Shipley attack blunted by hospital concerns

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Thames Hospital could be the single issue that turns off the life support system of nine years of National Government.

When Prime Minister Jenny Shipley visited the crucial Coromandel seat this week voters hardly flinched at her eco-terrorism/marijuana sledgehammer offensive, aimed to crush the Greens' Jeanette Fitzsimons.

They wanted to talk health and receive a firm commitment from National to restore seven-day-a-week, 24-hour surgical services at Thames Hospital.

Mrs Shipley's spin about a five-year contract delivering certainty fell on deaf ears. Since 1990, five of the seven wards have closed. Paediatrics, obstetrics, orthopaedics and intensive care services have all gone.

Local GP Dr John Monro summed up the feeling at a public meeting Mrs Shipley held in Thames on Wednesday night: "One thing Murray McLean [the sitting National MP] will lose his seat on is the hospital service."

The following day, Dr Monro said: "I think the Thames Hospital issue is a microcosm of rural issues in New Zealand generally and if Thames Hospital brings down the National Government, I think that's just."

Up to five Green MPs would come into Parliament on Jeanette Fitzsimons' coat-tails if the party co-leader wins Coromandel.

The latest New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey has the Greens breaking through the 5 per cent threshold for seats in Parliament, but their polling is still jumping around.

What is clear is that a win for Jeanette Fitzsimons in Coromandel would increase the likelihood of a Labour-Alliance-Greens government and the end of National's nine-year run in power.

At a candidates' meeting organised by Federated Farmers on the Hauraki Plains, Mr McLean conceded that he, too, was disappointed about the hospital.

Mr McLean is acknowledged as a hard-working local MP but his shortcomings as a political street-fighter were obvious the day Mrs Shipley was in town. The accompanying chief Government whip, John Carter, physically manhandled Mr McLean into the picture with Mrs Shipley and at her public meeting the local MP sat near the podium in an uncomfortable pose and said nothing.

Thames-Coromandel Mayor Chris Lux said if National loses Coromandel "don't blame Murray McLean, blame Wyatt Creech."

The first-term mayor said the community had been making progress under the previous Minister of Health, Bill English, but Mr Creech, his successor, had chosen to ignore the issue.

In May, Mr Lux's council ran a two-page open letter to Mr Creech in the local paper headed: "Tell the taxpayers face-to-face why we deserve fewer hospital services than other similar-sized communities."

This was a reference to superior hospital services in Ashburton and Masterton, the hometowns of Mrs Shipley and Mr Creech respectively.

National's late and reactive run in Coromandel is playing into the hands of the serene and increasingly confident Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Having stuck to a game plan of turning the contest into a two-horse race, then benefiting when Labour leader Helen Clark gave tacit endorsement for supporters to vote tactically, Jeanette Fitzsimons is in the final phase of delivering a glossy 16-page brochure to 25,000 households in the seat.

It has also helped that the Alliance's Tony Bird has cooled off his attacks on Jeanette Fitzsimons and that Labour's Margaret Hawkeswood is taking heed of Helen Clark.

In the smoko room at Price's foundry in Thames, Margaret Hawkeswood's advice to one lifelong Labour voter was: "Watch the polls. Coromandel is critical. You know what to do."