Joseph Mooney - MP for Southland
Being part of positive change is one of the key drivers for me as your local MP and there have been some satisfying recent developments for the Queenstown Lakes.
The first might not sound exciting, but it is incredibly important. Health NZ has announced they’re commencing clinical services planning for Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago. This is major because to green-light new health infrastructure, the first step is always a clinical services plan which provides the foundation for future decisions.
Since the last election I’ve been leading, alongside QLDC and CODC mayors and local health professionals plus fellow MPS Miles Anderson and Todd Stephenson, a group called The Otago Central Lakes Health Services and Assets Project. We have a goal of improving the amount of public health services in the combined Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts (Otago Central Lakes). Southern Lakes Health Trust clinical advisor Dr Jez Leftley and health infrastructure specialist Helen Foot have also been major drivers of our proposal, and their valuable input has been immense.
We’ve done a huge amount of work to surface the relevant data for our districts. A big win is that Health NZ will use our councils’ population projections rather than Stats NZ which were very much at the lean end of the spectrum.
Queenstown and Central Otago have been growing quickly whilst public health infrastructure hasn’t. The current Lakes District Hospital, in Queenstown, was built in 1988 when the Otago Central Lakes population was 30,000 people. It’s the only Emergency Department in the wider Central Lakes region, which now has a population of almost 80,000.
It is great to see Health NZ hearing our concerns and making this crucial step to plan for what’s needed. Their process will run to December.
There has been some great advocacy here in Queenstown and over the hill in Wānaka and these combined efforts will help shape Health NZ’s clinical services plan to determine what services are needed and how we can work with existing public and private providers to get improvement for our region.
On a related note, we have also had the announcement of a Memorandum of Understanding between our councils and the Government to begin negotiations for a Regional Deal for Otago Central Lakes – the only region in the South Island to be selected. The Regional Deal proposal included health as a cornerstone.
This is a huge vote of confidence by the Government in Otago Central Lakes and something I have been working on with our mayors and councils, and have strongly advocating for in Wellington.
Last week I also met with officials from NZTA to discuss the progress of work around the BP roundabout. I’ve received a lot of correspondence about this project with a key concern being the four-year timeframe. This is due to the inability to shut down that major intersection. If the road could be closed the project would go a lot faster, but that unfortunately isn’t possible. I appreciate the frustrations this may cause.
Other recent highlights have been seeing the Government’s responsible fiscal management supporting the Reserve Bank to keep the Official Cash Rate low. There has been a 2.25 percentage point reduction in the OCR since August last year – easing the cost of borrowing and delivering much needed relief for many New Zealand households.
The Government has also significantly improved the FamilyBoost scheme to ease pressure and put more money back into parents’ pockets.
Families can now get back 40% of their early childhood education (ECE) fees, up from the previous 25%. We’ve also lifted the maximum weekly rebate from $75 to $120, meaning the most any family can get is now $1,560 per quarter.
We’ve also raised the income threshold, so households earning up to nearly $230,000 may now be eligible. Thousands more families - including many in our community - will now get some relief with their ECE costs.
