NZ's population grows by 93,000 people a year. Why are all the politicians ignoring this?

We need a new hospital to be built...every single year. But instead, we can't even maintain the old ones we've got.

I came across this number today preparing for an interview on the BFG podcast (it’s well worth subscribing to: https://www.youtube.com/@thebfgpodcast

“93,000”

That’s the number that the NZ population grew by last year. It’s been around that much annually for recent years as well. It’s a huge number. YUGE.

It translates to about 1 million additional people in the past 20 years.

And while the number of vape shops and liquor outlets has grown exponentially, the public infrastructure certainly hasn’t. It would have barely limped along if the population hadn’t grown. The population exploded, leaving public services in the dust.

20 or 30 years ago, we had 12 beds per 1,000 people. And now we’re closer to 2. That’s in the bottom third of developed countries. The leaders, South Korea and Japan, have 12 beds per thousand. The truth is we have a cost-effective healthcare system. Another way of saying it is that we run it on the smell of an oily rag.

And this would be fine. It was fine when I can here 18 years ago. We did a good job without spending much money. But inwards migration was allowed to boom, while investment in our country — in its public services, did not.

The result is that the last government (and at least the 3 before that), had a situation where they were just trying to keep the wheels on the car. Health NZ would never pass its WOF, but at least it was running. As we’ve put more and more people in the car, doubling and tripling its occupants while allowing its frame to rust through, we’ve pretended we’re keeping up with need.

Who are these politicians kidding? We haven’t been close to meeting need for decades. What’s different this time is the shamelessness of the political leaders. They’re letting the air out of the tires, inviting more passengers into the car, AND siphoning off the petrol to give taxbreaks to landlords. And all the while pretending that they will meet targets. We’re lost funding for 3,000 healthcare positions. At a time of need, this is suicide.

We’ve just had the big govt-funded review of health say that we need to improve our data services. And so, govt has cut our IT and Data Services by 25%. It’s harakiri. Ritual suicide. In this case not for honour, but to be able to give more loot to the people with the money.

Here’s a target for them to meet: in 2025, the nation’s population is going to grow by another 93,000 or so. Build those people a damned hospital. (And school, wastewater treatment plant, and housing). If you can’t do this, stop lying. Stop pretending. Admit that the country is in distress, and sinking deeper.

And take back the 16 Billion you gave to predominantly wealthier individuals (please remember, the bottom half of all workers got $20 a week or less in those “tax cuts”), and the taxbreaks for your most important supporters: landlords (just remember, a landlord with 300 units is now able to deduct his mortgage interest, while a first-time home owner absolutely cannot).

Pull your head in, govt. Pretending has failed you, please try honesty.

93,000 more people in 2025 will need to know where they’re going to go for healthcare.

-Dr Gary Payinda