OK, WE KNOW WE'RE IN A HOLE - NOW IT'S TIME TO STOP DIGGING

I have to admit I'm having a bit of a crisis Rodney. I voted for ACT in the last two elections, since they were the closest thing to a libertarian view likely to get heard in Parliament. But what's going on with ACT?

Since the election, some of the things we've seen from ACT are:

* David Garrett claiming "we've got too hung up on people's rights".
* Yourself, David Garrett and John Boscawen voting against freedom of expression in banning gang patches
* You yourself promoting the Auckland Super City - how is THAT dumping central planning?

These are not the actions of a party supporting liberty.

I cannot, in good conscience, vote for ACT again.

Dear Mr Hide,

Why must there be such unseemly hast to push Auckland into one convenient supercity with little real consultation with its citizens?.This is democracy? Why must this be done before the next election?

I should also like to know if the libraries will continue to receive funding to maintain their high standards
throughout the city or we will see some close and others " supersized" as well.
May I argue they serve as focal points for each community in Auckland and are one of the few places of peaceful research, recreation and comfort remaining in the public sphere for citizens. They are a valuable resource for people of lesser means as well as educating children and students as only well run libraries can. I greatly fear there will be changes not wanted by those who use the libraries and there will be little consultation in this matter as well.
I also realise speed kills off inconvenient citizen involvement. Did we not fight a very big war with people who also decided that if you move quickly the opposition will be helpless.?

There are other matters that concern me.
If we are so worried about global warming and clean water, why are citizens not exactly encouraged to have
water tanks to collect rain water and have solar power on their roof especially when building a new home?
George Bush made certain he had all available alternate systems installed in his new house in Texas including solar power.

Why must NZ require carbon credits when our CO2 rates rather less than say China or India.?

Where does the money taken by the governments for CC go? General revenue?

By the way what has Labour done to the health system?

Recently I had cause to see the state of the wards at the North Shore Hospital when my husband 's wrist was plated after receiving a fracture.
His medical care was excellent but something has happened to the nursing profession with outstanding exceptions.
The studs, wrist bands, bleached or purple hair, funky plaits, crocs footware did not impress me with assurance that hygiene and professional smartness was a requirement.. Professionals who serve the public should take pride in their appearance. This is not some quaint bygone notion expressed by old farts.
The point being that when an organism of appalling virilence strikes, there will be little time to fend off the pandemic
if basic care is foreign to the present youthful group of R.N.s who appear to think being hip is more important than wearing a clean well cut white uniform. I did note there were older R.N.s but where have many NZ R.N.s gone? How well do we pay highly trained mainly young women or is it because they are women, the best leave for
better financial reward in Australia and the USA?

I see a system starved of funds and I might suspect there is a cull of the weak and uninsured.

If we care we must train an elite group of dedicated RNs who will be prepared to stay and protect their patients with
basic nursing bedside care, and an immediate infusion of funds to prepare NZ hospitals for whatever plague may arrive unannouced as SARs did in Toronto when nurses and doctors died and the cost to prevent a major disaster
was extraordinary. I have been nursing in Canada for the past nineteen years and read the daily reports on SARs.

I am aware $43,000,000 has been promised to the North Shore Hospital for infrastructure but will this help reorganise the nursing profession? Nurses need their own CEO and flow line of authority. I note the term "care givers" is used
by journalists. What a dumbed down non specific term. Nurses are nurses and you had better know who is a nurse.No wonder it is a rare "caregiver" that has sufficient pride to wear a name badge stating status and name. No one is in charge. Clinical Services as a name is not specific.

Frankly, the wrong young person is entering nursing. An academic approach is essential but so is compassion
and refinement of character and speech. I often heard loud, rough hard uneducated voices. These are not the leaders I remember in the New Zealand nursing corp.

I also noted the aged sideless beds,[ don't tell me old people don't fall out of bed and do fund the purchase of fitted bottom sheets for pt comfort. ] with creaking bedside lockers and tables, dirty windows and tired paint. I wondered when this hospital had last been painted. Frankly the whole impression IS Third World. It is not up to standards expected today. The floor plans need changing. Pokey areas where the nursing staff can not immediately see all the patients is a failure of care. The nursing station must be seen by all who enter the unit and corridors not cluttered with equipment needing a home. Perhaps we need to return to first principals. What may we expect from a hospital and
its staff? Surely, safe, excellent, compassionate care.

New Zealand had wonderful hospitals and nursing management, I know because I trained as an RN in Christchurch
more than a few years ago and it distresses me to see this situation.

Whilst walking into the hospital, I stopped to ask the older man walking with crutches, ahead of me if he would like a wheel chair as I could see his progress was painful. I asked how he had come to his present state as having worked in Orthopaedics for many years I saw he possibly required a hip surgery, possibly a replacement.
He informed me that he indeed needed an hip replacement but kept being " bumped". over the past two years resulting in painful shoulders and hands as his awkward gait had caused him inflammation and much pain.
When I inquired with the Orthopaedic surgeon caring for my husband he replied waiting lists were reduced and there was not a shortage of OR hours but said he would look into the man,s case.There I felt I could do no more.

When I read concerns of oncology doctors that patients are dying from advanced cancer of the colon because
there were not enough specialists and delays in treatment I wonder how can this be improved.

When I read about ninety years olds neglected and developing bed sores, I know the causes. Poor supervision of untrained staff, poor nursing, insufficient staff numbers to properly care for the patient.[ two hourly changing of their position, mobilisation, good hygiene].
One R.N. or Aid can not look after ten or more patients during a shift. Team nursing ensures the immobilised have two hourly changes of position and checking for dryness to prevents bed sores. Time to feed the helpless is essential but you would be surprised how quickly trays are removed from a disabled patient if they have none to advocate or feed them.

It takes time and staffing to give this simple but needed care to our elderly and needy.

Ask yourself, how do YOU wish to be nursed when unable to care for yourself? Not all have the good fortune to quietly die in their own bed at a convenient time.
Many a polititian has lived to regret poor decisions they made or neglected to make when they had the power to do so
and have experienced how badly things can go wrong because of lack of available care.
We could not afford it was the cry. A few less roads?

New Zealand is a small country and we must live within our means but a reliable compassionate health care system
is basic to our sense of wellbeing.

Why not ask people what they want, what is essential for New Zealanders to know they have a country second to none?
Law and order, education, healthcare,transport to name a few. What do we not need? Uneducated, disenfranchised,
uncommunicative, unhealthy citizens.

With this interesting downturn in wealth we must decide what is possible.
I am not a politician and I respect those who do work for this small jewel of a nation. I do regard democracy
as not an efficient system as it is often difficult to administer but this is what we say we want.

Health care I do know about at the nursing level and consider our fate if the front line, nursing, does not hold.
There are few older experienced nurses and few of those have experienced say diphtheria or poliomyelitis outbreaks
but if we do not regard the training of the best people for nurses as important the consequences will be sad indeed.
I argue we must have an high standard of nursing care in New Zealand.

I am not a sophisticated, polished writer but I hope you can glean some understanding of my concerns and find time
to email a reply,

Kind regards,

Victoria Haselden.

PS. I rather liked the jacket.

Good comment Victoria.

You should check out ACT's Health Policy here:

http://www.act.org.nz/health-policy

While it may be within the rules, taking your partner on a trip for 10 days at $25,000 cost to the taxpayers disappoints me. I used to respect your consistency even if I didn't agree with your views. But to me it looks like you no longer hold yourself to the higher standard which you used to expect other MPs to aspire to.

Everyone who seems intent on questioning why it is not always favorable to ask citizens on potential changes must understand the results of the previous elections. New Zealanders have proven over the last decade at the polls to be more concerned on getting any small advantage granted to them through the policies of the running parties. Every election parties like labour offer a new bribe whether if it's tax free student loans or grants to parents whether or not the state of the economy reasonably allows for such give aways. National offers tax cuts and even when they try to say that therecession will limit their ability people began to complain. I do disagree that they could give those tax cuts but it would sacriface certain luxuries which Kiwis will cause a negative response in the next election.

This is the reason I prefer to see the supercity to be pushed through with little talk to us as citizens of Auckland. The problem is that there is always pros and cons and it is not the job of the people to decide on the solution. It is instead the job of the body we grant the power at the general elections. If we were to put forward for public disection every bill before enactment it will be considerably more costly and ineffiecient while also leaving the government rather an empty shell. If you argue about this point of view it would rather be better to challenge our entire parliamentary system.

As for the complaints about North Shore Hospital I was rather shocked that was the total of the complaints. It was only a few years ago I was in there with my brother who had severely broken leg and was laying on a hospital bed in the middle of the corridor as there was no rooms. It was made worst by the placement of patients with his extremely close proximity to patients who were physically ill rather then injured. The nurses were also irregular in remembering pain killers which was not helped by the fact the docter got postponed twice and once couldn't get found as he was in surgery.

As for your assumption that those nurses were not suitable is rather amusing in many respects. First you seem to assume that they are less qualified on their appearance? The nurses who went through New Zealand qualifcations are rather sought after around the world and is part of the current issues in New Zealand healthcare. As for comparing NZ system to Canada with almost identical life expectancy the main difference is infant mortality per thousand which is higher is Canada. As those are generally two of the most important figures when comparing nations health care systems it is rather amusing to see the criticism,