Tom Belford

Our health is losing. After strenuous Ministry of Health resistance, numbers were finally released indicating that more than 185,000 nursing shifts were understaffed in 2025. Meantime, the Government increased the New Zealand-wide nursing workforce by 54 positions. Meantime, our nursing grads can’t seem to find work. Then there’s GP shortages. Specialist gaps. Aged care gaps. Mental health professionals gaps. But at least the Coalition Government won’t raise our taxes to pay for such bloat.

They’ve waited ten years, they can wait til November. The HB Regional Council, taking a ‘wait and see’ stance supported by the Environment Court, is about to place protecting the Ngaruroro and Tūtaekurī Rivers, their offshoots and the underlying Heretaunga aquifer on hold. That is, put the infamous TANK plan for managing those waterways ‘on hold’. From a bureaucratic standpoint, this is sensible.

I had the opportunity to hear Mike Petersen, chief of the Tukituki Water Security Project (TWSP), speak about his aspirations for Ruataniwha Dam 2 at Damon Harvey’s regular gig, Unleased. Firstly, let me say these Unleased evenings are a marvellous opportunity to network and get useful insight into what makes some of Hawke’s Bay’s most interesting personalities tick — how they got where they are … how they operate … how their minds work. The finger food and laughs are great too.