Simeon Brown: Minister for Auckland on the State of the City Report

The Minister for Auckland's keeping positive despite a mixed annual State of the City report. 

The third annual report shows the city rates strongly in sustainability, resilience, and culture, but is falling when it comes to prosperity, skills, and innovation development.  

Minister Simeon Brown told Heather du Plessis-Allan Auckland's at a good turning point.  

He says it will be a great year with the City Rail Link opening and the international convention centre bringing opportunities.  

Brown says they're also addressing inherited challenges, with crime coming down.  

He's also assuring that health workers and the government are working to ease hospital pressure, amid reports some Auckland ambulances were redirected from EDs.

RNZ reports delays handing patients over to Auckland City and Middlemore Hospitals yesterday afternoon, with some assessed by phone or diverted to non-hospital clinics.

Brown told du Plessis Allan patients with less severe symptoms are sent to after hours urgent care from time to time. 

He says the reality is winter is a challenging time for the system, but they're continuing to focus on front line resources to make sure patients receive timely and quality care. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
God.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Auckland's third annual Stay to the City report out this morning,
it reckons the city is at a turning point. It's
still being seen as a great place to live, but
that's under some threat that perception, at least because of
crime and urban sprawl. Simon Brown as the Minister for
Auckland and with us now mourning simeon.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good morning, Heather, do you reckon it's at a turning point,
oh lock. This government very focused on Auckland and it's
on a positive turning point because I think next year
is going to be a great year for Auckland with
the city railing, opening the International Convention Center, bringing huge
opportunities to our city, and where we're addressing many of
the challenges that we inherited. Crime is down, we've seen

(00:38):
ram raids come down, violent crime come down, and we're
opening up land for housing across Auckland to keep house
prices under control. So we're doing a lot for Auckland.
Very positive about the city. We know how important it
is to New Zealand's success and that's across a range
of portfolios at Deepe Government.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
One of the things that they say Auckland needs to
do is attract some major events and actually we are
a bit sure to them on the calendar.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Aren't we. Absolutely? And I think that's where you know,
the International Convention Center is I think going to be
a significant.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Games not anyone wants to go to.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
No one wants to Well, it's very important in terms
of I'm talking about cool things, anastment into the city.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
You know, we've got Metallica and Metallica's coming up in November.
We've got sale GP early next year. What else have
we got?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, that's where the government, as the Major Events Fund,
the Minister of Tourism obviously works closely with councils across
the country around events. Council also has an important role
to play in terms of promoting Auckland for those events
and to make sure that there is that pipeline over time.
But at the same time, you know, as I said,

(01:46):
the International Convention Center is going to play a significant
role in Auckland's success, bringing a lot of people to
the city. And it's those tourism dollars, it's those business
people coming into the city to spend money, stand hotels,
go out to restaurants, all of.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
That stuff that's exciting. I love here I want things
to do as well. Haven't you correct me if I'm wrong?
Have you not taken away the Major Events funding?

Speaker 1 (02:12):
No? The Major Events Fund is something which the Minister
for Tourism manages. That's a fund that the government puts
into a range of events across New Zealand and she's
been making a range of announcements around what that is
going towards. One of those was around a number of
another sailing event coming to Aukland next year as well,

(02:34):
so that that continues. I think the argument that the
Council has been putting forward is the need for an
accommodation or a bed tax in Auckland. Our point has
been very clearly that they actually need to find efficiencies
to pay for their fair share of that rather than
simply asked for another tax.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
So me and listen. Put your Minister for Health cap
on for me quickly. Did you see that Auckland hospitals
were sending ambos away yesterday?

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Look, we're in a very busy time of where are
they sending that? Well? I think for the advice I've
seen is they would be taking some patients, lower acuity
patients to urgent after ours care.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
So private something.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Which happens from time to time if their acuity obviously
is able to be met at those locations. But the
key point here is if someone needs care, they will
get care through our hospital system. And yes, look it
is a very busy time of year, being winter, and
if someone needs care, they will get here.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Listen, I mean that I find that alarming. That alarms
me that we're sending Ambo's away to private clinics, does
it you?

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, the reality is if someone is of a lower acuity,
patients will be managed. But the key thing here is
if people need care, they will get it.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
No, that's cool, but I just wonder if we're running
it just a lit little bit close to the bone
and if we need to sort of think about expanding
the resource here.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, we've got two one hundred more nurses that have
been employed by Health New Zealand since we came to government,
six hundred more doctors with investing significantly in frontline resource
across the country. Book. The reality is we are also
in the middle of winter. It is a challenging time
for our health system. Our doctors and nurses are working
incredibly hard to manage that demand. We are continuing to

(04:15):
continuing to focus on that frontline resource to make sure
that we can manage that demand and ensure that patients
can get the timely in quality care. And as I've
been talking about recently, one of the things to keep
make sure that we're able to manage that demand in
particularly winter times is actually managing capacity across the public
and private systems so that we're actually able to continue

(04:37):
to see get patients being seen.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
So that's really important, particularly when often when hospitals are busy,
such as as this time of year, those planned care procedures,
those hip knee cataract operations, they get postponed or canceled
and CanCERN in favor of acute care. So we have
to manage that demand.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
And I appreciate what you say that we are talking
about Edie at the minute, but listen, you go and
enjoy your morning, your time Simme and Brown Minister for Aukling.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
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