Challenge to Woodhouse over hospital rebuild

HOW wonderful to read in the Otago Daily Times (27.3.18) that Michael Woodhouse will be keeping an eye on Health Minister Dr David Clark.

Mr Woodhouse could actually do something for Dunedin by supporting Dr Clark in every way possible to achieve a great result in securing the best possible outcome for the new Dunedin Hospital.

Party politics and petty jealousies will, I am sure, dictate otherwise. His first press release as National’s health spokesman criticising Dr Clark’s handling of the nurses pay claim smacked of the same old niggling that appeals to the faithful but achieves nothing.

Does he really believe that anyone is stupid enough to believe that the nurses’ issues are the fault of the current Government? Nine years of neglect by his party of the health and education sectors are now about to bubble over and we will see how that plays out in the near future.

The National Party and its pathetic Act appendage have championed private healthcare and education at the expense of public services. Michael Woodhouse and his colleague, Dr Jonathan Coleman, were a big part of that. Dr Coleman has returned to his roots in the private healthcare business at the huge cost of a byelection in his electorate.

Mr Woodhouse could follow suit at no cost to the taxpayer as he has never won a seat. Leave the rebuild to people who actually believe in public service or surprise Dunedin voters by getting in behind and doing something positive. Richard O’Mahony

Northeast Valley

Freedom camping

THE Government and local councils don’t mind collecting monies from freedom campers in various ways and, as the numbers keep growing, why don’t they try as an experiment building just across from the Oval hotel a long multiuse build with three toilets, three showers (hot water) and sinks in a small area at each end and lights and open 24/7. In years to come you want tourists to have happy memories of New Zealand.

W. Turner Dunedin

Diplomacy

HAS Jacinda Ardern’s much admired compassion gone too far? When it affects relationships with our closest allies it should surely be tempered with pragmatism. Pressing Australia several times that New Zealand would welcome its refugees became cringeworthy and now she can’t seem to be prepared to follow the lead of at least 27 other countries and expel any Russian embassy staffers. To avoid the risk of New Zealand being shunned, when will she face up to the realities of international diplomacy?

Murray Menzies Dunedin

Musicians’ club

IT is a sad state of affairs when a vital cultural bastion of Dunedin’s living art is at risk of survival. For decades the Dunedin Musicians’ Club has provided a focal point and venue for countless artists.

The club has been manned by volunteers and commendably funded the purchase of its own premises in a heritage building. Recent band reunions and events attest to its ability to attract people from Dunedin and further afield. The club now faces massive changes to compliance for fire rating, which threatens its very existence.

The Dunedin City Council has given enormous amounts of money to various groups, in particular tens of millions to professional rugby, millions to cycleways, land purchase for Harbour Cone, etc. However, the recent frivolous spending of $8000 on a mural and another $60,000 on street candy for the Ed Sheeran visit underlines why spending a modest amount by way of a grant and helping with compliance issues would be a far more sensible use of money aiding local musicians who really do need supporting.

Jeff Dickie Woodhaugh