Purely by chance, I came across two positive articles on X (formerly Twitter) about great Labour achievements. Neither appear to have been reported in our major newspapers, radio news or on our TV news. Both are in the health sector and will increase capacity to enable treatment of patients with serious life-threatening illnesses.
The first is a new renal unit in Tauranga which will double the capacity for dialysis patients from seven to 14, so they can care for 56 patients closer to home.
The second is a first of its kind Canterbury Cancer Centre with 50 rooms for patients and families of the South Island. It’s a space for organisations providing cancer services to co-locate and collaborate from. In addition Pharmac has increased its funding considerably and made 214 funding decisions. Labour have implemented the Cancer Control Agency, rolled out a nationwide bowel screening programme and purchased more linear accelerator machines. There are several similar units and mental health units being built around Aotearoa, including in Tairāwhiti but we rarely get to hear about them. Our medical staff are being paid a lot more (up to $40,000 extra a year), numbers are increasing, training numbers have increased, and they’re more likely to stay.
I have to wonder why media tend to be silent on Labour’s successes while at the same time, repeating empty National Party slogans and rhetoric and telling us that money is being spent wastefully. This doesn’t sound like doing nothing or wasteful spending to me and its only the tip of the iceberg.
Some media really need to start informing us instead of playing dirty politics games with our democracy.
