How many times have you passed through Taihape? Have you stopped? Was it for more than just a cup of coffee at the most excellent Brown Sugar Cafe? Yesterday I spent several hours in Taihape with Labour’s candidate for the Rangitikei electorate Josie Pagani.
Like a lot of other provincial towns I have visited in the last couple of years, Taihape is struggling. There is a string of empty shops on the main street, and one of the local business people I met with yesterday told me he thought another half a dozen would close by the end of the year. Taihape folk know there has been a global recession, but they feel let down.
Exhibit A is the local hospital. Refurbished a few years back, operating as a first point of contact for medical emergencies, rest home, maternity wing. In short a small town hospital that gave people confidence, and also helped hold the community together, particularly a community with an ageing population. Then last year, without any consultation, the hospital was effectively closed down. There is still the maternity bit, and a some day stay capacity for elderly patients, but the rest is gone.
Its putting real pressure on the community. We were told the story of someone who badly cut their hand. He knew it was bad, and that he needed treatment. He began to drive to the nearest hospital in Palmerston North. He nearly made it, but passed out half an hour from his destination. Fourtunately he had rung ahead to a relative who came and got him. Old people have been scattered across the North Island, breaking down community and family connections. Other stories include someone ringing the emergency number that is now on the door of the hospital only to be told by the operator in Auckland to go to Taihape Hospital.
Its not just the hospital. This is a town, actually a region, crying out for some support to get economic development going. The people we spoke to yesterday weren’t the type who want the government to do everything for them, but they do want a government that gets its hands dirty helping to give people a start and some support, not sitting on the sidelines hoping the market will provide.
We finished the day at the school. It is brilliant. It is an area school that came about from one of Trevor’s school reviews, and it had some hefty investment behind it. Its modern, and a real community facility. As one local said yesterday, its building was the last time it felt like someone “gave a shit about us”.
I know Labour has not been traditionally popular in parts of provincial New Zealand, but actually when the people stop and think about the Labour approach of getting alongside communities vs National’s abandonment, there is a case for a re-think.
