Arataki information centre and West Coast Rd. Repairs have not even been started on a small slip between Parker Rd and Carter Rd and also on a small slip on Bethells Rd.
I remember the winter of 2023 when three raised pedestrian crossings were built in the vicinity of Swanson Primary School and an enormous raised platform intersection on the corner of Rathgar Rd and Universal Drive and I wondered to myself then about why these were taking precedence over repairing the washouts.
Where the repairs have been done in the Waitakeres the quality of the work looks absolutely excellent, but as for the overall organisation and prioritisation of work, I have serious doubts about the competence of those who are running the show.
John Christiansen, Mount Albert.
Not so soft on crime
Perhaps correspondent Nick Rowe has been watching too many American cop shows, where the solution to every crime is to “shoot the perpetrator” (HoS, Jan 19)
It was interesting to try to link Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Coster given that the crimes that were committed and got all the attention, namely ram raids, were on the decline by the end of her second term. Mainly because most of the offenders were caught.
As for the old claim about longer prison terms, only in very serious cases do people get locked up for lengthy periods.
With young offenders it’s far better to concentrate on rehabilitation, rather than mindless retribution. If that sounds like being soft on crime, it’s not, as anyone who looks at how the courts work will see that any repeat offending gets treated with harsher penalties.
Meanwhile, this Government is fixated on gang patches.
John Capener, Kawerau.
Garden of Eden
Now that PM Christopher Luxon wants Eden Park to offer more concerts, with no restrictions, may I suggest that those holding neighbouring properties consider moving away before they find it impossible to sleep at night.
The PM obviously likes loud concerts and perhaps doesn’t mind punters throwing garbage and/or peeing over his garden fence, so maybe he’d like to buy into the area, since he confirmed a few months ago that he’d sold off some properties for a handsome profit.
Maggie Kennedy, Wellington.
Mojo rising
Chris Hipkins says Labour will produce “robust and realistic policies”. Does that mean he has finally admitted that Labour didn’t produce anything during their six years in office?
It has taken them a long time to admit failures of KiwiBuild, light rail and so on (forget the consultants’ fees in all this).
Christopher Luxon has just come out and said NZ needs “to end a culture of saying no” (Jan 24). Isn’t this a refreshing change of attitude? (More Eden Park concerts, for example, may utilise this extremely expensive facility more efficiently.)
We need to get our mojo back.
Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe.
Weather vain
Donald Trump has not been short of grandiose statements that would imply something of an overinflated ego, but all in the name of modestly promoting the US of course.
He has suggested that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America. He wants to take back the Panama Canal. Then there is the suggestion that he will land Americans on Mars before the end of his current term.
He also wants Canada to become the 51st US state and has expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland. Whilst it would appear that none of these initiatives have much traction at this stage, there is one that could perhaps be suggested as a missed opportunity.
Trump’s inauguration ceremony was moved indoors due to extremely cold weather conditions as it was the coldest inauguration day in over 40 years. Trump could have used this as an example to show that global warming is no longer an issue and that he used this to demonstrate that he is in charge and that, amongst his many talents, he can in fact control the weather.
Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.
Crown Corollas
I read with interest about the Department of Internal Affairs’ quest for a new Crown car fleet (HoS, Jan 19).
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has advised a good reliable Toyota Corolla version for the replacements of the Cook Strait ferries.
Surely the same answer applies for the replacement of the Crown cars: Toyota Corollas.
Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.