Kerre Woodham: Labour makes big promises, but can they deliver?

Hundreds of the Labour Party faithful gathered over the weekend in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches. Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray was preaching to the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's Pavlova paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She said Labour needed to give workers a reason to vote for them and to deliver fundamental and systemic change. Yay! Cue loud rapturous applause.

Barbara Edmonds, Labour's Finance Minister in waiting, stressed to the crowd, and the way the attendant media, that she would be a firm, fit and frugal Finance Minister. She and her husband have raised eight children. They have lived on one income. As a tax lawyer for small businesses, she knows, she said, how to manage money responsibly and make every dollar count. She repeated that ad nauseam throughout the day. Gone are the days of profligate spending. No, no, no. Not with Barbara at the helm. Not with Barbara in charge of the bank accounts. She knew how to be frugal. She knew the value of a dollar. She would make sure that money was spent wisely, judiciously, and not everybody who came knocking at the door with policies would get the money they wanted.

And yesterday, Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins announced a future Labour government would offer doctors and nurse practitioners low interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones.

New Zealand, and this will come as no news to you, New Zealand currently has a GP shortage, which is expected to worsen. We have an aging GP workforce. GPs are looking to retire and they can't find anybody to take their place. A recent survey found two thirds of GPs are expected to retire in the next decade. Many in the sector have also warned of a an emerging duopoly, large primary healthcare providers buying up practices from the small family-owned GP practices.

So Labour has announced that initially it will offer up to 50 loans per year, prioritizing areas that have no GPs or practices with closed or partially closed books. They will only be available for owner and or community operated general practices. The loan will have to be repaid over 10 years. They will be interest-free for the first two years. Novel.

It aligns with Labour's messaging of health, jobs, homes, as it goes into next year's election.  But just as the three free GP visits per year, is a gift that a lot of people don't need or want, is this what GPs and practice nurses want? Do you actually want to own your own practice? I'm sure there are some that do. But just because you're a brilliant GP, does that make you a brilliant manager?

Running a business, a successful business, requires a very specific skill set. Times are tough for small businesses. And the problem for GPs practices doesn't appear to be having access to loans to buy into a business. It's that the business model doesn't seem to be working. You've got the very low cost access practices serving high needs populations. They face financial challenges, especially the community trust owned clinics that have been operating at a deficit. Increase costs for GPs, inabilities to raise fees, growing patient debt due to the cost of living. Those are the problems for GP practices, not necessarily the fact they haven't got the money to buy it.

They've also got the problem of trying to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. There's a shortage of locums and a high level of burnout because there aren't enough people to replace them. They're working longer than they wanted to. They've got more difficult healthcare problems presenting because people put off going to the doctor because they can't afford it.

Pay parity concerns are particularly severe for the very low cost access GP practices. They can't afford to pay the going rates in the employment market as they don't have the ability to increase fees. So is the ability to buy into a practice what's holding GPs back? I wouldn't have thought so.

That poor little targeted capital gains tax is going to be working overtime, isn't it? As more and more policies are heaped upon it onto its little fragile base. And good luck with to Barbara Edmonds, the want to be Finance Minister, when she says not everybody who comes knocking on the door is going to get money.

When you've got the Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray whipping everybody up in the front rows, you bet your bippy the firefighters and the police and the nurses and the teachers are going to be banging on the door saying, "Give me, we've been under a National-led coalition government for three years. Those bastards have screwed us down. We gave you support, we got you into power. Give us more".

You can you can say what you want to get into Parliament, to get into government but once you're there, there will be expectations and obligations.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carreywood and Morning's podcast from News
Talks head be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hundreds of the Labor Party faithful gathered over the weekend
in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches.
Council of Trade Union's head Sandra Gray was preaching to
the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's
pavlover paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She
said Labor needed to give workers a reason to vote

(00:34):
for them and to deliver fundamental and systemic change. Ay
c loud rapturous applause. Barbara Edmonds, Labour's finance minister in waiting,
stress to the crowd and to the way the attendant
media that she would be a firm, fit and frugal

(00:54):
finance minister. She and her husband have raised eight children.
They have lived on one income. As a tax lawyer
for small businesses, she knows, she said, how to manage
money responsibly and make every dollar count. She repeated that
at nauseum throughout the day. Gone are the days of
profligate spending. No, no, no, not with Barbara at the helm,

(01:16):
not with Barbara in charge of the bank. Accounts. She
knew how to be frugal, she knew the value of
a dollar. She would make sure that money was spent wisely, judiciously,
and not everybody who came knocking at the door with
policies would get the money they wanted. And yesterday Labor
Party leader Chris Hipkins announced a future Labor government would

(01:39):
offer doctors and nurse practitioners low interest loans to set
up new practices or buy into existing ones. New Zealand
and this will come as no news to you. New
Zealand currently has a GP shortage which is expected to worsen.
We have an aging GP workforce. GPS is looking to

(01:59):
to retire and they can't find anybody to take their place.
A recent survey found two thirds of gps are expected
to retire in the next decade. Many in the sector
have also warned of an emerging duopoly, large primary healthcare
providers buying up practices from the small, family owned GP practices.

(02:27):
So Labor has announced that initially will offer up to
fifty loans per year, prioritizing areas that have no GPS
or practices with closed or partially closed books. They will
only be available for owner and or community operated general practices.

(02:47):
The loan will have to be repaid over ten years.
They will be interest free for the first two years.
Novel it aligns with Labour's messaging of health, jobs homes
as it goes into next year's election. But just as
the three free GPS visits per year is a gift

(03:10):
that a lot of people don't need or want. Is
this what GPS and practice nurses want? Do you actually
want to own your own practice? I'm sure there are
some that do. But just because you're a brilliant GP,
does that make you a brilliant manager Running a business?

(03:30):
A successful business requires a very specific skill set. Times
are tough for small businesses, and the problem for GPS
practices doesn't appear to be having access to loans to
buy into a business. It's that the business model doesn't
seem to be working. You've got the very low cost

(03:53):
access practices serving high needs populations. They face financial challenges,
especially the community trust. Don't clinics that have been operating
at a deficit increase costs for GPS, Inabilities to raise fees,
growing patient debt due to the cost of living. Those
are the problems for GP practices, not necessarily the fact

(04:15):
they haven't got the money to buy to buy it.
They've also got the problem of trying to recruit and
retain healthcare professionals. There's a shortage of locoms and a
high level of burnout because there aren't enough people to
replace them. They're working longer than they wanted to. They've
got more difficult health care problems presenting because people put

(04:39):
off going to the doctor because they can't afford it.
Pay parity concerns a particularly severe for the very low
cost access GP practices. They can't afford to pay the
going rates in the employment market is they don't have
the ability to increase fees. So is the ability to

(05:01):
buy into a practice. What's holding GPS back? I wouldn't
have thought so that poor little targeted capital Gains tax
is going to be working over time, isn't it? As
more and more policies are heaped upon it onto its
little fragile base. And good luck with to Barbara Edmonds.

(05:23):
They want to be Finance Minister when she says not
everybody who comes knocking on the door is going to
get money. When you've got the Council of Trade Union's head,
Sandra Gue whipping everybody up in the front rows. You
bet your bippy. The firefighters and the police, and the
nurses and the teachers are going to be banging on
the door saying, gimme. We've been under National, a National

(05:49):
led coalition government for three years. Those bastards have screwed
us down. We gave you support, we got you into power,
give us more. You can say what you want to
get into parliament, to get into government, but once you're

(06:11):
there there will be expectations and obligations.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
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