Shane Reti: Whangārei leads the morning television news

In the past fortnight Whangārei has led out the morning television news with two live feeds from our very own Town Basin.

The first live newscast was with Shona Whitehead, the community advocate for the Hikurangi Meningitis vaccination campaign.

Whitehead spoke to the nation about the need for the meningitis vaccine especially in low decile areas like Hikurangi. She talked about how the community had come together with the school to keep their children safe.

A few days after the newscast and we were at Hikurangi Primary School with their marvellous staff and marvellous principal and deputy and we were vaccinating the children.

There were four vaccinators: myself, my previous practice nurse Pam Watt and two wonderful people - a doctor and a nurse from NgatiHine Health - who contacted me a few days before and asked if they could help. Thank you NgatiHine Health.

The District Health Board gave us materials and a vaccine co-ordinator which was critical for keeping the vaccines cold.

The children came into the gym in their class groups and were identified by a school staff member who retrieved their consent form.

The students were then escorted to one of four vaccinator tables where wonderful parent help from Rotary, Lions and the Hikurangi community supported, distracted and embraced the children for the very brief moment that the vaccine was given.

It was then time for a jellybean and off to the observation area part of the hall for 20 minutes where a big screen cartoon was playing.

In one morning we vaccinated 170 high-risk children. Well done Hikurangi. Thank you to everyone from Sanofi which opened up special inventory for us to buy, to ProPharma which stored the vaccines in Whangārei and then of course to the community, staff and medical and parent helpers.

Two weeks later (last Wednesday) and we are again leading the morning television news with another livefeed from the Town Basin. This time it was me in my role as Opposition spokesman for tertiary education.

This means I am responsible for eight universities, 16 polytechnics, three wananga and more than 200 private training enterprises.

I have known for a while that the Government's flagship policy, first year fees-free, was failing and had miscalculated by a massive $200 million. As soon as the Finance Minister confirmed the bad news, multiple journalists and reporters were contacting me for comment and a live telecast was setup for Wednesday morning.

Wednesday was a chilly morning but at 6.30am I was down at the Town Basin with cameraman and local person Dean who I have known for decades.

Bright stage lights were turned on, earpiece placed in my right ear and then while we waited for the cross I chatted with intrigued early morning runners and walkers as they made their way past.

The cross came and we launched into the fees-free-flop as another failed flagship programme right up there with KiwiBuild.

Whangārei as got so much happening that I suggested to the television crew that we have a permanent crew and studio in Whangārei so that we can tell our good news stories to the nation. Let's tell our story. It is a good story.

* Dr Shane Reti is the Member of Parliament for Whangārei.