Election 2020: Judith Collins calls CDHB cash injection 'blatant electioneering'

Judith Collins has labelled the Government's $180 million cash injection into the Canterbury District Health Board "blatant electioneering".

On Chris Lynch's Newstalk ZB show this morning in Christchurch, the National leader said the deficit faced by the CDHB this year was due to underfunding.

"It actually underestimated the population and that's because of the census, that was a mess."

"It's not that the CDHB was busily spending up large, its just capital write-offs."

When asked on her opinion regarding the $180m "equity injection" for the CDHB, Collins said the Government initially said it would fix the relationship between the Ministry of Health and the health board.

"Their way of fixing it was to stop all negotiations last October. Basically, almost all of the senior staff have left.

"I'd say Canterbury just take the money, bank it. Remember it took them three years and now they want to centralise all of the district health boards so look forward to being run from Wellington if they win."

Collins also slammed the latest announcement from the Provincial Growth Fund that $100m to be spent on hundreds of marae across the county.

She said it was "verging on corruption of the system" because it was made so close to the election.

"Dishing out $100 million while voting is going on ... I've never heard anything like it."