Exodus to Australia worse since 2001

new-zealand-national-party

Fri Oct 05 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Exodus to Australia worse since 2001

Friday, 5 October 2007, 12:16 am
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

5 October 2007 - No. 127

Newsworthy - Dr Richard Worth

The net outflow of New Zealand citizens continues to escalate, with more people leaving in the past 12 months than in any year since 2001.

The net loss to Australia in just the past 12 months alone has gone up 27%.

Almost 80% of those leaving New Zealand are under 40 years of age. We are losing too many of our best and brightest overseas.

Simply covering our net loss to Australia takes all the immigrants New Zealand gets from the top 10 sources of migrants combined, including the United Kingdom, the Philippines and India.

A formidable fighting force
Two years ago there was a well placed rumour that the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army had decided to declare rugby the official game of the PLA. That has now been confirmed.

The PLA is assuredly a numerically strong and powerful army – 2,250,000 active service personnel and a total force of 7,024,123.

It is interesting to speculate on the future of rugby if the world’s most populated country gets behind the game.

Health system improvements
National has released a health discussion paper which is published on its website http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleID=11086

The key points in the proposal are:

A new partnership with health professionals, and clinical networks. National wants greater involvement by doctors, nurses and other health professionals in the public health system's planning and operation. Regional clinical networks involving clinicians, non-government organisations and patients would help in the planning, evaluation, and delivery of services.
Moving more services closer to home. National proposes relocating some hospital services to Integrated Family Health Centres, which would provide a fuller range of services closer to patients. Centres would have doctors, nurses, specialists and allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, podiatrists, and dieticians all in one location, in local communities.
Smarter use of the private sector. National wants judicious use of public-private partnerships to boost elective surgery availability and cut waiting lists.
Smarter use of GPs and primary care. National wants GPs with special interests to be able to provide a wider range of minor surgery at their clinics.
Investigate bonding and student-loan write-offs to boost the health workforce.
Major structural reforms are not proposed. They would divert attention away from the urgent task of delivering improved quality and performance.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

A surfeit of democracy
There is no shortage of democracy in Auckland. 264 places are to be filled in the current local government election process.

Last week the Property Council of NZ Published its “Initiatives for Auckland”. The report reinforces previous work by a number of entities including the One Auckland Trust and the Committee for Auckland.

Some 26 initiatives are proposed including one regional governance body and 20 community councils.

Of particular interest in terms of my earlier newsletters is a proposal to transfer the responsibility to fund and provide core regional services from councils to specific regional agencies encompassing water, transport, economic development, planning and regulation, and regional parks and facilities.

There are also proposals to develop a regional events facility plan for the Auckland region and consolidate stadia to ensure efficiencies and economy of scale.

Doubtless these initiatives and the work of others will be considered by the Royal Commission which the Government has announced.

One of the key problems facing Auckland is the way territory local authorities are implementing the Resource Management Act and administering their district schemes.

Just imagine the improvement if we did these things:

In Auckland one district scheme for the entire region
A process which involves placing the responsibility on consultants to certify compliance with the District scheme which would avoid second guessing by the territorial authority. The consultants would carry insurance in the event of negligent error in the certification process.
Common standards across New Zealand in respect of air quality, noise, parking standards etc

Political Quote of the Week

"There's only one kind of tax that would please everybody - one that nobody but the other guy has to pay" - Earl Wilson - US newspaper columnist

Dr Richard Worth
National Party MP

Ends

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from New Zealand National Party on InfoPages.