Mr Hipkins was on the campaign trail today, and attended the opening of He Toki Kai Te Rika in Forth St.
The name translates ‘a tool for the hand’ and will offer a hub-type location featuring a variety of equipment and shared spaces to enhance the skills and experience of ākonga (students), allowing for connection with kaiako (lecturers) and industry.
The project was proposed by Otago Polytechnic in 2020 in response to the Government’s call to develop Shovel-Ready projects, aimed at stimulating and supporting economic activity in the city and region.
The development was completed with help from a $28 million Government investment.
The facility will be fully operational for the beginning of Semester 1, 2024; including delivery of degree and certificate programmes in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering; quantity surveying, New Zealand Diploma in Construction; as well as welding night classes and block courses for apprentices.
The project has employed around 200 tradespeople, construction managers and consultants since work began in January 2021.
“With $23 billion worth of major infrastructure projects in the pipeline for the region, including the new Dunedin Hospital build; the skills taught at He Toki Kai Te Rika are already in high demand,” Te Pūkenga Tumuaki (Chief Executive) Peter Winder said.
‘‘We are delighted to be able to offer those on a pathway into these essential careers an inspiring facility reflecting their importance to the province and Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole.’’
Hipkins visits Love Shack
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has felt the love in Dunedin, visiting the well-known Love Shack student flat and announcing more places at Otago Medical School.
At the flat he noted the heat pump, which helped to ensure the flat met the healthy homes standards.
Two of the students are studying dentistry and asked Hipkins how he was going to get the workforce to enable free dental care for under 30s.
Hipkins said there was significant funding for training more students.
Hipkins gave the students donuts. They joked they wouldn’t have to eat chicken rice for dinner tonight.
“This is a much more presentable flat than any of the ones I lived in,” he said.
Student Jasmine Prince, 21 and studying dentistry, said she thought it was good for Labour to support free oral heath care for under 30s but she didn’t know if it was do-able given the workforce needs.
She thought the free donuts were great and joked that she wasn’t sure if it was an attempt at an election bribe.
Labour promises doctors boost
Labour has promised to lift the number of places at medical school by 95 a year each year next term.
Those places, plus the 50 announced earlier this year, means 335 additional places will be available each year by 2027, bringing the total trained each year to 874 by 2027.
Labour’s announcement just pips National’s promise to lift train 759 doctors a year by 2030.
National’s promise centres around creating a third med school at the University of Waikato, which would eventually offer 120 places a year. National also promised to increase places at Otago and Auckland med schools by 50 a year.Labour will not create a third medical school, instead relying on lifting places at Auckland and Otago.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins made the announcement in Dunedin this morning, and said the promise was a “a 62 per cent increase over current levels.
“This starts with the additional 50 doctors places a year the Labour Government announced as part of New Zealand’s Health Workforce Plan and adds 95 more each year for three years to bring the total amount of doctors trained yearly to 874,” Hipkins said.
The policy will phase in over the next term of Parliament, costing $62m over the forecast period and eventually costing $32m a year by 2027.
National’s plan has a capital cost to the Crown of $280m and an ongoing annual cost of $26.2m a year from 2026/27.
Labour Health spokeswoman Ayesha Verrall said Labour would also deliver 700 extra nursing places in 2024, a promise announced in the most recent Government budget.
“Since 2017 we immediately sought to turn that around, and despite the pandemic we are making good progress. We’ve increased the top of the nurses’ salary scale by almost $40,000 from $66,000 to $103,000, we now have 4800 more nurses, 1800 more doctors, and 700 more psychologists,” she said.
“We’ve launched a massive rebuild programme to improve our hospitals, build new ones, and upgrade our health infrastructure,” she said.
