Dunedin hospital protest shows how peeved the South is

Saturday, 5 October 2024

A crowd estimated at up to 35,000 people turned out to protest the Government’s proposed downgrade for Dunedin’s new hospital project.

Bryan Cadogan is the Clutha District mayor.

OPINION: What a mess, what a defining insult to the South. What a betrayal.

Begrudgingly, you can channel our region’s GDP into holiday highways, skewer the electricity industry and turn our tourism taps off with reduction to flight schedules.

But the one twisted priority that the South cannot swallow is cynical reductions to our region’s health provisions, as displayed by the furore that is being vented after 17 years of hoping and planning for our region’s largest hospital upgrade. Although, let’s take a leaf out of Minister Bishop’s book and round that number up to something unbelievably big, let's call it 30 years, especially if you don’t have to substantiate the figures and bugger 50 years in the planning.

What a huge crowd that turned out to protest in Dunedin last week. It shows how peeved off the South is. Some say the crowd was 35,000. One estimate had it at 60,000, but then we realised it was Dr Reti, who for some reason has a propensity for inflating figures.

Despite some of the Facebook fantasy beliefs, I come from a world of scrutiny, transparency, LGOIMAs and auditors challenging all figures councils produce. This is a rigour that we embrace regardless of Wellington making it a legal imperative. What I can’t work out is that they don’t place the same rigour on themselves. There is no spatial plan, no 10-year plan, just a short-term plan to win an election, and they can dump this figure of $3 billion on us out of the blue, without verifiable data. Then scurry back up North hoping that the South will be gullible enough to accept its fate.

Tens of thousands protest the cuts to the hospital project.

So can we pause for a moment and consider what that fate will be if we accept a compromised plan that has turned its back on the umpteen thousand hours of dedicated work over decades by health professionals and clinicians to define and scope what the South needs. People will die, unnecessary additional deaths, that is the inadvertent consequence that would be our fate. It’s already happening now, it will continue through the build phase, and then it will be entrenched for the life of the facility. Your grandkids’ children will not know that today we sit on a precipice. Fight or accept.

The most common frustration that has been expressed was around the categorical statements made at the last election.

On January 31 of 2023, Stuff reported under the heading “Trust Us” Christopher Luxon making categoric statements about our regional hospital, assuring the South “that we will give it the support that it needs” and went on to say “we will uphold all promises”. These assurances were made well into a period of rampant inflation and cost blowout on all projects. It would have been rather naive to not have included this factor in their calculations before making those emphatic statement.

The govt intends to downscale Dunedin's new hospital, citing costs. Dunedin’s mayor says the city won't accept less than the original design, while Labour accuses the govt of 'hating' the entire South Island.

Running in parallel to this promise was another cornerstone pledge of tax cuts. How many times did we hear how they had been cost factored in, and everything balanced? That was, it appears, everything other than the health of the South.

It's interesting when you consider the options on how the $2.9b over four years for the landlords’ tax relief, or the $14.8b over the same period allocated to the latest round of general tax relief could have been prioritised differently. By simply delaying the implementation of the relief packages by three months, the additional money required for the hospital would have miraculously been there for the taking. Oops, I’ve fallen for the hatchet brothers trap, it's actually a delay of 82.49 days, but surely, they would find a worthy cause for the balance.

Regardless of whether you’re blue, green, or something in between, Kiwis know a fair deal. The cost is the cost. If the process is prudently controlled, then delay is the only cost driver. This isn’t the time to play regions off against each other or throw in a few deflector statements like “this will be one of the most expensive hospitals ever built”. Any hospital getting built in this inflationary period is going to get that label, and it's better than “the most expensive half hospital ever built”.

The South deserves a hospital that is going to meet our needs now and into the future. At the very least if this project is going to get obliterated on figures, could the public have some transparency and disclosure so they can make their own analysis? As local leaders it is a very dangerous game for us to try dragging Wellington out of its bunker. But it’s impossible when we are left blindfolded and swinging at shadows. Show us the money, if the ministers believe their actions are justifiable then back it up now, instead of drip-feeding the public figures between now and Christmas, knowing that our pleas become last week's fish and chip paper.

We knew last week's protest was not the actual fight. It was just heralding that there is going to be a fight. The deafening silence emanating out of the capital gives an indication of how they intend to respond – is the South up to playing the long game?