Our coalition government made all sorts of promises; both as the independent parties they were prior to forming a government and after forming the coalition government.
Yet it seems that they have all got a serious case of memory lapse or else they think they can treat us the NZ voters, as idiots that won’t complain when they ignore their campaign promises.
I have lost track of the number of times that we were told that democracy was paramount and that this government would remove all ethnicity requirements from legislation and return to the situation where we are all equal in eyes of the law regardless of race, colour or creed.
Yet we still wait to see some action in this regard.
I see that the government has provided approximately $48 million dollars for a kappa haka competition but claim that they don't have the funds to complete the original design for the Dunedin Hospital, or expand the Nelson Hospital.
NZ's health spending lags behind Australia and Canada, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable funding rather than reactive crisis management.
We are being told the health system is in crisis, “on the brink of failure” – spending beyond its budget, waiting times getting longer, suffering from widespread staff shortages.
The health systems of most high-income countries are under stress. But by far the biggest local factor contributing to New Zealand’s stressed health system is historical and current underfunding. Rather than overspending, it has been incredibly frugal for a long time.
Throughout the 2010s, just over 9 percent of the country’s GDP was spent on health, when most comparable countries were spending between 10 percent and 12 percent. According to OECD data, in 2020 New Zealand spent the equivalent of US$3,929 per capita on health – far less than Canada (US$6,215) and Australia (US$5,802).
"New Zealand deserves a commitment from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and his coalition partners Winston Peters and David Seymour, that they will grow the public health workforce and provide the investment to train, recruit and retain the staff needed."
Information about the state of the healthcare crisis in New Zealand can be found in Association of Salaried Medical Specialists report, “Anatomy of a Health Crisis" released in May 2024.
At a glance:
"The clearest action to address all these issues is targeted funding,"
In my opinion it is criminal that the government has provided such a level of funding for a kappa haka competition when they are failing to adequately fund the public Health system.
I don’t have any problem with having a national kappa haka competition and in fact I think it could be a great thing for all involved and also for our tourist industry, but given that we have transferred approximately 2.5 billion dollars in treaty settlements to various Iwi and their asset base has since increased far above this level, surely it should be up the Iwi to fund such competitions in these hard economic times.
Whilst the competition does much to promote both Maori culture and the use of Maori language, it is a nice to have item rather than an absolute necessity such as public health.
For this reason, if for no other, it should be an utmost priority for this government to fund the absolute necessities such as they promised on the campaign trail, rather than funding the nice to have items such as this competition no matter what the ethnicity of the participants.
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By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear