Is Govt ramping up the machinery of dirty politics?

They had me fooled. Last week I wrote here that the Middlemore “scandal” meant a brandnew hospital in South Auckland was required. The next day, my colleague Lizzie Marvelly wrote in the Weekend Herald that there was “shit in the walls at Middlemore” as a result of “years of drastic underfunding”.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern picked up the theme, saying “the state of Middlemore Hospital . . . is emblematic of what we’re seeing across the board”. Consequently, next month’s Budget wouldn’t have all the goodies it might have.

The impression ministers and their media allies portrayed was something like a faecal version of The Blob. After a week of sunlight, though, something doesn’t add up.

First, Middlemore Hospital continues to function, including its highly regarded intensive care and burns units. Would such services continue were sewage really seeping down the walls as implied?

Second, no one in authority seems to have been told about the alleged sewage or even the alleged extent of leaky buildings.