Vince Cocurullo: The pressing needs our new Prime Minister must act on for Northland

While a new hospital is on the cards, can we afford to wait until 2026? Photo / Tania Whyte

OPINION:

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her hard work throughout her terms in office, and welcome the Hon. Chris Hipkins into his new role.

I recognise the enormity of the role he has before him and the difficult decisions that need to be made to steer New Zealand through these challenging times.

Along with welcoming our new Prime Minister into his position, I’d also like to highlight how our communities in Northland are feeling right now, and the pressing need for a change in direction.

We in the North can feel isolated from those in the political world, mainly due to our distance from Wellington. We have multiple needs across our district within our health, education and justice systems, and, of course, with roading. These are becoming more urgent every year, yet seem to not be acknowledged or responded to.

Northland is currently sitting in the lower quarter of New Zealand for the number of hospital beds per capita, with one hospital bed per 492 residents. Despite the announcement of funding toward a new hospital for Whangārei, this work won’t be started until 2026 and won’t be available for use until many years later.

From the data we’ve put together, it’s obvious that provincial New Zealand is underserviced with regard to our healthcare. We have a growing population in Northland, we’ve been identified as a high-growth area by our central government, and yet our health system is not keeping pace.

Our national education system is missing the mark. In Northland - and I’m sure we’re not alone - the cracks are getting wider, with more of our young people falling through every year. The rising rate of crime (particularly burglary and theft) in New Zealand is also an area central government needs to take a close look at, where the rights of the victims of crime seem to be eroding.

The safety of our communities is in question and would appear to not be a Government priority.

Dare I mention roading? It’s my hope that when Prime Minister Hipkins next comes to Northland, he travels by car. I’d like him to experience first-hand the dangerous roads our communities (and our visitors!) are contending with.

While central government is focusing on the ‘Road to Zero’ campaign, our Northland state highways have had few meaningful improvements and the death toll is still going up, with the only option offered being to lower the speed.

What we really need here is a Northland Expressway, at least from Whangārei to Auckland, and a significant injection of funding into the wider network. Imagine the difference that would make to our economy and region.

And of course, we have the Three Waters Reform. Whangārei has done an amazing job looking after our Three Waters assets, as we are required to do within the Local Government Act. For central government to take those assets away from the community that has funded and looked after them just isn’t the right way to go.

We would encourage our new Prime Minister to reconsider this reform, recognise the hard work that Whangārei has put in, and provide extra funding for the Far North and Kaipara so that our whole region can undertake improvements. We welcome our new Prime Minister on his first visit to Waitangi as our leader and encourage him to please drive our roads, visit our hospitals and take notice of the work we do as a region.

We hope he has time to take a good look at what our real needs are so that our region can keep growing now and into the future. I look forward to catching up with the Prime Minister soon to share thoughts.