Dear Prime Minister,
I was interested to see you featuring on the broadcast of the rugby test on Saturday, and was wondering if it had occurred to you that, as big as that crowd was, more people marched in Dunedin earlier that day in protest at your decision to cut back on the hospital that the Otago region needs to grow safely into the future.
The hospital you promised to build, before the election. I totally accept that when you made that promise you may not have had a complete picture of the state of the economy, but you have managed to keep a raft of other promises in your so-called 90-day plans — many of which have had a serious impact on the income you generate as a Government.
There were the tax cuts that some estimates suggest will cost about $14 billion over the next four years, the reduction of the bright-line test and interest deductibility for landlords that in no way guarantees those people whose health has been impacted by substandard housing, or the escalating cost of living (including electricity) will see any real benefit from.
Then there were those 90-day action plans that directly affected the health of the country. The removal of the targets of the SmokeFree Aotearoa 2025 plan, apparently to help fund those tax cuts that you rushed into place, and the 50% tax cuts on heated tobacco products that you were advised would benefit only foreign tobacco companies such as Philip Morris, to the tune of about $216 million.
And dare I mention your position on capital gains tax. You constantly compare the dire state of the economy ‘‘you were handed’’ with countries such as Norway, Sweden, Australia and others. Almost universally, the countries you choose to praise have a capital gains tax.
I am not sure how a bank from Australia gets to collect capital gains tax (CGT) from New Zealanders. It runs alongside the comment made by your coalition partner, Shane Jones, who suggested that a CGT would adversely affect ‘‘hard-working Kiwis’’.
The reality of course is that fewer and fewer hard-working Kiwis can afford a property. The lack of a capital gains tax has the greatest benefit for people like you and me who can afford to own a property, or seven.
What I loved about ANZ’s Antonia Watson stepping up for this debate was that here was a New Zealander in a position of considerable power and influence prepared to say this was a conversation that needed to be had. Her job was irrelevant.
Her position as a leader, her international business acumen and the fact she is a Kiwi through and through deserved far more respect than the flippant dismissal you, as our leader, delivered.
Which brings me back to Dunedin Hospital.
I found it interesting that two of your top ministers were hastily dispatched to Dunedin two days before the proposed march against what many see down here as your broken promise.
Announcing the back-off of a hospital build that you promised would have looked really callous following the march of 35,000 people from all walks of life. Instead, you diverted the nation’s attention from the issue by attending a rugby match, followed the next day by a netball match, where you praised the benefits of sport for the health and wellbeing of our youth.
The irony was not lost on those marching with their children and grandchildren here in Dunedin for a hospital that would meet those needs in the years to come.
But what stood out most was the context in which the ministers delivered this message to the people of Otago. I paraphrase it here, but basically the message was, ‘‘If we build this hospital at this cost in Dunedin, it will mean we won’t be able to build other hospitals in other places.’’
In one sentence, the ministers made this a battle between the people of Otago and the rest of the country. Divide and conquer and start in the place that has the least political impact on your ability to continue to govern.
Well, Prime Minister, those marching the main street of Dunedin were marching for all of the people of Aotearoa New Zealand who are watching their health system crumble before their eyes.
Hospitals are going to be needed across the entire country and playing one region off against another is cheap politics.
What we need is leadership and progressive thinking that address the indisputable fact we are going to need hospitals everywhere, for all Kiwis, that match the needs of our children and their children.
Here’s a comparison you might like to consider as a starting point. In 1990, Ireland, which has a similar population to New Zealand’s, also had an almost identical GDP. Today Ireland’s GDP is more than twice that of New Zealand, and means when they spend 7.2% of their GDP on health, compared with the 9.7% we spend, the net result is they spend almost double what we spend. For the same population.
There’s a starting point for a vision for the country that extends past these recurring 90-day plans. A country is more than a business. It requires intergenerational thinking and planning, and right now we aren’t getting that from any of our political parties. Until we do, we will continue to see penny-pinching today that will simply leave the growing costs of the future on our children.
How about a 90-day plan to address that sort of thinking.
I know there are many of us out here who would like to join you in that conversation.
