Andrew Dickens: Simeon Brown's health announcement is well overdue

How did we manage to bring so many people into the country and fail to have enough doctors when they get here?

This is the question we’ve all asked every surge of immigration we’ve ever had.  

And there’s been many. I’m one. I came out in 1965 with my English father and Kiwi mum.  

And there’s been many more waves.  

Every time we’ve opened the door there seems to have been an attitude that we’ll take the immigrants labour, money, and advantages but ignore the consequences of a bigger population. 

So Simeon Brown's announcement of a faster track to qualifying overseas doctors who come here is welcome and about time.  

Our immigration booms have distorted our society.  

It swamped our motorways; it put strain on housing and infrastructure.  

And it crushed our service sector including doctors.  

Yet it also made people think we had a rockstar economy. It was artificial. 

If the economy is rocking but you can’t see a doctor, is it really rocking?  

Finally, we seem to be realising that if we bring in more people, we need to look at the whole picture. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So here's a question for you. How did we manage
to bring in so many people to this country and
yet fail to have enough doctors when we get there.
This is the question we've all asked every surge of
immigration we've ever had. There's been many surges of immigration.
I'm one. I came out in nineteen sixty five with
my English father and my Kiwi mum. There's been many
more waves. We've had millions of people arrive in this country.

(00:22):
Have we had thousands of doctors arrive and start practicing
as well? No, we have not. Every time we've opened
the door, there seems to have been an attitude that
will take the immigrant's labor, We'll take their money, we'll
take all the advantages, but ignore the consequences of a
bigger population. So Simeon Brown's announcement of a faster a
tract to qualifying overseas doctors who come here is welcome

(00:42):
and about time, because our immigration booms have distorted our society.
It swamped our motorways, it puts strain on housing and infrastructure,
and it crushed our service sector, including doctors. Yet all
the money and all the labor made people think we
had a rock star economy, but that was artificial. If
the economy is a rock star, how come you can't

(01:04):
see a doctor. If you can't see a doctor, is
it really rocking? So congratulations to Simeon, and congratulations to
the government for putting some money in because we need them,
and finally we seem to be realizing that if we
bring in more people, we need to look at the
whole picture. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,

(01:28):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.